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Imagine you have just presented the following words using the techniques listed next to each one.

1. thumb                       you  put up and then pointed to your thumb

2. pet                           you pointed to a magazine picture of a dog

3. starving                    you rubbed your stomach and pointed to your mouth

 Now, how can this be misunderstood? Well, in several ways and here are some: 'thumb' may be taken to mean 'any finger' (or even "hitch-hike'!),  'pet', the particular dog breed on your picture and 'starving' may be understood as 'stomach-ache' or even 'sick'. 

Not all your students, I hasten to say, will have necessarily misunderstood, and, if so, not all in the same way! There are infinite possibilities for all sorts of levels and kinds of misunderstanding.

The Most Popular Question(s):

'Do you understand?'  or 'Have you understood?' or 'Is this clear?'

What is the usual answer we get to such questions? Of course, it is a 'Yes' if you ask them like this. For one thing, most students either like their teachers and do not want to their feelings by implying that their explanations were not clear. Others fear their teachers and hesitate to commit themselves like this, and still others are afraid of the ridicule of their fellow students.

Confronted with a publicly addressed question of this type, most people are unwilling to admit lack of comprehension. Think of yourself in a similar situation. You are attending a lecture or seminar and the speaker is making a point totally beyond your grasp. How many times have you boldly put up your hand and - faced by all your colleagues - honestly admitted to your lack of comprehension? I, for one, very rarely. If someone else has the courage to do it, I'll nod as well and murmur my agreement, but, like most people, I assume it was my fault. Naturally, I don't want others to know I am not as clever as they are! In the language classroom, however, it is our business and our job to check this and should not rely on the boldness of one or two students.

 And if I Translate?

Alternatively, we can assume that some/many teachers may have used translation into the mother tongue as a technique for explaining vocabulary and, feeling pretty certain that this leaves no room for misunderstanding, have left it at that.  How can you go wrong when you provide the mother tongue equivalent?

Well, I always remember my first ever (formal) lesson in English during which our teacher explained some very basic vocabulary in Greek. One of the words he taught us was the word 'arm' . He said 'Arm,  βραχίων, arm, βραχίων'. I spent a long time under the illusion that 'arm' meant something like a Greek short vowel. I didn't know the word 'βραχίων'  in Greek anyway, so I assumed that it was something like 'ο', and 'ε' ! Not that I really understood what 'μακρά' or 'βραχέα' meant as concepts either! At the age of seven or eight, abstactions of this kind mean nothing to a child.

 So, how do we make sure that  our students have understood? 

Good teachers use a variety of checks. These ways of checking can generally be subsumed under five broad areas:  

They use language appropriate for the level

This may mean simplifying the instructions of an activity that you have taken from a book, or that you may even resort (in the earliest of stages of learning) to using the students' mother tongue to explain something.  

They ask students to restate the explanation or their instructions

The students may be asked to rephrase or, in the case of beginners, to say what they have understood in their mother tongue; the teachers  simply listen  and check  that what they are restating is what they  meant.   

They ask their students to give them examples of what they have understood

For example, after having taught the meaning of 'tradition' ,  they may ask their students for some of the local traditions which they and their families follow. For simpler, more concrete concepts, they ask their students to point, touch, mime or demonstrate a new meaning (e.g. red,  stir, peek, etc.)

They give clear examples of what they mean or what they want their learners to do

When explaining a word or a grammar point, they will often follow this by an illustrative example and in the case of explaining how an activity works.  They often 'show' the rest of the class how it is done by inviting one or two of their students to have a go, a practice run, before the activity starts so that the rest can see how it works.

They ask questions that show them the degree of understanding of their classes

These questions are designed to demonstrate evidence or lack of understanding and they are usually very simple and carefully staged. For example, if the teacher has just explained a complicated activity which the class is about to do for the first time (such as a Describe & Draw), the teacher may ask the students questions such as:  

     To Students A (those describing the picture

                                 etc.

To Students B (those listening & drawing the picture)  

                        etc.  

And to return to my original vocabulary teaching examples: I will assume that you usually try to avoid the use of the mother tongue -or, at least, try to use it in a judicious way. If you want to create some memorable associations for your students, translation does not seem to be the answer, but it can sometimes be a powerful checking tool if used carefully. 

To make sure that the right meaning has been conveyed you may ask questions like the following:  

In all of the above cases, the teacher has to make a decision whether or not to re-explain or to start from scratch, or to take remedial action of another type. These are decisions that depend very much on the aims of the lesson or activity and the purpose of the checking of understanding itself.

Checking understanding and checking the state of learning enables the teacher not only to assess whether the students have understood and/or can use the language she wanted to present, but also helps smooth out points of confusion either in terms of the learning material or the activities or tasks she  engages her learners in. She also develops as a teacher by noticing what  works or does  not work in the classroom.