Issue 11 - Summer2005

•	VTTN News
•	VTTN Provincial Workshops - July 2005
	• Helping students use L2(English)
	• Using Vietnamese vs.using English in class
	• Giving intructions
	• Teacher'S classroom language
	• Creating a positive atmosphere in the classroom
	• Activities for promoting communication in class
	• Blocks to communication anh suggested solutions
	• Adapting textbooks for communication
•	VTTN Quiz
•	Primary VTTN
•	Teaching Tips
•	Dear Language Doctor
•	VTTN resources
•	VTTN provincial contacts

Creating a positive atmosphere for using and learning English

It's all fun and games in Phu Tho

Feedback is one of the stages in a lesson where there is a great opportunity for the teacher to create a positive atmosphere in the learning process by the way she/he gives feedback and the language she/he uses when doing it.

Feedback is of great importance to teachers as it helps them to evaluate what has been taught and provides an opportunity to praise students, and to let students know their mistakes and how to correct them.

Useful classroom expressions for creating a positive atmosphere

                                                      Responding to the right answer
• Wonderful!
• Yes, that's exactly right.
• Perfect!
• Great answer, Minh!
• Yes, that's right. Can you say it again so everyone can hear?
• Super! • What you said was perfectly correct.
• You didn't make a single mistake.
• That's exactly the point.

Encouragement
     • That's better.
     • That's more like it.
     • That's a bit more like it.
     • That's much better.
     • You have improved a lot.
     • You read very well.
     • You have very good pronunciation.
     • You sound very English.
     • You have made a lot of progress.
     • You're getting better at it all the time.

Responding to an almost right or incorrect answer
     • Hmm, that's not quite right
     • Hmm, I'm not sure about that. Any other ideas?
     • Try again!
     • Hmm, you're almost there.
     • Have another go!
     • Sorry that's not right. Can anyone help?
     • Have another look at that, Hoa.
     • Nearly correct.
     • You're almost there.
     • You're on the right track.

Giving feedback on an activity
     • You did that really well!
     • You all worked very hard today.
     • I'm very pleased with you!
     • It was good to hear you using lots of English in that activity.
     • I heard some excellent ideas in your groups.
     • You can all congratulate yourselves on that - it was very good!

The question is - how much feedback is enough? It depends on the length of the activity and the time available and also the work that students have done. Sometimes we just need to give only a few comments or overall ideas, but for some activities we need to check everything comprehensively. The most important thing during the feedback is the teacher should do it in an encouraging manner so that students feel free to learn.
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