So, you are teaching TEFL/ESL and the last thing your students seem to want to do is to speak English. Oh boy, I’ve been there! We’ve all had that class that just refuse to engage with the lessons, or to buy into the ‘English only’ approach. Here is my solution to making students speak English:
Rephrase the question from ‘how to make my students speak English?’ to ‘how to inspire my students to speak English?’ This switch in mindset can help you come up with a plethora of lessons where your students will actually want to speak English and then you won’t need to make them.
Of course, the strategies you use to inspire the students will be different depending on the age and ability of your students, so obviously you’ll need to use your own judgment with this.
You will also need to dig a little deeper into the psyche of your students. You’ll need to know their likes and dislikes, their hopes and dreams for the future, and even their darkest fears and taboos! Here’s how you can use them all to your advantage!
Strategies For Getting ESL/EFL Students To Talk In English
Set Out Expectations Early
On day one of the term/course you have to make it crystal clear that English is the expected language to be used. Explain the reasons why in a positive manner and try to get the students to buy into the all English approach right from the beginning.
Sentences, such as ‘Your parents have paid a lot of money for you to learn English, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to get a phone call home ‘, work well for us.
Parents too need to be onboard with this and should be encouraged to talk to their child about the English speaking policy before joining the school/course. We even make parents and students sign an agreement saying that they will speak English at all times, or at least make their best efforts to do so.
Reward and Punish
This should be second nature to all teachers but praise and reward should be used frequently to encourage the continued use of English. Our school uses dojo points (house points) which works well up until the secondary school where students lose interest in this system.
What we have found to work well though is a conversation club as a form of punishment. If students speak English then a teacher, rather than issue them a detention, they issue them with having to make up the time they spent speaking another language in class in the conversation club.
This works really well and the parents like it too because the punishment fits the crime. It really does make them think twice about breaking off into English when they know they will miss part of their break making conversation with a teacher in English.
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Wall Posters
Sometimes students can’t quite figure out how to start their sentence and so if you take away that problem by having clear sentence starters for different functions, such as: explaining, evaluating, defining and so on right in front of them on the walls then this can really help
Student’s Choice
As far as you can, let the students dictate what they want to talk about. Imagine how you would feel if you were being told to talk about topics you had limited interest in, or that you thought were a bit boring, your motivation would be at an all time low, but that is exactly what so many TEFL/ESL teachers do when they stick with the topics listed in an exercise book.
Instead decide on a framework/series of exercises that you want the students to go through but let the students pick the topic. Here is an example of what I mean, I did this just last week and it worked really well, as it usually does, in making students speak English.
Initially this starts out as a listening exercise. Students choose a 3-4 minute section of a video documentary from youtube about a hobby they like. Next they create eight comprehension questions to go along with the video. The only catch is that they cannot use subtitles to listen to and understand the video, they have to listen to it only, they can slow it down if they need to but they cannot read the subtitles.
Next, they create a vocabulary matching exercise that will be used by other students before they listen to the video and start answering the questions. The student who created the video, introduces the video explaining the what/why/when/hows of the video and that student then runs a listening test.
After the students have had a couple of run throughs, the student who created the test becomes the teacher and asks for answers, explains/shows where the answers were in the video and answers any further questions of interest that the other students naturally have – and they often do!.
Following this the students then give a short presentation summarising their video using the new language they have learned to another group of students, or they can record a monologue of themselves summarising the same.
The reason this works so well is because when they have chosen the topic they can become enthusiastic about it. They choose videos that they enjoy and that they want others to enjoy also. Last week the topics students chose to talk about were: Manga, Movie watching, Fortnite, A piece of art (the name escapes me), cooking healthy food, and bodybuilding.
All students engage well with this and appreciate the independence they are given. The nature of this activity lends itself to intermediate students but I am sure you could work in some free choice for lower ability groups too.
Inspire
Study a topic that creates such a sense of curiosity and emotion in the students that they really want to find out more. In doing so, you as the teacher with all of the answers in English are in control of the language that they have to use.
You could also set this up as a jigsaw reading activity once you have outlined the topic/situation and gained their interest. Students will need to question each other about a paragraph of text that you have given to each of them. Clearly, this means that they have to question each other to get the details of the story.
The trick to this is to choose a story/event that catches their imagination. True stories work best. I have had success with abbreviated versions of books such as Joe Simpson’s ‘Touching The Void’, ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’, ‘War Of The Worlds’. I am sure you can find something suitable for your group with a little forethought. Articles explaining conspiracy theories also seem to work well too!
If you have ever thought of teaching online then consider reading: Start Teaching Online In 5 Steps as well.
Create A Diverse Student Body
By this I mean if there are lot of students from China in your class then it’s going to be highly likely that they stick together at break times and speak Mandarin/Cantonese. However, if you have a diverse group full of Europeans, Russians, Asians, South Americans and so on, then you are far more likely to be able to ensure that English is the common language used.
This means two things, firstly check the student lists for nationalities when setting groups and secondly, consider where you promote your courses. Why not make it an aim to gain a more diverse community. This will become a great selling point for the school if they can create this diverse environment where students have to speak English.
Read may punchy guide to how to support and ESL student in the classroom here.
Divide And Conquer
Following on from the last point, consider your seating plan carefully. Split up students of the same nationality where possible and place students that generally speak English all the time seeded around the classroom. This can really help to ensure an English focus.
Staff On Duty
Staff on duties around the school/centre should be proactive at engaging the students and parents in conversations in English. This role models the expected behaviour and give students another opportunity to practise.
Zoning
If you feel that making students speak English 100% of the time is a little too harsh then consider zoning. Allow them to speak whatever language they please at break which is really hard to police anyway and then ensure they know that in return the classroom is an all English environment.
If this is to be the case, the the members of staff on duty should make the announcement/reminder as students line-up to go back to class that they are no to be speaking English only.
Wear A Silly Hat
With some classes this might work well as it has for me in the past. Bring in a really tall silly looking hat and explain that whoever is first to break out of English has to wear the hat. Hopefully this is enough of a deterrent in itself but if someone does use a different language ask them to wear the hat.
The age, culture and attitude of the students will determine who this works well for. I found this worked well with older teens who world well together already. However, the last thing you want to do is humiliate anyone unnecessarily so I suggest keeping this lighthearted, after all there is always going to be one kid who just decides to wear it all the time and speak their own language, or a kid that throws it in the bin or who refuses to wear it, therefore use this technique sparingly but know it can be really effective.
They are a few of the methods I have used successfully in the past, granted they don’t always work and I have sometimes felt as though I have failed in terms of making a class speaking English. My worst class of all time was a bottom group of fifty EFL students who were teenagers with minimal interest in learning English.
For that group I had to completely reset my expectations. In the end, I changed the seating plan so that the students who demonstrated any interest in learning were sat towards the front and the rest I sat towards the back. At least then the front group could interact in English and get something out of the lesson.
So, in short, I would encourage you to try different things and see what works best for your groups but try to inspire the English rather than force it. People who read this also enjoyed: How To Make Your Students Speak Fluently?
