I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for encouraging students to speak English in class or even outside of class. I am in SHS.
I understand that a lot of their queitness is that they don’t want to get things wrong and be embarrassed in front of their peers. But does anyone have any ideas that might help me support the students with this?
Thank you inadvance for any help and advice.
9 comments
I don’t know how often you see them outside of class ie; walking in the halls or just before class begins, but I would start there.
And you are right a lot of students have a fear of being put on the spot and just panic. Maybe if you see them reading a manga ask what it is. In fact I just play ignorant foreigner and ask what anything is. I think its ok to use a little of levity to help them open up.
**Bribery.** I bring stickers to every class. And if you participate, you get a sticker. The kids get competitive. I offer stickers for producing your own sentence using the grammar, reading a sentence in English, writing the date/weather/day on the board, and translating a sentence into English or Japanese. I try to offer different opportunities because I know some of my kids don’t really get English. Also if possible, have them chat with friends a bit to discuss the answer before you call on someone. They tend to feel more comfortable after confirming with a friend.
Use groups to diffuse the responsibility they feel if they get an answer wrong! Start with larger groups of four or five students and then as they start to get more comfortable with English maybe you can downgrade that into two or three students per group.
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I found that by doing that students aren’t as afraid of getting an answer wrong. That coupled with a non judgmental attitude towards mistakes and showing them that you also struggle with Japanese (if you do idk) students really start to feel more comfortable!
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Also, use the popcorn method to get students to ask one another the question (with plenty of coaching from you of course). The students feel a lot more comfortable answering a question from a student they know than they might from the ALT, so you can pick an outgoing student as the first one, and then have them pass on the question!
Speak Japanese when necessary and make mistakes. Not horrible ones, but small ones. This will show them that it’s natural to make mistakes, and as long as you’re learning from them, it’s okay.
What else you can do will depend on what the school will let you do. Is there an ESS club? Can you host a supplementary class for eikaiwa for kids who are interested? Is there an English camp in the area for high school kids?
Well, the ones who want to, do not need any inspiration. The ones who dont want to, its because they are afraid others will make fun of them (even some English teachers make fun of students when they make mistakes or when they speak well). So your target would be students who want to but are shy, or scared, or dont have the chance to do it.
It works well when you dont make one student speak in front of the class (all lights are on this one student).
Try pairs, then groups.
Try with super easy activities where they only need to say words, or very short phrases. Later on you can ask them to express themselves more (the more you expect, the harder it is)
When I was in the Military, one of the things they asked us was if we knew a second language. If you did, you got an increase in pay.
Many companies also do this.
Use this fact to help motivate them.
Work with their culture, not against it.
Give them activities to do in groups where they can lean on the smart kid or the “likes English” kid. Give them a way to engage even if it isn’t as active as you would like.
Give incentives for trying. Praise, physical things like stickers, and just letting them observe for the rest of the game once they speak x times.
One thing I did was to incentivize speaking by drawing a picture on a sticky note and giving it to the student once they spoke x times. It quickly became a game to speak enough to get a terribly drawn doodle.
Outside of class, speak Japanese with them. Even better if you’re bad because it gives them proof that you care about them beyond their English ability and they see that it’s normal to struggle with a new language.
Not all kids will engage no matter what you do. That’s not their fault or yours. Don’t hold it against them or yourself.
Have you considered bribery? That worked for me. I had cheap pins with the flag of my country. They fought over them. Also coins. It was amazing how motivating a coin was.
Aside from stickers, I went with games and a lot of humor. I also did written polls where they could tell me what they were interested in and then I’d work that into lessons/conversations. I had a bunch of girls who were really interested in KPOP and so that became a topic we could discuss.