Do your students refuse to talk or say anything in the classroom? Do they feel really shy about talking in front of other students? Well, as an English teacher in Indonesian classes, I have to say that this has been the most serious and unavoidable hindrance I, and most Indonesian English teachers, have to face, and believe me, going about breaking this cultural barrier needs most of your teaching skills and energy. However, being a creative and innovative English teachers at this age is much easier with the help of technology. You can find the solution of your problems easily and quickly from the internet. So why worry?
The followings are some tips on teaching speaking presented by Roger J Brennan (Academic Team Leader) and Jeremy Brennan (Senior Teacher) from The British Institute (TBI) Surabaya, on One Day Workshop on Teaching Conversation, held by Erlangga Publication, Graha Pena Surabaya, May 21st 2011.
Mr. Brennan presented series of videos, showing what happened in Thailand English classes. We can always watch the video on :
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/video/1-introduction-0
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/video/2-rapport
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/video/5-techniques
Thanks to Mr. Brennan for opening our minds that the most important questions in designing the speaking activity are always there waiting to be answered before we set up the class:
- Is the topic you choose or provided interesting? If your answer is"NO" what would you do to make it interesting?
- What language functions do you want your students to produce? Comparing, describing, giving opinion, etc. Be specific!
- Are your students going to talk about something realistic and interesting? Mind the authenticity!
- Is it achievable! Too easy? it will be boring. To difficult? it will be frustrating.
- How will it work? Set up? remember that a good lead in helps students to understand what is coming up, then give them sometimes to think, set a parameter and
- Prepare a model
- ENJOY TEACHING!
