Classroom Instructions: Page 24 or 34?
The teacher gives instructions at the start of an English lesson. The script is: 'Good morning. Please open your English book to page twenty-four. Not thirty-four - twenty-four. Look at the picture at the top of the page. Then listen to the CD. Do not write yet. After you listen, write your name on the small paper on your desk.' The CD is played once. Three students put up their hands: one has opened page 34, one has started writing, and one has written her name before listening. The teacher repeats only the page number. Grade 5 listening items often test whether a student can follow two or three instructions in order. The words then, after and do not carry that order. In class the teacher plays the CD twice, but in the test it is played once, so the class is practising one-play listening.
1. Which page should the students open?
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Page 24. The teacher says 'page twenty-four' and then corrects the number: 'Not thirty-four - twenty-four.' The correction is there because -teen and -ty endings sound similar in fast speech. When a speaker repeats and corrects a number, use the corrected number. Also note that the teacher repeats only this part, so the page number is the piece the class is expected to miss.
2. What should students do first: listen to the CD or write their name?
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Listen to the CD. The order words are 'Then listen to the CD' and 'After you listen, write your name'. Then and After mark sequence, and 'Do not write yet' blocks writing before the CD. Notice the small word yet: it means 'not now, but later'. If a question asks 'What do students do first?', find the first instruction and check for a then or after word before the next one.
3. A student writes his name before he listens. Is he following the instructions? Give a reason from the script.
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No. The teacher says 'Do not write yet' and 'After you listen, write your name'. Writing the name is the last step, not the first. This is a timing mistake, not a different action: the student does the right thing at the wrong moment. In listening items with 'do not', check both the action and the time - the trap is usually the order, not the verb.