Classroom language it is essential in order to develop the English lessons adequately and to provide a cozy environment in the English classroom. That is why we, as teachers, need to plan classroom language in advance in order provide meaningful learning opportunities for all students. Thus, it is important to think about routines and habits that fit the students’ needs and that contribute to construct a classroom organization that helps pupils to anticipate the actions that are going to occur in the classroom. Consequently, this fact usually avoids misbehaviours and it promotes learners’ involvement towards learning. On the other hand, recapping is key so as to review vocabulary worked and check the students’ comprehension. Thence, it is relevant to think also in advance strategies that are suitable for the pupils, taking into consideration their individual needs and the contextual factors that surround the classroom and the lesson (the space, the resources and the timing that we possess). Moreover, other language frames for arranging groups, opening and closing the session, to control pupils’ behaviour, to get students’ attention and to get the students to participate among others need to be planned in advance at home. That is because we do not usually improvise this kind of language structures and they have to be implemented in the classroom, as they are crucial in order to achieve successful English lessons. Furthermore, students have to get familiar with these language structures in order to improve their own language skills (e.g: by understanding what the teacher means by “Let’s get the ball rolling”). Therefore, for instance, pupils need to understand the language used to control pupils’ behaviour in order to know when they are called to behave adequately. Thereby, the teacher should use engaging language structures that capture their attention and learn English through them. The teacher can use the TPR (Total Physical Response) method to accompany these chants and language structures, in order to facilitate this learning process. Nonetheless, this has to be planned in advance as, depending on the class group, some English chants, rhymes or other language strategies to get pupils’ attention may work best or worst with them. It is key to find the more suitable ones.
To conclude, to plan language structures to give any kind of feedback, to check the students’ understanding, to paraphrase, to get the students’ to say a word or expression in English and to say that something it is easy or difficult it is also significant. Therefore, it is possible that if we do not plan in advance these structures they may not arise in the classroom, they might be formulated wrongly or they may be inadequately used. For example, we tend to know expressions for giving corrective feedback but not to encourage children to try again. Therefore, encouraging feedback it is really important to increase students’ self-confidence and promote the adequate use of English. All in all, classroom language allows students to review vocabulary worked or to accommodate new vocabulary, as it is observable in routines, habits and recapping. Furthermore, it also permits students to express how they feel or what they think and, consequently, a welcoming and comfortable classroom environment is fostered. The use of classroom language definitely stimulates the usage and comprehension of English in regards to pupils. At last, classroom language is effective when it facilitates learning and promote communicative interactions in the classroom.
After the implementation of my teaching unit and the co-teaching activity, I have been able to reflect about the amount of classroom language that I used and its effectiveness. I would say that I used several language structures that are stated in the table above, as for instance I used expressions for giving positive, negative and encouraging feedback, to control the students’ behaviour and to get their attention, to open and close the lesson, to check for understanding, to get the students to participate etc. I believe that both in the teaching unit and in the co-teaching activity, I particularly focused on expressions to get students to provide words and expressions in English, as I had to be constantly pushing them to express themselves using English instead of Catalan or Spanish. Thence, I feel satisfied as due to the usage of expressions to promote the English use, I was able to make my students talk in English. Moreover, the expressions for checking for understanding were also really helpful as due to them I was able to observe if the students were understanding what I was saying or not and if they were following the development of the lesson properly. Therefore, I would say that even though I did not use all the expressions stated, the ones that I used were really beneficial so as to provide a proper development of the lessons. Indeed, I used a lot of classroom language for classroom management issues and it was effective in several occasions. Therefore, since I was mainly worried about classroom management, I was impressed and relieve to see that the classroom language that I had planned worked good. Moreover, the use of encouraging feedback was key for fostering the students’ motivation towards language learning. It helped the students regard making mistakes as a natural action that is part of their learning process, instead of regarding this action as a failure. Nonetheless, I also planned to do a routine and to recap in the teaching unit and I was not able to do it due to the lack of time. Nevertheless, during the co-teaching activity, me and my peer provided opportunities for recapping what had we done, and this recapping language was often utilized during the implementation of the tasks that we had prepared. On the other hand, I consider that I should also have used more expressions for paraphrasing, in order to facilitate students’ understanding. All in all, even though I made changes in regards to the use of this classroom language, the language that I used was effective and I feel satisfied about how I used it in the classroom. Nevertheless, I believed I was too focused on the completion of the sessions that I forgot about expressions and language frames that would have been convenient for my lessons. Therefore, I will definitely utilize more classroom language in my lessons as its usage helped me a lot during the development of the sessions.