How Do You Get a Student to Start Speaking?

How Do You Get a Student to Start Speaking?
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What do you do to get a student to start speaking English?

You’re probably saying it’s not an easy task. Well, I assure you with a little touch of creativity, it can be done painlessly.

Generally, students are afraid of having to converse in English. They worry about making mistakes. I tell them that mistakes are fine in the classroom because it’s a place of learning, and it’s there that you are allowed to “try out” this new language.

It’s necessary to make this experiment in conversation “free and easy”.
Here are a few methods that work.

You can start out with (coloured strips, again!!) Ask Someone a Question About…
On these strips write, for example,

the weather today,
a holiday,
shopping,
school,
family,
a car,
a pet etc.

The student picks out a strip and then asks an appropriate question using any verb tense. This enables the students to practice making questions which is very valuable in giving them some confidence with the spoken language. And it’s the first step to have them “open up”.
A page with a written ID of a person also stimulates questions.
Ex.:

John Adams
28
Rome
Engineer
Married
2 children, Matt and Eve
Wife, Stephanie

It’s best to use a direct conversation----

“What’s your name?”
“How old are you?”
“Where do you live?” etc.

This practice can be done with 2 students, or with the teacher and a student.

3) Another method is Let’s Talk About… Prepare a subject. Ex. John’s New Job
Write information regarding it and the student has to turn the information into questions.

John’s New Job

He is a computer technician. • Is John a computer technician?
He works for the Olivetti Company. • What company does he work for?
John’s hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 7 pm. • What are his hours?
He goes to work by bus. • How does he go to work?
His days off are Saturday and Sunday. • What are his days off?

The more information given the better!!!

When your students have passed the preliminary stage, many other approaches can be used. Here again magazine photos or articles are a great help . We can come back to this subject again.

Here is the next Nice Thought:

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson