Karen Saxby is co-author of the course Fun for Starters, Movers and Flyers and author of the Storyfun for Starters, Movers and Flyers series. In her webinar, she offered advice on keeping young learners motivated in the classroom. In this series, Karen follows up some of the questions that came up during the webinar with a few additional thoughts, including the importance of a supporting environment.
How would you engage and encourage a shy young learner who lacks confidence in speaking and listening?
Emotions can get in the way of joining in. Some learners, when they speak, will worry about classmates laughing at them or are afraid they’ll make mistakes, or just don’t like being the focus of attention. If learners are scared they are unlikely to even say words they know.
So firstly, it’s really important to try to get everyone supporting each other so everyone feels as included and safe as possible. Build group trust and confidence initially by:
- not putting any pressure on individuals to expand answers. Saying just one word is fine if that’s all a learner can say for the moment.
- making sure questions are understood (paraphrase or use L1 to clarify if necessary)
- eliciting vocabulary and chunks of language that are already known (eg: I really like +ing)
- keeping speaking activities fun and not too long
- encouraging funny or unpredictable answers (good for creative thinking!) eg, I really like living on the moon.
- looking relaxed so learners know you’re happy with their participation (however short!)
- not interrupting the learner who is speaking (not letting classmates interrupt him/her either)
- putting ‘mistakes’ in your back pocket for later reference – avoid stopping the flow to correct mistakes. This can impede attempts at fluency and, more importantly, potentially shames the child in an open class. An ashamed child won’t want to be ‘seen’ or ‘heard’ (possibly for a long time afterwards).
- Giving learners more opportunities and time to practise speaking. If they’re talking in pairs they’ll have much more time to speak (and privacy) than if they are talking one at a time in an open classes. Monitor discretely.
Can you say something more about mistakes being ok?
If you attended my webinar, you’ll have heard me making mistakes. It’s normal in spoken English! If learners remain within their comfort zone because they are afraid of making mistakes, their progress will be so much slower. You could have a ‘taking risks’ ten minutes when everyone tries to say something more difficult than usual, note the mistakes and follow them up in the next lesson. Enjoy it!
Catch up on Karen’s webinar Keeping Young Learners Motivated in the Classroom and discover the previous posts in this series on motivating young learners: Praise, personalisation, and multi-level groups spelling and visualisations