5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities

Write down simpler ways of saying the same thing and compare your questions with What are the advantages of eliciting?
someone else’s.
By eliciting you:
Task 3 • get the students involved and interested;
Aim
• bring relevant information to the front of their minds;
To simplify language for classroom use and to recognize the value of gesture and
• increase the amount they talk;
mime.
• help them take responsibility for their own learning. Eliciting gives members of
a class the necessary and motivating feeling of being encouraged to invest part
Procedure of themselves, give some of their opinions and contribute some of their
1 Work with two others in your group. One should pretend to have almost no knowledge so that what happens seems to depend partly on the students
English. If possible, record the exercise. themselves;
2 Tell the proficient user of English how to do something, eg change a tyre, make • get crucial information about what the students already know and can use in
an omelette. relation to the language you are focusing on. This helps you to avoid teaching
3 Tell the ‘elementary’ speaker how to do the same thing in simpler language. what they already know and helps you to assess how far students are with you as
4 Compare the language used for both, possibly referring to the recording. you go through the lesson.
Comment What are the disadvantages?
Try giving the instructions without using your hands. Then think about how you
could use gesture and mime to make the instructions clearer. • Eliciting can take time and if time is short you may want to tell the students and
quickly check they understand.
Task 4 • You can’t elicit something the students don’t know in the first place. You can
spend ages trying to elicit language which is just not there – this leads to
Aim frustration on your part and confusion and feelings of inadequacy on the part
To create an awareness of how everyday language that is easily understood by the of the students.
proficient speaker can be difficult for the low-level learner. • There is a danger that if you elicit what you’re looking for from one student you
Procedure
assume (perhaps mistakenly) that all the students in the group understand.
1 Get hold of a set of instructions for something relatively simple like an everyday So, eliciting is quite a difficult skill. It needs practice and experience if it is not to
electrical appliance. be time-wasting and embarrassing. The most important qualities you need are the
2 With another member of your group, discuss the likely difficulties that low-level ability to really listen to the students and the ability to respond quickly and
students might have. flexibly, using the techniques outlined earlier in this chapter under these headings:
3 Write the instructions again, trying to eliminate the difficulties. eye contact, use of gesture, using students’ names and attention spread. For example, if
4 Compare your results with others in the group. a number of students are calling out at the same time you need to be able to ignore
5 If you can, try out the instructions on an elementary student. what you don’t want and pick up on the contributions you are looking for.
Comment
You can go through the same procedure with the instructions in a textbook aimed
Techniques for eliciting
at high-level students. Then look at the instructions used in a book aimed at low- Usually eliciting consists of giving clues and prompts in order to get the students
level students. Do you think the authors have managed to grade the language to make an appropriate contribution. Eliciting should never be simply guessing
5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities what’s in the teacher’s head!
At higher levels eliciting might consist of something like: What do you know about
Eliciting
the life of Gandhi? or Look at this picture and describe the man as fully as you can.
Eliciting is when the teacher brings out student knowledge, suggestions and ideas.
At lower levels, however, the eliciting needs to be more guided by the teacher,
You can do this by asking questions and by encouraging and guiding
particularly if it serves a specific aim, as it would when you are building up a
contributions. By eliciting you can use a little ‘teacher talking time’ to increase
context for the introduction of a new language item. For example:
‘student talking time’. Finding out what the students already know and getting a
few ideas from the students about a context or some vocabulary related to it is a Aim
useful way of setting up an activity, whether it be a roleplay, a game, a listening To introduce and practise the structure need + -ing as in the roof needs mending.
task, the introduction of a new language structure, etc.
Context
Diana and Charlie Roberts are looking at a house they want to buy. It’s in a very
Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters. bad state at the moment.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Chapter 2 Managing the class 5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities

Visuals right response from the students. Use this technique sparingly and only when
A picture of Diana and Charlie. A picture of a dilapidated house. you are sure the students know the answer. Otherwise it might sound as though
Instead of saying to the students This is Diana and Charlie Roberts. They are newly you are mocking them.
married. They are looking at a house for sale. It’s not in good condition. There’s a hole • Giving a sentence with a blank in it, filled in perhaps by humming the word (the
in the roof ... you might approach the task of building up the context something hummed word having the same number of syllables and the same stress
like this: pattern) or by the first letter of a word allows the students to hear where the
word is expected to come in a whole sentence.
Teacher: Right. Now, do you remember Diana and Charlie? (showing • In this exchange both individual language items (got married, hole) were elicited
picture) as well as ideas and opinions (Do you think that’s a good idea – to buy the house?)
Students: Yes. With specific language items you might, if necessary, provide correction and
Alberto: Yes, last lesson. They married. pronunciation practice, but when the students offer ideas and opinions you
(Gesturing towards Alberto) probably won’t correct what they say since it’s the idea rather than the language
Teacher: Married? Is that right, Alberto? They g ... that’s important. Before the lesson, decide where you are going to correct and
Alberto: Got married. where you want to focus on eliciting ideas and suggestions. (See Chapter 7:
(Looking at Alberto) Giving feedback to students.)
Teacher: Yes, again.
Alberto: They got married. Task 1
Teacher: Fine. When? Ten years ago? (Looking round the group)
Aim
Students: No.
To establish which types of questions are most suitable for eliciting information.
Beatrice: No, no. Two days ago.
Teacher: Beatrice? Procedure
Beatrice: No. Two days ago. 1 Choose a picture which could be interpreted in different ways.
Teacher: Yes, where are they here? (showing picture) 2 Decide on your interpretation.
Students: A house. An old house. They look at house, etc. 3 Write a list of five or six salient facts about the picture as you see it.
Teacher: Yes. Is it theirs, Catrina? 4 Write a number of different questions which might elicit those facts.
Catrina: No. Maybe they want to buy it. 5 Work with a partner and try to elicit your interpretation. Discuss which questions
(Looking round the group) were most effective and why.
Teacher: Yes. Do you think that’s a good idea – to buy the house?
Students: No. Task 2
Teacher: Why not, Tami?
Aim
Tami: It’s old. No good.
To give practice in asking questions to elicit information.
Teacher: Tell me more, anyone.
Students: Dirty. It’s old. The door’s broken, etc. Procedure
Matias: Roof no good. 1 Work with a partner.
Teacher: Yes, Matias, the roof’s no good. There’s a ........ in the roof. 2 Select a topic, for example ‘school days’.
Emiko: Hole. 3 In two minutes, ask your partner as many questions as possible about his or her
Teacher: Yes, good. memories. Your partner should answer with one-word answers wherever
possible.
Now look back at the extract and note the following points.
4 At the end write down as many facts as you can remember.
• The teacher makes use of characters and information about them from a 5 Reverse roles and go through the same procedure.
previous lesson, thus reducing what has to be done in this lesson. 6 Compare both sets for completeness and discuss each other’s question
• The use of pictures to prompt suggestions. techniques.
• The teacher picks out the contribution he or she is looking for from a number
of responses. Task 3
• The use of students’ names and gesture to get contributions from individual Aim
students and the word anyone when eliciting from the whole group.
To practise relating the students personally to a topic before eliciting facts about it.
• By using a first-sound prompt (/ g / to elicit got) the teacher helps the students
remember a word they know. It gives an important clue to what the teacher Procedure A
wants. 1 Choose an unlikely topic (like ‘filling in holes in the road’ or ‘toothpick
• An obviously incorrect suggestion (Ten years ago?) can sometimes provoke the manufacturing’).

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters. Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
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Chapter 2 Managing the class 5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities

2 Try to get a group of your fellow trainees to relate personally to the topic by Use visual or written clues
asking suitable questions. Support instructions with visual clues wherever possible: real objects, pictures,
Procedure B gesture and mime (see Section 1: Use of gesture, eye contact and the voice). It is often
1 Ask the group to think up a topic they have no interest in. easier to give instructions written on cards or pieces of paper that you have
2 Get them to relate to it by asking interesting questions. prepared, especially if you want the students to do different things (as in a
roleplay) or if it is important that the students don’t know the instructions given to
Task 4 their partner.
Aim Demonstrate
To evaluate the effectiveness of eliciting techniques. If possible, show them what to do – give a demonstration or an example.
Procedure
Frequently, showing what to do is more effective than telling what to do. You can
1 Observe a teacher or another trainee and make notes on some or all of the
demonstrate a speaking activity by playing both parts yourself (moving position to
following:
show that you are two people), by playing one part and choosing a strong student
– Did the teacher use a variety of techniques?
to play the other part, or by asking two strong students to do (part of) the activity
– Did the students understand the questions?
in front of the class. With written work an example on the board is often useful.
– Were the questions concise? Break the instructions down
– Did the teacher use visual clues? If the activity requires a series of steps, each requiring instructions, give simple
– Were all the students participating? instructions in segments and check understanding as you go along, rather than
– How many were called on to contribute? giving out all the instructions in one go. Or you can give only some of the
(You may like to add some points of your own.) instructions and allow time for them to be carried out before moving on to the
2 Compare your observations with another trainee and/or with the teacher you next step. For example, where a change of seating arrangement is required before
observed. a roleplay, it is better to give the instructions and make the change before going on
to assign roles and give further instructions about what they are going to do and
Giving instructions say. Especially with any complicated series of instructions, write down what you
need to do and say, in your lesson plan.
How can you make your instructions effective?
Target your instructions
First attract the students’ attention
Sometimes, instead of giving complete instructions to the whole class when the
Make sure everyone is listening and watching. Don’t give out any handouts which instructions don’t concern everyone, you might give each student a number, a
may distract the students’ attention before you need to. letter, or some kind of symbol. In which case it might be the number fives, or the
Use simple language and short expressions Cs only who listen for what they should do:
Use language at a lower level than the language being ‘taught’. Long, more ‘polite’ Teacher: Right, listen to your number. One, two three, four, five (pointing
language is time-wasting, slows the lesson down and involves you in more as the numbers are called), one, two, three, four, five (etc). Hands
complicated language than the students can easily understand. Remember, as up all the ones! Hands up all the twos! (etc). Monica, what’s your
mentioned in Section 4: Teacher talk and student talk, impoliteness partly comes number?
from an inappropriate use of language. Short instructions are entirely appropriate Monica: Two.
to this situation where the students accept your authority. Also, they usually Teacher: Right. Listen. All the fours are going to ... . All the threes ...
realize that a firm directive manner is necessary in order to make language Be decisive
practice efficient and to avoid confusion and uncertainty.
Use a signal, like the words Right or Listen, which students will learn to recognize
Be consistent as a cue for an instruction. Make sure the students know when to begin an
This is especially important with low-level classes; use the same set of words for activity; for example, say something like Everyone. Start! – perhaps accompanied
the same instruction. Common instructions are: Everybody; All together; Again; by a downward hand gesture or a clap of the hands.
Try again; Look (at the picture); Listen; Repeat; Say (X); Tell me; Look at the board;
Stand up; Turn to page ... . With beginners, spend time teaching them the language
they need to follow instructions. (See Chapter 5 Section 6: Learner development
and study skills.)

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Chapter 2 Managing the class 5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities

How do you know that the instructions have been understood? 2 Work with a partner. Discuss whether the written instructions are clear and
sufficient for the students to understand without a teacher. If they are not, write
After you give instructions check that they understand them – especially out a set of instructions.
complicated ones. 3 Discuss these written instructions and decide whether they are the same words
Examples you would say if you were giving instructions to a class. If they are not, write out
1 Before a roleplay, after you have assigned roles: the instructions you would give and say how you would check that the students
Teacher: Shop assistants, hands up. Now, customers, hands up. understood.
4 Discuss where demonstration of the instructions might be more appropriate and
2 Before an information gap activity in which one student in a pair has how it might be done.
information which the other student has to find out:
Teacher: Juan, are you going to show Jens your picture? Task 3
Juan: No.
Aim
3 Before a dictation: To develop the ability to grade instructions to the level of the group, organize them,
Teacher: Do you write after the first reading or after the second reading? segment them and check the students’ comprehension.
Students: The second.
Procedure
Teach the students expressions which tell you they don’t understand and 1 Look at these role cards for a guided roleplay:
encourage them to use them:
Examples STUDENT A STUDENT B
Sorry. I don’t understand.
Can you say that again, please? AT THE GREENGROCER’S AT THE GREENGROCER’S
You are the greengrocer. You are the customer.
When the activity has started, monitor to see if the students are following the
instructions correctly. (See Section 6: Monitoring.) Your prices: apples 90p per kilo You want: 2 kilos apples
oranges 20p each 6 oranges
Task 1 bananas £1.10 per kilo 1 kilo grapes
Aim grapefruit 50p each a melon if they’re not
To show how clear, simple instructions accompanied by gestures are both easily pears 95p per kilo more than £1.50 each
understood and learned rapidly by a class.
melons £1.60 each something else
Procedure You have no grapes. You have a £10 note.
1 Make up a short dialogue in a fictitious or unknown language.
You have no small change. You don’t want to spend more than £4.
2 Make up some simple practice instructions to go with it: the equivalents of
listen, repeat, everybody, again and write.
3 Drill the dialogue line by line (the ‘students’ – fellow trainees – listen and 2 Read the following transcription of how the activity might be set up with
repeat) and then dictate the lines so those in the group can write it down as proficient speakers:
best they can.
Well, we’re going to do this roleplay, see, and we’re in the greengrocer’s. Now
4 Discuss the lesson (if possible some time later) and see how far the
there’s a slight problem. The greengrocer hasn’t got all the fruit the customer
instructions have been remembered.
wants and hasn’t got any change. Not for a £10 note anyway. Now, the
Comment customer’s got a £10 note but doesn’t want to spend more than £4. OK? Look,
It is probable that the instructions will be remembered better than the dialogue. I’ll give out these cards. I want you to carry out this roleplay in pairs. Right?
The discussion can then most usefully focus on the reasons for this. Now, you know who you are? Right? Now, you’ll see if you’re the greengrocer
and a set of prices and, if you’re the customer, you’ll see a shopping list. I want
Task 2 you to stick to what’s on those cards. All right. Are you ready? OK. Get on with it.
Aim 3 Underline the information students need to know in order to carry out the
To give practice in keeping instructions to a minimum and yet making them clear. activity.
4 Simplify the vocabulary for an elementary class and cut out any unnecessary
Procedure
language. Add instructions where it would clarify what the students have to do.
1 Take a coursebook and choose a page which has a variety of exercises on it.
5 Number the instructions and arrange them in logical order.

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters. Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT 1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Chapter 2 Managing the class 5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities

6 Write down how you would check that the students have understood the Pairwork is sometimes referred to as open or closed depending on whether just one
instructions. pair is speaking, usually across the class, to provide some sort of model for the
7 Try the activity on a group, checking understanding at each step, or compare others (open) or whether the whole class is divided into pairs and working
and discuss your instructions with another trainee. simultaneously (closed). Frequently a closed pair activity is preceded by a small
Comment
amount of open pair practice to get it going.
Similar instruction-giving can be done for such activities as making models from Another type of interactive activity is the mingle activity in which all the students
Lego, operating simple machinery (eg tape recorders), giving directions, etc. It is stand up and move around talking in turn to the other students – so that pairs and
often worth recording and transcribing the instructions as they would be given to a) small groups are being continually formed and re-formed.
a proficient speaker, and b) a low-level class. You might find you need to give very
little contextual information in your instructions, but make sure your students Why are pairwork and groupwork useful?
know all they need to know.
Doing these interactive activities:
Setting up activities • gives the students more valuable talking time. It gives them more of the time
they require to practise the language than is possible when you are dealing with
What are the different types of activities? the class as a whole;

For convenience, activities can be divided into the following categories, although
• allows you to withdraw and monitor individual performances;
there is often an overlap.
• encourages rapport between students;
• provides an opportunity for the students to co-operate with one another and
Controlled activities learn to become independent of the teacher;
Where you decide on the exact language to be used and control it accordingly, • enables the students to invest much more of themselves in the lesson;
perhaps by the use of prompts, maybe spoken or written on cards. • gives an opportunity for shy or unconfident students to participate whereas
they would be reticent about contributing in front of the whole class;
Many drills (listen and repeat, or listen and change the language in a prescribed • provides a change in pace;
way) are examples of controlled practice activities. Drills can be choral (when the • adds variety to a lesson.
whole class speak together); you can cue in a part of the class at a time, or you can
indicate for individual students to speak. Special considerations for pairwork and groupwork
Other teacher-controlled activities include those in which students take part in The way you approach pairwork and groupwork can depend on such factors as
short dialogues supplied by the teacher, or when one student asks a set question the experience and expectations of the students, their level, and whether they are
and another student has a prompt to indicate the appropriate reply. Many written in a monolingual or multilingual group.
exercises are controlled in that only one answer is ‘correct’.
It is important to remember that not all students are used to interactive activities
Guided activities in class. You may have to introduce pairwork and groupwork activities gradually,
Where you decide on the language areas to be practised (eg giving directions) but making sure the tasks are clearly defined, and pointing out the rationale and
give the students a certain amount of freedom. The materials you choose should advantages of the approach. In a monolingual group it may be useful to discuss
allow the students to make different language choices, although these choices may the purpose of such activities and to set up the first one or two in the mother
be fairly limited. Both controlled and guided activities are often used when the tongue. For further considerations for pairwork and groupwork with a
focus is on the practice of particular language structures or vocabulary. monolingual group, see Section 9: The monolingual and the multilingual class.

Creative or free communication At lower levels tasks need to be limited, more structured and generally shorter
than at higher levels. However, although lower levels will need more controlled
Where you supply the motivation and maybe the materials but the students are free
practice than advanced students they will still need opportunities to express
within the constraints of the situation to use any language they have to
themselves freely, just as advanced levels will need some controlled practice.
communicate and complete the task set. These activities are often used when the
focus is on the development of speaking and writing skills.
When do you do pairwork and groupwork?
Ways to set up interactive activities This type of activity has a place in most types of lesson. Every opportunity should
be taken for the students to talk to each other – when asking about unknown
Students interact when they are doing pairwork or groupwork activities – they talk
words, comparing their answers to tasks, correcting each other’s work as well as in
and listen to each other, rather than to the teacher. Where there is an information
activities set up especially with pairs and groups in mind – practice dialogues,
gap or opinion gap (when one student has some information or ideas that the other
information gap activities, roleplays, discussions and games, etc. (See also How
student has to find out about) these can also be referred to as communicative
can you encourage good group dynamics and interdependence between students? on
activities.
p57, and Chapter 5 Section 4: Productive skills: speaking.)
Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters. Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT 1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Chapter 2 Managing the class 5 Eliciting, giving instructions and setting up activities

The stage at which pairwork and groupwork takes place depends on the particular
lesson.
• asking the students to line up in order of the initial of their first name or second
name, birthday or height and then dividing into the appropriate sized groups;
Example 1
• having as many long pieces of string in the hand as there are to be pairs.
Students take an end and find their partner at the other end of the piece of string;
The focus is on the teacher as he or she introduces a topic or language area.
The teacher elicits from the whole class and then they do some repetition
• blindfolding as many people as there are groups who then in turn touch the
people that are to be in their group (popular with children);
practice together, followed by some ‘open’ pairwork. Later the students are
divided into pairs or groups for some guided practice.
• giving out to each student at random a card with a word on it. The students
have to mingle and find their partner. For example – salt would find pepper, fish
Example 2 would find chips, Romeo would find Juliet, etc. If you want to form groups you
The lesson starts with the students in pairs or small groups brainstorming a can put words on the same topic on the cards – eg traffic light, road, car would sit
topic, analysing some language or doing a problem-solving activity before they together and apple, banana, pear would form a group. To make this activity
come together to pool their ideas. The teacher picks out some items of language more difficult you can attach the words on the students’ backs so they have to
the students have been having problems with and conducts a controlled activity find out what their word is by asking one yes/no question of each of the other
(listen and repeat) with the whole group for a few minutes. students before going on to find their partner. In this way you are using one
type of interactive activity (a mingle activity) to set up pairs or groups for
Planning the activity another interactive activity. This is a rather time-consuming way of pairing or
grouping the students. Make sure you allow enough time for it and that, if
Make sure that: possible, it links in (perhaps by topic or theme) with the following activity.
• you have a clear idea of the purpose of the activity and how it fits in with the rest You choose the grouping
of the lesson. You may also want to make the purpose clear to the students,
especially if this type of activity is new to them (see also Chapter 5 Section 6: You can do this:
Learner development and study skills); • by indicating by gesture and with the words Get into pairs that the students pair
• the activity lends itself easily to pairwork or groupwork; up with the person next to them (see also Section 1: Use of eye contact, gesture
• the seating can be organized to make the activity possible (see also Section 2: and the voice);
Classroom arrangement); • by simply saying Petra, Ali, Paula and Georg – I’d like you to work together over here;
• the time the students spend doing the activity justifies the time you need to set it • by allocating numbers or letters as above, but to particular students, rather than
up. Often groupwork takes a long time to set up; pairwork is usually more at random. It is a good idea to have a list drawn up beforehand that you can
suitable for short activities; refer to;
• all the students are occupied for most of the time, ie that some are not having to • by giving out cards as above but to particular people, according to a list you
wait until another pair or group has finished; have drawn up.
• where different pairs or groups have different tasks these tasks will either take In large classes you can quickly divide the class into three or four large groups and
approximately the same time to complete or more capable groups are given the
then do the grouping activities with cards. You have three or four identical packs
longer tasks;
of cards and the grouping takes place within the large groups.
• you have enough materials for each group or pair;
• you decide how you want the pairs or groups to be constituted (see below); You let the students choose who to work with
• you decide whether a chairperson or secretary is needed for each group; This is usually a good idea if you want the students to work on a longer activity or
• you think carefully about your instructions. project, especially if it involves them co-operating outside class hours.
Organizing the class: putting the students into pairs/groups For longer activities such as a roleplay or discussion you may want to group twice.
For example, in a class of twenty you want to have four groups of five students
You will need to plan how you will organize the students and perhaps indicate this each playing a part in a roleplay. The situation is that parents of a teenager come
on your lesson plan. You need to decide whether you want the groups to be home a day early from holiday to find a party in their house. A neighbour has
random, ‘streamed’ according to level, or a mixture of weak and strong, talkative called the police because of the noise. The characters are the teenager, mother,
and quiet. Will they be grouped according to nationality, sex or age? Do you want father, police officer, neighbour. In the preparation stage you can allocate roles and
friends to work together or are there some students you want to keep apart? Do put the four students playing the same part together to prepare their part – ie all
you want to let the students choose who to work with? Do you want them to work the mothers together, the neighbours together, etc (five groups of four students).
in the same groups every day or in different groups each time? After they have had time to pool ideas, go to each group and allocate numbers 1,
Random pairing or grouping 2, 3, 4 and say All the ones in this corner, all the twos in that corner, etc. In this way
each group should have a complete set of characters (four groups of five students)
Common techniques for doing this are:
and the roleplays can go ahead.
• going round the class and giving each student a number – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, etc – and then asking all the ‘number ones’ to sit together; Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Chapter 2 Managing the class 6 Monitoring

Sometimes there are uneven numbers or the person you had planned to take a Task
particular role is absent. You have to be quite flexible and be prepared to change
Aim
your plans at times. In a quick pairwork activity you can play one half of one of the
To promote discussion of the uses and organization of pairwork or groupwork.
pairs, although doing this prevents you from monitoring the other students, of
course. You can often make one group of three instead of a pair, especially if the Procedure
activity involves pooling ideas or comparing answers. In a roleplay one group can This exercise consists of a number of discussion points and should be carried out
make do without one of the characters. Or if there are one or two ‘spare’ people in pairs or groups. You may not want to discuss all the points.
ask them to take the role of evaluators and get them to feed back on how they 1 Draw up a list of classroom activities (eg interviews, repetition practice, two- or
thought the activity went. three-line dialogues, roleplay, writing a letter, etc).
2 Discuss which are suitable for pairwork and which are better with larger groups.
Organizing an information gap activity 3 Discuss ways in which those which seem best suited to pairwork could be
adapted to larger groups and vice versa.
Often in communicative activities there is an information gap which has to be
4 Write down the organizational roles that students might be assigned within a
bridged. One student has information that the other student has to find out. It is
group (eg chairperson, reporter, etc).
usually important that each student does not see the material of their partner so
5 Discuss which of the activities from the first list might require the assignment of
you have to organize the class so that pairs can sit opposite each other, with the
roles like these.
material they are using between them. The material (perhaps a picture, a chart, a
6 Discuss which of the activities from the list might need students to be grouped
short text, etc) is often in a textbook. If you create the material it is sometimes best
and then re-grouped. How would you do this?
stuck onto stiff card or concealed in a folder. In large classes, pairs sitting opposite
7 Select an activity from a coursebook and discuss how it could be dealt with in
each other may look at the facing wall where the material may be hanging or
pairs, threes and larger groups. Discuss organizational roles that students
projected. Or you could use the video (with the sound turned down) as the source
might need to be assigned for each of these possibilities.
of information to be conveyed to the students with their backs to it.
8 Discuss how you would cope if there were an odd number of students for the
activity.
Managing an interactive activity
9 Discuss which size of group you prefer to work in for the different activities that
Make sure you give very clear instructions (for complicated arrangements it is a you may do with other trainees.
good idea to write instructions down so you can refer to them). In particular,
students must know when to start and finish. Be very decisive at these points,
saying something like Right everyone, are you ready? Start. Some teachers clap 6 Monitoring
their hands, tap on a table or even blow a whistle to signal the end of an activity! When students are engaged in an activity, especially if it is independent of you,
Get the timing right. If the activity lasts too long it will drag. If it doesn’t last long you will need to keep an ear on what they are saying or glance at what they are
enough it won’t give any sense of satisfaction. Sometimes students need a little doing. Your aims will be to see if they have understood your instructions, to assess
time before they get going while others get on with the task immediately. If one how well they are performing the task and to evaluate particular language
group finishes early give it a further activity, related to the task. Or you may wish strengths and weaknesses. Whether you help or correct will depend on the task
to stop all the groups at that point. Generally it is better to stop an activity when it and what effect it will have.
is going well, provided it has achieved its main aim, than to let it peter out. If there Monitoring what the students are doing is just as important a skill as teaching.
is a definite goal, like writing a story, the students might be encouraged to finish it Because the focus isn’t on you, there’s a temptation to believe that you aren’t
later. doing your job. However, giving the students appropriate tasks, knowing how and
After the activity it is often worth asking the students whether the activity was when to leave them alone and providing suitable follow-up requires sensitivity,
useful, what they learned, etc. If you have asked them to do something like write intelligence and confidence. It is the nervous or inexperienced teachers who don’t
an article, then do something with it, like pin it up, exchange it with other students have a clear idea of why they have set up the task, who find themselves unsure of
or collate the information onto a graph. If the practice itself was the goal there may their appropriate role at different stages of the lesson and who feel the need to
be no need. (See also Chapter 7: Giving feedback to students.) interfere and take control of activities.

See also Section 9: The monolingual and the multilingual class for suggestions about An important aspect of monitoring is the discipline often necessary for less well-
how to avoid the use of the mother tongue during pairwork and groupwork in motivated students, younger students and sometimes monolingual classes, where
monolingual classes. the temptation might be to abandon the task or to talk away unnecessarily in the
mother tongue. Often just being in the room and giving the students the feeling
that they are being supervised is enough. See Section 9: The monolingual and the
multilingual class for further suggestions.

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters. Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT 1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Chapter 2 Managing the class 6 Monitoring

Monitoring the class doing; the rest of the class, apart from feeling neglected, may well start drifting
away from the task without you realizing.
Whenever the class is working with you as a whole group (for example, in a choral
repetition practice or when you are illustrating a language point) part of your 5 Be easily accessible
attention must be taken up with monitoring how well the group as a whole is
getting on and how individual students within the group are reacting. This All the groups should feel they have equal access to you and are being supervised
monitoring process will tell you whether you are going too slowly or quickly, equally.
whether most of the students are with you, which students need a little more time
or further help, etc. Monitoring helps you make decisions about whether 6 If you need to feed in ideas
correction is needed, when it is time to go on to the next stage of the lesson, It is often better to talk quietly to one member of the group and suggest a possible
whether further examples are needed, etc. So try not to be so involved in your change of direction, rather than interrupt the flow of the whole group.
plan and your materials that you have no time to watch and listen to your students.
(See also Chapter 7: Giving feedback to students.) 7 Provide encouragement
Monitoring groupwork At the beginning, groups often need encouragement to get them going;
sometimes a group may start to lose interest. Always be positive. Your enthusiasm
An aim of pairwork and groupwork is often to encourage fluent, uninterrupted will motivate them and give them confidence. Never suggest that the activity
communication, even at times when the students’ aim is more ‘product-oriented’ could be less than totally useful.
– to decide on the answers to a set of questions, to write a story, etc. So:
8 Give correction and/or gather data for feedback
1 Stand back
Whether you give correction during groupwork depends on the nature of the
Once you have set up the activity, allow a short time for the students to get on with activity. For example, you will need to correct if the activity is controlled language
it. This will give you a chance to see which groups seem to be working practice and the students are making mistakes with the target language. Or you
satisfactorily and which are having problems. It will also give all the students a may choose to correct if a student asks you to. Occasionally students will want you
chance to get into the activity before you offer help to any one group. Don’t be too to help them say something correctly, but don’t hover so close to any one group
concerned if a group doesn’t seem to be too sure of itself at first; some groups take that they get self-conscious and afraid of making mistakes. If you do have to
time to get going. correct, do it discreetly, perhaps by crouching at the level of the group and
allowing individuals to turn away from the rest of the group and talk to you. If the
2 Quickly check students need a lot of help and correction then the chances are that the task is
Go round, listening in briefly to each group in order to satisfy yourself that they inappropriate and/or beyond their capabilities.
understand what they are supposed to be doing. If one or two groups are unclear Although in groupwork you are often concerned to show students that you are
about what they should be doing, or are not doing what you intended, stop them interested in what they are doing, you should always be looking at how they are
and give the instructions again. If you find that most students are confused it is doing the task – evaluating the performance of the group and of individuals within
better to stop, get the whole class’s attention and give the instructions again. the group. You do this in order to:
3 Don’t interrupt unless: • help you decide what to do next (go on to the next stage, give further practice,
skip an activity, etc);
• the group has misunderstood what it is supposed to be doing (see above); • plan future lessons;
• some of the groups seem to be on the verge of finishing (so either give them • give the students feedback.
something else to do or get ready to stop the whole activity);
Gathering data so that you can give helpful feedback is one of the main purposes
• the group you are with seems to be a long way behind (so indicate anything that
of monitoring. (For when and how to give feedback, see Chapter 7: Giving
can be omitted and encourage them to hurry up);
feedback to students. Other sections to look at for help with monitoring include
• you are asked by the group (they may properly need some advice or
Chapter 2 Section 1: Use of eye contact, gesture and the voice; Section 2: Classroom
information, but don’t let them get too dependent on you).
arrangement; Section 3: Attention spread.)
4 Spread your attention
Monitoring pairwork
If you concentrate on one particular group, they will feel cramped by your
presence and you won’t get a very clear idea of how well the rest of the class is Most of what you need to consider when monitoring groupwork also applies to
pairwork. Remember that controlled practice which calls for immediate

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters. Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.
1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT 1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
correction is more often done in pairs than in groups. Differences between
monitoring pairs and groups are that a pair is more likely to stop work when you
approach than a group, and in pairwork it is easier for you to take one half of the
activity for a part of the time to show the students what it is about.

Monitoring individuals
Since students are individuals with different capabilities, different speeds and
different work rates, some activities set (particularly reading and writing tasks)
have to be individual. It follows that giving feedback (providing encouragement,
feeding in ideas, correcting) will usually be on an individual basis too, so:
• make sure everyone has enough to do before you go round;
• be discreet in your approach (not too loud or disruptive). You can do a lot from
your chair, especially in small classes. You don’t have to loom;
• try to be encouraging;
• consider whether you will dot around the class unpredictably or move from one
student to the next down the row or round the circle (consider what the effect
will be of either approach);
• make sure everyone has some attention (even if it’s only Well done. Carry on).
If all individuals are doing the same task you can monitor to see how quickly
individuals are getting on and whether you need to feed in supplementary tasks to
the quicker students.

Gower, R., Philips D. & S. Walters.

1995 Teaching Practice Handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT
Copyright ©Macmillan Publishers Limited 2001