How can teachers get ESL students talk in classroom

PROJECT

How can teachers get ESL students to talk during classes? (Shifting away from the traditional teachers’ centered approach to learners’ centered approach) and also developing curriculum resources and lesson plans favoring this approach




A Paper submitted to Dr. Elizabeth Yeoman



Victor Fru Asongwe
200574994




In fulfillment of the requirement of Education 6665
(Second Language Curriculum) for the degree of Master of Education
















Faculty of Education
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John’s
Newfoundland and Labrador
December 12, 2008









“Becoming a critically reflective teacher …involves the realization that as second language teachers, we are both the producers and the creators of our own history.”
__ L Bartlett (1990:206)










































Project: How can teachers get ESL students to talk during classes? (Shifting away from the traditional teachers’ centered approach to learners’ centered approach), and also developing curriculum resources and lesson plans favoring this approach

Introduction

In this project I will be exploring through action research. Having taught English and Literature as first language and French as a second language for about twelve years, I had to enter graduate school to further learn about teaching. With much assistance from my professors and supervisors, I feel I have a wealth of new experiences among which is the new experience of teaching ESL. The original experience I had about teaching was different from what I know today. When I attended seminars, conferences, collaborated with colleagues, read internet websites that dealt with ESL, had talks with my teachers and class mates during my graduate studies, I became a fresh person and ready to work with everyone learner. As a novice teacher, I acted just like “Jamie” in “Engaging Minds”, (Chp.9, p 157-173, Teaching Frames).
Jamie represents nearly all novice teachers in the world and this explains some of the challenges we face when we are about to start this wonderful profession, not to mention about class management, learners’ interacting with teachers and the rest of the bulk of work that the teacher has to do. It is reasonable to expect a large assortment of words that describe teaching in terms of the actions by which a learner is taught. For example, at a typical conference on educational research, you can expect to hear most of the following in reference to what different people imagine should ( or, in some cases, should not ) be happening in the classroom: conditioning, disciplining, educating, empowering, facilitating, guiding, indoctrinating, instructing, leading, lecturing, mentoring, modeling, nurturing, and training.
In other words the above terminologies only empower the teacher and almost give no opportunity for the student to share or really participate in the classroom. I think that if teaching and learning is shaped towards sharing, students will understand better and they will give examples that reflect their own lives and this will enhance understanding in the subject matter. Students who are open feel that opportunities are not given to them to express themselves and those who are shy feel comfortable with their situation. In a language class for example, teachers can make the students participate in ideas and even in shaping the curriculum. What is it that students need most? Their participation in class discussions can also raise an educational question that will help researchers and authors write books with the learners in mind. When learners see themselves contributing in the class and in the making up the books, this enhances understanding and confidence. The teachers are those to empower the learners with different strategies to talk in the classroom. How should we go about this? The purpose of my research thus is to develop learners to speak in the class.

I observed one of my colleague’s English classes and it was almost like a lecture. When he finished teaching he seemed so tired and he told me he has another class and that he teaches many hours a day. Before I left, he asked me, to give my impression about the class. I told him “You could try other alternatives or you could change the source of solicits from yourself to the students by making them contribute their ideas in the class, and instead of reading all the passages alone, they could also read and sometimes you discuss together, because working alone makes one feel tired especially as you have many hours of work” “They could also write down questions and ask you and each other”, “You could react to student responses by being silent to see if other students react verbally.” I was calling his attention towards class interaction. After observing the situation over and over in ESL classes taught by novice and some teachers who claim it is their custom for students to always listen because they owe respect to their teachers and leaders, I decided to carry out my research so that some action is taken. However, when I invited one of my Chinese teachers to observe my class, his feedback was that
“Your class is so exciting, your voice is so loud, and you move round the class, you are so patient, you have a lot of gestures and you call on students’ names to answer questions.” Since some of the teachers are used to teacher – centered approaches, they hardly give descriptions because they believe that by telling the students what to do and by the students listening without interaction they are respecting the tradition, as one of the teachers told me when we were discussing in a meeting. Many teachers who have not read “Language Teaching Awareness” and have not had refresher courses may not be so used to ‘non judgmental descriptions and will always give judgment when once they observe a class. I was not asking for any praises.
As we may have experienced, teachers who discuss with students in class and give them more opportunities to talk, also learn a lot from the learners especially if the teacher is teaching multicultural students. Many of the students can enlighten us on what we did not know. From there we could also shape the curriculum. It is in this perspective that I have decided to take on action research as part of my classroom practice. I believe that action research increases our understanding of classroom teaching and learning as it allows for a systematic investigation of our own classroom and students and gives us the power to make more informed decisions through observation and reflection on our teaching( Fanselow 1987, 1988; Gebhard 1991, 1996; Kemmis & Mc Taggard 1982; Nunan 1995; Richards & Lockhard 1994; Strickland ) Good and Brophy ( 1997) also indicate that action research provides an opportunity for teachers to discuss ideas, reflect on teaching, and extend their knowledge of alternative practices.

In trying to promote students’ interaction in the class or shifting from teachers’ centered approach to learners’ centered approach, I will also be developing lesson plans and resources suitable for class interaction. This includes posing problems and addressing concerns based on what goes on in our classroom, systematically working through the problems and initiating a plan of action and reflecting on the degree to which the plan works. In addition, as Crookes (1993) demonstrates, action research can take us beyond the confines of the teacher’s classroom. When we discover that we share similar problems, for example, a large number of students across the program cutting classes, complaining about the curriculum and not doing homework, and that these problems cannot be solved easily, with the walls of the classroom, it becomes an institutional or school problem, one that requires collaboration among teachers, students, and the administration. This is exactly some of the issues I wish to address. Through class exploration, and research, many students have been unable to speak English in the classrooms despite the number of years they count that they have been learning the language. Several reasons account for this; prescribed teaching or teacher centered approach, lack of seriousness from students, less interaction in class, learners only listen and practice less. My research is to address these issues and try to find out solutions on how students can talk more in class in order to practice their English and this can not be done without the efforts and awareness of the teacher who is at the center of the classroom.
I use Burn’s example (1997- on Action research “problem solving” which helped lead a national action research project in Australia. Burns reports on the action research experiences of one of these teachers. The teacher taught very diverse groups of students in her adult migrant English service classes. She was uncertain how to manage the class and felt that her planning was “hit and miss.” Therefore, she read the literature of managing disparate learning groups and talked to teachers who had experienced teaching such students. As a result, she decided to develop materials and create activities to the different levels and then to observe how students responded to them. After doing this she recognized the students needed freedom to interact with her materials in their own way that they seemed to get more out of the materials when she relinquished control over how they were supposed to use materials in their learning.
After having difficulties in communicating with the students in my classroom, just like Burns, I decided to interview the students one by one, an interview which I decided to videotape. It is after carrying out the research with the students who proved shy, less interactive in class that I decided to call a conference to discuss the issue with my colleagues and school leaders. As I observed before, my students were unable to answer questions in the classroom, unable to speak with their friends, not even doing assignments, not willing to write notes or new expressions. All they could do was to listen to the teacher speak, some distracted in such a way that they used to solve mathematics or read Chinese novels in the class or simply ask teachers to play a movie.


The context of the project

The action research project I report on took place in four of my ESL classes in the university where I teach, Henan Institute of Science and Technology. Never before had I taught ESL students whose major was not English. I taught English in foreign language schools during summer and in kindergartens, although some students could not express themselves very well, the classes were still exciting. I had mostly taught English Major Students in teacher training programs. The four classes in my university where I decided to carry my project, most of the students specialized in Tourism and Hotel Management. Most of them seem not to have done English before or were from areas where English teachers could hardly reach. The students met every week for two hours. Each class had about 30 students. I had two other foreign teachers who assisted me. When we met I talked to the students and asked their majors. These students were admitted in the university because they wanted them to improve on their Oral English since China had joint as a member of global trade, World Trade Organization (WTO) and the country needed business partners to express in English so as to ease foreign customers coming into hotels, traveling and doing business. This program needed us the teachers to really help improve their day to day communication as to guarantee their search for jobs as soon as they graduate from college. Teachers were thus to interact with students to assist them in understanding western culture, telephone conversations, ethics, hotel management issues, Airport and train pick-ups issues and individual problems that could help students with specific learning goals. So I decided on looking for ways to encourage them talk and to make the class look interesting and lively.

The process of conducting the action research project

The process included posing a problem, seeking knowledge about this, planning an action, and revising the plan


POSING A PROBLEM

Just like Burns, I have been teaching ESL students at different levels and in each level I meet they have their own problems. The problem may arise from a combination of factors, a) no text books, b) no language environment, c) unwilling to learn a new language because there is no other hope for the student, d) cultural impact. These problems made the learners uncomfortable to talk in class. Many of the students were shy. I found out that in most of the classes I was almost talking alone. It was very necessary that I change this method into an interactive classroom that all the students will have a chance to talk. Most of the teachers were used to this teacher- centered approach where the students were always active listeners. Most of the students kept asking me everyday how they could improve their listening and speaking skills. I kept pondering on what to do. There were problems here and there;

A) It can sometimes be very difficult to teach ESL students without text books. Most often, the department head tells the teacher to teach the students interesting things. With the mad rush of teaching English in China, teachers are invited to bring in their own teaching materials and sometimes this may be very frustrating because novice teachers with no training come in and teach what ever comes in their mind until they are exhausted with their materials. As new as some teachers are, if there is no collaboration, it may really lead the learners to no way. Also, most of the schools which invite teachers are excited with the teaching of English and may just pick on any text book with out considering the levels of the learners and their different trades. Students for example doing Business or medicine are not trained to have any language to do with their contexts. So the school’s Language department needed curriculum designers to help shape textbooks or lesson plans according to the students’ trades or specializations that can make the students talk in the classrooms. So, there was the need for me to collaborate with the Head of Department and come up with some books that could also focus on their specializations and environment to help the students talk.
B) No language environment. Most of the students / pupils have not learnt English before and most of what some have had in their classrooms had to do with lone words or phrases which could not be constructed into sentences to make real sense. Discrepancies existed between teachers and students because of culture and inability of communicating. Most of the students were afraid to make mistakes. So there was the need for me to consult my colleagues to really see what was going on. In observing three of my Chinese colleagues’ classes, I found out that each short expression or word that was made in English was followed by Chinese translation or interpretation. The students did not reflect much in English and there was almost no class interaction. I just thought that may be it can be very difficult for the learners to speak when most of the time they are only listening and also feeling more comfortable with out tasks and writing. I started thinking of how to approach this issue. After reading from www.eslcafe.com, I got meaning suggestions and activities on the forum on how to deal with students that are not communicative in the class. After, familiarizing myself with some Chinese colleagues and my International officer who was very cooperative, I started discussing some of the difficulties I found in the students. Answering questions or talking in class was the most outstanding. I told them that I ask questions in class after an activity and nobody answers. Even after a movie show, students will laugh; none will ever raise the hand or answer the teacher’s questions. Even when I divide them into groups they will sit and only speak in Chinese. I asked my colleagues whether they experienced these kinds of difficulties too. I was informed about outdoor evening activities (English Corner). We organized seminars where we could meet to discuss some of our problems and also “English corners” where both teachers and students could meet around the college garden on weekly basis to express freely with their foreign teachers. Some of the students proposed things they will like the teacher to teach them in class. Some told me they would like to learn more about western culture. I developed topics about greetings, table manners, environmental care/hygiene, health- care, ways of traveling and the importance of traveling, the school environment, TV/ videos, Internet and computer technologies, love and marriage stories, how to manage telephone conversations in a business place, just to mention a few. I introduced an interesting debate topic and we discussed together and I requested them to develop topics of their choice and present in groups of four each. Some students brought up debate topics, others brought up sketches, role-plays and others decided to talk about the events that have taken place in China in the year 2008. I took these topics and we then drew a schedule on hoe to do the presentations. In each class of two hours two groups presented. In the first thirty minutes I will discuss with the students and later the groups will present their topics and could only be a facilitator.
C) Unwilling to learn the language because most of the students who are not English major feel English will take them no where. When I first asked them why they are not willing to put an effort in learning, they told me they are shy and they are afraid to make mistakes. One of my foreign colleagues told me that the manner in which most of the teachers’ correct errors was too discouraging for the students. You may find a teaching telling a student “You are wrong”, rather than saying “Give another alternative” Here I understood that approach or a teacher’s behavior in giving chance to students to answer a question may totally discourage a student in further attempting to answer a question. In actual fact most of the learners needed a lot of sensitization. In trying to talk to some about the importance of English as a world language and also advising many of the learners in kindergartens, language schools and universities where I have taught before, some of the students are now putting maximum effort to learn. But most students still indicate that they feel free in a foreign teachers’ language class than their Chinese English teachers’ classes. So I feel, may be more motivation and approaches are needed to be taught to the learners.
D) Cultural Impact. When I introduced some topics in my class, which have to do with religion, sex education, diseases, politics I found out that every student was totally quiet, even students I think they could try to say something about the topics, they remained silent. The bold student only told me “we are traditional people and we don’t talk about such things”. About religion and God, the students said “we believe in ourselves” When I was asked to teach Western culture, it was then that I could ask and really use a special motivating approach to have an interaction with my students. Since I also wrote a paper in one of my courses on HIV/ AIDS EDUCATION/ Towards Collaboration, I decided to have an advisory talk with my third year university students. I told them that as a foreigner teaching them, I feel they are my brothers and sisters and that it is my duty and responsibility to discuss with them so that they can prevent AIDS and also talk to other people about it since the province I am teaching in, is one with the highest number of HIV/AIDS patients in China. The class went on successfully since the talk and motivation reached a level where some of the students could ask questions. What I noticed was that some traditions prohibit most of the learners from questioning. Even the students testified that their Chinese teachers will never handle this kind of educational topic. Even my Chinese colleagues told me that they usually do not feel comfortable to teach these kinds of topics. This made me to understand that there was a problem of approach and cultural influence. It is from this perspective that I decided to carry out this research project. I have been in day to day discussions, discussing these issues with the teachers and administration. The Head of the International Exchange Department who studied in the United Kingdom and is aware of these problems facing the learners and teachers requested me to talk more often to them, when I have the opportunity. Gradually, both teachers and students are changing positively. There is improvement in manner of behavior and teaching styles now. More of my colleagues can come to me now when they are faced with certain problems in teaching. Students are opening up and getting nearer the teachers for their problems. They are no longer shy and most discuss with me more freely than ever because I made them to understand that I am learning Chinese and I am subject to making mistakes and it is like this with every leaner of a second Language. Most of them can choose their topics and discuss in class, except for those who might not want to choose which I may decide for them after inquiring why they have not done so yet
Since most of the students in the class were not responding to my questions, I made this the focus for my action project. I decided to carry on a project that will give the students opportunities to speak more and gain influence in English.

SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

As a teacher who has worked in an ESL class before, and knowing that most of the students are shy, I had to read and ask question in www.eslcafe.com/ teacher forums to enable me with answers how to go on with a static class that all the students were only listening(I wanted special speaking activities). I read many instructions from this forum and had different lesson plans and tasks that could help make my students talk with me. The teacher’s forum had so many games, videos online and songs that we could sing and talk about the meaning. I also traveled to another city and had an opportunity to go and observe a former colleague’s class who has been in China for long and was working with a language center where it was a must that the learners should communicate. I observed this class and was quite convinced that I could do something on my own students. The methods my senior colleague used for class interaction generated confidence in me to try them too. It had not been a usual habit for me to be calling names of students. I observed in one other colleagues class calling names, Chinese names, I had considered jaw- breaking to pronounce, but my colleague had given English names to all the students and they were sitting in a particular order. I also observed that calling them by names gave them more assurance and certainty with the teacher. He constantly called the students by name. I also understood that there were a lot of jokes and gestures in the class. The teacher used actions and body language to make the students understand many things and they responded to his questions. Some of the questions were evoking that some of the students could answer at random without name calls. All the teachers used the board for vocabulary and some expressions, what I had previously failed to do with the notion that I am teaching Oral or Conversational English. Some of the students could read and understand better than just understand orally, this I noted something new. After posing the problem, I had feed- back from my supervisor and colleagues who supplied me with many lesson plans and resources online which dealt with speaking activities that I could adapt for the learners. So I was convinced to try too.

PLANNING AN ACTION

Having carried out much research on speaking activities from colleagues and my supervisor, I was advised to enable another close colleague to watch my class or I should audiotape or videotape the sessions to refer back to the activities, the students’ performance and the amount of time they spend talking during each activity. I decided to videotape the session as this was going to be more practical and also to see the students’ behavior such as their willingness and interest. I thought it wise to first of all discuss an evoking topic with them and follow up with the video-tape to see their reaction whether I have been blocking them from interacting or they are really shy or it is a question that they lack the vocabulary and expression, or a cultural/ traditional problem. After this discussion which I noted was successful, I first of all decided to divide the whole class into groups of four each and at this time I requested the students to choose topics of interest and present in the form of debates, role plays, speeches. I emphasized that they should chose topics that would evoke discussions among us in the class. I had discussed about how to present speeches on stage, self- confidence, the importance of the voice, gestures, facial expression and had promised that the first three groups that performed well will receive a prize from me and the school. I videotaped some of the groups and made notes as some of them were presenting. Having had the opportunity to read Gebhard and Oprandy’s Language Teaching Awareness, I was able to draw many reflections from collaborative lessons and use many of these approaches in my project. In some of the topics presented, I could really see smiles, gestures on the students’ faces. As part of the activities, students watched movies and they were able to talk about a character they enjoyed in the movie and why. Others called their friends and asked a question about the movie they watched “suppose you were Troy, which of these will you choose, “Love or scholarship?” Some of the lazy students who did not find any topics, I gave them a variety of topics to choose one, discuss and present. The truth is that those students who chose their topics from heart were able to express and ask questions than the ones whom I imposed topics to do. Some of the students I imposed topics had not been coming to class; others were just negligent and opened their English books only during the class and will never write down anything, even vocabulary or assignments They came to class virtually with no note book. I observed classroom interaction and behavior of the students. How the students responded to the teacher’s and classmates’ questions. Then I developed more skills and resources on how students could talk in the classroom. The participants were second grade students in my university, doing Tourism and Management as their major. The rules of the game were that, when the students presented, they called others to answer their questions and members of the class could also ask questions.
When each group was presenting, I was writing down notes. I asked questions from each student basing on what they had presented. At one point I found out that most of the students were interested in asking questions and so I limited the number of questions I was asking and gave more time for the students to interact. I did so deliberately so as to encourage them speak, because when once they gain the confidence, they could now have courage at any time to cooperate in the class. Drilling them at first side was my target. Many of the students also made sure they asked me questions after their speech or presentation. I just made sure I jotted most of their errors. But some serious errors, I reacted immediately but in a polite manner, not to disturb communication fluency. I also requested the other students to be jotting errors so that we can correct them after. In order to make sure it was not completely memorization, I asked the speakers questions from their presentations and made sure I called them up the following week to revise their topic. Some did successfully. Some students could simply memorize the speeches and were unable to answer any question from the content of their speech the following week. However, that meant something to me and the students, because that was the beginning of interaction.

Apart from role-play, debates, presentations, other activities included, watching movies and giving impressions, listening and singing songs and talking about the meaning and vocabulary. Some students were involved in story telling (animal stories, trickster tales), News Broadcasting, TV/radio news, interview, comprehension passages, reproduction of a dialogue, especially of great people, cartoon stories, shopping, telephone etiquettes, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of computer and internet, drawing illustrated diagrams on the board and talking about. Another group of students saved beautiful pictures of four countries in a flash disc and presented to the class before describing and talking why they would like to live there. Another group talked about the events that happened in China in 2008( Bad weather killing people in winter, An earthquake in May, killing about 80.000 people, Olympic Games in Beijing bringing in millions of people and the Shenzhou 7 Space Ship travel . From some of the students’ presentations I really discovered that teachers are constantly blocking opportunities to learn from the students and also blocking them from learning how to communicate. From the way some of the students cooperated in the class, their ability to ask questions to their friends and also engage into dialogues, I understood that if more opportunities are given to them to practice their English, they will excel. We also made informal activities like creating Music clubs/ English Clubs, football and basket ball clubs where we could meet and discuss with each other.
One of the most interesting projects I carried out was assigning a video task. Since I was made to understand that the students like watching movies for watching sake, I carried out a project in this area which could benefit the ESL learners and the teachers and even other target language learners. Although I have showed them films of interest before, I decided to write a task on the board and let the students maintain their groups of four each. I asked them to watch the movie, “High School Musical 2” and discuss the activities in the movie and also talk their feelings about the characters. I defined what activity is and what character is. I requested the students to feel free in expressing their feelings and opinions about the activities and the characters. I called their attention and explained to them that I am working in China because I want them to talk with me, interact in class and when I talk and there is no feed back or reaction from the students, I feel they do not understand. We all together agreed that if they do not interact or share their opinions and ask questions about the movie, I will never show them movies again. They were prepared to be serious this time and not to watch a movie just for the sake of watching. The students also had to compare both activities and characters to their personal life. This film’s theme focused around American class activities, summer activities like going to the beach, swimming, golf, base-ball, basket-ball, love, singing and part-time jobs. The students’ ages in the film ranged from 18- 21 years old which reflected those of my students in class.
This movie activity took place for a month. I divided a two hours movie into a series and the students watched and expressed their opinions about the characters and their activities. When the students were discussing in their different groups, I was video-taping and also taking down some notes because I could not video everything. For the first time in a video class, I saw vivid facial expressions of happiness. The movie moved most of the students and some interacted even without thinking that they were shy. There was laughter, praises in the classroom. During our short breaks some of the students were already asking me questions about the movie. We divided the two hours movie and watched in different sessions. Since we had 7 groups of 4 each, two of the groups presented after the first session. After their presentation, they asked questions from the other students and also asked me questions about some of the characters in the movie. The students sitting as audience also decided to ask questions from individual members of the groups presenting. After watching all the movie and having had all the groups presented, I decided to watch the video tape with the students to see how improved they had gone in class interaction. Many students were very excited to see how they were performing. Although some were shy, it was an area of interest for them to improve their listening and speaking skills.

THE OUTCOME OF THE MOVIE

After watching a video of their own performance, I decided to call individual students to answer my questions about the movie. First understanding that they were unable to ask questions, I had an active class with them using WH-questions, where, when, what, why who and how and assigned them to write down five questions each for me to check. The students were able to remember the scenes of the movie and could remember the different roles performed by the different characters. 10 students in a class of 30 asked me individual questions using why, when, how and what. Of the 30 students 15 students volunteered to ask questions from the other groups. In each group that performed, at least four students volunteered to ask their classmates questions. I became a facilitator, and each time I wanted to ask a question, a student was preparing to put up his or her hand too, so I gave them more opportunities to discuss. In my thought I felt that instead of designing only listening comprehension and reading comprehension for students, movie watching is also necessary because the learners need it. Even if they do not understand they are able to guess what the characters do and will be motivated in talking about it. I designed movie watching and listening comprehension class and think this can bring along classroom interaction.
As a teacher and also an actor, I also made my students watch the movie that we have acted titled, “China Wahala.” When the students found their teaching acting several roles in the movie, they were motivated and were very free to ask me as many questions as possible. The sketch of “China Wahala” could be watched from www.youtube.com. Students asked me if I were a cheat, or an accomplice in the movie, and whether the actions I do in the movie, do I practice them in daily life? I read from many authors too to get their thought about making ESL students talk in class. Another great technique of making students talk in ESL class can be seen through Gertrude Moskowitz’s humanistic teaching: Caring and Sharing in Foreign Language Class (Heinle and Heinle) and The Foreign Teacher Interacts (Amidon Publications). Her most recent interest is multicultural education. Teaching foreign languages entails learning and talking about other cultures and also involving the learners to share in these different cultures for better understanding. Moskowitz wishes all teachers to involve in “Teacher- in- role”, a technique that second language teachers can use to get celebrities and other guests to come to their classes. Simply stated, teacher -in- role is where teachers themselves portray people other than themselves in their classes. In other words, the teacher changes roles (disappears, so to speak, so to speak, from the class) and becomes someone else instead. For one thing, it becomes a surprise to the class. That is, it’s not announced that you are taking on a new identity. So what you can do is to mention that a guest is coming to the class the day before or that day and then leave the class to”find the guest” who seems to be lost or waiting in the office to be escorted to the class. Or you can arrive a few minutes late after your class is seated and enter in role. Or the class may be working in groups or on a written assignment and you slip out momentarily to put whatever simple costume is needed to become the new persona. Or if the costume change is slight, such as putting a mask ache or a type of hat or carrying a fan, you turn your back to the class for a moment, make the change, and upon facing the class again, you’re now in the role. At any rate, whichever means you choose, you are now decked in whatever paraphernalia you need to be the expected or unexpected guest
As soon as you go in the role and become that character the students just fall into role with you. It is fun and the class is both surprised and fascinated, but you always have linguistic purposes for doing teacher-in- role things you want the students to learn, experience, practice, or have reinforced. It is an effective way to teach and communicate certain aspects of the target language or culture. I remember, in one of our role plays we staged a short sketch on eating habits in China (Someone eating, many dishes on the table, chopsticks, spitting- by, bulging aloud, drinking and smoking at the same time) and also showed a movie on western eating habits(A few dishes, spoons, fork, table knives table napkins etc, no smoking. Then we compared the eating habits of both cultures and the students discussed which were better.
I sometimes, just like Gertrude do, perform my role in our movie “China Wahala” and also play the roles of other movie stars, sing songs and play the guitar.
Here are some comments from students after interested teachers- in- roles perform:

“The presentation was very stimulating. It gave the teacher a chance to teach us in a more entertaining way”

“Even though we knew it was our teacher, she never stopped acting as we asked her questions, which made it more realistic.” “The costume and extensive knowledge about Frida were very helpful. Good job!”

“I definitely would like other presentations like this as it gives students a chance to see and learn things first- hand. It makes the class exciting.”

Penny Ur, (2006) Cambridge University Press, a famous teacher and writer states that effective learning of a foreign language depends crucially on repetition. But repetition is boring, so one of the most important goals of foreign language teaching is to make repetition interesting. The stages of learning language items:
a) From dependence to independence: It is not that learners move from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing’, but rather from not knowing at all to ‘noticing’ to ‘ knowing if you remind and support them’ and finally to knowing on their own’(Vygotzky, 1978)
b) From passive recognition to active production. Learners normally achieve passive mastery (recognizing something when they see it but wouldn’t have been able to produce it on their own) before they achieve active mastery. So in all, there are at least four stages in the gradual acquisition of new language items: 1) the learner perceives and ‘notices’ the new item, with help
2) The learner can recognize it only if helped, can’t reproduce
3) The learner can recognize it on his/her own, but can produce it if helped
4) The learner can both recognize and reproduce it on his /her own

What we can learn from Ur’s research?
a) Adults / adolescents need between 6 and 16 encounters with a new word before they can remember it (Zahar et al., 2001). Younger learners probably even need more.
b) ‘Distributed practice is probably better than ‘massed’ (Baddeley, 1990).
So probably we need to do an immense amount of deliberate re-cycling of new language (letters, sounds words, ‘chunks’, and grammatical structures). This recycling, or repetition, needs to be scattered (‘distributed’), not all in one go.
So we should be leading constant ‘cumulative’ review exercises.

In my classes, what I have noticed is that when I am speaking, some students spend their time looking at my mouth and repeating just what I am saying. Well, I have never said anything concerning this, but I always make sure, I write new vocabulary and expressions on the blackboard and I read and they repeat. As some sort of practice I may define a word and ask a student to look for the word on the board and there after, we repeat it. For example, I may say it is some one who usually receives calls and directs people in a hotel or in an office, then I will expect the students to look from other groups of words and say ‘receptionist’ , then all of us will then repeat the word. Other students may take turns to define and others search on the board. Rather than just reading the words, it is sometimes very interesting like this. So the learners always need the help of the teacher. Some students bring their electronic dictionaries in class which equally helps them listen to the sound, but it is more important to listen to the teacher and pronounce together because the melodious sound can also help in keeping the word.

An Example of a Lesson plan (Developing students to speak in class)

A movie class: For this activity, the teacher shows a movie in the class and the students watch and discuss in groups of 4 each and present their opinions, summarize, talk about characters in the movie in front of the class. After their presentation, they will call their classmates/ audience to ask questions and also answer questions from them. The teacher sometimes asks questions or the students ask the teacher a question as well. Sometimes students may choose their own movies to watch
Title of movie: In this research, I requested the students to watch “High School Musical 2” and “China Wahala 1” and talk about the meaning, the characters and the activities. The learners would be able to talk about the characters they admire and why.
Level of Students: Second year students in university. Travel major students.
Equipment / resources required
Computer, internet, word processor, Multimedia software (Hyper studio, power point.
Classroom Organization (pairs, groups, class, individuals)
Estimated Time: 2 hours every week.

Driving Question: Watch the movies and in your groups discuss and make a presentation in front of the class. Talk about the characters you admire or hate and why. Also talk about some of the activities in the movies

Objectives:
- Write, listen and present information to express thoughts and feelings.
- Connect stories to personal experiences. On stage present and also ask questions from the audience. The audience will also ask speakers questions.
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Curriculum resources / Designing activities for interaction

Some of the speaking activities, which I designed for my research, are: These activities if well used by the teacher and students can bring a very interactive class.


Activity 1: Greetings/ Introductions- Students greet each other and introduce themselves and where they come from. Talk about things that are famous in their home town. Teachers may write all this on the board and ask students to write on the back of their books to read everyday. This may also be written and pasted in the classroom as posters.
Activity 2: Geographical literacy- City, Town, and All Around- Acquiring language through …Discussion, naming places, describing places, using maps to identify important places in the community, and total physical response. Watching and talking about “Nature”. From National Geography” e.g., life of animals, birds, aquatic life, aviation, world of science etc, world of work, professions.
Objective: To use who, what, and where, how, when questions in order to understand living together.
Group size: six equal groups
Materials needed: Reproducible 24(one per group); map of your city, town, or region; promotional materials, visitors’ information, and local newspapers with pictures of points of interest in your city, town or region; colored marking pens; masking tape.
Activity 3: Movies: For this activity, the teacher shows a movie in the class and the students watch and discuss in groups of 4 each and present their opinions, summarize, talk about characters in the movie in front of the class. After their presentation, they will call their classmates/ audience to ask questions and also answer questions from them. The teacher sometimes asks questions or the students ask the teacher a question as well. Sometimes students may choose their own movies to watch.
Activity 4: short stories and plays: The student would be asked to choose a short story, play or novel to read. During the session, she would summarize the reading and give her opinion and feelings about the events and characters in it.
Activity 5: Computer/TV/ Radio news: Before the class, students would be assigned to watch computer/ TV or listen to radio news and take notes on at least 3 news items. During the session, he would then first restate the news, and then talk about the issues mentioned in it.
Activity 6: Questionaires (oral interview) – Instructions to students:
These questions can be answered by more than one person. Each member of your group will be interviewed by the others. In this way everyone gets a chance to ask as well as answer questions.
Use this guide for the questions and answers. For Name you ask the question: “What is your name?” For Age: “How old are you?” For Date of birth: When were you born?” And so on.
Questions Answer
(a) Name (My name is)………
(b) Age (I am)……… (Years old)
(c) Date of birth (I was born on)………..
(d) Place of birth …………………
(e) Address ………………..
(f) Brothers and sisters ………………
(g) Favorite subjects at school ……….

Now make up your own questions.
At the end of the interview decide how well each person being interviewed has done. You may award marks.
Activity 7: Group Activity:
a) In this activity the learners would work in pairs: Students could talk about the food they like, what their parents do, the games they play, clothes that are in fashion, motor cars, aviation, famous people in all walks of life. Other activities could be word games and puzzles, finding directions in a maze, drawing up rules and regulations for a club or a school
b) Instructions for students
You are members of a committee of prefects in your college. The job of your committee is to draw up a list of rules and regulations to be enforced by the prefects in the college. Talk about the things your schoolmates should and should not do. Then write out the rules.
Here are a few dos (that is things they should do) and don’ts (the things they should not do). Use them as a basis for writing your own. Add as many as you can, then prepare them for display on the notice board.
Dos Don’ts
1. Be punctual in getting to school. 1. Don’t be rude to your teachers.
2. Be neat and tidy in your appearance. 2. Don’t make noise in the library
3. Throw your rubbish in the dustbin. 3. Don’t drop bits of food in the classroom
4. Take your proper place when lining up.4. Don’t fight in class or on the school
Premises.
……………………………………………. …………………………………………
……………………………………………. …………………………………………
……………………………………………. …………………………………………

Activity 8: “Teachers- in-role”- Teacher- in- role”, a technique that second language teachers can use to get celebrities and other guests to come to their classes. Simply stated, teacher -in- role is where teachers themselves portray people other than themselves in their classes. In other words, the teacher changes roles (disappears, so to speak, so to speak, from the class) and becomes someone else instead. For one thing, it becomes a surprise to the class. That is, it’s not announced that you are taking on a new identity. So what you can do is to mention that a guest is coming to the class the day before or that day and then leave the class to “find the guest” who seems to be lost or waiting in the office to be escorted to the class. You could be Bill Clinton, Mandela, George Bush, Obama, or Michael Jackson, the pop star. Any role you choose to play. You just go into role and become that character, and the rest is easy because they will just fall into role with you. If a few don’t follow your lead, just remain strictly in character and they will soon go along with you. You may give a speech and students will ask you questions.
Activity 9: Music and song in discussion: As most teachers find out, students love listening to music in the language classroom. It can also be a teaching tool. Often students hold strong views about music and students who are usually quiet can become very talkative when discussing it.
In many cases the teacher plays a song, the students can watch the lyrics if possible and he leads a discussion/vocabulary on the meaning of the song. This is one of the many ways that music or song can lead a fruitful discussion. For example, some good song titles which could also be got from www.youtube.com are:
a) ‘ love’ by West life
b) ‘I have a dream’ by West life
c) ‘Take me to your heart’ by Michael Lens
d) ‘Heal the world,’’ We are the world’ ‘Black or White’ by Michael Jackson
e) ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’ by Boney M.
In fact students can learn a lot through songs, music and poetry. In this activity some students could express their ideas on their favorite songs and singers.
Activity 10: Reading passages or dialogues in magazines or textbooks. Learners could also listen or watch from tapes. During or before sessions the student would be given a short passage or dialogue to read or listen; he would then be asked comprehension questions. A discussion on the topic covered in the passage or dialogue would be followed.

Activity 11: Noticing: Simply display; pictures and explanation; (significant occurrence in a story; chants, songs
Activity 12: Recognition: Matching true/false; classifying; multiple choice; drawing; ‘bingo’
Activity 13:‘Scaffold’ Production: recitations; dialogues learnt by heart ;( prepared) dictation; games based on set basic patterns; answering (lower-level) questions. For example, in this activity, a student could represent a traveler coming from another country and could call to book for a hotel. In a dialogue, another student could represent the hotel manager. The traveler should talk about the kind of room, when he arrives and should arrange for a pick up.
Activity 14: Independent Production (unprepared) dictation; response to picture; answering (higher- level) questions; discussion; free writing.
Activity 15: Dictionary word description: In this activity, the students’ pair up and one of them defines a word or gives several descriptions of a word without mentioning it, for the other to guess the word. They exchange roles. For example, it is a thing used to search information, write fast letters, buy and sell goods, telephone. The other student should say “it is a computer/internet.” This activity develops learners’ vocabulary and expressions. Many of the students are excited to do this activity. They learn to communicate fast through this way, instead of just using words in isolation.


HOW THE ACTIVITIES WORKED

Some of the above activities were applied in different sessions with the students. I videotaped some of the activities and made notes on each student’s interest. In a class of 30 students nearly all of them indicated strong interest in watching movies and commenting on them. They also showed a strong desire looking at pictures and asking question or describing them. Students in their groups, 4 each or pairs presented in front of the class, for about 20 to 25 minutes per group. Their class mates were also excited to ask them questions. Other students presented sketches and asked each other’s opinion about the characters they were representing. Another student for example talked about VIP’s and asked their friends whether they think “VIP’s” should integrate in front of them at the banks or any where, where people are standing to do something. Students gave their different opinions and I feel this also brought in a lot of discussions. Mean while other students also developed a topic on “how others treat Anger”. The topic on dictionary word description was also entertaining as many of the students changed roles to describe something and their friends guess the word. This brought a lot of excitement and joy in the class while they were doing this activity
Their interest in watching movies (activity 3), giving the meaning, talking about the characters and asking questions to their friends showed a lot of interaction. This is one of the ways of developing students’ interest to talk in class especially in a class where students are too shy or not motivated. When I videotaped some of the activities, I reviewed the tapes to see approximately the amount of time each student spent in talking and to see who the initiator of the speaking act was, I discovered that I did not speak so much as before and much of the speaking was done by the students. In a two hours class, I could speak like 30 minutes in facilitating students’ tasks, especially as the students were able to discuss about certain characters in the movies that reflected their daily lives. As the students asked and answered question about the movies, “High Musical” and “China Wahala”, I could not underestimate their listening ability as I thought the actions in the two movies also helped in their understanding and interaction. This was mostly in their tutorial classes. This really developed their interest in speaking. The movie, song and music class was one of the most exciting. Among other activities that provided meaningful contexts for the students to practice their speaking skills were greetings and introduction (activity 1), geographical literacy (activity 2), short stories and plays (activity 4), Computer/TV/ Radio news (activity5), Questionnaires (oral interview)( activity 6), Group Activity(activity 7), “Teachers- in-role”- Teacher- in- role”( activity 8). Apart from these activities, daily activities in teaching the students had been doing reading and listening comprehension. In fact taking the students out of class to breath fresh air can make them to reflect and speak more than sitting in the classroom all the times in an oral English lesson. They would be able to describe the environment outside than read or listen to the teacher all the times. A realistic acceptance of limitations in the classroom setting is necessary, in view of current emphases on communication as a goal in second and foreign language teaching. We cannot physically bring into the classroom a market, a railway station, a hotel lobby or a post office, in order to practice use of language. Neither can we wave a magic wand and transform students into real buyers and sellers, ticket collectors, receptionists, or clerks. Games, movies, and simulated activities are one thing, the reality is quite another. Some students are able to shift nearer the teacher outside the classroom to ask or explain their problems. We should note this and also recognize the fact that “patience” should be the name of a second language teacher.

RESULTS OF MY RESEARCH

At the beginning of my research, I did not know exactly what to teach the students as they could neither answer my questions nor ask theirs. But when I did the findings and developed the above activities the learners were very excited with some than others. This guided me to know what to always do with them since my task was to make them learn how to speak. I understood in my research that I could not limit myself to their textbook alone and went ahead to develop many activities which we tried and succeeded in some. I was able to choose what would work for my students than trying to apply the most recent and popular methods and activities. From this experience, I told my colleagues in a meeting we had that they can also benefit from observing their students and analyzing the circumstances and conditions under which learning experiences are accomplished. I also learnt that the teacher should not be concerned with searching for the best method but, rather, should be concerned with the students and trying to find out what works for them. This can really form the basis for developing a student –centered classroom. We all understand the fact that a dynamic and interact ional classroom makes both teachers and students very happy. Some of the activities like music and song were interesting but the students need time and continuous practice to keep the songs. They enjoyed the songs and I brought out vocabulary, meaning and expressions but recalling the melody was a problem. I think, I will take some of the songs and play at relaxation moments or as motivation resources to make them remember. We included “jingle bells” and “we wish you a merry Christmas to the other titles” I still have to improve on activity 11,(noticing ) and activity 13, (scaffold production) and activity 14,(independent production, unprepared), as the students were still unable to discuss freely without preparing. From this research I have learnt a lot, because I now understand what can quickly work in my classes. I am now trying to modify the activities which did not work well in order to improve the learners talking ability. A lot of patience is needed to motivate learners talk especially adults who have never had a speaking environment.















APPRECIATION

Special thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Yeoman, my instructor and supervisor who tirelessly motivated me in this project and in my whole Master’s Program. I also thank Angel, my wife and Brian, my son who continuously supported me with food and entertainment when I was hungry and worried.
















References:


1) Language Teaching Awareness: A guide to Exploring Beliefs and Practices. Jerry G. Gebhard, Robert Oprandy.

2) How Language works by David Crystal

3) English Language Teaching: An Integrated Approach. David Williams.

4) Information and guidance from the Instructor. Dr. Yeoman E.

5) Online forums: www.caslt.org/esl , www.eslcafe.com/teacherforums

6) Making Repetition Interesting. Cambridge University press. Ur

7) Spell bound in the Language Class: A Strategy of Surprise. (Volume III- 1995- 1996) by Gertrude Moskotwitz

8) Accuracy and correcting mistakes. Cambridge University Press by Penny Ur (nd)

9) Teaching Heterogeneous classes. Cambridge University Press.( 2006) by Penny Ur

10) Hess, N. (2001) Teaching Large Multilevel Classes. Cambridge University Press.

11) Ur, P. (1996) A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University press.

12) Murphey, T. (1990) Music and Song. Oxford University Press.









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