Making the Most of a Hard Job!

Why? How?

First, WHY are Ss reluctant to SPEAK ? Lack of confidence = Not ready yet to produce! Fear of making a fool of themselves in front of their peers Dominance of strong students limits the less confident ones Lack of motivation & encouragement Lack of interest in the set tasks Find it difficult to speak due to task difficulty

First, WHY are Ss reluctant to SPEAK ? Do not have enough language (input) to complete the task No reasonable preparation time / thinking time Speaking tasks do not relate to them and their experiences Lack of background knowledge about the discussion topics Lack of a safe learning environment Teacher’s dominance (interference / TTT)

3. Activities Management Taking into consideration these 3 factors will hopefully 1 .Class dynamics: Learners’ (personalities & emotional factors; affective filter ) lead to more active, productive speaking classes! 2. Teacher’s role + 3. Activities Management

How to encourage reluctant students to speak in the classroom?

Some Ideas & Techniques to Help Ss Speak!

Teachers need to approach students with great caution *Teachers need to approach students with great caution! Most students feel vulnerable and fragile in speaking classes. *Dominant students need to be given roles that will give room to other students to participate. *Every student should have a role in the group. *Talkative & less talkative Ss need to be given suitable roles. *Mix pairs & groups regularly.

Establishing Goals! My Promises I promise to speak as much as possible. I promise not to be afraid of making mistakes. I promise not to speak ………… as much as I can. I promise to use English to communicate. I promise to ask questions when I do not understand. I promise to try to have fun. “copyright 2003 Talk a lot; Book 1, EFL Press, David Martin.

Activities Management. Attend to Ss’ needs and levels Activities Management *Attend to Ss’ needs and levels. *Make sure that the tasks are not so demanding. *Choose activities that are interesting to Ss and arouse their curiosity. *Bring tasks within Ss’ background knowledge & experience. *Provide enough input / language (pre-tasks). *Give Ss enough thinking / preparation time. * Variation of activities…Turn regular activities into interesting ones. *Pay attention to the way students are seated and grouped. * Define the Ss’ roles in groups. *Provide Ss with enough task instructions & guidance ( model).

Teacher’s Role *Create an encouraging, positive, secure learning environment (encourage peer support). *Be passionate & enthusiastic when students use English. *Be patient and never overambitious pushing Ss too fast & too early to produce the language. *Show tolerance with L1 in class. *Praise & reward when Ss complete the speaking task successfully.

*plan your role and input = when and how much to speak. *Never feed Ss too many ideas when monitoring their group work. *Never interfere while they are on task to quickly correct them. *Allow time for them to self correct. *When group representatives give their feedback, don’t finish their sentences, keep correcting or interrupting them. *Monitor your talk (TTT) and focus on them

The choice of activities! * Plan a nice activity to teach class room language from the very beginning! *The use of pictures * The list of activities goes on and on……….. *Speaking Marathon *Role plays & information gap activities (surveys…) *Games that involve definitions & explanations (Guess who) *Find Who *Debates across teams *Free conversations as lesson starters!

Speaking marathon Ss work in groups / teams. Everyone works with a partner. Ss can talk about anything they like with their partners, but they can't stop talking! If they stop for more than 3 seconds, their team is out! Also, if they speak any L1 their team is out! The team that can keep talking the longest will be the winner! Adapted from: Talk a Lot, Book 2, EFL Press, 2003.

Extensive Reading & Listening

Encourage extensive reading & listening Speaking

Links for Extensive Listening & Reading http://www.esl-lab.com/ https://www.englishclub.com/reading/short-stories.htm http://www.storylineonline.net/

Internet Pals My project with my TOEFLers Taiwan KSA

Skits

My students’ skit recoding My students’ skit recoding. The students were low levels but were encouraged to speak .

You can find interesting speaking games / activities at : https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/motivating-speaking-activities-lower-levels http://www.eslflow.com/speakingandcommunicativeicebreakeractivities.html http://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-speaking-worksheets/ http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Speaking:

Many thanks for your contribution Team !