Giving Instructions Appropriately
First, T has to keep in mind the learners’ level. T should not use long sentences with high level grammar to give instructions to Basic 1 or 2 Ss, instead T should use commands. It helps the teacher to avoid obvious words and difficult grammar in the instructions. Also T has to know the things that they don’t have to do. For instance: to talk to the board, to avoid boring long explanations, to ask them for comprehension asking “do you understand? because Ss are very likely to say yes even though they don’t, and not to make the activity clear with examples.
T has to prepare the instructions before coming into the room in order to make it better. If T understands the instructions that she gives, Ss might not understand. There is something that happened to me related to it…Once when giving instructions, I assumed that certain things were obvious as I was familiar with the activity. However, it wasn’t obvious for the learners.
T has to think on the number of activities she is going to make Ss do in class. If T has more than one activity, T can give instructions for the first activity and then T can check for comprehension. It might be confusing for students, I you give them instructions for the two activities together. T has to get Ss attention before starting giving the instructions. T could play music or clap aloud to get their attention. T has to know the she has to give instruction even on the first day of the lesson (Basic 1). May T cannot understand “Get into pairs” But they would be able to understand “You two, you two and you two” obviously using gestures. T has to check for comprehension. Of course, never say DO YOU UNDERSTAND? for reasons that were previously mentioned. T has other options for checking for comprehension. First, T could ask one of the Ss to repeat back to her the instructions. It has to be the average S. Another, T could ask some Ss to demonstrate the activity to the class. As soon as Ss started the activity, T has to walk around to chec if they have understood. If only one group is stuck, just help this group to understand. But if most of the groups are, T should stop the activity. Then, T can ask the Ss who have understood to demonstrate the the activity to the others.
This video shows us clear instructions for grammar activity.
Hi Bily
ReplyDeleteAs we know, clear instructions and comprehension checks are really useful when giving instructions
Katya