Teach Middle East Magazine Issue 3 Volume 2 Jan-Feb 2015 | Page 20

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