Creating Confident Speakers in the EFL Classroom

Creating Confident Speakers in the EFL Classroom

Dustin Koenig

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant

Learning a foreign language is a challenging and often frustrating process. Articulate and competent speakers in our mother tongues, we are often embarrassed when we are forced to express our complex thoughts in simple constructions and fragmented sentences. Having studied foreign languages for the past ten years and having lived in a Russian-speaking environment for more than a year of that time, I know all too well the lack of confidence that plagues the foreign language learner.

It is impossible to completely remove any fear or anxiety from the language-learning process; sometimes, in fact, it can be a helpful learning tool. Before I came to Russia for the first time, one of my teachers told me jokingly that "most language is learned through humiliation," and I certainly had my share of "lost-in-translation" encounters that have stayed with me and proved essential to my language development. But if this is a necessary evil in a real world environment, it need not be in a classroom setting. If the classroom is not a safe and encouraging environment for students studying English, especially those that lower levels, their commitment to learning English as well as their likelihood to continue pursuing it is greatly reduced. Instead, we must strive to create an environment that encourages confidence in speaking and using English. To do this, I propose two techniques: first, the immersion learning strategy better prepares speakers by more closely recreating the real world experience of speaking a foreign language; second, understanding the difference between accuracy skills and fluency skills and targeting them separately will help build students’ confidence by not asking them to do too much in the classroom.

The Immersion Learning Strategy

The first step to creating confident speakers is employing the immersion learning strategy. In the traditional approach to foreign language instruction, the language of instruction is the student’s native tongue, with the target language (in this case English) used only in exercises and controlled activities. By contrast, the immersion approach uses English as the language of instruction. This provides a much more stimulating learning environment for the student, and leads to three principal benefits.

First, students are engaged in active listening at all times. Using traditional teaching strategies, students only practice listening during specific tasks designed to target those skills. While listening tasks can be effective and should be a regular part of the lesson plan, immersion learning encourages constant awareness and attention. It also better represents the real world experience of being in a foreign-language environment. Finding oneself in the bustling Anglophone environment of a city like London or New York can be intimidating even for native English speakers; by training our students to listen actively at all times while in “English mode,” we can better prepare them to operate confidently in such places.

Second, students develop critical speaking skills that are not usually achieved through traditional teaching methods. Both students and teachers often prefer the traditional strategy because any problems or misunderstandings the students have can be articulated easily and exactly in Russian. In this case, however, easy does not necessarily mean better. Under the immersion strategy, students must find a way to explain their thoughts—even when they do not understand a word or assignment—in English. At first, students will find this very difficult, and may resist by continuing to ask questions in English. With time, however, they will gain the essential language skill of being able to “talk around” a subject. No matter how long one studies a foreign language, there will be times he or she forgets a key word or expression. In such an event, a traditional learner’s first reaction will be to switch to his native tongue, but in many situations the other person may have no knowledge of Russian. By contrast, an immersion learner will have the necessary skills to explain what it is he wants to say in English. Having lived in a country with very little widespread knowledge of my native language in critical places like banks, train stations and shops, I can not overstate how important this ability can be to a foreign language learner.

Finally, immersion learning encourages students to think in English. Because English class becomes a place where they are constantly required to actively listen and speak in English, students will over time become less likely to translate everything mentally before acting. As students translate less, the inevitable gaps between listening and responding will shorten and conversations will become easier and more natural. This will in turn inspire more confidence in their language abilities and enable them to make the language their own, rather than always approaching English through the lens of Russian.

The immersion strategy requires as much commitment from the teacher as it does from the students, particularly when English is not the teacher’s first language. For a native speaking teacher, it is naturally very easy to remain in English; for a non-native speaker, it can be tempting to respond to students’ questions in their common mother tongue. Except in cases where absolute understanding is absolutely necessary (usually regarding logistical information like final exams and dates), the added benefits of remaining in English outweigh the complications. In the long run, encouraging students to struggle with English rather than take the easy option of their native tongue will only help their language development.

Fluency and Accuracy

Successful language use is dependent on two factors: fluency, which I define as a speaker’s ability to express meaning smoothly and clearly, and accuracy, which I define as the technical proficiency of one’s speech. As stated by EFL teaching specialist David Eskey explains, “Students get their meanings across or they don’t, and when they do find the words, they either pronounce them and/or put them together correctly or they don’t. Some students rarely make structural errors but seem to have trouble expressing themselves. Some can go on and on but express themselves poorly” (318).

Obviously, both elements are incredibly important. An accurate speaker with low fluency will have a difficult time expressing himself, while a fluent speaker with low accuracy will be limited in his ability to use English professionally. Because both are equally important, it is impossible to favor one over the other in our English language teaching. They also, however, engage two distinctly different types of language ability, meaning that expecting students to perform well in both areas at all times can lead to frustration. Therefore, separating speaking activities into those that demand accuracy and those that practice fluency can lessen the pressure students feel and allow them to concentrate on one area at a time. Consider the following examples of activities I have used successfully in the past:

Example: Articles Fairytale
Time:35—45 minutes
Objective:Definite vs. indefinite article usage
Items:Whiteboard, articles extension worksheet
Steps:

1. Explain to students that they will be creating a chain story fairytale as a class. Tell them that you will give them one word that they must use to create their sentence. You will create the first sentence as an example. Draw a castle on the board and say that your word is “castle.” Say, “Once upon a time, there was a castle.”
2. Repeat by drawing additional objects on the board, like “princess,” “knight,” “king,” or “dragon.” Students do not always need to be given a new word. Words already on the board may be used again.
3. Usually, students will instinctively use “the” when referring to something already mentioned. For example, after the first sentence, when given the word “princess,” a typical sentence would be, “In the castle lived a princess.” Inevitably, someone will make a grammatical mistake. At that point, explain the purpose of the activity is to understand how we use the definite article to introduce new information and the indefinite article to refer to already-mentioned information.
4. Continue the activity until the students conclude the story, correcting when necessary.
5. Have students complete the accompanying worksheet. Review together to make sure everyone understands the concept.

This is an example of an accuracy-based activity. The focus is on creating grammatically correct sentences in a very controlled situation. Students are given time to plan what they want to say and only asked to create one sentence at a time. Therefore, accuracy is what is expected of them. If a student does not formulate a sentence correctly, it is helpful to correct him immediately. This kind of drilling can be very useful in improving accuracy because it does not put pressure on students by asking them to practice fluency at the same time. By using controlled speaking, students can focus on one aspect of the language without having to worry about the other. This will heighten the benefit they receive from the activity and make them more likely to remember the rule in the future. Contrast this with a fluency activity, adapted from a popular BBC radio comedy program:

Example: Just a Minute!
Time:45—55 minutes
Objectives:Improvisational speaking, active listening
Items:Watch
Steps:

1. Divide students into two groups. Try to balance the teams in terms of the best speakers.
2. Ask the students to create a list of 8-10 topics about which they could easily speak at length.
3. One team will begin by choosing one of their topics. They must, as a team, talk about the topic for 60 seconds. If they repeat any information or pause for more than two seconds, the other team can say “just a minute!” and begin talking about the same topic.
4. The team still speaking when the watch reads 60 seconds is awarded one point.

This activity is very different from the previous example. Whereas before students were only asked to create one grammatically correct sentence under controlled conditions, here they are asked to display a high level of fluency by speaking continuously on a topic without the benefit of being able to plan what to say. Because of this, unlike in the previous activity, I do not correct students while they are speaking; doing so will only break their speech pattern, disrupt their thoughts, and make them feel embarrassed and/or frustrated. In fluency activities, instant correction hinders rather than helps students. This is especially true during a very common type of fluency activity: class presentations. We should expect accuracy in fluency activities, but not at the same level as in controlled speaking tasks. Repeated interruptions for corrections during fluency exercises will only lower students’ confidence in their abilities and discourage them from speaking in the future.

Creating Confidence

The two strategies I have suggested in this paper are aimed at encouraging confidence in English learners. By using the immersion-learning strategy to more accurately recreate an English-language environment in the classroom, students will build the listening and speaking skills they need at a faster rate. Additionally, separating language teaching into accuracy-based and fluency-based activities and focusing on each in turn will help minimize the pressure students feel when trying to speak both inside and outside the classroom. With this added confidence, students will be more likely to speak the English, engage the language, and become more dedicated to studying and learning it.

References/Further Reading

Cohen, Andrew and Kirk Allison. “Bilingual Processing Strategies in a University-Level Immersion Program.” Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English, No. 35 (July/December 1998), pp. 185-199.

Eskey, David E. “Meanwhile, Back in the Real World…: Accuracy and Fluency in Second Language Teaching.” TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2 (June 1983), pp. 315-323.

Knell, Ellen et al. “Early English Immersion and Literacy in Xi’an, China.” The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 91, No. 3 (Autumn 2007), pp. 395-417.