1. Making the Most of a Hard Job!

2. Why?
How?

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. How to encourage reluctant students to speak in the classroom?

7. Some Ideas & Techniques to Help Ss Speak!

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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).

11. 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.

12. *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

13. 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!

14. 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.

15. Extensive Reading & Listening

16. Encourage extensive reading & listening
Speaking

17. Links for Extensive Listening & Reading

18. Internet Pals My project with my TOEFLers
Taiwan
KSA

19. Skits

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

21. You can find interesting speaking games / activities at :

22. Many thanks for your contribution Team !