Make your speaking lessons more effective!
Speaking!
As an English teacher, I have been writing educational posts about English aimed at teachers and students for a long time. If you are interested in checking them out, you are welcome to view my previous posts. All my posts are based on my experiences as I have been working as an English teacher for 4 years, so I can say that I am quite experienced in this field, I hope my posts are useful for Steemians who are interested in education. Today, I would like to talk about one of the most problematic skills which is speaking!
Many people are afraid speaking in classes as they don't feel confident to say even a word in the language they are learning. They are usually more confident in writing or reading since they do it by themselves and look for other sources to produce something worth checking. In speaking issue, there are some things that teachers can do to support students. I would like to give some tips that I try to use in my classes myself.
Interesting topics
One of the main problems that students and teachers face with is the topics that students are asked to talk about. When you ask your students to say something about politics or religion, they may not have anything to say about this. When they are not able to say anything about this kind of topics, they might think like they are failures and feel completely down in front of other students. It is a wrong step in their education progress.
To make lessons easier in relation to choosing topics, we can ask students to learn what they want to talk about. Students usually prefer to talk about daily things which they can use in every day life. When we prepare our lessons plans, we should consider this situation. Teacher must keep this in mind that when students don't have fun during the lessons, they will feel bored easily.
Warm-up
In all lessons , warm up activities are essential. If you want your students to say something about the speaking topics, you must give them something to read or watch. If you ask them a question without presenting anything in advance, they may not imagine anything in their mind. I usually give them a short reading, show a video clip or a list of questions about a main topic. If you give them these kinds of material, they might have something to say.
When you give them some hand-outs or show material on the board, you can give them some time to think about the topic. It is a good way of encouraging them to feel confident in class. Student usually feel shy when teachers ask them question directly. I personally see them blushing or hesitating to say something about what I am asking, so it is better to give them time to think about the topic.
Role plays
Role plays are really helpful in all skill activities. Teachers usually prefer these activities to make students work in pairs and groups. When students try to produce something together, they exchange their knowledge about activities which is perfect for them. In speaking lessons, role plays are really important. When you ask your students to think about a dialogue and perform it in front of a class, lesson will be more interesting for sure.
If your students are shy to speak in front of other students, you might ask them to write a dialogue before performing it for others. I have done this kind of activities with my students and I can say that lesson have been really effective and interesting for all students. By doing this, all students are involved in activities, nobody feels absent in the class. As long as lessons are active and interesting, your students will be eager to learn and participate in all activities!
Confidence
Confidence is the key word in speaking activities. Teachers are responsible for creating the atmosphere for students where they can feel confident and free to speak in the class easily. Overall, we are the ones who will make changes in our students' learning progress, so we should always do our best to improve ourselves.
If you have any suggestions to share , you are welcome to state them in comment section. The world will be better ıf we manage to educate our people in better and more efficient ways!
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You are really a great teacher. If if all the teachers were applying the way you were, perhaps the world would be far from ignorance. Thank you for sharing your useful knowledge. Have a nice day
Thank you so much for your nice words, have a great day!
This is something that needs to be worked on at schools. I use to be very shy and I had extreme difficulties talking in front of people or even in a group. We didn't learn or practice speaking to build up confidence. Sure we did oral reports or presentations, but that was it. There was no guide or teaching on it. Maybe they do it more nowadays in school, but back then this area was lacking in my opinion. This is a cool guide and breakdown of ways you could help a student practice and learn. Cheers!
Thank you so much for your contribution!
No problem, thanks for the lesson.