Oral communication is a vital life skill. Teachers can help students emerge as confident speakers by introducing speaking sessions in the classroom. In this reader submission, Sujata Katoch Rana shares her tips.
‘Words have incredible power. They can make people’s heart soar or they can make people’s heart sore.’ Dr Mardy Grothe.
Why focus on speaking skills?
It is important to focus on developing the oral proficiency of students as it helps them present and communicate their ideas and concepts to others efficiently. Besides, certain speaking activities can encourage those students who are shy or hesitant to speak in the classroom environment and build their self-confidence.
While a substantial portion of a teacher’s time is spent on delivering lessons, their second role as classroom facilitators involves encouraging students to speak and engage in classroom learning. Teachers often come across students who are hesitant to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings; they become dejected as they are unable to effectively communicate their opinions.
Providing students with the opportunity to speak in a classroom environment can prevent them from getting demotivated or losing interest in learning. In the classroom, some students easily answer questions as they are unafraid of speaking publicly, while others do not try as they lack similar confidence. Teachers need to identify the challenges students face while communicating in a classroom environment. Evidence from research and their own classroom observations can help them design activities that enhance the oral skills of their students.
Teaching speaking skills
I teach Grade 7 students; the class is a blend of confident, shy, and unexceptional learners. I have often tried to inculcate different techniques and strategies in regular classroom interactions that encourage pupils to speak. I keep thinking about activities that would support my students to speak effectively, overcome communication difficulties, empower them, and give them confidence to speak in front of their peers who possess better communication skills.
The most important step is to build a classroom environment where every child has the opportunity to express herself freely. As a facilitator, the teacher has to manage the classroom so that both weak and strong communicators get equal opportunity to speak. This means instilling in them courage and self-esteem, and removing the fear of criticism.
Martin Antony, Professor of Psychology at Ryerson University, notes ‘the constant pressure to improve performance can have the effect of triggering fears of underperforming and of making mistakes,’ (Ostrow, 2016).
Teachers need to create a friendly classroom environment, by eliminating punishments and encouraging children to improve their performance. Students should be helped to understand that ‘it is ok to fail’ and that they should learn from their past failures. Teachers need to emphasise that the classroom is a space where students are not discriminated against based on their speaking abilities.
Classroom activity
As a teacher, I make each and every child in the class speak regularly on a given topic or on a topic of their choice for two minutes. They talk in turns to express their thoughts, a poem, or a real-life story or any other information they wish to share. The trick is to dedicate a few classes to letting students speak.
The most important component in this activity is to create an environment that is conducive, supportive, and structured to facilitate speaking. The level of response may vary as some students are more confident and outspoken while others are reserved or shy. The teacher should be patient in listening to students and respond to them positively. Providing an effective platform for speaking can help students develop and raise their self-confidence.
Initially, I often sense inhibition, lack of confidence, fear of public speaking, or reluctance, but slowly and gradually with perseverance, dedication, sincerity, and sheer motivation, children develop the confidence to speak and improve their speaking performance. They are ready to accept challenging tasks and, with practise, can be ready to speak in 10 minutes on topics given on the spot. Most importantly, they conquer their fear of speaking in public.
In my experience, only a few children stop in between as they are unable to organise their thoughts, but most improve their skills over time. I am always pleased to note that the shy speakers are supported by their peers in the audience when they go up to speak at the podium. This strategy has worked well for my students. They enjoy listening to their peers and pay attention.
The main purpose of this exercise has been to teach students to tackle barriers in communication. Effective communication is a highly sought after skill and teachers can help create an equal playing field for shy and effective communicators.
A version of this article first appeared in the print magazine Teacher, distributed in India, in January 2019.
References
Ostrow, R. (2016, October 20) Erratophobia and the fear factor. The Australian. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/health-wellbeing/erratophobia-and-the-fear-factor/news-story/ a04195ac081855749432d360de8d5c0a
Thinking about your own classroom: How do you help students develop their speaking skills? How do you ensure you create a supportive environment? How do individual students react to making mistakes when they are speaking to the rest of the class or giving a presentation?
