Michelle Lees 29 th July 2011

Aims  To help students gain more confidence in their speaking abilities  To encourage them to voice and express their thoughts and ideas in English using the language they have  Focus more on fluency than accuracy

Target audience

Advertising Introduced the idea of the workshop to the students directly Made posters and gave them to the students to act as a reminder Put up a poster outside the LLC Reminded students each week at the end of class about the workshop

Let’s talk What:Improve your conversation skills through group discussion and conversation on a range of topics that will change each week When: Thursday 2 nd June 2011 Who: Students in Professor Latham’s second period English Writing Class I Why: Do you want to use English one day for work, travel or just for fun? Reading and writing are important skills but so are speaking and listening – especially if you want to become an English teacher or work using English! Where: LLC Bring: Your journal

Workshop outline Thursdays 4:30 – 6:00pm At the beginning of each workshop a strict ‘no Japanese/Korean’ rule was set Each workshop was set up so students worked in small groups which they stayed in for that workshop. The groups were in competition with each other for points and prizes Used group activities which encouraged students to share their thoughts and ideas with each other using language they had

Working in small groups

Workshop topics Island survival activity Charity work Bank robbery The perfect university

Working for points

Attendance First workshop: 20 students + 1 tutor Second workshop: 8 students + 2 tutors Third workshop: 5 students + 2 tutors Fourth workshop: 8 students + 1 tutor

Group discussions

Self evaluations  Self evaluation questionnaire at the end of the first and last workshop  Comment and opinion sheet at the end of each workshop

Examples of questions What spoken level of English did you feel you were at before? And now? Do you enjoy studying English more than before? How confident did you feel in speaking to students/teachers before? And now?

First evaluation What spoken level of English do you think you are at now?

Last evaluation

Overall attendance

Results  The majority of students felt more confident in their own abilities  In spite of language difficulties e.g. gaps in knowledge, misunderstandings etc students were able to keep conversation flowing  I could observe positive changes in student’s attitudes e.g. more willing to ask for help, asking questions, more outspoken

Comments from students ‘I want to be an English teacher so I want to be good at English’ ‘I don’t like English. But I like English now!’ ‘I enjoyed every time! I started enjoy talk in English!’ ‘[We] don’t speak Japanese, so we have to do our best’ ‘I don’t ever have a speaking chance. I want to communicate with other student in English’ ‘

This shows that..  In a short period of time it is possible to change the attitudes of students  Students are willing and eager to practice what they learn  Students want more opportunities to speak English  Students can stick to rules and instructions if you enforce them  Students understand how important it is to be able to communicate in English

Questions?