Classroom Language For Starting Lessons

ing into the roomThe teacher ing into a room full of students"Can Rosetta Stone
someone take this CD player and plug it in? Thanks." [hold it up as if you are offering it to someone, and look towards the socket or hold the plug and mime plugging it into something]"Can someone hold the door open for me?" [stop with the door supported on your back, then maybe make straining noises like you are trying to squeeze through]"Hi everyone. Just let me put my things down here and we'll get started.""Morning. Not many people here yet? / Where is everyone?" [gesture looking at empty seats and then as if searching for those people in the corners of the room]"Is this the right room? Mrs Andersen's class?/ Top set English?/ English club?""Hello again. Mr Smithers is still sick"/ "Yes, (it's) me again!"The students ing in"Okay everyone, file in quietly and take a seat please" [use two arms to show the slowness and straight lines of the route into the room]"Upper Intermediate 1? Yes, this is the right class. e (on) in.""Hi. e in. Take a seat/ Sit anywhere you like/ Can you sit somewhere different from last week?/ "Can you sit near the front?""Please put your homework into the tray as you e in"/ "Homework in the tray, everyone""Please put your bags on your pegs/ in your desks/ on the back of your chairs/ on the stage/ in a pile by the door/ in your lockers" [mime putting or hanging the bag, then point at position]"We're going to do pairwork, so you Rosetta Stone German
need to sit closer to each other" [gesture two hands pressing something together]"Sit in your usual teams/ the same teams as last lesson""Boys on the right and girls on the left" [point at some boys, and then where they should be, etc]"Sit on the floor/ on the mats/ on the rug/ in the story corner""Take a flashcard as you e in, they are for the first game""Line up in order of age/ height/ the date of your birthday/ in alphabetical order""Can the last person in close the door?""As you e in, ask the next person their name and say 'e in please' and 'Thank you'" [gesture hand ing from your mouth towards the other person, and then back from them to you]"Knock on the door and say 'Can I e in?'" [mime knocking with knuckles]"Entrance drill! Today's question is 'What colour is your bag?'""Line up against the wall and then you can e in" [show the line where you want them to stand, and then mime squeezing up into that space] Greetings"Okay everyone, stand up please. Jimmy, that means you too. Right. Good morning everyone/ Good morning class/ Good morning boys and girls/ Good morning children... Okay, just 'good morning' is right too, but I want you to say 'Good morning class. Good morning teacher.' like we practiced last week. Can you do that? Okay, one, two, three. Much better, but remember that the 'or' in 'morning' is a long sound, oooooooooor" [gesture something very long ing out of your mouth with your right hand] "Oooooor... Good. Moooooorning.... Okay, (that was) maybe a little too long, ha ha! Morning... Great. So, let's do the whole thing one more time from the start. Good morning class... Much much better. Okay, sit down please""(Good) morning/ afternoon/ evening"/ "Hello/ Hi""Merry Christmas""Happy New Year" Introductions"My name is Mr/Mrs/Ms Kim Rosetta Stone Indian
. get on with..." Tests"Today is the test, remember. So, I want you to e in without speaking and take out just one pencil and one eraser. No books and no pieces of paper. Got it? How many books are you allowed?... No, Sabrina, not a hundred. Yes, okay, a thousand, very funny. Seriously. How many books?... Yup, zero, none, nowt. When you've got your pencil and eraser out of your bag, put your bags at the back of the classroom. Ready? Quietly, e in one at a time.""Any questions before the test starts?""Today's the test, but we'll do something else for 10 or 15 minutes to give other people a chance to get here" Things to think about/ Discussion questions for teachersWhat stages above wouldn't you bother doing in your classes, e.g. initial chitchat in a large class, low level class or very young class?What order do you usually do the stages that you do? Could you do them in a different order?Which of the phrases in each of the stages you do use above is the right language level for your students? Is each one also suitable for their age, polite enough etc? If not, how could you change it?Pick at least 5 sentences above that are totally unsuitable for your classes. Why are they unsuitable? What kinds of classes and situations might they be suitable for? What could you say instead in your classes?How could you make each of those phrases easier to understand, e.g. what gestures could you use and what language could you add to your syllabus?Once your students get used to that phrase, how can you make it more plicated in order to boost their level but still making sure they understand?Is there any way of getting students to use the same phrases with each other?Do you do any of the stages above in L1 rather than English? What do you think students' reactions to you switching to English would be? How could you make that transition easier?Many of the sentences above have natural conversational grammar rather than traditional written grammar, e.g. "Alarm clock broken?", which a native speaker is probably more likely to say rather than "Is your alarm clock broken?" What do you think about using these kinds of sentences?There are also some examples of more difficult and idiomatic words and phrases like "nowt" and "How are things?" that students would probably still understand from the context. How do you feel about using these in your classes?If you use natural sentences at natural speed students will hopefully learn to guess the meaning from context, to accept not understanding every word, and to remember language in longer stretches rather than word by word. They might, however, never understand what the individual words are and might never be able to tie it in with the language on the syllabus. Which of these are more important for your students, do you think?Some people like to start English class in exactly the same way as the other classes so that students take it seriously, and other teachers like to start it in a more relaxed and friendly way to set the atmosphere that they need for an interactive, municative classroom. Which thing is more important to you? Is there any way of bining the two things?