Teaching Speaking

We want our students to speak. We want them to speak fluently and accurately. But

how can we encourage the shy student to speak? On what do we have to pay

attention to when we do speaking exercises? How to correct mistakes to help our

students to improve their language level? In the following essay I will focus on these

main questions about teaching speaking. Furthermore I will try to compare the theory

with my own experience as a teacher?

How to get Students to Speak?

Nobody likes to make mistakes. Nobody likes to blame himself in front of a whole

class. These are the main reasons why many teachers stay in front of a silent class.

They did not succeed in creating a relaxing classroom atmosphere in which the

students feel comfortable. If we want to teach speaking we first have to create an

environment in which the students feel comfortable and in which they like to speak.

There are two main aspects which are important for a good classroom atmosphere:

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Students should speak as much as possible during a lesson: One reason why

many students do not want or like to speak is: they are not used to it. For them

speaking is something special and difficult. Every time we do something new,

we feel nervous or even afraid. But if we do it over and over again we get used

to it and may start to enjoy it. The same thing should happen in the classroom.

Students should get used to speaking English. It is the teacher′s responsibility

to create enough opportunities for the students to speak.

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There are no mistakes, there is only learning. Students have to realize that

making mistakes is totally normal. There are different ways how a teacher can

establish such an atmosphere. For example the teacher should stop focussing

too much on mistakes. It is important that students become self-confident in

speaking a foreign language. If the teachers mentions every little mistake

students make, they will become frustrated quickly. It does not mean that

teachers should stop correcting. Rather they should give the students

sometimes the opportunity to talk without focusing on total correctness. There

are different ways how we can correct speaking mistakes. We will talk about it

later on in this essay.