Giving clear, effective instructions is one of the most important skills for any ESL teacher. Even experienced teachers sometimes confuse their students with instructions that are too fast, too vague, or too complicated, especially when setting up a complex activity.
So how can you make sure your instructions are clear, easy to understand, and effective every time?
Here are 10 practical tips to help you plan, deliver, and check your instructions, and avoid the most common pitfalls.
1. Get their full attention first
Before you even start giving instructions, make sure you have the students’ full attention. Signal clearly that you need them to listen, and wait until everyone is focused. Don’t talk over noise or side conversations – establish that instructions matter by waiting silently or using a clear gesture to gather attention.
2. Plan your instructions ahead of time
Plan how you’re going to give instructions for each activity before your class. Are you going to give them verbally? With non-verbal cues (see 4 below)? If verbally, what exactly are you going to say (see 3 below)?
3. Keep instructions clear and concise
When giving instructions, be succinct, direct, and organised:
Keep them as short and simple as possible, with language appropriate to the level of your students. For example, this instruction would be fine for an intermediate level class:
- “You’re going to read a description of a country, and you have to guess which country it is.”
For beginners, though, this would be better:
- “Read the description of a country. Which country is it?”
Use imperative forms rather than over-polite or indirect phrases. For example:
- Clear, imperative form: “Write two sentences.”
- Indirect, overly-polite: “It would be great if you could write two sentences.”
Make sure you don’t overuse imperative forms outside of giving instructions – otherwise, students may think it’s appropriate to use them all the time. For example, if you want a student to repeat something, saying “Can you repeat that?” is a better model for them to use outside the classroom than simply saying “Repeat.”
4. Use signposting
Signpost your instructions with clear markers (“I want you to answer three questions” / “You have two tasks”). Break them into steps using sequencers (“First… Second… Then… After that…”).
5. Use non-verbal cues
Support what you say with non-verbal cues. Using gestures, mime, pointing to the book or board or showing the relevant handout, can reinforce your message visually. For example, if you want your students to work in pairs, say “you two, you two, you two” while making a clear gesture with your arms “pushing” the two students together.
6. Be explicit – don’t assume they know
Don’t assume students already know or remember certain rules of the activity just because you do. Even familiar tasks may need explicit reminders – for example, saying “Don’t show your card to anyone” instead of assuming they’ll remember.
7. Stage longer instructions
If the activity has multiple parts or is quite complex, break it into stages. Explain the first step, check understanding, let them start, and only then explain the next step if needed. Students don’t always need to know the entire sequence in advance.
8. Use English as much as possible
Try to give instructions in English wherever possible. For complex activities and at lower levels, it can sometimes save time to use the students’ L1 sparingly. If you do, try to phase this out over time so that you end up using English only. For example, start with the instruction in L1 and then repeat it in English. After a few lessons, use English only, making sure you check understanding (see 9 below).
9. Check understanding effectively
Never just ask “Do you understand?” – students may say yes even if they don’t, or they may think they have understood when they haven’t. Instead:
- Ask checking questions (“Who is Student A? What’s their task?”).
- Model the activity with a student or the whole class, or have two students demonstrate the activity in front of the class.
- Ask a student to repeat back the instructions (don’t just ask the strongest student).
- Elicit the answers to the first one or two questions in a written activity.
- Instead of giving instructions, let students tell you what they think they have to do, and then confirm.
10. Monitor and correct as needed
As soon as students start the activity, monitor and check that everyone is on task. Once you’ve checked al the groups, if only one group has misunderstood, help them directly. If several groups are confused, stop the activity and explain again – maybe using demonstration this time.
How do you give and check instructions in your ESL classroom? Share your tips in the comments below!
8 comments
Annette
This is a useful article in that it combines quite a variety of techniques that can ensure success with different types of activities. The problem is equally prevalent in written instructions for activities or tests. Students often barely glance at the instructions because they feel ready to tackle the activity, until they get stuck, and need to ask for help.
Mike
Why miss the opportunity to use instructions as one of the only ‘real’ occasions to communicate in English in the classroom, by speaking in L1? Use your knowledge of the students’ language, if you have any, to monitor understanding of instructions rather than deny students the opportunity of exposure to genuine communication.
Mark
In the book, The Elements of Style (Strunk and White), White notes that Professor Strunk, due to his concise nature, always repeated his instructions three times and this is with native speakers. Why don’t we do the same for second language learners?
Leah
I found this article very useful and as a teacher I too get frustrated when trying to explain instruction to children and find that sometimes thought I knew exactly what I wanted but I could only visualise it in my head. To verbalise something it requires you to slow down and think of what the student knows. I sometimes find myself not knowing where to start with an instruction especially when I am explaining an entire activity. But in relation to what Mark suggested about repeating instructions 3 times with native speaker, I would like to disagree with this method as when on teaching practice our inspectors would eat us for doing that as it sends out the wrong message to the children. It is felt that instruction should only be given once to teach good listening skills and so that students don’t feel as though its okay not to listen the first two times.
Leena
Very practical, hands on, very usable.
Marcia (brazil)
Articles like this help teachers how to deal with an common situation and sometimes teachers can be careless with instructions and stand there and wait for immediate answers from students. How can they respond if they don’t even understand what is expected as feedback?
Becky
Very useful, constructive and brilliant!
Irina
Thank you for the information. It is very useful, constructive and helpful.