Unit 5 Giving Instructions

In the previous unit, we discussed about the importance of how you use your language in the classroom and
we analyzed the different classroom functions in our discourse. In this Unit, we will focus our attention in the
process of giving instructions effectively in our language classroom and how instructions affect positively or
negatively students´ performance in the target language. Enjoy the Unit! 
Competencies:

By the end of this Unit, students will be able to:

 Execute well-structured lessons, where the class is effectively managed characterized by clear

instructions.

Content of the Unit:

1. Introduction
2. Giving Instructions
2.1. Preparation
2.2. Gaining Attention
2.3. Sequencing Instructions
3. Summary and Conclusions
4. Assessment Plan
5. References
6. Key

Estimated Time

 10 hours.

Assessment Plan

In order to successfully complete your work on this Unit you will be asked to do two assessment
tasks:

Unit 5 Final Task; this task represents 7 points of the overall grade. You will
submit this task through the UAS platform.

Unit 5 Discussion FORUM, this forum represents 5 points of the overall grade.
You will complete this forum on the UAS Platform.

Suggestions:

You are expected to complete all of the tasks in the study materials and make notes on the margins
1. Introduction

The issue of how to talk to students, as seen in the previous unit, becomes
crucial when we give them instructions. The best activity in the world can
become a waste of time if the students do not understand what they are
supposed to do.

Before we start this unit, think of the following questions, as they will guide
your understanding through the unit:

- What is the important information I am trying to convey?

- What must the students know if they are to complete this activity?
- What information do they need first?
- Which should come next?

According to Harmer (2001) there are two general rules for giving
instructions: “they must be kept as simple as possible, and they must be
logical…” In this unit, you will develop your abilities to deliver instructions
more effectively for the betterment of your teaching practice and your
students´ learning as well.

2. Giving Instructions
Before we start this section of the study material, answer the following
question that will help you ground this topic:
Task 1) Think about the process you follow when giving instructions: How
effective do you think it is? What evidence of its success do you have?
Only few teachers can say they have never provided confusing or
complicated instructions in their teaching life. Giving clear instructions in
ELT lessons is extremely important as it makes an essential part of our
jobs. Giving confusing instructions cause learners not to successfully
complete a task.

Teachers need to take time to plan and rehearse their instructions before
they teach their lessons. Some teachers wrongly conclude that it is
important to start the activity as soon as possible and solve the problems
(misunderstandings) as they arise; however, this may lead to situations
where the teacher corrects one learner after another, or needs to stop all in
order to provide further explanation of the task.

As Ur (1996:264) said: Instructions, thought they take up a very small

proportion of lesson time, are crucial.

2.1 Preparation

When giving instructions preparation is crucial. According to Scrivener

unplanned, unstructured instructions are extremely confusing to students
(1994:17) and it is possible that learners understand only few key words
and try to guess what the teachers wants them to do.

Ur, Harmer (1992:239) remark, when introducing a new task or an activity,

explicit descriptions (…) make a crucial difference to the success or failure
(Ur, 1996:16) of a task.

A teacher educator explains that teachers may be entirely unaware of the

complexity of their instructions:

As part of their initial teacher training, most teachers become

aware of how to give clear and comprehensible instructions and
have opportunities to pre-plan, script and practice giving
instructions, and to get feedback on the quality of their instructions.
 With further practice and feedback, many teachers become very
good at giving instructions that enable their students to get on with
the planned tasks efficiently and effectively. Instruction-giving then
becomes one more skill in a teacher’s repertoire that may be
performed almost automatically, unconsciously, without much
thought or effort on the teacher’s part.

However, just as proficient drivers sometimes fall into bad habits,

once teachers stop paying attention to how they deliver
instructions, the quality of their instructions may suffer without
their realizing. And just as an experienced driver who got caught
speeding may benefit from a refresher speed-awareness course, so
can teachers benefit greatly from analyzing and evaluating their
own instruction-giving from time to time.

Silvana Richardson, a teacher and teacher educator, at Cambridge, UK.

Task 2) what do you think about using L1 (students´ mother tongue) to give
instructions? How often or in what situations do you use L1 when giving
instructions? Answer in the space below.

As we discussed in the previous unit, teacher`s language is crucial to the

success of a task; when preparing for a lesson, teacher must decide which
language to employ, whether the mother tongue, the target language or
both.

Harmer (1992: 239) or Ur recommends using, in some cases, learner´s

mother tongue rather than… lengthy and difficult target language
explanation (Ur, 1996, 17).
As for lower-level learners, Harmer suggests using… “the students´
language if absolutely necessary.
Another important part of preparation is composed of contemplating the
amount and quality of information. Scrivener mentions that instructions
should include solely the essential information in simple, clear language
(1994: 98). Ur remarks that some information should be omitted since
learners focus only for a short time.

Preparation of instructions is a fundamental part in the process of giving

instructions, we recommend you to make a script of your instructions and
rehearse until you feel comfortable with your ability to give instructions.

Now, it is time to analyze another step in the process of giving instructions:

Gaining students´ attention.

2.2 Gaining Attention

Task 3) answer the following questions:

- How do you gain students´ attention before you give instructions?
- What do you say? Do you always say the same?
- What special mechanics do you usually do?
Scrivener (1994: 98), similarly as Ur (1996:17), Harmer (1992: 240),
believes that having class´ full attention is vital because learners may get
lost in the task if they miss some important information. Therefore, in the
process of giving instructions, teachers need to make sure students notice
that their talk is separated from other teacher´s talk.
Before you give instructions to your students, it is essential to create silence, make eye contact with most of
the learners, find an authoritative tone and make sure everyone is listening.

We recommend you to establish a pattern of creating silence and use it every time you need to gain students´
attention. If the attention is attained, the instructions can be given. One last recommendation on this regard, it
is to instruct the class before it is divided and materials are handed out, as Ur or Harmer remarks.

Now, it is time to move to another step: Sequencing instructions.

2.3 Sequencing Instructions

Scrivener (1994: 98) stresses the importance of sequencing instructions in a sensible order, he
suggests that only short sentences for each key piece of information should be presented at a time
and accompanied by extra-linguistic and paralinguistic means, e.g. by
appropriate speed of the speech, silence, and gestures in order to pace the
instructions and clarify their meaning.

Task 4) Identifying steps and the sequence in instructions.

Step 1) Read the following steps that are part of some instructions a teacher gave before starting an activity.

- STEP ONE: Teacher holds up worksheet.

- There’s one extra definition that doesn’t have a word.
- Teacher hands out the worksheet. Learners start the task.
- Now I want you to match these eight words …
- And finally, are you going to do this together? (Learners: No)
- Teacher points to phrases.
- And how many definitions are there? (Learners: Nine). Good.
- Teacher points to the left-hand side of the worksheet.
- OK then, how many words are there? (Learners: Eight)
- … to the definitions on the right.
- I want you to do this alone and check in pairs after.
Step 2) After you read the steps above, order then in a sequence of 11
steps. Write your answers in the space below.
See the Key to check the answers.

Step one:

Step two:

Step three:

Step four:

Step five:

Step six:

Step seven:

Step eight:

Step nine:

Step ten:

Step eleven:

Step 3) Answer the following questions in the space below:

1) Which steps of the sequence give the instructions?

2) Which steps of the sequence check the instructions?
3) Why does the teacher wait to hand out the worksheet?
4) What should teachers do with their voices when giving instructions?
5) Where should teachers stand when giving instructions?
6) If you wanted your learners to change seats to carry out this task, at
what point would you give that instruction?
 It is important to be aware not to spout all the instructions at once because clear, purposeful
instructions, which are expressed without hesitation, in a firm, measured way, show teacher´s
confidence while instructions formed into questions can indicate teacher´s uncertainty. Also, slower,
lower and well-articulated message shows more confidence that a fast, high-pitched method of
speaking (Whitehead, 2001: 100)

In some cases, learners do not need to have an overview of the whole activity before they start;
instead, you can present complicated instructions step by step and if an activity has two parts, we
recommend you to describe the first part while the explanation of the second part should follow after
the first part of the activity is over.

One last recommendation on giving instructions it is to demonstrate an activity or use examples. Ur

(1996: 17) and Scrivener (1994: 98) propose to demonstrate or to illustrate the activity to the whole
class anytime possible since, as Scrivener claims, demonstrating the activity is more efficient than
simple explanation because it increases comprehension. It could be done via e.g. eliciting the
answers to the first two examples or by demonstrating the activity itself, e.g. a teacher and a
volunteer or two learners can illustratively show the activity.

Now, it is time to go more in depth into analyzing how you give instructions:

Task 5) Identifying Thornbury (2005b) ideas on giving instructions:

Step 1) Think about an activity you introduced to your students this school year. It could be any type of activity.

Step 2) Write your instructions down as a script in the following space.

Step 3) Read the following excerpt and identify (highlight) the features of
lesson instructions described by Thornbury (2005b), many of these are
typically used by teachers as they explain different learning activities.

For example, teachers usually say something to indicate that one

activity has finished and a new one will begin (e.g. by saying ‘OK,
so now let’s move on to …’); they may also briefly explain what an
activity consists of and what its purpose is (e.g. ‘so now what we
are going to do is listen to a story in order to practice …’); they
will usually explain what grouping arrangement is to be used (e.g.
‘for this activity I want you all to work in pairs’); they will clarify
what the learners will be doing during the activity (e.g. ‘in this
activity you will hear a story, and then you will …’); they may
clarify what language skills the activity will involve (e.g. ‘this will
be mainly a listening activity but it will also involve …’); they may
need to explain what the learners will be required to do at the end
of the activity (e.g. ‘... and after you have completed your
worksheet I will ask you to …’); the teacher may also suggest how
best to complete the activity (e.g. ‘… the strategy I want you to use
when you first listen to the story is just to focus on …’); the teacher
will suggest the amount of time the class will spend on the activity
(e.g. ‘we will spend about 20 minutes on this activity ...’; the
teacher will signal that the students should begin the activity (e.g.
‘let’s start now please everybody’).

Step 4) once you identified the features from the excerpt, go back to step 2
where you wrote the instructions to one activity you did during this school
year and self-evaluate to check if you included or not any of those features.
Write your answers in the space below.
Step 5) Reflect on the following questions:
- How did it go?
- Did you include any of those features in your instructions?
- What are the features you left out?
- What conclusions can you draw from this activity?

You probably found out that you are already using some of the features
and that you left behind some key features when giving instructions. For
familiar activities, of course, instructions may sometimes be unnecessary
as students get used to the task mechanics a teacher commonly
undertakes; however, it is not uncommon to observe teachers giving
instructions that are too long, too short or too difficult to understand.
Similarly, it is not uncommon to observe teachers having to stop an activity
to clarify instructions that were not well communicated at the beginning of
the activity.

Let´s complete another task that will help you become more aware of the
process of giving instructions correctly.

Task 6) Jim Scrivener´s suggestions on Giving Instructions

Step 1) Read the techniques below that demonstrate how to achieve the
important goal of giving clear instructions to learners, from Classroom
Management Techniques by Jim Scrivener, a teacher educator and
materials writer in Hastings, UK (2012).

Step 2) Reflect on these two questions: Which, if any, of these techniques

have you tried? Which do you feel are the most important?

Step 3) Check the ones that you feel will have the greatest impact in your
teaching practice.
Techniques: Giving instructions to lower-level classes
The reason that some instructions are unclear or misunderstood is often
because they are too long, too complex or delivered too fast. Try some of
these techniques:

☐ 1 Use grammar and vocabulary that is at or below the learners’ current

level.

☐ 2 Use short sentences. Don’t put more than one instruction in one
sentence. Chunk your instructions: one piece of information at a time.

☐ 3 ‘The least that is enough.’ Don’t ramble. Keep instructions simple,

concise and to the point. Avoid digressions.

☐ 4 Speak a little more slowly and clearly than you would normally do.

☐ 5 Pause after each instruction to allow understanding: processing time.

☐ 6 Sequence the instructions. Deliver them in the order that you want
students to follow them.

☐ 7 Use signposting language, e.g. ‘First . . . ’, ‘Then . . . ’, ‘Finally . . . ’.

☐ 8 Where practical, get students to immediately do each separate part of

the instruction, step by step, rather than waiting until they have heard the
whole sequence.

☐ 9 If students can see your lips as you speak, this can aid
comprehension.

☐ 10 Write a few key words on the board as you speak to help listening,
understanding and memory of the instructions. Alternatively, use little
sketched icons (for example, a pen and paper) to help students.
☐ 11 Use gestures and facial expressions to support your instructions.
☐ 12 ‘Punch’ the keywords, i.e. say the essential words in a sentence with
a little more stress and separation from other words than you might
typically give it. For example, ‘Write your answers on the . . . other . . . side
of the paper’.

☐ 13 It’s often worth checking if an instruction has been understood.

Rather than asking ‘Do you understand?’ ask a question that checks if they
caught specific points, for example, ‘How many questions are you going to
answer?’

☐ 14 Choose the best moment to give out any materials, or tell students to
open books, exercises, etc. Once they are staring at a text, they will lose
concentration on what you are saying. It’s often best to keep books closed
and materials undistributed until after the key instructions have been
delivered. Having said that, with some activities, students will need to have
materials to hand, in order to clearly follow the detail of an instruction.

☐ 15 Don’t let students start doing the task before you have finished
giving and checking instructions with the whole class. Having some people
rushing into the work distracts others and adds to the noise level. And, of
course, they may well not have fully understood what to do anyway. Say,
‘Wait – don’t start yet’, and make sure everyone really knows what to do
before you say, ‘OK – start now’.

☐ 16 Until you are comfortable with giving good clear instructions, plan
them before the lesson.

Step 4) Answer the following question: What are the techniques that you
found useful the most to improve your teaching practice and why?
As you have seen through this unit, the more you practice giving
instructions the better. Observing a colleague giving instructions and
evaluating the effectiveness of his/her instructions is another useful way to
improve your own skills.

3. Summary and Conclusions

Before you work on the end of Unit task, let us give you some final
comments that will help us summarize this Unit.

Even if the instructions are well prepared and well presented, the teacher
should always verify learner´s comprehension. Harmer (1992: 239) and
Scrivener (1994: 98) recommend to check whether learners understood
what was communicated because “even the clearest instructions can be
hard to grasp” (Scrivener, 1994: 17) and it is well worth to check learners´
understanding.

That could be done via asking a clarification request, such as to explain or

paraphrase what has been communicated or to show otherwise how they
have understood the task. Authors warn against using question such as:
Do you understand? since it has no information value because learners
often do not want to publicly admit they did not understand. We also
recommend you not to ask the strongest learner in the class because the
comprehension should be directed to those who are more likely not to
understand.

Subsequently, the instructions can be repeated, paraphrase or summarized

by the teacher. Ur (1996, 17) asserts to present instructions in a different
form, e.g. spoken and written on the board as a way to provide learners
more changes to understand what to do.

4. Assessment Plan
End of Unit # Task

Welcome to the End of Unit Task. In this task you are expected to put into practice all of what we have seen in
this Unit. Remember, this task should be uploaded through the UAS Platform in the assignment icon.

Step 1) Plan two activities. It could be any type of activities, for example a role-play on how to introduce
yourself, a matching activity, a competition, etc.

Step 2) In your plan, write specific instructions similar to a script. Make sure you include all of the elements
that instructions should have and that you are following the principles and suggestions given in this study unit.

Step 3) Video-record yourself giving the instructions for the two activities you planned in steps 1 and 2. You
may start from how you call students attention, then give the instructions, etc. You do not need to video-record
waiting for students to finish, simulate that they finish, complete your task and video-record the second activity.

You can also plan, teach and video record the two activities in a zoom session you are currently
teaching.

Step 4) Upload your video to YouTube. Note: it could be 1 video or 2 videos.

Step 5) use the following char to plan your two activities:

Activity #1 Briefly describe the type of activity you would try.

Class description: Give details about the class in which you would try this activity for me to see what the
level of the class is, the number of students, etc.

Instructions: - .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
 - .
- .
-

Link to the activity:

Reflection: Did you gain students´ attention?

Were instructions well sequenced?

Did you demonstrate the activity?

Did you check for comprehension of instructions?

Did you use visuals or body language to support the instructions?

Use the same format for the two activities.

Step 6) After you planned and recorded the activities, answer the following questions:

- What caught your attention the most from this unit? (150 words)
- Has your instruction delivery system improved as a result of this unit? Yes, no? Explain. (150 words)

Step 8) Submit in a word document:

A cover page
The 2 charts with all the corresponding sections.
The link (You Tube) of your two recorded activities.

Step 9) Submit everything before Saturday at 10:00pm

Your tutor,

Heidy Paredes

5. Discussion FORUM
Welcome to Unit 5 FORUM

Step 1)  Review and Reflect on your own instructions delivery system and

the content you read and the tasks you completed in the study materials. 

Step 2) Write a paragraph (250-350 words) explaining what you learnt and
take with you from this unit regarding your own instructions delivery
system and a personal action plan on how to improve it - you can mention
aspects you were lacking of. 

Step 3) POST your paragraph on Monday / Tuesday.

Step 4) Reply to at least 1 of your peers. Due: Wednesday & Thursday. 

Step 5) Answer the replies you received. Due: Friday.

Step 6) ANSWER/COMMENT on the Forum ś Summary. Due date

Monday, 10:00 pm.

Your tutor,

Heidy Paredes

6. References

Harmer, J. (1998). How to teach English. London: Longman.

Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching (3rd

Ed). Harlow: Longman.

Harmer, J (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow:

Longman.

Harmer, J. (2000). How to Teach English. Foreign Language Teaching and

Research Press.
7. Key

Task 6)

- STEP ONE: Teacher holds up a worksheet.

- STEP TWO: Now I want you to match these eight words …
- STEP THREE: Teacher points to the left-hand side of the worksheet.
- STEP FOUR: … to the definitions on the right.
- STEP FIVE: Teacher points to the phrases.
- STEP SIX: There’s one extra definition that doesn’t have a word.
- STEP SEVEN: I want you to do this alone and check in pairs after.
- STEP EIGHT: OK then, how many words are there? (Learners: Eight)
- STEP NINE: And how many definitions are there? (Learners: Nine).
Good.
- STEP TEN: And finally, are you going to do this together? (Learners:
No)
- STEP ELEVEN: Teacher hands out the worksheet. Learners start the
task.