Classroom English
Understand teachers’ instructions and ask for help in English lessons.
In this lesson you will
- Understand common instructions
- Ask for help and repetition
- Ask what a word means and how to say it
Learn
Teachers use short instructions (imperatives). They start with a verb: Open your books. Listen. Read the text. Write your name. Work in pairs.
Negative instructions start with Don’t: Don’t use your phone. Don’t write in the book.
Useful questions for learners: Can you repeat that, please? · Can you speak more slowly, please? · What does “huge” mean? · How do you say “gato” in English? · How do you spell it? · Sorry, I don’t understand.
Add please to be polite, and thank you when someone helps you.
Examples
- Open your books at page 12.
- Work in pairs.with one other person
- Sorry, can you repeat that, please?
- What does “tired” mean?
- How do you say “libro” in English? — Book.
Vocabulary
repeat
say again
“Can you repeat that?”
understand
know what something means
“I don’t understand.”
mean
have the meaning of
“What does this word mean?”
page
one side of paper in a book
“Turn to page 20.”
pair
two people
“Work in pairs.”
question
a sentence you ask
“I have a question.”
In real life
In an online English class.
Audio isn’t available in this browser — read the transcript instead.
Teacher: OK, everyone, listen and repeat: “beautiful”.
Student: Sorry, can you say it more slowly, please?
Teacher: Of course. Beau-ti-ful.
Student: Thank you. And what does “beautiful” mean?
Teacher: It means very nice to look at.
Practice
You didn’t hear the teacher. What do you say?
Speaking
Practise asking for help. Say these questions aloud: ask the teacher to repeat, to speak slowly, what a word means and how to spell a word.
- Remember “please” and “thank you”.
Writing
Write five useful classroom questions you can use in your English class.
Lesson quiz
“Work in pairs” means work…
Review
Key points
- Instructions start with a verb: Open, Read, Listen.
- Negative instructions: Don’t + verb.
- Ask for help: repeat / speak more slowly / What does … mean? / How do you say … ?
What you learned
- ✓ I can understand simple classroom instructions.
- ✓ I can ask for help politely.
- ✓ I can ask about words I don’t know.