Among all the factors that can help learning, giving clear instructions is considered to be crucial (Tesol Trainers, Inc., 2015). The most significant variable which affects students’ achievement is classroom management (Marzano & Marzano, 2009; Hattie, 2009), and giving clear instructions is one of the issues which affect classroom management directly. Rhalmi (2010, p.1) claims that “the most important point that determines how successfully students will learn is the way instructions are formulated” and suggests there is close connection between how teachers give instructions, and good performance of tasks on the part of students.

 

What can we teachers do to make our instructions clear?

Here is a list of 10 simple steps you can follow:

 

1. Get students’ attention. Gather the group together and signal you are about to tell students what to do. You can do so by putting up a hand and/or asking for silence. It is of paramount importance that you wait until you do get full silence. If you don’t, you will most probably have to go over your explanation again once those students who were still chatting pay attention to you.

 

2. Be clear, specific and concise. (Breiburd, Nacamuli Klebs & Vázquez, 2017). Three conditions need to be met: instructions need to be specific which means “relating to one thing and not others” (Cambridge Dictionary), i.e. being precise and specified; concise, which involves “expressing or covering much in few words” (www.Thesarus.com). Also, your instructions need to be easy to understand. Therefore, refer to one particular thing at a time, and avoid over-lengthy, ‘over-wordy’ explanations, which may confuse students with too much information that is not needed. At lower levels use simple language (no complex structures), short sentences, and true cognates (transparent words) where possible.

 

3. Project your voice. Classrooms may be quite big and may hold a large number of students. Therefore,  you need to choose a spot in the room where your voice reaches everyone and all students can hear what you are about to say.

 

4. Provide visual support. Use gestures and body language wherever suitable and possible. Back in 1967, Dr. Albert Meharabian broke human communication into three components: words, which account for 7%; tone of voice, 38%; and body language, 55%. This means that what we say carries only 7% of the message. And, although not all researchers agree with that number, everyone does agree that non-verbal communication overshadows verbal. If most of a message is conveyed by communication which exceeds words, our instructions will need to reflect that as well.

 

5. Assumptions. Do not take for granted that students understood what you have explained. Dartnell (n.d., p.1) claims that “the message received might differ from what we actually meant.” She also reminds us of the saying ‘assumption is the mother of all mistakes’. Even if most of our students may be focused and ‘tuned-in’, this may not be the case for all. As a result,  you will need to take a further step before you set the activity going, which is ‘checking’ they have understood what is required of them.

 

6. Checking. Seek for an explanation on the part of the students where they state two things: what the nature of the task is (i.e. what the task consists of) and a description of the behaviors that are expected from them. This may take, for e.g., the form of one student ‘paraphrasing’ what the teacher has said. Let them use the language they handle: remember that other students may find it easier to understand utterances at their own level of interlanguage rather than complex book rubrics. Personally I believe that at beginner levels, some L1 may also be allowed, since the purpose of this step is to clarify what to do, rather than to test how much English they can produce.

Another way of checking is doing a dry-run or a practice-run (i.e. a rehearsal), where students will see the activity in action and how to solve it.

 

7. Complex tasks. Break down a complex activity into simpler and shorter steps. This will keep the whole group advancing together more or less at the same speed, and will prevent students from losing the overall thread. A few key words numbered on the board to keep students focused is a good idea as well.

 

8. Mark the beginning of the activity. This will help you maintain the pace of the lesson, as, since all students will start at the same time, most students will end (more or less) at the same time.

 

9. Assign a time limit. Remember that it is the teacher’s job to allot how much time each activity takes, which is of paramount relevance to maintain the momentum throughout the lesson (Richards & Lockhart 1994). Also, students need to be aware of how much the activity takes to that they organize their own time.

 

10. Warning! If you notice any problem crops up, there are misinterpretations or the meaning of a word/ couple of words is blocking the right development of the activity, do not try to solve it on a one-student-at-a-time basis. Just stop the activity as a whole, gather students’ attention, repair misunderstandings, mark the new beginning, and let students finish the activity.

 

Last but not least, remember that after you have given proper, clear instructions and students start working, walking around and monitoring their work is always a good idea!

 

Débora Nacamuli Klebs

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Bibliography

Breiburd, S., Nacamuli Klebs, D. & Vázquez, E. (2017). Aportes para el Manejo del Aula: 10 pautas básicas para el profesor novato de escuela secundaria. Revista Diálogos Pedagógicos. Año XV, Num 30. (pp. 93-104). Facultad de Educación. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Córdoba. Argentina

Dartnell, A. (n.d.). 7 Tips on how to give Clear, Understandable Instructions to Staff. Lifehack. Available at: https://goo.gl/LNZqac (Retrieved: July 2017)

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 Meta-analyses relating to Student Achievement. New York: Routledge.

Marzano, R. & Marzano, J. (2009). Kaleidoscope. Contemporary and Classic Readings in Education. Copper, J. & Ryan, K. Editors. (12th Edition) Belmont: Cenage Learning Inc.

Rhalmi, M. (2010). Practical Teaching Tips for Giving Instructions. Available at: https://goo.gl/gZvnPe  (Retrieved: August 2016)

Richards, J. & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: CUP

Tesol Trainers, Inc. (2017). Clear Instructions in the Classroom: What do Clear Instructions look like in the Classroom? Everything teaching TESOL. Available at: https://goo.gl/pYCxiU (Retrieved: July 2017)