TEFL 1.

1.Introduction

Instruction Giving & Setting up Tasks

Teachers need to be able to effectively set up tasks and give instructions for: ice-breakers,
warmers, fillers, lead-ins, discovery tasks, exercises, tests, reading & listening tasks, speaking
tasks, writing tasks, homework and a million other things.  Naturally, then, one of the first
things you need to be able to do is to give clear, simple instructions and make use of other
procedures and techniques to ensure learners always know exactly what to do. 

A lot of the time even what you may feel is helpful repetition and rephrasing actually just
adds to the burden and leaves learners much more confused.  Every extra word you use
increases the risk that they'll get swamped by all the foreign language flying out at them. 

In summary you need to be able to:

 Speak clearly
 Grade/simplify your language
 Use as few words as possible
 Use gestures & visuals as aids
 Demonstrate tasks
 Check that learners really understand
 Establish procedures that help you provide effective instructions

CORE Unit 1 Classroom Management

Section 1: Classroom Management - Instructions & Task Set up

Task Page - Please note you will be graded on the answer you give on this page

 Giving Clear Instructions

A.   Look at the example below of grading language. 

How are the instructions made clearer?

Original instructions for a hotel ‘complaint’ role play:

Okay everybody, what I’d like you to do next is to get into groups with someone next to
you and then I’m going to give you these two role cards.  What you need to do is to take
your role card - there’s one each; card A for student A and Card B for student B - to take
your role card and read the information on it.  That information tells you about who you
are.  For example, it tells you your age, where you are from and a little bit about your
personality, and if you are a customer it tells you what your complaint is, but, if you’re a
receptionist, I mean, if you work at the hotel, then it doesn’t tell you that.  There are some
prompts for both characters there too.  Okay, I hope you’ve got that.  Here you are.  Get in
 pairs now.

Carefully planned instructions:

 Okay.  Look here [hold up and clearly distinguish the 2 role cards].  There are 2
cards.  A and B.
 A is a customer.  B is a hotel receptionist.  [indicate each in picture of hotel scene
stuck to the board]
 The customer has a complaint. 
 Read these ideas [indicate box with age, personality, complaint] before you start.
 Work in pairs.  A, B, A, B, A, B [assign pairs and roles with gestures]
 You have 10 minutes.  Go.

A.   Are the following statements about the teacher’s approach in the carefully planned
instructions true or false?
    true false
1 . The instructions are divided up into bite-sized bullet points.
2 . The teacher avoids saying “What I’d like to you to do is…” and future
tenses like “You’re going to…” and “You will...”.
3 . Gestures and visuals are used.
4 . Students are allowed to choose their own partners.
5 . The teacher avoids idiomatic language and phrasal verbs.
6 . The teacher begins by giving each student a copy of the handout.
7 . The teacher uses ‘and’, ‘so’ and ‘but’ to link information.
8 . There is repetition and rephrasing.

Section 1: Classroom Management - Instructions & Task Set up

How would you make the following instructions clearer?

B. Write out new instructions for each before going on to the next page.

1. Asking students to stand up:

I’d like you all to stand up now, if you could, please.

2. True or False listening task:

 So now that you’ve already heard it once, I’m going to give you a second task. This
time what I want you to do is to answer some questions. They are true or false
questions. So listen to the tape and if the answer is true write true, I mean, circle ‘T’,
and if the answers is false then you need to circle ‘F’. ‘F’ for false, ‘T’ for true.  So
you will hear the answers on the tape, okay?

3. Highlighting Grammar in a Reading Text (underline the ‘-ing’ words):

Okay, finish reading now. Well, now, if you... you might have noticed already, that
this story was chosen because it has a lot of one grammar form.  It has a lot of present
continuous. So now we are going to talk about present continuous, but only after you
find it in the text. So, how do you find it?  Well, a lot of words in the story end in ‘-
ing’.  For example, it says “She is studying right now”, and the word ‘study’ has the
verb 'to be' before it and the ‘-ing’ suffix so it is ‘is studying’. Now I’d like you to read
through the text again but this time you don’t really need to read, you just want to
underline all the words that are in present continuous’. Don’t worry if it sounds a bit
difficult, it’s really easy. Just underline the present continuous verbs, the ones with the
verb 'to be' and ‘-ing’.  Okay.  I think you can do that in about 2 minutes, right?  Good,
go ahead and do that now.

4.   A ‘Find Someone Whole-Class Mingle Activity:

The next thing that we’re going to do is a nice change of pace.  We’re going to do a
fun mingling activity.  Mingling means that you all stand up together, kind of like at a
party or something, and you talk to lots of different students.  So this’ll be a lot of fun,
right.  Now, what you have to do is... I have this handout, and on it there are 10
questions.  They all start with ‘Find someone who’ and then finish with a different
experience. 

For example, number one says ‘Find someone who has been to New Zealand’ and
number two says, ‘Find someone who has studied another language’, of course it
means a language other than English.  Then, you take a pen and this handout, and you
ask people a question. If they answer ‘yes’ then you get to write their name down after
that question.  You want to get 10 names, but they can’t be the same name. That is,
you can’t write down Bob’s name, for example, twice. You can only write down
Bob’s name for 1 question. 

The idea is that you now have to stand up and talk to everyone until you have ten
different names. So if you were doing number 2 for example, you could ask everyone
“Have you ever studied another language?” and then if that person who you asked
says ‘yes’, then you can put their name down here, next to the question. Got that? 
Great, we’ll go on until someone gets all the answers or until 10 minutes is up.  Quick,
get to it.

Answers:

  1.  Stand up [gesture (palms face up)].

  2.  There are 7 true or false questions here. [hold up and indicate handout].
       Circle T for true [board full example with T / F after it; circle T].
       Circle F for false [board full example with T / F after it; circle F].
       Read the questions first. Then we'll listen again.
       You have 1 minute to read. [distribute handout]

  3.  Find the word ‘study’.

       Read the whole sentence [elicit “She is studying right now”]. Good.
       Look - 'is' is the verb 'to be' Also ‘ing’.  [board 'is studying’; indicate 'is' and  ‘ing’].
       Look through the story. [indicate reading with gesture]
       Underline [underline ‘is studying’ on the board] all the verbs in present continuous.
       You have 2 minutes.

4.   There are 10 questions about experiences here. [hold up and indicate handout].
      For example, “Find someone who has been to New Zealand.” [write it on board]
      What question can you ask?  [elicit question “Have you been to New Zealand?”]
      When someone says ‘yes’, write their name [gesture writing, next to Q1 on handout].
      Find 10 different people.
      Stand up.
      You have 10 minutes.  Go.

Using Gestures

C.   Look back at the graded instructions in the last task (the example and the suggested
answers). Make a list for yourself of several gestures, visuals, and board work used. Why is
each used?

gesture, visual, board work use/purpose

hold up and indicate 2 role cards to emphasise that there are two different cards
indicating characters in picture to ensure learners understand customer and receptionist
palms face up to invite learners to stand up

A good way to practise using gestures and visuals effectively is to get together with a group of
your co-workers (i.e. other teachers) and practise setting up different tasks or activities using
no speaking at all.

Section 1: Classroom Management - Instructions & Task Set up

Task Page - Please note you will be graded on the answer you give on this page

 Checking Instructions

D.    Why is it important to check instructions?  Read this overview, then fill in the gaps
with the words provided underneath the blue task box.

Once you have given instructions, though, no matter how clear and simple the language you
used was, and no matter how effectively you used gesture and visuals, there’s always a chance
that learners still don’t know what to do.  Before starting the task, you need to check that they
understand.  Here are some reasons people might not know what to do:
For every two sets of instructions the teacher gives, you can guarantee that one set of
instructions wasn’t fully understood.  So, the best thing to do is to ask a couple of simple
questions (nominating specific students) to check understanding.  This is easiest if you
already have clear, simple instructions to work from.

F.   What checking questions would you use for the following instructions?
Write out checking questions for each before going on to the next page

1.     True or False listening task:

 There are 7 true or false questions here [hold up and indicate handout].
 Circle T for true [board full example with T / F after it; circle T].
 Circle F for false [board full example with T / F after it; circle F].
 Read the questions first. Then we'll listen again.
 You have 1 minute to read. [distribute handout]

2.     Highlighting Grammar in a Reading Text (underline the ‘-ing’ words):

Sometimes we use a written text to demonstrate certain grammar points. We can, for example
ask our students to read a text and identify examples of the present continuous. Consider these
instructions and decide what checking questions could be used to ensure the students know
how to go about the task you have set:

Find the word ‘study’.  Read the whole sentence [elicit “She is studying right now”]. Good.
Look - 'is' is the verb 'to be' and it is used with ‘ing’.  [board 'is studying’; indicate 'is' and 
‘ing’]. Look through the story. [indicate reading with gesture] Underline [underline ‘is
studying’ on the board] all the verbs in present continuous.
You have 2 minutes.

3.     A ‘Find Someone Whole-Class Mingle Activity:

 There are 10 questions about experiences [hold up and indicate handout].

 For example, “Find someone who has been to New Zealand.” [write it on board]
 What question can you ask?  [elicit question “Have you been to New Zealand?”]
 When someone says ‘yes’, write their name [gesture writing, next to Q1 on handout].
 Find 10 different people.
 Stand up.
 You have 10 minutes.  Go.

Suggested Answers

1.     True or False listening task:

 How many questions?  (7)

 Are they multiple-choice or true-false?  (true-false)
 So you [gesture circling with a pen]...?  (circle T if it's true, circle F if it's false)
 Do you read or listen first?  (read)
 How long do you have?  (1min)
2.     Highlighting Grammar in a Reading Text (underline the ‘-ing’ words):

 What do you look for? (verb 'to be' plus 'ing': present continuous)
 When you find word in present continuous, what do you do? (underline it)
 How long do you have?  (2min)

3.     A ‘Find Someone Whole-Class Mingle Activity:

 What are the questions about?  (experiences)

 How many are there?  (10)
 You ask [name of a student in the class] a question.  S/he answers ‘no’. Do you write
his/her name?  (no)
 S/he answers ‘yes’. Do you write his/her name?  (yes)
 Can you use one person’s name twice?  (no - 10 different people).
 How long do you have?  (10min)

Suggested sequence for setting up tasks:

1. Get everyone’s attention.

A loud but polite, “Okay, everyone,” then wait until all learners are quiet and looking
at you before you start giving instructions.
2. Hold up any handouts, clearly, so that all learners can see them.
This draws and holds their attention; it also allows you to indicate different sections on
the handout, and with smaller classes to refer to pictures, tables, graphs, etc., on the
handout.
3. Give clear, simple instructions.
Much easier in bullet-point form.  Short sentences, with a brief pause between each. 
Also, if the task can be done in two or three separate steps (e.g. think and take notes
first, then speak in pairs) it is often best to delay instructions for the second part until
after the learners have already done the first part.  Refer to visuals, use the board, and
use gestures as necessary.
4. Do a demonstration of the task.
Much more than the ‘for example’ mentioned in instructions in part A, this works best
if you do a full demonstration on the board or in a pair with one of the more confident
learners.  For example, if it is a true/false task with 7 statements, write the first
statement out in full on the board (in black marker) - then elicit the answer from the
learners and write it up (in red marker).  If it is a role-play, get a learner with strong
English, indicate their role and demonstrate the first 1-2min of a conversation with
him/her.
5. Check instructions.
Nominate 3 or 4 learners to answer different questions about the instructions.  Avoid
asking ‘do you understand’ (they’ll nearly always say ‘yes’ whether they do or not;
and a lot of the time they really do think they understand, but have actually
misinterpreted something), and avoid asking ‘what do you do’ (which is too general
and learners won’t know whether you want the shortest answer possible or a full run-
down of the whole task again).  Aim for one question on content, one or two on the
type of task (multiple choice, speaking in pairs, ask everyone in the room, etc.), one
whether it is written or spoken, and one on how long they have to do it.  Yes/no and
either/or questions are best, because this leads them to understanding if they don’t
already.
 6. Set a time-limit.
If you have already, then just make sure it is the last thing you check.  It’s important
that this is the last thing they hear.
7. Give out any handouts and have learners begin.
Whatever you do, do not give out the handout earlier.  It can be so tempting to hand it
out first so you can refer to it as you are giving instructions, but if you do that, you can
guarantee they won’t listen to a word you say because they’ll be too busy reading or
looking at the handout and making their own assumptions about what to do.  This is
true for nearly everyone - most likely you too.  Instructions first, handout last.

Section 2: Classroom Management - Monitoring & Feedback

Introduction

Monitoring & Feedback

In a communicative and student-centred language learning classroom the learning is usually

based around tasks. We use the term 'task' loosely here and it includes the following and
many, many more:

 a gap-fill exercise
 a team game - race to the board and circle the item the teacher says
 answering questions about an audio clip that comes with the course book
 skimming through 5 short, authentic news articles that the teacher has collected and
copied, and deciding which one would be the most interesting to read in more detail
 underlining all the ‘-ed’ words in a text and answering questions about ‘past simple’
 writing a short story
 working as a group to design a poster
 designing a survey and then standing up and interviewing all your classmates
 chatting with a partner about your plans for the weekend

As such, a language teacher’s role is not so much explainer-lecturer as it is coordinator-

facilitator. Teachers need to be able to effectively set up a variety of tasks, to monitor and
listen to the students while they are doing each task and to provide appropriate feedback on
the task, the learners’ success with the task and their language use. 

However, monitoring is not simply walking around and joining in on the odd conversation
and feedback isn’t just telling the students which sentences they said incorrectly.  So what do
these essential aspects of the teacher's role actually involve?

Monitoring

A.   Which of the following should a teacher do while monitoring?

Read through the list, make a note of your answers and then compare with the suggested
answers on pages 4 and 5.

1. Check that all the students understand the task and are doing it.
 2. Stop the class if more than 30% of the students don’t understand, and clarify the
instructions again.
3. Join in to make the final pair when there is an odd number of students.
4. Join in some of the conversations if it is a speaking-based task.
5. Help the weaker or slower students.
6. Encourage learners to use English only.
7. Encourage the students to speak more.
8. Stop the class briefly to give them some ideas of your own.
9. Sit or squat down when interacting with individuals/groups who are seated.
10. Sit back, stare out the window, and let them get on with it.
11. Correct language mistakes.
12. Make notes of some of their mistakes.
13. Make notes of some of their good language use.
14. Make notes of some of their ideas (related to the topic or task, not the language).
15. Diagnose their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities as appropriate to the
task.
16. See how far away they are from completing the task.
17. Make a note of which students have the correct answer for each question.
18. Do the task yourself so that you have the answers ready.
19. Mark any homework tasks that they handed in earlier in the lesson.
20. Prepare the next step of the lesson.

Suggested Answers

1&2

The first thing you should do after setting up a task is to quickly but quietly go around
the room checking that all the students understand the task and are doing it. 

If a couple of students/groups don’t understand you can help them individually, but if
there are more than this you will save time by going over it with the whole class again.
Then, considering that they didn’t understand the instructions the first time, you will
probably want to do a full demonstration of the task yourself (either on the board if it is
a written exercise or writing task, or with a student who did understand if it is a spoken
task; even a listening task can be done on the board by writing out the first part of the
task, listening to the first part of the audio, and doing it on the board).

3, 4 & 5

It is important that you do not join in any tasks. There is a lot that you need to do when
monitoring, and if you are participating you aren’t doing those other, more important, things.
Of course, if a weaker or slower student needs a bit of help, you should work with them
briefly until they get back on track. Try not to let this take too much time, though, as you have
other students to consider as well.

6&7
 It is good to encourage them to speak more and to use English, as long as this is done with
a light touch, politely, and un-intrusively: a very quick, “You know how to say that in
English” with a smile and move on to the next group, for example.

Do not interrupt them just to provide your own ideas. They need the practice and the
focus, not you. If you are providing the ideas then it just means they have less to do, and
whether that means less interaction or less cognitive effort, it results in less language
development. If they genuinely aren’t coming up with any suitable ideas, then make a note
and think about how you can improve similar tasks for future lessons. This does not mean
sitting back and doing nothing, though. It means listening attentively to each
student/group, and taking notes if possible.

9 & 10

Try to maintain an equal physical position when interacting with individuals/groups. Sit
down when the learners are sitting down. In fact, it can help to do this even when you are
not interacting with them directly - it takes you out of that ‘controller’ position.  A good
way to do this is to sit to one side of the room and listen from there, getting up and
wandering quietly around every now and again.

11 - 15

Perhaps the most important aspect of monitoring is diagnosing learners' use of English, in
terms of systems (vocab, grammar, pronunciation, discourse) and skills (reading writing,
listening, speaking). You need to pay attention to what language they use inaccurately, and
when they could be using different language (i.e. more subtlety or more variety),  so you
know how to help them improve (through correction in this lesson and/or through re-
clarification and practice in future lessons). Unless they are doing a task that focuses
specifically on accuracy, it is best not to correct the language there and then, though - more on
this when we talk about feedback. Note down some key errors and put them on the board
after the task. This way, they can focus all their attention on the task and the communication,
and are more likely to be successful.

It is important that you note good use of language, too. Often when they use language
accurately or use Vocabulary or structures that their classmates might not know yet, they
don’t actually know that they’ve done this. By highlighting good use of language, you are
both encouraging them and reinforcing the fact that those words/phrases/constructions are
useful. You also want to make note of their ideas - the overall aim of language is
communication, so by commenting on their ideas you let them know that the task had a
valuable aim and that their communication was successful. Finally, people with good
vocabulary and grammar aren’t necessarily good at listening, speaking, etc. Make sure you
diagnose which aspects of the skills they need more practice or help with too.

16 & 17

Monitor to see how long students need to complete the task. If about 60% of the students have
finished or have nearly finished, you should stop the task. The longer the task continues, the
more bored the quick finishers will be, and the further behind the slow finishers will feel (i.e.
a student who has only completed 2 out of 7 questions can feel comforted in that the student
sitting next to him/her only finished 5, but the same can’t be said for someone who did 3
when their peers have finished completely). If they are all a long way from finishing, then you
need to issue an extension on the time-limit and start planning how to adjust the rest of the
lesson to allow for this.

While doing this, take note of which parts of the task the weaker students have completed
appropriately. That way you can call on them during feedback for those specific parts,
ensuring they participate in feedback without being put on the spot with an answer they don’t
have.

18 - 20

As previously stated, there is a lot that you need to do when monitoring. If you are doing the
task yourself, marking homework, or preparing for the next stage of the lesson then you are
not doing the other things you need to be doing. Homework should be marked during office
hours, not class hours. And you need to have the answers ready and each step of the lesson
prepared before the lesson (i.e. do it when you are doing your lesson planning). 

Of course, if it’s something brief like wiping the board clean to get it ready for feedback, or
having a quick skim of the next step in your plan to refresh your memory, it is better to do it
while they are working on a task than while they are all watching and waiting for you - just
make sure that most of your time is dedicated to listening, watching and diagnosing the
learners’ English.    

In summary, when monitoring you:

 Start by checking that students understand and are doing the task.
 Don’t get overly involved with any one individual/group.
 Pay attention to:
1. Good use of language.
2. Areas where use of language could be improved.
3. Listening, speaking, reading and writing ability.
4. Ideas and successful communication.
 Take notes for feedback and error correction.
 Depending on the aims of the task you might do some on-the-spot error correction.
 If necessary, encourage interaction and use of English.
 See how much of the task each student has completed.
 Decide when to stop the task.

Feedback

So, before the task the teacher sets it up. During the task the teacher monitors. What does the
teacher do after the task? 

There are two overall reasons for giving feedback. One is to consolidate the task and check
answers. The other is to provide feedback on use of language and to correct errors, if
appropriate. We will look at consolidating tasks and checking answers before looking at
feedback on language use, but first there is one thing that nearly always needs to happen just
before whole class feedback.
“Check with your partner/neighbour/in pairs” should be one of the most common expressions
a teacher uses. After any task that is done individually, students need the opportunity to check
with a partner. If the students listen to an audio clip and quietly answer a true-false task while
listening, they need to check with a partner. If they do a gap-fill exercise - check with a
partner.  After dictation - check with a partner. A ‘word-search’ - check with a partner. Etc.

This is beneficial in a number of ways:

 Stronger students are able to help weaker students.

 If two learners have succeeded at different parts of the task, by combining their
answers/ideas they end up with a more complete task.
 Where they have contrasting ideas/answers the ensuing discussion leads to more in-
depth understanding for both parties.
 They are more willing to share in whole class feedback, because they don’t feel
personally responsible if it turns out they were ‘wrong’ (i.e. the group/pair takes the
heat off any one individual).
 It means feedback and consolidation is mostly done in a student-centred way (which
equals more active/involved learning and more opportunity to practise
communicating). 
 It fosters an atmosphere of cooperation and shared success.
 It gives the teacher more time to monitor and assess how they are doing.
 When you are using a cassette player, it gives you a chance to rewind the cassette
before playing it again, without making the students wait.
 Students usually want to check with someone first (and may do it even if you don’t
allow time for this, resulting in them missing whole class feedback or whatever the
next stage is that you have planned).

Whole group feedback - dos and don'ts

1. If feedback is to provide a feeling of completion only, it should be very brief and

general.  Most of the time you should ask about three students to provide a quick
summary of their task or discussion.  A simple, “T: Which job did your group
choose?  S: We chose the doctor” is enough.
2. Checking answers should also be quick and snappy.  Using the board with a simple ‘1
- c’, ‘2 - g’, ‘3 - a’ approach is clear and efficient.  There is no point dragging things
out when it is just not necessary. 
A common argument for a slower approach is, “I like my students to read each
question and answer out loud, in full, because they need practice saying whole
sentences”, but if you want to give them this kind of practice there are much more
effective ways to do it.  Save time here by making feedback quick and efficient, then
use that time on another task - one that specifically focuses on giving all the students
practice saying whole sentences. 
3. If students don’t have the answer, give it to them.  Often the answer becomes obvious
once they have it, and this is enough.  When they really don’t understand it’s good to
spend a little bit of time helping them to understand, but if it takes more than a minute,
or is too heavy in teacher explanation, it is often best to make a note of it and prepare
a better way to clarify the problem in a later lesson.
4. Monitoring helps you to make the feedback stage efficient.  By the time you start the
feedback you should already have a good idea of which answers they have right and
 which they have wrong or don’t have.  You can confirm which ones they have right
quickly, saving time to focus a little more on those they had trouble with.
5. It is tempting to add explanations to students’ answers, even if they got the answers
correct, but what this does is use up time that could be better used elsewhere.  Help
them with the one or two they didn’t get, and move on... and if there were a lot that
they didn’t get, then make a note and prepare more achievable tasks for next time.
6. Don’t repeat everything the students say.  If you are not specifically focusing on
providing an accurate model of pronunciation, or some error correction, then repeating
after a student has little benefit and a lot of downsides.  Consider the following:
a. It can sound patronising.
b. Students who are used to teachers rephrasing as part of error correction will often
assume they have made a  mistake (and may result in them avoiding what was actually
good language, in future situations).
c. It reinforces the idea that only the teacher is right.
d.It removes the need to listen to each other.
e. If they are speaking too quietly or not clearly enough, getting them to repeat
themselves gives them a clear  indication of this, and leads to clearer pronunciation as
a result.

When the feedback is on ideas/communication, some genuinely interested follow-up

comments are great (eg. “Hmm... that’s interesting”; “Oh, no, you didn’t, did you?”;
“Oh, I do that too.” etc.), and if simply checking answers then simply “yes, good”/“not
quite” is a good approach.

7. Make sure you nominate students during feedback.  It is good to nominate a strong
student first, to break the silence, but make sure you follow this up by nominating
some weaker or quieter students too.  If you are checking answers, then monitoring
should have indicated which answers the weaker students got, so nominate them for
those particular questions.
8. Feedback stages are not a good source of listening practice.  Students very quickly
lose interest on what the one or two speakers are saying and their attention may drift
off completely.  Quick and snappy is the key.

More ideas for feedback

We've looked at some basic rules of thumb for whole-group feedback. Here are some
additional ideas for more extended feedback/revision exercises.

2 + 4 Self-Correction

While monitoring the teacher notes down a number of good expressions/sentences that the
students produce, especially good use of language that has just been introduced, and a
number of errors.  As the task is coming to an end, select (i) the 2 best examples of good
language use and (ii) 4 errors that are most representative of the most common mistakes.
Write them up on the board.

When the task has finished, provide some brief consolidating feedback and comments on
ideas and communication first.  Then draw attention to the 6 sentences on the board.  Let
the students know that 2 are good and 4 need to be corrected, then have them work in
pairs for 2-5 minutes discussing which is which and making corrections as necessary. 
 Finally, check with the whole class, erasing the errors and writing up the corrected
versions as you go through them.

Peer Correction

If you have 3 or 4 large groups, while monitoring clearly note down some good and bad
language use on separate sheets of paper for each group.  When the task is finished, give
group A’s language use to group B, group B’s to group C, and group C’s to group A, for
example.  Each group discusses the expressions/sentences they have been given, deciding
which are examples of good language and making corrections to the others.

When they have finished, the sheets are passed back to the group that produced the
language originally, and they discuss any changes.  Finally, the groups can ask the teacher
questions about anything that they are still unsure about.

Revision Board Game

Over the period of three or four lessons, make a collection of inaccurate language use. As
preparation for the next lesson, go through the many expressions/sentences noting which
ones: a) are most common; b) are most likely to cause misunderstanding or prevent
communication; c) are related to grammar or vocabulary points recently taught.

Choose 15 from amongst the expressions/sentences that fit those three categories, then
build them into a 20-30 space board game (spaces without expressions/sentences include
blank spaces and a couple of ‘move forward/backward’ spaces). Take some dice to class,
and students use pen-lids as tokens. When they land on a space with an
expression/sentence, they try to correct it.  If the other students agree that they were right,
that student moves ahead one space - otherwise they stay where they landed.

Board work

The board (whiteboard or blackboard) is an extremely useful tool and can be used in many
ways. What different purposes can you think of?  Make a list before comparing with our
suggestions below.

Our suggestions:

 pictures for context

 pictures to illustrate concepts/meaning
 charts/graphs/diagrams to clarify concepts
 spelling of new words/phrases
 grammar relating to new words/phrases
 pronunciation of new words/phrases
 grammatical structures
 example sentences to illustrate grammar points
 questions for students to answer
 answers to questions or other exercises
 demonstrations of tasks or exercises
 error correction
  examples to highlight good language use

There are many more, but these are probably the most common uses you will have for the
board. In a typical lesson, a combination of 4 or 5 of the above, with some being repeated
many times, can mean the teacher writes or draws on the board more than 10 times during a
lesson. Obviously, that makes the ability to use the board effectively extremely important.

A particularly useful approach is to get into the habit of using different sections of the board
for different things. This can depend on the lesson, but often it means having 3 main sections.

In a grammar lesson, you will often want to have the following:

 A place where the grammatical structures can remain for the whole lesson.
 A place where new words/phrases can remain for the whole lesson.
 A place for everything else (pictures, answers to exercises, etc.), that is regularly
wiped clean.

In the middle of a lesson, it might look something like this:

 In a speaking lesson you might want to have:

 A place where new words/phrases can remain for the whole lesson.
 A place where ‘useful expressions’ can be left for the duration of each speaking task.
 A place for everything else that is regularly wiped clean.

In the middle of a lesson, it might look something like this:  

          
Golden Rules of Board work.

1. Ask the students to 'help' you with things you write on the board, in order to keep them
involved. Elicit things like the spelling and the pronunciation, or the answers to
questions, from them.
2. From time to time, call up a student and ask him/her to write on the board.
3. Underline a stressed syllable or word, or put a small circle or square above the
relevant vowel, to help students with stress.
4. It is important that you use capital letters naturally - at the beginning of sentences,
proper names, etc. Learners need to see how capital letters are used in English -
everything else should be in lower case.
5. Write word classes in abbreviated form e.g. (n)[U] for an uncountable noun. Students
need to learn to recognise these abbreviations. Plus it's much quicker.
6. Draw a line down the board, leaving a section (say 10-20% of the space) down one
side for vocabulary that comes up during the lesson.
7. If something will take a long time to write, have it prepared on a transparency for an
overhead projector or on handouts - you'll be too busy to do it during the lesson.
8. You should draw pictures even if you think that you are terrible at it. No-one expects
you to be a brilliant artist, and besides that, good drawing usually takes too long.
Quick pictures are often the very best way to explain something.
9. It can be very helpful to plan what you are going to write up and where to put it in
advance.
10. It is important to print clearly. If you want to give students practice reading 'tricky
handwriting' then it should be in a carefully prepared task, not in board work that is
important for them to understand.
11. Colour can make what you write on the board more memorable and clearer. For
example, when introducing a new word, use black to write the word itself, red to
indicate the word class, and blue to highlight the pronunciation.
12. You need to write quickly and efficiently. Get the information up on the board as fast
as you can, while remembering that it has to make sense and be legible.