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Understanding the impact of task design on learners’ willingness to speak 

Have you noticed that in some classes and with some speaking activities, learners are more actively engaged than with others? Have you ever wondered why? One social factor is the group atmosphere. This is centrally important to how comfortable and safe learners feel in a class generally, and it can notably impact learners’ willingness to speak up.  

 

However, another social factor affecting learner engagement concerns the speaking activity itself. How a speaking task is set up can influence how anxious a learner feels about speaking and how willing they are to interact with others. For example, compare how it feels to talk to strangers about something you know little about with no prior warning with how it feels to talk to a friend about a topic you are passionate about and know lots about. There are three main dimensions of a speaking activity that we can pay attention to, in order to lower anxiety and enhance learners’ willingness to engage: 

1. The topic and level of preparedness.

Learners need two main things in order to feel prepared to engage in a speaking task: (1) They need knowledge and ideas of what to say about the topic; (2) and they need the language to be able to talk about it. When learners feel adequately prepared, it lowers their anxiety and helps them feel confident enough to engage. One way of contributing to this is to also ensure that task instructions are clearly articulated, and any complex task is broken down into manageable steps so learners know what is expected of them and how to proceed.  

 

Regarding the topic itself, teachers may consider offering pre-speaking activities to trigger initial thinking and brainstorming, or they may give input on a topic. Obviously, if learners are being asked to talk about their favourite film, they may need less preparation time to talk spontaneously than if they were being asked to discuss a topic where they may need to gather their thoughts, such as if asked to make suggestions of how to live in a more environmentally respectful way.  

 

In terms of language, again, it depends on how familiar learners are with the topic and its related field of vocabulary. If it is a new or less familiar topic area, it can help learners to do some explicit vocabulary work or brainstorming of expressions to equip learners with the language they need to take part.  

 

Another dimension that can impact on learners’ willingness to speak is the topic itself. How interesting will they find the task? How personally relevant or meaningful is it? Taking time to find out about learner interests or what aspects of a topic learners could find interesting is worthwhile as it can notably boost learners’ motivation to speak about the topic.  

2. Interlocutors

 This refers to speaking partners and who learners are being asked to talk to. In some ways, reflecting on interlocutors ties in together with a consideration of the topic. Learners need to feel safe talking about a specific topic with a particular partner. For low-risk topics and themes that are not too personal, they may be comfortable working with diverse peers. However, especially at the start of the course or in respect to more sensitive topics, learners may prefer to work with a friend who they know well and are familiar with. Sometimes teachers allow students to choose their partners and sometimes they may assign partners. Occasionally, it is useful to have learners work with people they know less well to provide an authentic reason to talk such as when they do not know each other’s hobbies or favourite films. This can also strengthen overall group dynamics, but mixing up learners for speaking tasks needs handling with care depending on the task and topic.  

3. Focus on communication and fluency before accuracy.

There are many different types of speaking activity. Sometimes we may want learners to practise a specific language form and the focus may be more on the use of language than general fluency and communication. In this case, teachers have to think carefully how to note down aspects of language they wish to give feedback on and when. Interrupting a learner while speaking and providing feedback in front of others can be very damaging to their self-confidence (LINK) and may negatively affect their future willingness to speak. It is less face-threatening to make note of language issues you become aware of as you move around the class and then address them anonymously with the whole class. This allows language issues to be picked up on, but nobody feels especially focused on. 

 

Ideally, speaking activities are primarily used for boosting learner communication skills and enhancing fluency. The key is to get learners to actively use the language, not worry about accuracy but focus instead on getting their message across to their partner. The more they speak, the better they will become. Work with speaking activities where the focus is on communicating such as in problem-solving tasks, opinion discussions, storytelling, drama activities, interviews, or imagination activities. Crucially, tell learners explicitly that mistakes are unimportant for such tasks; explain you are more interested in them using the language creatively and actively to get their message across than the accuracy of the language they use to do this. Tell them it counts as a success if their partner can understand and respond! 

 

A low-anxiety speaking task is one where the learner understands the task, feels adequately prepared to complete it (with ideas and language), where they feel comfortable with their speaking partner(s), and where they do not have to worry about mistakes as the focus is on getting their message across. Thinking about the set up of speaking tasks can be critical to their success. These reflective questions may help you think about speaking tasks you work with:  

  1. How prepared in terms of ideas and language do learners need to be in order to work on this task? 
  2. How interesting or motivating is the topic for learners? 
  3. To what extent do learners need to work with a familiar partner(s) for this task/topic in order to feel comfortable, or could it be a task to work on with a less familiar peer from class?  
  4. Is this task designed to focus on communicating an authentic message rather than concentrating on accuracy of language use?  
  5. Are learners aware of the focus on communication and not accuracy?  

 

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Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several books in this area including, Exploring Psychology for Language Teachers (2015, with Marion Williams and Stephen Ryan), Teacher Wellbeing (2020, with Tammy Gregersen), and Engaging Language Learners in Contemporary Classrooms (2020, with Zoltán Dörnyei). She has published over 150 book chapters and journal articles and has served as Principal Investigator on several funded research projects. In 2018, she was awarded the Robert C. Gardner Award for excellence in second language research by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP). Sarah is the auhor of this paper.


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5 Ways to Motivate Students with Classroom Technology

At one time or another, most teachers will experience a lack of student motivation in the classroom. This is especially true following the Covid-19 pandemic. The sudden shift from in-person to online learning caused many disruptions within the English language classroom. However, it also highlighted the benefits of teaching with technology in our increasingly digital world. Our paper on Using Technology to Motivate Learners found that technology can have a positive impact on student motivation.

In this article, you will find 5 ways to boost motivation by teaching with technology. We will also highlight some of the ways OUP can support you, such as through our 360° Interactive Image feature designed to seamlessly introduce technology into the English language classroom.

How can technology motivate learners?

By teaching your students to learn with technology, you hand them the tools for life-long and life-wide learning both inside and outside the classroom. Technology can improve student motivation by:

1. Enabling situated learning: Technology is becoming an increasingly important part of many students’ lives. When you incorporate technology into your lessons, you show students that learning can take place anywhere, including the digital spaces they interact with daily.
2. Offering wide English exposure: Digital learning introduces students to language in a variety of entertaining and engaging contexts. They can learn English through interacting with webpages, games, articles, videos, and many more authentic, real-world resources.
3. Personalizing learning: Many digital learning spaces, such as websites and e-books, incorporate a wide variety of interactive media and activities. This gives students enough space to explore each environment using their unique interests and experiences as a guide.
4. Teaching autonomy and competence: While exploring digital spaces, students learn to make decisions and create meaning. In doing so, they gain skills, such as digital literacy and autonomy, that will help them sustain their own learning.
5. Supporting social learning: In the age of social media, many students form social connections online as well as face-to-face. You can plan fun, socially relevant lessons by incorporating technology into group activities or encouraging students to interact within digital learning spaces. This also creates an opportunity to teach your students internet safety and productive digital socialization.

How can OUP support me in the classroom?

On our PD homepage, we offer a broad range of professional development resources in a variety of formats. Our Digital Literacies module supports you in teaching with technology and expanding your own digital literacies. We have also designed coursebooks with digital features intended to support the seamless introduction of technology into your English language curriculum.

For example, our 360° Interactive Image feature uses technology to improve student motivation in the classroom. Simple controls allow students to look around in any direction and explore locations ranging from the bottom of the ocean to the international space station. This unique form of situated learning teaches students to see the world around them as a learning space.

Hotspots click to reveal audio and video clips, articles, infographics, and more, offering students English language exposure in a wide variety of contexts. The images place students’ interests and experiences at the heart of learning by encouraging them to personalize their learning process and choose which media they will focus on. Along the way, they will gain skills in learner autonomy and digital literacy. Each image links to one of our coursebooks, providing students with group activities that support social learning. Finally, a Teacher’s Guide provides you with clear guidance on incorporating 360° Images into your lesson plans.

Learn more about 360° Interactive Images and take a free trial.

 


Stephanie Silva is an Assistant Marketing Manager at Oxford University Press. She joined the Press last year working on the Global Campaigns team within the English Language Teaching Division. She believes that language changes lives and stories inspire empathy and imagination


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Help second language learners overcome their fear of speaking

Use it or lose it! This phrase points to a key truth about language learning: We learn a language by using it. As teachers, our aim is therefore to encourage learners to become confident, comfortable speakers in the target language – not only as an end goal of language learning but also because doing so contributes positively to the learning process. The more learners use the language, the better they will become and the more confidence they will gain. Using the language successfully can trigger a positive spiral in which success creates facilitative conditions for yet more success. So, how do we get learners to overcome their fears and inhibitions?

 

In this blog, we explore what underlies learners’ reluctance to speak up in the language. In particular, we focus on core issues such as their fear of making mistakes, their worries about negative evaluation, a tendency to perfectionism, unrealistic expectations, and frustration about not being able to fully express themselves. To understand how these issues affect learners, it is helpful to consider them from two perspectives: (1) individual factors which refer to how learners feel about their language-speaking abilities and what they believe about language learning, and (2) social factors which refer to how they feel about the context in which they have to speak including the task they have to complete and people they have to talk with.

The good news for teachers is that we can positively impact both sets of factors which work together. We can take action to promote positive frames of mind among our learners which empower them to speak up, and we can also shape and design our classrooms and tasks so that they reduce learners’ inhibitions and facilitate a greater willingness to use the language.

 

This visual presents five of the key issues that hold learners back from using the language. We will briefly introduce each of them here to raise awareness of how individual and social factors can work together to impact on learners’ willingness to speak up. In five separate blogs, we will then explore each factor in more depth focusing on the active steps teachers can take to combat such inhibitory factors.

 

Aspects of the social context

Not every speaking situation is fraught with the same level of anxiety – chatting with a friend alone is not the same as giving a presentation to the whole class with the teacher assigning a grade to the performance. Understanding that the social setting matters to how comfortable learners are using the language is empowering as it provides teachers with key areas to work on. There are two aspects where teachers can take action in this regard: (1) promoting positive group dynamics (i.e., the levels of trust and quality of relationships between students as a group), and (2) reducing anxiety in the immediate speaking context (i.e., what are learners being asked to talk about, how prepared do they feel, and who are they are talking with, and who is listening? Is the focus of the task on communication or accuracy?).

 

The learner’s frame of mind about speaking

The second aspect that affects learners’ willingness to use the language is how they feel about themselves and language learning more generally. If learners do not believe practising the language is important or that they can improve their skills or that mistakes are necessary for growth, they are likely to avoid actively taking part in speaking opportunities.

To help learners develop a facilitative frame of mind which encourages them to use the language, there are three key areas we can work on: (1) Promoting a growth mindset (i.e., helping learners to understand that everyone can improve their language skills and mistakes are useful in that process); (2) boosting self-confidence (i.e., helping them to recognize their own progress and become aware of their successes, and providing support so tasks feel manageable); and (3) helping learners regulate their emotions and, specifically, lower their anxiety (i.e., teaching them about their emotions, how to recognize signs of stress, and coping strategies for managing negative emotions effectively). When learners have a positive frame of mind about using the language, then they are more likely to get speak up as they worry less about being judged and focus on the opportunity to practise their skills and communicate with others.

 

Reflective questions

Here are some questions to help you think in concrete terms about your own learners and what areas you might wish to explore in more depth. As you read the series of blog posts on each of these issues, think about a specific group of learners you work with. Consider how the issues raised concern your group of learners as individuals and/or as a group and which of the suggestions you would feel comfortable working with in your setting.

  • How would you describe the group climate in your class?
  • Is there anything you could do to further strengthen the trust and respect among your learners?
  • What aspects of task set-up do you actively consider when planning a speaking task in class?
  • In what ways do you seek to promote a growth mindset about language learning among your students?
  • How confident do you think your learners feel about their speaking in English and how might this differ across task types?
  • What do you do in class to lower learner anxiety?
  • What do you hope to gain by reading this series of blog posts?
  • What action steps will you take to try out ideas in your context as appropriate?

 

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Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several books in this area including, Exploring Psychology for Language Teachers (2015, with Marion Williams and Stephen Ryan), Teacher Wellbeing (2020, with Tammy Gregersen), and Engaging Language Learners in Contemporary Classrooms (2020, with Zoltán Dörnyei). She has published over 150 book chapters and journal articles and has served as Principal Investigator on several funded research projects. In 2018, she was awarded the Robert C. Gardner Award for excellence in second language research by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP). Sarah is the author of this paper.


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Volunteer Teaching: My Experience Teaching English To Refugees

Leanne and her students during her volunteer teaching tripThe Project

Two Americans, Two Brits, a Spaniard, an Australian, a Swede, a Polish, a Norwegian and an Italian. The small (but mighty) team that built the new free shop known as the Szafa Dobra or Wardrobe of good in Krakow, Poland. Over just a few weeks this small team of volunteers working for Drapen I havet/A drop in the Ocean and Internationale Bund Polska rallied to set up the free shop. From finding a location to stripping and painting walls to sourcing electricity and unpacking countless cardboard boxes, it was no easy task. Not only this, but the team were also volunteer teaching in the evenings – a busy few weeks! Continue reading


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5 English Language Rules For Winning At Wordle!

Win at wordleWhat do ‘basic’, ‘truth’, and ‘style’ have in common? Well, they are five-letter words in the English Language and possible contenders for the daily Wordle!

Wordle is an online word game that was originally created by software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner and, since its creation, it has soared in popularity. Millions of people (including me) are now joining the fun, confusing our family and friends by posting multicoloured squares on newsfeeds everywhere. And it’s free to play – all you need is internet access! Continue reading