CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONAL LANGUAGE Teachers Language 1. To instruction. i)Open your literature book on page 13 ii.

Dont forget clean the blackboard before you leave the laboratory .iii. Put the specimen carefully.

2. To praise i. Good job .ii. Well done.iii. Yes, that's correct 3. To reprimand i. You should wear the goggle before starting the experiment.ii. You should not disturb your friend.iii. You should not bring hand phone in school. 4. To seek information i. Anything else?ii. What happens when it rains cats and dogs?iii. Why do authors write jokes? 5. To encourage i. You're right, but not in this context, try thinking out of the box.ii. You can do it, try to do more better next timeiii. Good thinking but not correct, try again. 6. To request i. Can you help me to switch on the fan please?ii. May I lend your ears for a while?iii. Can someone help Ahmad to set up the apparatus? 7. To build rapport i.Show me by holding your thumb up, down, or to the side for yes, no, or not sure.ii. If someone doesnt understand, you are free to ask me.iii. Lets solve the problem together now. 8. To reinforcei. Great.ii. That cute.iii. Excellent

Learners and teachers roles In the process of learning, there are numerous things that play a significant role towards making it a smooth, pleasurable and constructive process. First of all, the teachers are those who set the tone for a great learning environment. However, a lot depends on the way the learners face the lessons and overall, learning. To begin with, a learner must seriously take into consideration that learning is a great commitment. Most of the times, it requires hard work in order for it to be a successful procedure. Building up knowledge should be continuous; that is, the learners should consistently study so as not to have any gaps, for the reason that then they will have serious problems in their learning. Learning is like a chain, and each lesson and studying time is a link in the chain. If the learners fail to study or miss a lesson without making up for it, then they automatically break the learning chain and their learning is disrupted. For that reason, teachers are there to remind learners that both of them should stick to a schedule and that when a lesson is missed, it will surely be made up for. Secondly, learners must understand what kind of learner they are: are they visual, aural, kinesthetic? This can be encouraged by the teachers. Not everyone learns the same way. (Unfortunately, I have heard teachers say Oh, why is that student constantly whispering when he reads? Well, maybe he likes to hear himself and assimilate the text better, someone might say? Or: Dont look at the board, everyone write it down! Well, what if the students are visual and can cope well with that?) It is important for them to decide on what kind of learner they are, as this will help them tremendously. Learning will become much easier and naturally, more pleasant for them. Plus, they will help their teachers enormously, as the latter will be able to adapt their lessons to their learners needs and special traits. For instance, at a young age I realized I could learn better when hearing something when the teachers spoke in my daily lessons at school. I later took advantage of my personal learning style and enjoyed assimilating through listening to my teachers speak, from tapes and television (here in combination with images), or from the radio, whatever the lesson. Up to now, my aural learning style has assisted me in my teaching as well, for the reason that I enrich my knowledge by attending seminars and conferences, where you can hear a number of speakers. Thus, each person must look inside themselves and discover what type of learner they are; it will help tremendously in promoting learning. A characteristic of the good learner is concentration, both in class and in the study place. A good learner pays attention to the teacher while delivering the lesson and also to their classmates, when they are asking a question about the lesson or answering the teachers questions. (Naturally, the teacher has to be enthusiastic and make the lesson as interesting as possible so that the students become engaged as well.) It is very constructive to pay attention when classmates have questions, because for example it may be something they

cannot comprehend. Teachers need to encourage and remind this and try to engage a number of students when someone asks a question. This is a very good opportunity for the others in class to learn something new, something maybe they had not thought or about, or they can even answer the questions themselves, if of course they can explain the unintelligible point in question. Moreover, there must be concentration in the study place as well. The learner must choose to study in a comfortable, warm environment, if possible away from distractions like telephones, computers or televisions. Above all, studying should take place at an appropriate time for the learners: they should ask themselves what the best time of day for them is in order to study and keep that as permanent study time. Therefore, learners have to create a good study schedule and combine it with any other daily activities or work, if they are professionals. Having a schedule aids the learning process a great deal, for the reason that it helps maintain organization. Last of all, but equally important to all the aforementioned factors, learners should be prepared to study hard. It is highly beneficial to study not only the work assigned by the teacher, but also to access additional bibliography to read extensively on the given subject and moreover to recycle and simultaneously comprehend all the components of the lesson delivered by the teacher. It may be tiring at times, as it is extra work, but the benefits are numerous. All elements combined, the learner is a person responsible for their advancement in learning and should be organized, attentive and should be prepared to study, so as to be successful in the work they have undertaken. In order for them to achieve this though, the teacher is responsible for the learning process to a great extent. If the teacher turns the classroom into an enthusiastic and encouraging place for learning (as well as organized), then the learner will enjoy being there as well.

Mixed abilities class Advice and suggestions for teaching English to mixed-ability classes. Romina Trossero in Argentina wrote into our Grammar Help section with the following problem: Id like to get some information about mixed ability English language classes and some activities to use with a class in which there are two levels of English. This is Tim Bowen's response: This is a very common problem. Most, if not all, language classes contain students of mixed abilities. This happens for a number of reasons, but mainly because of different learning styles, different learning speeds, variations in motivation and, very frequently, as a result of logistic decisions. Very often the teacher is faced with a class with two or more distinct levels of ability and has to tackle the problem of how to meet the needs of everyone in the class. Naturally, this is not an easy problem to solve and it would be wrong to suggest that there are any simple solutions. A fundamental step, however, is to talk to the class about the situation and to present it to them as a normal situation and one that the class as a whole has to deal with. This is probably best done in the mother tongue of the students. As most of the solutions to the problem depend on cooperation between the members of the class, it is essential to stress the need for teamwork and for the class to use English whenever possible in classroom communication. The use of pair and group work is essential if you are to involve all the members of the class. A fundamental technique here is the use of questionnaires and interviews. By pairing off weaker and stronger students and involving both in the preparation and implementation of the questionnaire you should ensure maximum participation of all the students. You can then get the weaker students to interview the stronger ones and vice-versa. Of course, this may be frustrating for the stronger ones, but if they are able to see their role as that of helper or even mentor, it may also have a positive effect. A second area of activity that can be productive in mixed ability classes is project work. Again, this can work successfully using mixed groups where the stronger help the weaker, but another approach is to form groups that are at approximately the same level and assign different tasks that are appropriate to the level of each group. By adjusting the complexity of the task, you can ensure that each group has a task that it can carry out successfully, thereby providing the correct level of challenge for the higher level students and not demotivating the weaker ones. A third area is that of homework. If you set the whole class the same homework task irrespective of level, then you will have to expect very mixed results. As with progress tests, the purpose of homework should be to consolidate class work. To this end, giving weaker students less demanding tasks can help both to motivate them and to give them further practice in areas of the language which they have

not yet mastered. Assigning more challenging tasks to the stronger students in the group should ensure that they remain motivated and continue to make progress. It is more work for the teacher but, ultimately, it should produce results. Choral drilling can be an effective way of involving weaker or shy students. If applied judiciously (in other words not all the time), it can give excellent practice in rhythm and intonation, as well as reinforcing word order and grammatical structure. Finally, be diplomatic in your questioning techniques. Try to avoid putting weaker students on the spot by nominating them to be the first to answer a question in open class. Instead, try to encourage a culture of attentive listening in the classroom so that you ask a stronger student first and then ask a weaker student to repeat the answer. It may take time but, once this style of interaction becomes habitual, it can be very productive in terms of class dynamics.

Management of Group Work as a Classroom Activity

Students appreciate group work as a means of learning and several studies also suggest that students who work together in groups have better learning outcomes. Nevertheless, teachers still seem reluctant to use group work as a pedagogical tool in the classroom. The main focus of this qualitative study is to address group work as a classroom activity from the teachers perspectives, and more specifically to ascertain why teachers are reluctant to use group work as a mode of working in education. Data were collected by means of focus group interviews with teachers from three different schools, and the analysis was carried out using grounded theory. The uniqueness of this study is that the results show that teachers presumptions, together with their mode of procedure and their negligible reflections regarding subject knowledge as a learning outcome when using group work, have a decisive influence on their willingness to use group work.

Questioning activities Question Types 1. Ask Challenging Questions Avoid phrasing questions that are closed, which require straightforward factual answers, unless you simply want to check retention. Ask probing and evaluative questions that call for higher cognitive thinking such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Challenge students to explore the evidence for their existing knowledge, apply their existing knowledge to other situations, bring them to the limits of their knowledge base. Example of a straightforward question: What is the expression for kinetic energy? Example of a more challenging question: Why is there a factor of in the expression for kinetic energy? 2. Ask Well-Crafted, Open-Ended Questions To start an active discussion, ask open-ended questions that encourage the exploration of various possibilities. However, the questions should not be too unstructured as this may lead to ambiguity, and time is lost defining the question rather than addressing the issue at hand. Questions can be crafted to bring out inductive and deductive reasoning skills. Encourage students to figure out answers rather than remember them. At times questions are designed to help students see things from a broader perspective, but this may necessitate other questions along the way to help the students narrow their focus before arriving at the answer. Example of an open-ended and structured question: We have examined the aetiology of dental caries. What factors would increase a patients risk to caries? 3. Ask Uncluttered Questions Avoid cluttered questions that involve many sub-questions or are interspersed with background information. This type of questions

confuse the students because they are not clear what is being asked of them. e.g. of a cluttered question: What are some of the reasons that Newtons laws are flawed? I meanwhat seems to be the main problem, according to Einstein? Can we then still use Newtons laws? A few of you earlier said that you do not think Newtons laws should be used for some situations. What are the problems there? Learn to Wait You need to wait after asking a question before answering it yourself or going on to ask further questions or making further points. Good questions, especially profound ones, may necessitate lengthy wait times. Do not be afraid to wait. Waiting is a sign that you want thoughtful participation. Presentation Oral presentation can result in students not hearing or understanding a question. Thus long unproductive wait times are likely to follow. To ensure questions are clearly communicated to the students, write your questions on the overhead or on the whiteboard or hand them out in the written form. It is often useful to ask whether the questions are clear before launching into wait time.