5 Developing skills and strategies
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but
speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective teachers teach students
speaking strategies -- using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk
about language -- that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language
and their confidence in using it. These teachers help students learn to speak so that the students
can use speaking to learn. Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything
when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner
has not understood them. Teachers can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them
that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever
the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to
use for clarification and comprehension check.
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