Over the Wall of Silence

34 Over the Wall of Silence

So, how does this play out in a practical sense? Here are a few strategies that work well for us, based on what we’ve just been talk ing about. S TRATEGY 1: G IVE CLEAR , DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS C LARIFY EVERY INSTRUCTION It’s always a good idea to explain in more detail than your instincts tell you to, even if this takes a little time. If you take a few minutes to think about it, you’ll see there are many implicit assumptions in the way you direct students. For example, instead of simply saying “Now practice with your partner,” you could say for example “Now, with your partner you will practice asking questions and answering them. You will focus on questions we studied in this lesson but you can incorporate ques tions from the last two lessons if they connect well (the idea of two turns “connecting well” could actually be explained). Take turns ask Written instructions are a beacon of light for low-level or uncer tain students. Writing on the board is the most obvious way, but if you have a computer in your classroom you can project instructions on a screen or print them out and distribute them. A significant ben efit of this is that you can reuse them and improve them over time. T HE QUESTION OF LANGUAGE Using the students’ first language when giving instructions and explanations helps remove ambiguity. However, some institutions explicitly forbid the use of Japanese in the classroom. At the same ing questions. This activity will last five minutes. Go”. W RITE DOWN INSTRUCTIONS WHENEVER POSSIBLE