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A Guide to Giving Clear Instructions to Students
Date posted: 09/13/2021 09:45

Why having clear instructions is important?

As foreign language teachers, we need to understand why giving effective and proper instructions has a significant impact on the quality of a lesson. Do you want your students to be able to:

- Understand what the teacher wants them to do right away, or faster in class

- Remember, think in the right direction, so that they can follow the lesson plan that we want

- Have as much time to practice speaking as possible to improve quickly

If this is what you want in your classroom, giving proper instruction is a must.


What does a not-so-good instruction look like?

An inappropriate instruction can be: using confusing words, using unnecessary words or sentences at the wrong time. For example "Let's move on to the next slide". Children do not understand a foreign language well, they do not need to know what a slide is compared to understanding what this fruit is called, or what this color is in English.

Putting such sentences in the context of a conversation, helps students enrich their language by imitating us, instead of mixing in instructions, or while teaching new words because students are easy to forget knowledge while learning, or do not understand what the teacher wants them to do. 


Teacher expectations and the truth in the classroom setting

Until now, teachers have always tried to devote their time and effort to teaching, imparting knowledge, and expecting students to be able to do what we want. However, this wish does not always come true. The fact that teachers give instructions that are too long, too difficult to understand hinders the success of students in the class. Understand that the task of explaining is ours, but the task of understanding the words is not the student's, it should be a natural process. Especially with young children, they cannot try to understand something that sounds extremely foreign. So, teachers, we need to step up our game so that learning is both useful and comfortable, and fun.


Here are a few ways to make your instruction as enjoyable as a piece of music that is both pleasant for the kids and effortless for us.


1. Length is the key

Chilcoat and Stahl wrote a framework on how to give clear instruction decades ago, but it still makes a lot of sense today and needs a lot of use in the classroom. They advise us to use as short and direct instruction as possible. This is especially important with young children. Teachers should use simple words, avoid adding unnecessary things. Use a specific number, a single noun, instead of "a few", "many", etc., for example, because these words are unpredictable and can be confusing to children.

When making a request, the teacher should always point out what the students need to do, how much time they have, the requirements attached, and then discuss together how to achieve it. 


2. Use a lot of body language and TPR 

(“TPR stands for Total Physical Response and was created by Dr. James J Asher. It is based upon the way that children learn their mother tongue. Parents have 'language-body conversations' with their children, the parent instructs and the child physically responds to this. The parent says, "Look at mummy" or "Give me the ball" and the child does so. These conversations continue for many months before the child actually starts to speak itself. Even though it can't speak during this time, the child is taking in all of the language; the sounds, and the patterns. Eventually, when it has decoded enough, the child reproduces the language quite spontaneously. TPR attempts to mirror this effect in the language classroom.” - teachingenglish.org.uk)

To make it as concise as possible that students can still understand, teachers should incorporate their body language into explanations. For example, when the teacher wants students to listen, then repeat their pronunciation, at the same time say "listen and repeat" make a hand gesture to the ear, and shape your hands in front of the mouth to describe the action of making sound with mouths.

Besides, please apply TPR to the teaching process. For example, you teach students the word "police", together with students, do the act of raising a gun to shoot a criminal while pronouncing the word a few times, then you just do the action, and make the student read the word out. Make sure students also use their body motion when reading the word so it goes into their subconscious. 


3. Break down the task

At Chip Chip, students have mini-projects that they have to do on their own at home under the guidance of the teacher, so make sure you can help your learners understand what they are going to do very carefully to make the class more enjoyable. In the next study, along with the student's product, teachers and students will take advantage of the time to practice, instead of spending time sitting together and doing homework with students. Or give students a hard time because of the confusion in your instructions, it can even cause students to lose confidence when they do not understand what to do. 


4. Give demonstrations (if possible)

In order for students to understand the teacher's requirements as best as possible, we should model if necessary. It is best while modeling, we should show students clearly every step we are doing. For example, the teacher could, in the role of students, create a sample conversation, then ask them to follow suit. 


5. Check students' understanding before diving into work 

Let's take a minute to reminisce about the past when we were students. Were you then a brilliant student who always listened to the teacher's words without missing a single word? I guess the answer is no and this is completely normal. So to avoid the situation where the body is in the class, and the mind is in another place, the teacher has to check the students' understanding and we will save a lot of time explaining the request again. which causes disruption in the classroom.

If you do not know what ICQs (instruction checking questions) and CCQs (concept checking questions) are, you should learn them and apply them to your classroom right away. 


In conclusion, teachers should ask themselves these questions before giving instructions

  • What is the core command that I am trying to convey?
  • What students should know before doing the activity?
  • Which materials are needed?

After a class, reflect on your performance and list out things you can do to make your next class better

  • Were my instructions too long?
  • Did I use words that students cannot understand?
  • Were my instructions clear and precise enough?

Repeat this process every time you teach to always bring out the best in your students.

_Chip Chip Team_










A Guide to Giving Clear Instructions to Students
Date posted: 09/13/2021 09:45

Why having clear instructions is important?

As foreign language teachers, we need to understand why giving effective and proper instructions has a significant impact on the quality of a lesson. Do you want your students to be able to:

- Understand what the teacher wants them to do right away, or faster in class

- Remember, think in the right direction, so that they can follow the lesson plan that we want

- Have as much time to practice speaking as possible to improve quickly

If this is what you want in your classroom, giving proper instruction is a must.


What does a not-so-good instruction look like?

An inappropriate instruction can be: using confusing words, using unnecessary words or sentences at the wrong time. For example "Let's move on to the next slide". Children do not understand a foreign language well, they do not need to know what a slide is compared to understanding what this fruit is called, or what this color is in English.

Putting such sentences in the context of a conversation, helps students enrich their language by imitating us, instead of mixing in instructions, or while teaching new words because students are easy to forget knowledge while learning, or do not understand what the teacher wants them to do. 


Teacher expectations and the truth in the classroom setting

Until now, teachers have always tried to devote their time and effort to teaching, imparting knowledge, and expecting students to be able to do what we want. However, this wish does not always come true. The fact that teachers give instructions that are too long, too difficult to understand hinders the success of students in the class. Understand that the task of explaining is ours, but the task of understanding the words is not the student's, it should be a natural process. Especially with young children, they cannot try to understand something that sounds extremely foreign. So, teachers, we need to step up our game so that learning is both useful and comfortable, and fun.


Here are a few ways to make your instruction as enjoyable as a piece of music that is both pleasant for the kids and effortless for us.


1. Length is the key

Chilcoat and Stahl wrote a framework on how to give clear instruction decades ago, but it still makes a lot of sense today and needs a lot of use in the classroom. They advise us to use as short and direct instruction as possible. This is especially important with young children. Teachers should use simple words, avoid adding unnecessary things. Use a specific number, a single noun, instead of "a few", "many", etc., for example, because these words are unpredictable and can be confusing to children.

When making a request, the teacher should always point out what the students need to do, how much time they have, the requirements attached, and then discuss together how to achieve it. 


2. Use a lot of body language and TPR 

(“TPR stands for Total Physical Response and was created by Dr. James J Asher. It is based upon the way that children learn their mother tongue. Parents have 'language-body conversations' with their children, the parent instructs and the child physically responds to this. The parent says, "Look at mummy" or "Give me the ball" and the child does so. These conversations continue for many months before the child actually starts to speak itself. Even though it can't speak during this time, the child is taking in all of the language; the sounds, and the patterns. Eventually, when it has decoded enough, the child reproduces the language quite spontaneously. TPR attempts to mirror this effect in the language classroom.” - teachingenglish.org.uk)

To make it as concise as possible that students can still understand, teachers should incorporate their body language into explanations. For example, when the teacher wants students to listen, then repeat their pronunciation, at the same time say "listen and repeat" make a hand gesture to the ear, and shape your hands in front of the mouth to describe the action of making sound with mouths.

Besides, please apply TPR to the teaching process. For example, you teach students the word "police", together with students, do the act of raising a gun to shoot a criminal while pronouncing the word a few times, then you just do the action, and make the student read the word out. Make sure students also use their body motion when reading the word so it goes into their subconscious. 


3. Break down the task

At Chip Chip, students have mini-projects that they have to do on their own at home under the guidance of the teacher, so make sure you can help your learners understand what they are going to do very carefully to make the class more enjoyable. In the next study, along with the student's product, teachers and students will take advantage of the time to practice, instead of spending time sitting together and doing homework with students. Or give students a hard time because of the confusion in your instructions, it can even cause students to lose confidence when they do not understand what to do. 


4. Give demonstrations (if possible)

In order for students to understand the teacher's requirements as best as possible, we should model if necessary. It is best while modeling, we should show students clearly every step we are doing. For example, the teacher could, in the role of students, create a sample conversation, then ask them to follow suit. 


5. Check students' understanding before diving into work 

Let's take a minute to reminisce about the past when we were students. Were you then a brilliant student who always listened to the teacher's words without missing a single word? I guess the answer is no and this is completely normal. So to avoid the situation where the body is in the class, and the mind is in another place, the teacher has to check the students' understanding and we will save a lot of time explaining the request again. which causes disruption in the classroom.

If you do not know what ICQs (instruction checking questions) and CCQs (concept checking questions) are, you should learn them and apply them to your classroom right away. 


In conclusion, teachers should ask themselves these questions before giving instructions

  • What is the core command that I am trying to convey?
  • What students should know before doing the activity?
  • Which materials are needed?

After a class, reflect on your performance and list out things you can do to make your next class better

  • Were my instructions too long?
  • Did I use words that students cannot understand?
  • Were my instructions clear and precise enough?

Repeat this process every time you teach to always bring out the best in your students.

_Chip Chip Team_










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