Sharing Good Practice
Ways to Encourage Second
Language Learners’ Speaking Skills
By Melissa Monney
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
S
etting the tone for a second language classroom
can be quite challenging, especially when you
have learners who may not be very motivated to
participate in the class or may be too timid to express
themselves. This is why ensuring that factors such as anxiety,
distrust, consequences, rewards, relationship among
students and teacher are taken into consideration when
establishing a classroom environment that is conducive to
encourage maximum output from all students. Of all the
skills in second language acquisition, communication may
be the most daunting as it requires students to interact with
each others in a foreign language. While it may be the
most challenging skill, it is a very necessary skill in effectively
utilizing the second language. How can we encourage
communication with second language learners? The best
and most important way is to ensure that the environment
is welcoming to studentsand that learners understand that
making mistakes is a part of the learning process.
THEATRE
COLLABORATIVE TASKS
Gail Godwin stated that “Good teaching is one-fourth
preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.” This is also
true of learning; learning also requires some level of
theatre or acting. Creative theatrical components are
an easy way to encourage students to speak in class. A
great way to incorporate theatre in a second language
classroom to encourage speaking is a skit; skits can be
applied to any content, lesson or topic discussed. Skits
ensure that students are communicating the necessary
ideas, are interactive and allow students to show some
creativity and personality. Educators can use a skit for
any lesson from vocabulary to grammar to even more
complex topics such as reading comprehension. By
engaging learners in skits, each student can be given a
role in the skit, regardless of how big or small.
Group work is one of the quickest ways to facilitate
communication, when learners get together, the one
thing they tend to do is talk. But how does one encourage
speaking in the second language during group work?
When teaching second language learners, especially
if there is a common language spoken amongst the
learners, one way to ensure that the target language is
in use during group activities is by giving each member of
the group a role, one of which is