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2. Nothing to say. Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners
complain that they cannot think of anything to say, they have no motive to express
themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking.
3. Low or uneven participation. Only one participant can talk at a time if he or
she is to be heard, and in a large group this means that each one will have only very
little talking time. This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to
dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.
4. Mother-tongue use. In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the
same mother tongue, they may tend to use it because it is easier, because it feels
unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because they feel less
'exposed' if they are speaking their mother tongue. If they are talking in small groups
it can be quite difficult to get some classes – particularly the less disciplined or
motivated ones – to keep to the target language.
The other factor is the fact that the pupil needs words, phrases, sentence patterns
and structures stored up in his memory ready to be used for expressing any thought
he wants to. In teaching speaking the teacher should stimulate his students’ speech by
supplying them with the subject and grammar they need to speak about the suggested
topic or situation. The teacher should lead his pupil to unprepared speaking through
prepared speaking.
2. Strategies for developing speaking skills.
1. Use group work
This increases the sheer amount of learner talk going on in a limited period of
time and also lowers the inhibitions of learners who are unwilling to speak in front of
the full class. It is true that group work means the teacher cannot supervise all learner
speech, so that not all utterances will be correct, and learners may occasionally slip
into their native language; nevertheless, even taking into consideration occasional
mistakes and mother-tongue use, the amount of time remaining for positive, useful
oral practice is still likely to be far more than in the full-class set-up.
2. Base the activity on easy language
In general, the level of language needed for a discussion should be lower than
that used in intensive language-learning activities in the same class: it should be
easily recalled and produced by the participants, so that they can speak fluently with
the minimum of hesitation. It is a good idea to teach or review essential vocabulary
before the activity starts.
3. Make a careful choice of topic and task to stimulate interest
On the whole, the clearer the purpose of the discussion the more motivated
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