Hanks, TESOL 2010

Speak Up: Encouraging Students to

Speak in Class

Julie Hanks

jhanks@umac.mo

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Today’s Agenda

• Introduction• Cultural reasons for not speaking • Activities to counter cultural reasons• Social reasons for not speaking• Activities to counter social reasons• Personal reasons for not speaking• Activities to counter personal reasons• Further tips and strategies

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Introduction

• Getting students to speak

• Day one vs day ten

• Silence

• Students may not speak in class for cultural, social and personal reasons

• Teachers must understand these reasons and then provide activities to serve as a counterbalance

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Benefits of speaking in the classroom

• Importance of oral production in the target language

• Benefits students externally

• Benefits students internally (Krupa-Kwiatkowski, 1998)

• Silent period vs choosing to be silent

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Cultural Reasons for Not Speaking in the Classroom

• Inappropriate for students to speak up in class

• Unusual for students to speak up in class

• (Wiltse, 2006)

• Can be seen as a challenge to a teacher’s authority whereas keeping silent can be seen as a sign of respect

• (Tater, 2005)

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Activities to Counter Cultural Reasons

• Role playing activities

• Students as teachers

• Mini dramas (Tsou, 2005)

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Role play

• Give students a situation (ie teacher and students discussing a reading passage)

• Have the student ‘teacher’ and students role play how they would act during this situation

• ‘Teacher’ is in charge

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Students as Teachers

• Give each student a chance to be the ‘teacher’

• Have the student run an activity to observe how it is done, and how others react to this

• Can accomplish class work while observing cultural differences

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Mini Dramas

• Can be modeled on soap operas, where students are encouraged to overact

• Issues such as how to speak up in a crowded room, ask questions when in a group of people, and how to ask for help

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Issues with Role Play and Students as Teachers

• Students may just copy what they have seen you do as they feel this is the way the class should be run.

• Useful to integrate this early in the semester if you want examples of a student’s native culture

• Integrate later in the semester if you want to model classroom procedures

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Social Reasons for Not Speaking in the Classroom

• Immodesty

• Proper teacher-student decorum

• (Tsou, 2005)

• Questioning and engaging students is viewed as “confrontational” (Holliday, 1997)

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Activities to Counter Social Reasons

• Pay attention to your students and work out a system

• Direct questions

• Group work

• Student questionnaires

• Participation Instruction (Tsou, 2005)

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Read Student Cues

• Work out a system to deal with illusion of immodesty

• Have a subtle, but agreed upon system that they students can use

• Be sensitive to student feedback in the classroom

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Direct Questions

• Ask questions from students directly as opposed to asking for anyone to answer

• Students feel obligated to answer

• Students are not showing off, just answering the teacher

• Allow neighbors to help to lessen anxiety

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Group Work

• Students can all contribute their ideas together

• Alternate who in the group will report findings to the class

• Assign roles such as who reports, who answers any questions, etc

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Student Questionnaires

• A good way to find out about students’ native culture

• Can be formal or informal; for lower or more advanced levels

• Can be anonymous or signed

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Sample Questionnaire

When the teacher asks the class a question in my home country I :

a) Yell out the

answer loudly – A good student participates in class

b) Do nothing – It is rude to speak up in class

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Sample Questionnaire

• Open-ended questions

• Ex: How should a good student act in the classroom?

• When the teacher calls on me in class I feel:

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Participation Instruction

• Tsou, 2005

• 1st: Discuss what teacher wants and expectations

• 2nd: Students encouraged to ask questions at anytime

• 3rd: Roles of teachers and students in native cultures explored and juxtaposed to current classroom role

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Personal Reasons for Not Speaking in the Classroom

• Often varied and highly individualized

• If it becomes a pattern, investigate

• Students may not feel they can communicate competently and choose silence (Kim, 2006)

• Fear of what others will think causes them to withdraw (Gregersen, 1999)

• Losing face

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Activities to Counter Personal Reasons

• Group and pair work

• Pay attention to your students – try to determine their fears

• Student-teacher contract

• Offer activities that illustrate a student’s speaking progress

• Allow students to progress at their own pace accordingly (Holliday, 1997)

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Try to Determine Student Fears

• Class or group discussions

• Talk to students individually – one student per day

• Give feedback, ask questions, give praise, etc

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Student-Teacher Contract

• Have a contract between the student and the teacher detailing what is expected within the classroom

• Can write the contract for students or have students work on the contract with the teacher

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Offer activities that illustrate a student’s speaking progress

• Videotape speeches

• Audacity

• Reflection papers

• Peer feedback

• Excel charts to compare scores or feedback

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Allow students to progress at their own pace accordingly

• Teachers need better training

• Allow students and the class to progress on their own schedule

• Students progress according to their own needs

• (Holliday, 1997)

Hanks, TESOL 2010

Further Tips and Strategies

• Lesson plans with an area for seating chart

• Note cards with names

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Audience Tips and Suggestions

• Bribe with candy• Focused questions – detailed – lead

discussion as oral presentation• Good mistakes• Timer – talk for time limit• Give direct instructions and modeling Qs• Exit interview• Panel discussion – based on something

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Tips and Strategies

• All students talk at once, for comfort• Talk for 2 minutes, then Qs• Use playing cards – match cards• Collect all cards before you leave• Lines – face each other, have cards• Show and tell• Role play – jibberish vs. English• Repeat for the class• ABCD technique

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Conclusion

• Student’s lack of participation harms language learning progression

• Must look at cultural, social and personal reasons behind student silence

• Flexibility is key

Hanks, TESOL 2010

References:

Gregersen, T. (1999-2000). Improving the interaction of communicatively anxious students using cooperative learning. Lenguas Modernas, 26-27, 119-133.

Holliday, A. (1997). The politics of participation in international English language education. System, 25 (3), 409-423.

Kim, S. (2005) Academic oral communication needs of East Asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields. English for Specific Purposes. 25, 479-489.

Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.

Krupa-Kwiatkowski, M. (1998). “You shouldn’t have brought me here!”: Interaction strategies in the silent period of an inner-direct second language learner. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 31(2), 133-175.

Hanks, TESOL 2010

References, cont.

Lee, G. (2009). Speaking up: Six Korean students’ oral participation in class discussions in US graduate seminars. English for Specific Purposes, 28, 142-156.

Tatar, S. (2005). Why keep silent? The classroom participation experiences of non-native-English-speaking students. Language and Intercultural Communication, 5(3&4), 284-293.

Tsou, W. (2005). Improving speaking skills through instruction in oral classroom participation. Foreign Language Annals, 38(1), 46-55.

Wiltse, L. (2006). ‘Like pulling teeth’: Oral discourse practices in a culturally diverse language arts classroom. The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue Canadiannne des Langues Vivantes, 63(2), 199-223.