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Posts: 150

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Q: Any tips for motivating students to speak more English?

I find that one of the biggest challenges in teaching English is making students feel comfortable and confident about speaking out loud in English. Many speak much better than they think yet are too shy or embarrassed to try to speak out loud. Tips anyone?

12 years 12 weeks ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
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Posts: 1932

Emperor

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It probably depends how old your students are, but with my adult students the two biggest wins are:

1) Romance. Dating and marriage, etc.
2) Themselves. Folks love to talk about themselves.

Of course, those two topics only seem to go so far, and even then there are some students who just wont respond. I have to do an English Corner every day at my current job, and I often end up ripping my hair out thinking of topics that will get them going.

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12 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 3025

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I used two tricks to add spice to my classes when I was teaching, but had to obtain permission to do the first one before hand.

I often held classes on nice sunny days on a park next to the university.  They had some nice roof covered pagodas, places to sit all around the edge, and a few tables and seats on the center.  Quiet and nice views.  It was a pleasure to teach a class there, and surroundings did give me many topics of conversation. 

I also invited some Ex-Pats friends to come and join us.  My students loved that, they had a chance to hear different accents from different countries, and since more "teachers" were available, smaller groups formed quickly and more participation evolved, and so more interaction.

At first there were a few complaints about moving the class location, but after a few, all were for it, since we did announce next location at the end of the previous class.  At first I got supervissed closely to insure a class was going on, after a few I was left alone.

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12 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 127

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why don't be creative, ask them to make a sketch or a play, you just guide them, make English fun
what i know and really work  is that when Chinese make jokes about foreigners... so dig on it..wink

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12 years 12 weeks ago
 
Posts: 32

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The biggest problem is that society has taught us mistakes and failure are things to be feared and avoided, so people won't end up trying things out of fear of being wrong. Its like the kid in class who knows the answer but won't raise his hand because (s)he's afraid it might be wrong.

 

Why this came to happen when the way we ALL learned how to walk and how to ride a bike involved a LOT of falling down is beyond me. Mistakes have taught us FAR more than success has. The only reason you know your multiplication tables or know your alphabet is because you got it wrong the first 500 times you tried not because you got it right the first time you did.

 

The simplest cure? Encouragement. I always remember Thomas Edison's quote: "Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...."

 

Once you make them feel that mistakes are a good thing because its an opportunity to step forward rather than a thing to be punished by mockery, embarrassment and judgement from you, or if in a classroom, others, they'll talk your ears off. So, I tend to do a couple things:

 

1) Eliminate competition. I do VERY few games where students have to compete against one another. I rig the games so that by the end of the day, everyone has had a chance to win rather than lose all the time. I prefer to give situations where they win or are rewarded either as an individual or as a collective against a set standard.

 

For example, 3 points = 1 sticker/star and there are no shortage of point opportunities. I aim a greater percentage questions towards the shy/weaker students that they can answer to build confidence.

 

Or, for timed tasks, I set 1:00-1:15 equals 4 points, 1:15-1:30 equals 3 points, 1:30-1:45 equals 2 points and 1:45-2:00 equals 1 point where it is made so that it is very hard for students to score anything other than 3 or 2 points to discourage everyone from feeling like a big gap is present between themselves and others. Everyone gets 2 tries on the chance someone gets a 4 or a 1 so that its fair and everyone else gets a chance at improving their score to a 2 or trying to reach their classmate for a 4.

 

2) Have a zero-tolerance policy for laughter, mockery and insults. Let everyone understand that the moment they laugh at someone, make fun of someone or insult someone especially because they made a mistake, they ARE punished for it (as a collective is good), save for whoever was being mocked, laughed at or insulted. It can be point deductions, slashing their grades or whatever works for their age.

 

3) Correction. Don't correct every single mistake that someone makes, because when they realize they cannot get a sentence out without being corrected 4-5 times, they'll shut off. I devise activities and class work to give them practice later on in the lesson and tend to give immediate corrections after we do the activities to reinforce it. My standard is "That's good. Try *give them the correct phrase and wait for them to repeat it.* Very good" where I give them a thumbs up, a nod, a wink or a smile so that they understand and feel assured. I don't say No or That's wrong or anything like that before giving a suggestion, because they can subconsciously hold it as a mistake and feel disheartened. I say "That's good" or "That's nice" before "Try..." to show I acknowledge that its an innocent mistake.

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11 years 27 weeks ago
 
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Do not ask directly for a single student, but try to get students to see it as a game, then you probably get a better result..

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11 years 26 weeks ago
 
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  Lots of pair work, preferably between students of similar levels.

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11 years 26 weeks ago
 
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Class chooses favorite Western Pop song. They then are given the chance to perform it. Competition comes to play.  Assign judges for the competition - they must judge in English.   and then give a prepared " television " account of the performance. After the performance winner is selected all are assigned to translate their favorite Chinese pop song into English. 

 

Colors - write poems in English about favorite color. Each student must read out load and to the class. Then teams are put together to edit each work and come up with two or three ( depending on how many teams )  completed poem that are then put into a " rap " form. 

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11 years 25 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1197

Shifu

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I make students do lots of presentations in front of the class. Once you force them to practice speaking English in front of others they get less nervous and it eventually becomes very natural for them. 

 

That, or I guilt trip them into talking. "Why are you paying so much money to study English if you don't want to speak it to people?"

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11 years 25 weeks ago
 
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