26/10/2017 From Practice to Production to Oral Fluency

Speaking is one of the four skills to be focused on in the English curriculum. As such, speaking lessons are arranged so that students have the chance to practise speaking (and specifically be trained in doing group interaction).

However, sometimes I feel quite frustrated when speaking lessons come because it seems to me that I should be teaching them, but not just letting them chatter away. In my F.5 class this year, the students are less motivated. When I ask them to do speaking, even if I have recapped with them some useful expressions for communication and analyse the questions and give them some input, they fail to use them and they are not interested in speaking. Sometimes I have a feeling that they also think I am lazy because I do not have to prepare for speaking class.

This has always troubled me. With a class size of 20 (I know it's not a really large class size), how can I make sure everyone is speaking and practising? How can I motivate everyone to speak in English? I seldom pick on their fluency and grammatical accuracy, but it is the motivation that matters. Perhaps they feel that they can speak without any practices. Another reason why I think they are reluctant to have speaking class is that they feel shy to talk to one another, fearing that they would make mistakes. Somehow I feel quite frustrated about conducting effective speaking lessons.