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Classroom Language For Teachers and Students of English

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In a classroom setting, effective use of language is essential for both teachers and students. Teachers need to be able to communicate their lessons clearly and effectively, while students need to have the necessary language skills to participate in class, ask questions, and express themselves.

This article will provide an overview of the importance of classroom language for teachers and students of English and will outline some useful phrases and strategies for improving language proficiency in the classroom.

Classroom Language For English Teachers

Classroom Language

Classroom Language: The beginning of the lesson

1. Good morning

  • Good morning, everybody.
  • Good afternoon, everybody.
  • Hello, everyone.
  • Hello there, John.

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, David?

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

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Instructions can also be sequenced:

  • First
  • Next
  • After that
  • Then
  • Finally

5. 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.

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.

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
  • Line up

Classroom Language: Language of classroom management

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

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.

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?

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.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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”.
  • Best of luck.
  • Good luck.
  • I hope you pass.
  • Congratulations!
  • Well done!
  • Who’s not here today?
  • Who isn’t here?
  • What’s wrong with … today?
  • I’m sorry (about that).
  • Sorry, that was my fault.
  • I’m terribly sorry.
  • 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 hope you all have a good Christmas.
  • Happy New Year!
  • All the best for the New Year.
  • Happy Easter.
  • Hard lines!
  • Never mind.
  • Better luck next time.
  • Do you feel better today?
  • Are you better now?
  • Have you been ill?
  • What was the matter?
  • 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.
  • 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 for English Students

Here is a list of useful classroom language for students in English.

  1. Asking for clarification: Can you repeat that?, Can you explain that more?, I’m sorry, I don’t understand.
  2. Participating in discussions: I have a question, Can I share my thoughts?, That’s a good point, What do you think?
  3. Giving examples: For instance, For example, Such as, Like.
  4. Making comparisons: Just like, Similar to, Unlike, On the other hand.
  5. Expressing uncertainty: I’m not sure, I don’t know, I don’t understand, Can you help me?
  6. Summarizing information: In short, To summarize, To put it briefly, In other words.
  7. Expressing agreement/disagreement: I agree, I disagree, I concur, I don’t agree.
  8. Asking for help: Can you help me?, I need some assistance, Can you give me a hand?
  9. Responding to questions: Yes, No, Of course, Sure.
  10. Expressing appreciation: Thank you, That’s very kind of you, I appreciate your help, That’s helpful.

Classroom Language

Classroom Language

Classroom Objects in English

Classroom Objects in English 

Here is a list of words to learn for this lesson.

  • Desk – a piece of furniture like a table, usually with drawers in it, that you sit at to write and work
  • Chair – a piece of furniture for one person to sit on, which has a back, a seat, and four legs
  • Book – a set of printed pages that are held together in a cover so that you can read them
  • Notebook – a book made of plain paper on which you can write notes
  • Pencil case – a bag or box to carry pens and pencils in
  • Scissors – a tool for cutting paper, made of two sharp blades fastened together in the middle, with holes for your finger and thumb
  • Compass – a V-shaped instrument with one sharp point and a pen or pencil at the other end, used for drawing circles or measuring distances on maps
  • Pencil – an instrument that you use for writing or drawing, consisting of a wooden stick with a thin piece of a black or coloured substance in the middle
  • Stapler – a tool used for putting staples into paper
  • Calculator – a small electronic machine that can add, multiply, …
  • Ballpoint – a pen with a ball at the end that rolls ink onto the paper
  • Hightlighter – a special light-coloured pen used for marking words in a book, article, …
  • Rubber (U.K)/ Eraser (U.S) – a small piece of rubber or similar material used for removing pencil marks from paper
  • Palette – a thin curved board that an artist uses to mix paints, holding it by putting his or her thumb through a hole at the edge
  • Protractor – a piece of plastic in the shape of a half-circle, which is used for measuring and drawing angles
  • Funnel – a thin tube with a wide top that you use for pouring liquid into a container with a narrow opening, such as a bottle
  • Binder – a removable cover for holding loose sheets of paper, magazines, …
  • Computer – an electronic machine that stores information and uses programs to help you find, organize, or change the information
  • Map – a drawing of a particular area, for example a city or country, which shows its main features, such as its roads, rivers, mountains, …
  • Blackboard – a board with a dark smooth surface, used in schools for writing on with chalk
  • Globe – a round object with a map of the Earth drawn on it

suriana

Saturday 27th of July 2024

thank you. very useful for me

May

Sunday 5th of November 2023

Does anyone know the classroom language courses for teachers? I am an english teacher and I teach preschool kids. I want to improve my english and looking for a class. If you know please let me know. Thank you.

Swamy.h

Saturday 17th of June 2023

Really very usefull phrases for teachers as well students

Mohammad Omar Aria

Thursday 1st of June 2023

Can u tell me how can i join classes???? w

Thiri

Monday 8th of May 2023

It means a lot to me ????