After 40 years of teaching, I have retired from the classroom with many lovely memories, a few embarrassing regrets, and loads of acquired insight into what teaching is really about.
In short snippets, I am sharing some of these insights with you. This is #11.
Speaking in Class – And Feeling Good About It
There is a lot of psychology behind getting your students to speak English in the classroom – and feeling good about it. Here are ten principles that I have learned when it comes to encouraging my students to speak:
1. English needs to be the natural language used in the English class.
2. The atmosphere needs to be leisurely, comfortable, and fun.
3. The teacher needs to have a good relationship with every single student, knowing what they are capable of and where their weaknesses lie.
4. Speaking practice starts with simple activities, where the students are working in pairs, asking each other questions e.g. with talking cards OR they walk around in class and ask each other simple questions with easy answers, e.g. about their preferences.
5. Letting students answer short questions together out loud without raising their hands eliminates anxiety.
6. When asking individual students, give them ample thinking time, before letting anyone give the answer.
7. Make sure that in every “normal” lesson, speaking is an integral part and each student gets to say something.
8. More elaborate speaking, like when students actually need to think what they say, starts only when they are ready for it.
9. Once most of the students feel fine speaking to each other in small groups, they will encourage each other, and no obligation is needed.
10. There needs to be a lot of speaking in pairs and small groups before anyone is encouraged to speak in front of the classroom. Even then, it should always be voluntary. Very few adults ever get to speak a foreign language standing in front of a large audience. It cannot be a requirement to do so in school!
On the other hand:
- Communication is the main goal of learning English. No student should be left to believe that they never need to say anything and still get a grade.
- After school, they are expected to be able to speak English to strangers, so only speaking to the teacher or their best friend is not enough.
- A speaker is expected to be able to speak and think at the same time, so reading out loud should not be accepted as ‘speaking’ in the final school years.
- Students who overcome their anxiety with the encouragement from their friends and actually get up and give a speech in front of the class, always feel good about it afterward. That’s how they grow.
There are loads of speaking activities in WebEnglish for elementary and intermediate students.