Classroom Language

Classroom Language: The beginning of the lesson


1. Good morning
• Good morning, everybody.
• Good afternoon, everybody.
• Hello, everyone.
• Hello there, James.
2. How are you?
• How are you today?
• How are you getting on?
• How's life?
• How are things with you?
• Are you feeling better today, Bill?
3. Introductions
• My name is Mr/Mrs/Ms Kim. I'm your new English teacher.
• I'll be teaching you English this year.
• I've got five lessons with you each week.
4. Time to begin
• Let's begin our lesson now.
• Is everybody ready to start?
• I hope you are all ready for your English lesson.
• I think we can start now.
• Now we can get down to work.
5. Waiting to start
• I'm waiting for you to be quiet.
• We won't start until everyone is quiet.
• Stop talking and be quiet.
• Settle down now so we can start.
6. Put your things away
• Close your books.
• Put your books away.
• Pack your things away.
7. Register
• Who is absent today?
• Who isn't here today?
• What's the matter with Jim today?
• What's wrong with Jim today?
• Why were you absent last Friday, “”?
8. Late
• Where have you been?
• We started ten minutes ago. What have you been doing?
• Did you miss your bus?
• Did you oversleep?
• Don't let it happen again.











Classroom Language: Simple instructions

Here are some common instructions which the class can easily understand:
• Come in.
• Go out.
• Stand up.
• Sit down.
• Come to the front of the class. • Stand by your desks.
• Put your hands up.
• Put your hands down.
• Hold your books/pens up.
• Show me your pencil.
A number of instructions can be used at the beginning of a session:
• Pay attention, everybody.
• You need pencils/rulers.
• We'll learn how to ...
• Are you ready?
• Open your books at page...
• Turn to page ...
• Look at activity five. • Listen to this tape.
• Repeat after me.
• Again, please.
• Everybody ...
• You have five minutes to do this.
• Who's next?
• Like this, not like that.
A number of instructions can be used at the end of a session:
• It's time to finish.
• Have you finished?
• Let's stop now.
• Stop now.
• Let's check the answers. • Any questions?
• Collect your work please.
• Pack up your books.
• Are your desks tidy?
• Don't forget to bring your ... tomorrow.
Instructions can also be sequenced:
• First
• Next
• After that • Then
• Finally

Comprehension language:
• Are you ready?
• Are you with me?
• Are you OK?
• OK so far?
• Do you get it?
• Do you understand?
• Do you follow me? • What did you say?
• One more time, please.
• Say it again, please.
• I don't understand.
• I don't get it.
• Like this?
• Is this OK?


Classroom Language: The end of the lesson


1. Time to stop
• It's almost time to stop.
• I'm afraid it's time to finish now.
• We'll have to stop here.
• There's the bell. It's time to stop.
• That's all for today. You can go now.
2. Not time to stop
• The bell hasn't gone yet.
• There are still two minutes to go.
• We still have a couple of minutes left.
• The lesson doesn't finish till five past.
• Your watch must be fast.
• We seem to have finished early.
• We have an extra five minutes.
• Sit quietly until the bell goes.
3. Wait a minute
• Hang on a moment.
• Just hold on a moment.
• Stay where you are for a moment.
• Just a moment, please.
• One more thing before you go.
• Back to your places.

5. Homework
• This is your homework for tonight.
• Do exercise 10 on page 23 for your homework.
• Prepare the next chapter for Monday.
• There is no homework today.
• Remember your homework.
• Take a worksheet as you leave.
6. Goodbye
• Goodbye, everyone.
• See you again next Wednesday.
• See you tomorrow afternoon.
• See you in room 7 after the break.
• Have a good holiday.
• Enjoy your vacation.
7. Leaving the room
• Get into a queue.
• Form a queue and wait for the bell.
• Everybody outside!
• All of you get outside now!
• Hurry up and get out!
• Try not to make any noise as you leave.
• Be quiet as you leave. Other classes are still working.
• It's tidy up time (Eva Vigil suggested it)
• Line up (Eva Vigil suggested it)
4. Next time
• We'll do the rest of this chapter next time.
• We'll finish this exercise next lesson.
• We've run out of time, so we'll continue next lesson.
• We'll continue this chapter next Monday.




Classroom Language: The language of spontaneous situations

If we use English in spontaneous situations:
• We relate the target language to the learner's immediate environment.
• We take advantage of spontaneous situations to use the target language.
• We exploit contexts which are not directly linked to the syllabus (language in use).

Here are some common situations in which spontaneous English can be used:

• Happy birthday!
• Many returns (of the day).
• “” has his/her 12th birthday today.
• “” is eleven today. Let's sing "Happy Birthday". • I hope you all have a good Christmas.
• Happy New Year!
• All the best for the New Year.
• Happy Easter.
• Best of luck.
• Good luck.
• I hope you pass.
• Congratulations!
• Well done! • Hard lines!
• Never mind.
• Better luck next time.
• Who's not here today?
• Who isn't here?
• What's wrong with ... today? • Do you feel better today?
• Are you better now?
• Have you been ill?
• What was the matter?
• I'm sorry (about that).
• Sorry, that was my fault.
• I'm terribly sorry. • Excuse me for a moment.
• I'll be back in a moment.
• Carry on with the exercise while I'm away.
• I've got to go next door for a moment.
• Excuse me.
• Could I get past please?
• You're blocking the way.
• I can't get past you.
• Get out of the way, please. • I'm afraid I can't speak any louder.
• I seem to be losing my voice.
• I have a sore throat.
• I have a headache.
• I'm feeling under the weather.
• Do you mind if I sit down?




Classroom Language: The language of classroom management

Here are some common situations in which spontaneous English can be used:
• Make groups of four.
• Move your desks into groups of four people.
• Turn your desks around.
• Make a horseshoe shape with your desks.
• Make a circle with your desks.
• Make a line of desks facing each other.
• Make groups of four desks facing each other.
• Sit back to back.
• Work together with your friend.
• Find a partner.
• Work in pairs/threes/fours/fives.
• Work in groups of two/three/four.
• I want you to form groups.
• Form groups of three.
• Here are some tasks for you to work on in groups of four. • There are too many in this group.
• Can you join the other group?
• Only three people in each group.
• I asked for four people to a group.
• Everybody work individually.
• Work by yourselves.
• Work independently.
• Ask your neighbour for help.
• Work on the task together. • Ask other people in the group.
• Ask others in the class.
• Interview someone else.
• Ask everyone in the class.
• Stand up and find another partner.
• Have you finished?
• Do the next activity.
• Move on to the next activity.










Classroom Language: Language of classroom management

Here are some phrases that can be used for classroom management:

Organization
Giving instructions
• Open your books at page 52.
• Come out and write it on the board.
• Listen to the tape, please.
• Get into groups of four.
• Finish off this song at home.
• Let's sing a song.
• Everybody, please.
• All together now.
• The whole class, please.
• I want you all to join in.
• Could you try the next one?
• I would like you to write this down.
• Would you mind switching the lights on?
• It might be an idea to leave this till next time.
• Who would like to read?
• Which topic will your group report on?
• Do you want to answer question 3? Sequencing
• First of all, today, ...
• Right. Now we will go on to the next exercise.
• Have you finished?
• For the last thing today, let's ...
• Whose turn is it to read?
• Which question are you on?
• Next one, please.
• Who hasn't answered yet?
• Let me explain what I want you to do next.
• The idea of this exercise is for you to ...
• You have ten minutes to do this.
• Your time is up.
• Finish this by twenty to eleven.
• Can you all see the board?
• Have you found the place?
• Are you all ready?
Supervision
• Look this way.
• Stop talking.
• Listen to what ... is saying.
• Leave that alone now.
• Be careful.

Interrogation
Asking questions
• Where's Bill?
• Is Bill in the kitchen?
• Tell me where Bill is.
• What was the house like?
• What do you think?
• How can you tell? Responding to questions
• Yes, that's right,
• Fine.
• Almost. Try again.
• What about this word?

Explanation
Metalanguage
• What's the Spanish for "doll"?
• Explain it in your own words.
• It's spelt with a capital "J".
• Can anybody correct this sentence?
• Fill in the missing words.
• Mark the right alternative. Reference
• After they left the USA, the Beatles ...
• The church was started in the last century.
• This is a picture of a typically English castle.
• In the background you can see ...
• While we're on the subject, ...
• As I said earlier, ...
• Let me sum up.

Interaction
Affective attitudes
• That's interesting!
• That really is very kind of you.
• Don't worry about it.
• I was a bit disappointed with your efforts. Social ritual
• Good morning.
• Cheerio now.
• God bless!
• Have a nice weekend.
• Thanks for your help.
• Happy birthday!
• Merry Christmas!
















Classroom Language: The language of error correction

Here are some phrases that can be used when giving feedback to students:
• Very good.
• That's very good.
• Well done.
• Very fine.
• That's nice.
• I like that.
• Marvellous! • You did a great job.
• Magnificent!
• Terrific!
• Wow!
• Jolly good!
• Great stuff!
• Fantastic! • Right!
• Yes!
• Fine.
• Quite right
• That's right.
• That's it.
• That's correct.
• That's quite right.
• Yes, you've got it.
• You've got the idea.
• It depends.
• It might be, I suppose.
• In a way, perhaps.
• Sort of, yes.
• That's more like it.
• That's much better.
• That's a lot better.
• You've improved a lot. • Not really.
• Unfortunately not.
• I'm afraid that's not quite right.
• You can't say that, I'm afraid.
• You can't use that word here.
• Good try, but not quite right.
• Have another try.
• Not quite right. Try again.
• Not exactly. • You were almost right.
• That's almost it.
• You're halfway there.
• You've almost got it.
• You're on the right lines.
• There's no need to rush.
• There's no hurry.
• We have plenty of time
• Go on. Have a try.
• Have a go.
• Have a guess.
• There's nothing wrong with your answer.
• What you said was perfectly all right.
• You didn't make a single mistake.
• That's exactly the point.
• That's just what I was looking for. • Don't worry about your pronunciation.
• Don't worry about your spelling.
• Don't worry, it'll improve.
• Maybe this will help you.
• Do you want a clue (hint)?
• You have good pronunciation.
• Your pronunciation is very good.
• You are communicating well.
• You speak very fluently.
• You have made a lot of progresss
• You still have some trouble with pronunciation.
• You need more practice with these words.
• You'll have to spend some time practising this.
• You're getting better at it all the time.
• You've improved no end.