Basic Classroom Instructions

Based on Gughes & Moate: Practical Classroom English, Oxford University Press, 2007, and
Mothejzíková: Conducting an English lesson in English, JK, 1992.

This document provides a basic set of classroom instructions and highlights the mistakes that Czech
speakers often make. It is impossible to include all instructions in such a short document, thus,
should you need more detailed lists, kindly refer to the above-mentioned books.

Take out your namecards and put them on

Greetings your desks.
Good morning, everybody.
I’m waiting to start.
Good afternoon.
I’m waiting for you to be quiet.
(!) Good day.
We won’t start until everybody is quiet.
How are you all today?
Now we can get down to (some) work.
That’s good.
Put your things away, please.
I’m glad/pleased/happy/sorry to hear that.
(!) in the corridor, in the classroom
I hope you all had a nice weekend.
Meeting a new class
Taking the register Let me introduce myself.
I’ll take the register.
Allow me to introduce myself.
Let’s see if everyone’s here.
Perhaps you’re wondering who I am.
I’m going to call your names. Let me tell you something about myself.
(!) Rise Raise [] your hand and say
My name’s …, but I’d like you to call me …
‘Here/Present’. And what about you?
Who’s absent? Can you introduce yourselves to me?
Is anybody missing/away/absent today? Can you tell your neighbor something about
(!) Who’s lacking. yourself?
Where’s Mary this morning? I’m your new English teacher.
What’s wrong / What’s the matter with Mary? My name is … and I’m a trainee/student
Does anybody know where Mary is? teacher.
Does anybody have any idea where she is? I’m the substitute for Mr Jones.
Is she absent or just late? I’ll be teaching you English this year.
When will Mary be back? I’ll be teaching you on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Who wasn’t here last time? We’ll meet three times a week.
Dealing with lateness Our lessons start at 9.15 every Monday and
You’re late. Thursday.
Where have you been? From your timetable/schedule you can see we
We started 10 minutes ago. start at 11.15 on Friday.
What have you been doing? Starting something new
That’s all right. May I have your attention?
It doesn’t matter. Let’s get back to what we Look at me.
were doing. Don’t talk/chat/whisper.
Take a/your seat and we can get on. Let’s speak English (, shall we?)
Try not to be late next time. Let’s change/switch to English.
Starting work Say/Try that in English, could you?
It’s time to start. Now say the same thing in English.
I hope you’re all ready for your English lesson. Try not to use Czech.
Let me tell you this in Czech.
Now I’ll change/switch back to Czech. (!) Can I ask a question? Can I have a question?
Right everyone. Has anybody got any questions about what
Good/Fine/OK/Right. they have to do?
Let’s move on (to something else/different). Tell me in Czech what you have to do.
On we go. Let’s do one together so you get the idea/see
Now we’ll do another exercise. what I mean.
I want you to turn to page 13. Look, like this.
(!) Look at the exercise 3. Do it this way.
OK. You can start.
Working in groups Off you go.
Work in groups/pairs.
Get into groups. Three students in each group. Sequencing activities
(!) Find a pair To begin with, we’ll check your homework.
Make a pair / Find a partner / Get into pairs. First (of all), have a look at the text.
Could you get into/make/form groups of 3? Next, read through the new words.
Work together with a friend/your As soon as/After/When you have done that,
neighbour/the person next to you. you can continue with number 3.
You two together, you two, and so on. Could you now take out your workbooks?
Is there anybody left over/on their Last, try to do exercise 3.
own/without a partner? Finally, I would like you to work in groups.
Could you work with Michael today? Just before we finish, let’s talk about your test
next week.
Distributing In half an hour we’ll move on to your
Pass these handouts along/round, please.
presentations.
Pass these to the back.
Take one and pass them on. Stopping
You can keep these handouts. Ok, everybody. Two more minutes.
You can write on them. (Just) a couple more minutes.
Could you share one worksheet between two? One minute left/remaining/to go.
Has everyone got a copy? Have you finished?
Here you are. – Thank you. Have you done/completed/managed
(!) please (when passing something we say everything?
“here you are”) Right, that’s enough.
That will do, thank you.
Working with textbooks It’s time for a change.
Take out your books, please.
All right. Stop now.
(!) Open your books at the page 49.
Stop writing/working.
Look at exercise 5 on page 46.
Your time’s up, I’m afraid.
Turn over the page. / Turn to the next page.
Put your pencils down.
The exercise is We’ll have a break.
 at the (very) top/bottom of the page
 in the middle Taking turns
 on the left/right Who’s going to start?
It’s the second picture from the right. Take it in turns, starting here.
Close your books. It’s your turn (to read), Tim.
Collect the homework (in). You next. / You’re next.
Have you all handed in your tests? Next (one), please.

Making things clear Responding to students

You have five minutes. Yes / Good / Fine / Right.
Don’t spend more than 5 minutes on/doing That’s right / (You’re) quite right.
this exercise. Correct.
Are there any questions (before we start)? Excellent / (That’s) very good / brilliant
Well done. We’ll come back to this another time.
Almost right / That’s almost it. There’ll be more on this next time.
You’re almost/nearly there. Next time we’re going to have a look at your
Not quite (right). projects.
Good/Nice try. That’s all for today.
Think about it again. Wait a moment, please!
Are you sure? I have something to tell you.
That’s a lot/much better. Next time we’ll meet in room 23.
No, that’s wrong. / Not really. / Not exactly. There’s been a change of room for next week.
You can’t use that word here. We’ll be meeting in room 19 instead.
Could be. I’ll see you in room 7 after the break.
There won’t be an English lesson on Friday.
Ending a lesson Goodbye, everyone.
What time is it? / What’s the time? / Do you
See you (soon), Daniel.
have the right time?
See you next class.
It isn’t time to finish yet.
See you all again on Tuesday.
The bell hasn’t gone yet.
(!) We’ll see. (= I’ll think about it)
We have five more minutes.
Have a nice weekend.
There are still two minutes to go.
Enjoy your holiday.
We still have a couple of minutes left.
Go out quietly.
Carry on with your work. Try not to make any noise as you leave.
It’s not worth starting anything else.
Take everything / all your belongings with you.
There’s no point (in) / use (in) starting a new
Don’t forget your stuff.
exercise.
For your homework, please do exercise 27.
This is your homework for tonight/today/next
time/next lesson/Monday.
Finish off exercise 26 at home.
Go through this section again on your own at
home.
There will be a test on this.
You can expect a test on this.
Don’t forget about your homework.
Do you remember what you have to do for
your homework?
(!) homeworks
Hand it in tomorrow/by Friday.
Bring it to me no later than next Monday.
The deadline for this work is next Tuesday
afternoon (at the (very) latest).
(!) The two first lines.
(!) The first/The last/The next/The following
+ number + lines/pages…
e. g. The first 2 pages
(!) Look at the page 4, the exercise 5.
There’s the bell, so we must stop working now.
It’s (about) time (for us) to stop.
So, today we have practised asking the time.
This time you have learnt how to write a letter.
In this lesson we’ve begun a new unit.
Let me just go over what we’ve done.
We’ll finish this next time.