As a teacher of English, you are no doubt aware of how much speaking matters. In a recent study of almost 14,000 language learners, we discovered that students overwhelmingly identify the skill of speaking as the most fraught, risky, and at times stressful aspect of studying English. So how can you better understand the challenges your students face and help them to speak more confidently and fluently as a result?
Learning a language of course requires a focus on many different skills, but our research revealed that students tend to measure their progress through their confidence and ability to speak spontaneously in the ‘real world’. That can sometimes be the simplest of exchanges, from helping a tourist with directions on the street to greeting a colleague from overseas. However, speaking spontaneously in English can be very daunting for learners who often find they lack the confidence they need to take risks with the language.
To help students cope with the challenges of speaking spontaneously in real-life situations, teachers need to successfully prepare them for these moments. Doing this effectively in a classroom setting is notoriously difficult. This is where virtual reality can come into play. Virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular in the English language classroom as a way of creating highly immersive, interactive experiences. In previous blog posts Paul Driver has explored some of the ways in which learning experiences can be enriched by virtual reality, and how it can be used as a teacher training tool.
We’ve created three 360° videos of speaking scenarios, as seen below, that your students might find themselves in. The videos show what it’s like to be in a particular situation as a learner and the challenge of having to react to spontaneous conversation. They explore how a typical conversation for a learner might go and therefore how important it is for them – even for the simplest of exchanges – to have the confidence and skills to cope in these real-life moments.
On desktop, hold and drag the cursor around to explore each scene.
On mobile, click the links below to open the videos in YouTube. You can watch with Google Cardboard by tapping the Cardboard icon 
at the bottom right of each video.
Video 1 – Shop scene
Video 2 – Café scene
Video 3 – Office scene
With the first-person perspective creating a relatable and memorable experience, we can use virtual reality to remind ourselves of how it might feel to be a language learner faced with having to speak spontaneously in English. Experiencing these challenges in virtual reality helps you think more about what you’re doing as a teacher and can provide inspiration for improving the way speaking skills are approached in the classroom as a result.
Our American English integrated skills course, Evolve, helps teachers to prepare students for spontaneous speech with its dedicated speaking lessons, designed to build confidence and fluency. Do you need to prepare your students for real-life speaking challenges? Put yourself in your students’ shoes by watching our 360° videos and then find out more about Evolve.