WEEK 1

English in the Classroom

This is a discussion lesson in which you will answer these questions.

 When do teachers usually speak English?
 When do pupils usually speak English?
 How can I increase the amount of English my pupils use?

Introduction
1. What do you understand by these words? Phrases?
Classroom English / social English / teacher – pupil interaction / pupils- pupil interaction / they chatter to
each other in Hungarian / they whisper all the time in Hungarian / LI & L2

Teacher speaking English

2. Look at the areas of a lesson. What language should be used, English or Hungarian?

 Classroom English (giving instructions; disciplining pupils; asking pupils to do things, praising pupils)

 Explaining a language point such as grammar rule, teaching vocabulary

 Using English as a part of the teaching aim for instance, reading a story, working from the
coursebook, checking answers,

 Social English for example, greeting Ps, taking the register, talking about the weekend, talking to the
pupils in the break

3. Look at the statements spoken by student teachers and write 1, 2, 3 depending on whether you
 Agree (3)
 Partly agree (2)
 Disagree (1).

i) The more English the kids hear, the better it is for them.

ii) The children know that it s unrealistic for me to speak English to them because we are all Hungarian. Why should I do it?

iii) Instructions need to be spoken or at least checked in Hungarian because the kids might not understand WHAT
they have to do.

iv) I have to speak English all the time to establish myself as an English speaker in their eyes and show them that it’s possible and
natural to interact in another language.

v) The pupils learn English when they practise what I teach them. So we only need to speak English when doing exercises

vi) I need to chat to the children in English because it’s showing them how real English is used and they learn a lot from situations
where they can pick up English.

vii) If I say something like ‘OK. Let’s move on’, the children won’t understand what I mean. So I must say this in Hungarian

viii) I can’t make the pupils speak English. If they choose to speak Hungarian, there s nothing I can do about it.

ix) the children expect me to speak Hungarian.

Pupils speaking English

4. When do pupils speak English?
 Classroom English

 Practising the language

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  Social English

Classroom English
5. Write down 6 things pupils might say in Hungarian that is Classroom language (e.g. Nem értem)

6. Do pupils use any of these phrases repeatedly?

7. If you taught pupil these phrases, would they use them?

8. How could you: Teach these phrases? Encourage pupils to use these phrases?

Social English
9. Can we expect pupils to interact with each other in English?

10. Does the way you sit the pupils influence how much Hungarian they speak?

11. When children are learning a foreign language, very often their first use of the L2 as Social English, is using the
names of TV programmes (Tom and Jerry), celebrities (Justin Bieber), cartoon characters (Scooby Doo), game
names, slang (Wow!, Cool!, Awesome!). How can you use this information to encourage your Ps to speak more
English?

Problem Solving
12. In groups of 3, play Wall Questions

Brumfit, C., J. Moon & R. Tough (Eds) 1991 Teaching English to Children. London: Collins

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 WALL QUESTIONS
What would you do?

1. Two pupils in your class always finish before everyone else and they chatter in Hungarian.

2. Your pupils have to listen to a story and stand up when they hear a particular word in the
story (e.g. Potato). They don’t understand your English instructions.

3. One of your pupils always disrupts your lessons by speaking Hungarian to his neighbour or
shouting our comments to you.

4. My pupils don’t talk in English because they are afraid of making mistakes.

5. How can I get my pupils to speak more English?

6. My pupils are really noisy if they do pair work. What can I do?

7. If I get my pupils to colour something in during the lessons (e.g. a flower) they take a long
time. How can I make them colour more quickly?

8. My pupils only talk to me in Hungarian and it makes me really angry.

9. When you play a game with your pupils such as BINGO, they play it in Hungarian.

10. How can I develop my pupils speaking skills?