Making and giving clear instructions and assignment

Why do teachers need to give clear instructions and assignments?

By giving clear instructions and commands, teachers move away from the risk
of making mistakes.

 It is helpful for students to do and complete the task

 It is useful for students success
 Promote confidence
 Foster independence
 Create a positive learning environment
 Save time

How teachers can give clear instructions?

There are several steps teachers can take to make and give clear
instructions and assignments like:
 Get student’s attention
 Be clear, specific and concise
 projection of the voice
 Explain the purpose of the task
 Repeat the direction twice or more
 Use visual aids
 Check students understanding

Read the following instructions and see which one is clear and
which one in not:

Instruction instruction

Write a 5 sentence email to your Compose a formal letter

friends inviting them to a movie requesting permission to
in English. participate in a school activity
1. Briefly introduce the outside of school hours.
movie.
2. Mention time and place
3. Ask your friend if they are
interested to join
 4.Close with a friend line

As we can see here the first instruction is the clearest one, because
it uses clear and simple language and it explains to students all the
steps. On the other hand the second instruction is complicated since
it use jargon language “ formal letter”, “ requisting permission”, as
well as it uses vague and unspecific instruction, it assumes that
students already know the details and the answer.

Some examples of clear instructions:

 Put the words and phrases in order to make

sentences:
1. Put first, the coffee here. You have to
2. With this. You then press it down
3. Put you this here . next,
4. Ok, that seems clear
5. You just press after that, button. This

 Think about you favorite food. what is it?

Get a piece of paper and pencil, write a short paragraph
about:
*The name of your favorite food
* Why do you like it
* How it tastes , smells, or looks like

ELICITING TECHNIQUES
Eliciting techniques are a range of methods used to draw
information out of learners. Walsh(2012) in Alsubaie (2015)
defines elicitation technique as strategies used by the teacher to
get students to respond. Elicitingn techniques are helpful in
creating a learner –centered environment, as well as raising STT
“ students talking time” instead of TTT “ teacher talking time”.
 Teacher can elicit from students language, knowledge , back
ground information, general knowledge , opinions, feelings,..etc
Here are some of the most common techniques:
Defining: give students definitions of the target
words and ask them to come up with similar words
Open- ended questions: Encourage detailed responses
and avoid yes/no answers
Brainstorming: generating creative ideas
collaboratively.
Spider diagram: is a great way to discover how much
your students know about a topic.
Reframing: rephrase what someone has said to
encourage students think differently
Visual aids: use pictures , diagrams or other visual
materials to simulate discussion
Activities: use games, simulation or other activities to
encourage students participations
Free writing: to ask students write for a few minutes to
respond to a topic or question is useful to draw on
students existing knowledge.
Synonyms / Antonyms: prompt the students by giving
them a word with a similar or opposite meaning, and see
if they can come up with target vocabulary.

How to choose the right technique?

Choosing the right technique depends on several factors , such as:

1. The purpose of the inreraction: what information are you trying to get?
2. The audience: to know your students, their communication styles,
preferences….
3. The context: When and where the interaction taking place.