Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Things I say a lot.

My Korean friend, who also teaches English, asked me to make a list of 30 common classroom English expressions. So here I go, listing those things I keep saying and saying, all the time, during my classes:

1) Hello!
2) How are you? / How was your weekend? / What are you doing over the weekend? (Making weak conversation while checking homework.)
3) Sit down. / Don't do that. / Stop doing that. (Also used with "Why don't you ~" and "How about you ~".)
4) We're on page XX. / Let's go to page XX.
5) Let's ~ (read, look at the picture, grade the tests, etc.)
6) Get your X out. / Get out your X. (red pen, storybook, workbook)
7) What does X mean? (usually rhetorically, to introduce some vocabulary explanation)
8) Who/What is/are he/she/it/they (etc.)? (checking whether people know the pronoun referenece)
9) Why do you think [something]? (checking comprehension)
10) Okay, ~. (used to introduce pretty much everything I say)
11) Yes? / Yes, [name]? (calling on someone to answer/ask a question)
12) Any questions? (there usually aren't, even when there should be)
13) One, two, three! (Starting off some reading/repetition in unison.)
14) Break time! / Let's take a break. (At the start of break time.)
15) Let's come back. (at the end of break; this might not commonly used by others)
16) I'll be right back. (Leaving the room before class starts.)
17) Pretty good. (Of an answer, I guess; my student told me I say this a lot - probably when it isn't really.)
18) That isn't English. / People won't understand you if you say X. / Nobody says X. (Of some Konglish, like "PC room", "sharp" for pencil, etc.)
19) Hahaha! (Laughter; again, according to my students.)
20) Let's have class. (at the start of class; kind of weird, actually)
21) Shall we take a test? Yes we shall. (I was a little surprised to hear myself say this too. I think I say strange stuff sometimes because it's almost like talking to myself, when student listening comprehension is low.)
22) [name] is here. (While checking attendance.)
23) I need to check your homework. Please have your homework out so I can check it.
24) Good luck. Do your best. (At the beginning of a test.)
25) Not exactly. / Almost. (When an answer is wrong.)
26) Are you okay? (When a student is not working or whatever.)
27) [student name] (When calling on people to read or whatever.)
28) Who's got the first one? (first answer; etc.)
29) Thank you. / Thank you very much.
30) 바이!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ㅋㅋㅋ number 30 took me a second to understand..^^
I found your blog looking for the spellings of words used in pimsleur korean lessons and stumbled upon a lot of interesting reads on this blog... Thank you and happy early Thanksgiving! :)