How do I get Students to Speak?

Boy, if I knew the answer to that question, I could be a master teacher. This is not an easy question to answer. I think that the main reason is that people generally will choose the method that is easiest to do, and for Korean students, that method is speaking in Korea.  The typical "English class" in Korea usually focuses on reading and/or listening. The students regular English teacher will utter very little English during class. At my current school, one of the English teachers does not have strong conversational skills, so, if that teacher isn't strong, they probably won't speak much during class.

The other difficulty is that structure that the students are accustomed to being the norm. The students are used to the teacher instructing them on everything that they are required to do. As a foreign teacher, I see very little spontaneity from the students.

So the students are accustomed to being told what to do, and the typical student's conversational skills are not very good. So that is the typical challenge that I face.

Typically, at my last school, I would feed the students questions to ask each other, and that would be the conversational part of the lesson. I realize now that I could have done a lot better.

This past week, I attempted my first role-play activity with my advanced students. The basic premise is that they have a list of bad behaviors. Half of the students will act out the had behavior, and the other students will correct the other student's bad behavior. This isn't very complicated, but before I did the lesson, I judged that the advanced students could do it. The students acting it out also had to tell the other students where the action was taking place. I thought it would be fun because I know that students like to behave badly.

This activity was difficult to pull off. The main reason is that it was my first time attempting to do it. And the directions are a lot more complicated that my normal activities. The first attempt was a disaster. No student understood what they were suppose to do. So for the following class, I tightened up the directions a lot. I put a diagram of how the students were suppose to move from table to table in the PP. I also had listed on the PP the directions.

Originally something like this: (I forget the exact wording).

- The first person will say where they are.

- The first person will act out the bad behavior.

- The other person will tell what the bad behavior was.

- The other person will say, "You should have ..."

I changed it to:

- A: Tell where.

- A: Act.

- B: Tell bad behavior.

- B: Say "You should have ..."

- Finished, switch.

At the beginning of class, I also had the students make a list of bad behaviors. In the original plan, the students could choose which bad behavior they would want to act out. I also realized that this needed to be tightened up. So I had each team circle one bad behavior on their list, and that is what they would act out.

So the next class, I think the directions where a lot clearer, but the students still didn't understand. I did do a demo of the action, but an explanation still needed to be given in Korean.

My last class that I did this activity with went a lot smoother. I would say that their speaking ability is advanced-low. I think they got the general idea, but I still needed to go to each table and explain the directions again. After I explained the directions again, the students seemed to enjoy it. I heard a lot of laughter. But I couldn't hear a lot of English. That's the next challenge: Getting the students to speak in English with each other. They will speak in English with me, but not with each other. This will probably require several more goes at it.

I also assigned an activity to work with a friend to create a list that would be used later in class, be it a list of Korean culture or bad behaviors. I've haven't heard much English being used. I think that in "group work," only one student will do the work. Maybe I'll have to assign a certain amount of input from each individual. I will check with the groups working, but I don't hear much English used. When I talk to them, they will respond in English, but this isn't an efficient way to get everyone to talk in English.

My other activity that needed explanation: the secret code using prepositions around the room. I did this activity earlier at my old school this year, so I should be a master at it. I gave the students a practice go at breaking the code. I demoed using the hint to find the answer. And I went to one of the actual code stations in the room to show them how it is set up. And I also told them on their worksheet that they should only write down the answer.  After I did all of that, using the simplest language, and checking for understanding, a Korean explanation was still necessary.

So that is my biggest frustration right now is my inability to explain more complex tasks. If the students could understand more complex tasks, then I could have a lot more options of what can be done in class.



Regarding issues brought up earlier: I did try to adjust the volume of my voice. It works in certain circumstances, and doesn't work in others. If the students just aren't interested in the lesson, then obviously a lower voice doesn't work. They will continue to talk regardless. But it's an effective tool to get the students attention; speaking in my loud voice is a lot louder than my normal conversational voice.

Giving directions: I like to use a lot of repeating and asking comprehension questions.

Example: Last week, I had a slide that said: "What is Korean culture?" The students would give me a couple of examples.

Then the directions for the next activity: "With your friend, make a list of 5 things about Korean culture." I pointed to friend, and asked: "Who?" I pointed to 5, and asked "How many?" I then pointed to "Korean culture," and asked "What?" And I would repeat this action 1 more time. The students who were paying attention would understand for the most part, but the students, who weren't paying attention, didn't understand. So I would have to move around the room to check for completion.  A co-teacher said that I needed to be more strict with them as far as their talking goes. I do my mechanism for getting their attention more often than I was doing. I guess my concern was that if I use it too often, it would lose its effectiveness. Since he said that, I've been using it more.