The #1 …. (sentence to teach your students)
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1.
I know this one will be controversial but after a lot of teaching, this gets my vote, “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”.
It provides the students with so much empowerment, just saying “I don’t know” but in English! So even when they don’t know, they KNOW some English. Much like my #1 …. (word in any classroom).
What sentence gets your vote?
“I don’t know” is hard to beat, but I like “Why?” or any other phrase that’ll show interest, and more importantly, that they’ve broken the paradigm of simply sitting quietly and absorbing what is taught.