MAS PUJO EXPOSITION

Encouraging Students To Speak

Encouraging students to speak

Before I go on, I'd like to ask for a moment's reflection. First, think of a lesson you have taught which you feel has gone really well. Next, think of one that has gone particularly badly. If your experiences are anything like mine, both your top and bottom lessons will have been speaking-focused. Speaking-based classes seem to provide incredible scope for both truly great and truly awful classroom experiences. This article will look at reasons for this apparent unpredictability and try to narrow the vague 'communicative approach' into some practical steps towards successful speaking lessons involving all students.

I remember being amazed as a new teacher when topics like 'drugs should be legal' or 'marriage is outdated' only generated awkward mutters, especially while seemingly stupefying topics sometimes brought about lively debate. I now believe that most problems with speaking-fluency lessons come down to two questions I started to ask myself then: Were there any topics that were consistently successful, and how could I identify and control the other variables in play? I don't claim to have any definitive answers, but I hope my experience can be of some use for teachers facing unresponsive students, or even unresponsive groups.

The three Ts

While a stimulating topic is usually crucial, two other indispensable ingredients are also involved: some form of task to complete, and the necessary language (or tools) to do so. These three factors work together in different proportions in all successful speaking exercises - sometimes the topic will dominate to the extent that the others can take a much lesser role, sometimes the emphasis may be rigidly on the task and sometimes the discussion may rest on a specific 'tool' (for example, a grammar point.) However, if anybody in the class feels unsure about any of the 'three Ts', of Topic, Task and Tools, they are very unlikely to make a meaningful contribution. Recognizing this has major implications for both planning and teaching speaking exercises.

Finding good topics

Every class, of course, is different. In Learning Teaching (2005), Jim Scrivener provides a list of interesting topics (p.402) and others are widely available. While suggesting more ideas here would add little in terms of methodology, here are a few things to think about when deciding on a topic:

• Is it something that everybody in the class can relate to, to some extent? Things like politics or music, while often successful, can isolate the less interested or knowledgeable.
• Are the students capable of dealing with the subject on a meaningful level, or is their English too much of a handicap?
• Is it something they might have talked, read or thought about much before? For example, something like the environment can provide useful material but is unlikely to stimulate much discussion if students are simply regurgitating clichéd arguments translated from their own language.
• How would you feel talking about the same thing in front of other people? Maybe a shy student would be more comfortable with a light-hearted discussion on national stereotypes or differences between generations than one on the death penalty or abortion laws.

In a class where the objective is spoken fluency, good discussion material is everywhere. Outside of the specialized books (such as Ur: Discussions that Work and Wallwork: Discussions A-Z) the media is filled with potential topics depending on the age, level and interests of the group.

Finally, here are a few ideas for topics that often draw contributions from otherwise unresponsive students:

• All the above criteria are met when learners talk about themselves. There are many ways to present this, and here is a simple one:

Ideas for speaking tasks

As we have seen, choosing a good topic is important, but far from the only consideration. While a few people are very happy to speak for the sake of speaking, many have a diametrically opposed attitude. It is much more common to be motivated by the desire to complete a task, as much in speaking as reading or listening exercises. This is a key point in the communicative methodology, and if answers like I don't know; Yes, I do; or No, I won't are common, it is often the task that can most easily be changed to give positive results.

Here are some ideas for setting up speaking tasks:  

• If sections of your class are unresponsive during free speaking activities, it may be that a lack of structure is undermining their confidence. Controlled communicative activities often give good results. See the Reward resource pack series by Susan Kay or onestopenglish for different types of information gap, pair and group activities. These work partly because they take the focus away from English production, allowing students to use their knowledge to achieve an objective. They are usually based around small groups, which also benefits less confident learners.
• While the above may work in the short term, controlled exercises are not overly conducive to authentic language production. The following activities still focus on task completion but with a greater emphasis on fluency. They could be called 'semi-controlled.

Anchor Point:5Providing the tools

It is quite possible and often necessary for learners to use idioms, functions and vocabulary in a supportive English classroom that they hesitate to use in their first language. This final section looks at ways to equip learners with the necessary tools to turn some of the above ideas into successful speaking lessons, through language input and by turning the students on to the subject. In an ideal lesson, the students should be more than ready to speak by the time the teacher asks them to.

• The language input is very much specific to the exercise or discussion. A general tip is to make sure that the essential grammar, vocabulary or example questions are on the board following the presentation stage so that the focus doesn't return to the teacher during the activity itself. For example, using the Past, Present, Future idea mentioned above, I would always write What happened in…? Who / what was…? Why is… important? Why / when would you like to…? on the board while eliciting and answering these questions.
• Many speaking games are wholly dependant on one grammar item or function. One example of this is the Tag teams lesson plan in the Lesson Share section. Another is the 'interrupting game.' In this activity, one student talks about something in great detail (their day so far, their favourite film…) while the others score points by interrupting politely with questions, no matter how trivial. Again, it is crucial that the questioners have a record of the functional language (Excuse me but… I'm sorry to interrupt but… Could I stop you for a second? and so on.)

Final thoughts

I haven't tried to give a list of speaking classes with guaranteed success. Like everybody, I wish I had one to offer. My intention was to provide some ideas, but more importantly, show the importance of Topic, Task and Tools to the communicative methodology, especially in encouraging less confident students to contribute. It's also always worth remembering that the teacher usually talks for no more than fifteen percent of a good lesson, and that pair work and small group work are a big area to focus on.

There are, of course, many ideas that I haven't mentioned, and many, many more that I'm not even aware of, but that's what keeps me teaching.