Comments on: Learners who are shy to speak

By: bouzenita djahida

bouzenita djahida — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:15:30 +0000

Hi everybody,
I am djahida from Algeria ,and I am an English student “university level”.Rirst of all I wouls like to thank you for such interesting topic
In fact, I totaly agree with Mr Scott, because to make the students share the lesson and give their opinions freely leads to unlock their ability of speaking and of course argueing well.
I personally suffer from some situations where I can not share and speak my knowledge ,especially in front of those who i do not fell comfortable ,so this is my main reason of keeping silent,wheras being among my friends and my mental situation is hight I speak it fluently without any problem.
Thanks a lot

By: small bird

small bird — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:45:52 +0000

you see, when we speak English We often think of grammar which we will use to talk. But i think it is not necessary much, we can practice for us skills to speak English if we often talk English. when we talk and use English we will have many experiments and try to use or not use later. vocabularies play the important role. don’t worry if you know vocabularies not much, u can have many experiment when u say .so you should be not shy to speak English.you have to believe in yourself. you can attend some English clubs to improve your English.

By: R is for Reticence « An A-Z of ELT

R is for Reticence « An A-Z of ELT — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:59:02 +0000

[...] http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/development/learners-who-are-shy-to-speak [...]

By: Jason West

Jason West — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:35:24 +0000

Fear of making mistakes (lathophobic aphasia as Stevick called it or Krashan’s over-active Output Filter) is a big deal for many English learners, especially those, as mentioned above, that come from societies and educational systems that do not encourage discourse unless it is from an authoritative position.

We’ve seen thousands of learners improve both fluency and confidence incredibly quickly by carefully preparing them to speak to complete strangers. It is as much a psychological process of support and encouragement as a linguistic one. The results can be amazing.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:28:21 +0000

One point, which will not be news to any of you, is that a ‘silent period’ of learning, and, I would say, participation, is perfectly acceptable as a way into a second language. It would be a mistake for a teacher to confuse this more passive (at least to the outside observer) route to language learning. Of course, such silent periods end naturally, and recognizing this important step is important, I think.

By: Candy

Candy — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:22:30 +0000

Hi Scott

Great post as usual. Fear in the speaking class and how to overcome it? Create a safe environment in which mistakes are secondary to the communication. Three critical elements in a “speaking” class – scaffolding, relevance and immersion – total. Learners speak about things that move them – themselves, their lives, their experiences; ask not if their language is correct, but if it is successful and effective. Correct during the correction time slot, not during the “speaking” slot and only correct once a beautiful scaffold has been put in place.

Much of this is yours, for which I am eternally grateful!

By: Lindsay Clandfield

Lindsay Clandfield — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:50:07 +0000

Thank you Scott for another great blog entry. The issue of speaking in class is one of the number one concerns for teachers in my view. I am also of the opinion that understanding group dynamics is a major key in this puzzle, especially when it comes to students being shy to talk in front of each other.

At the risk of having “Rosa” from your blog disagree with me even more than with you, I have tried using the mother tongue as a resource in class the way you suggest with some success. For example, with a group of intermediate teens, we had a role play activity. They were very surprised when I asked them to do the activity first in their own language but soon threw themselves into it quite willingly.

After a short time I asked them to stop and to repeat the same activity but now in English. They did so, and were quicker to “get started” as a result.

I think this kind of activity, used from time to time, can be very helpful in generating ideas and giving time to think. A further wrinkle to it with higher levels is to have two students do a speaking activity in their own language, while two others stand behind them and “dub” them into English. I’ve also used this activity with considerable success with my Spanish students.