A relaxed atmosphere is conducive to free expression.  The skillful teacher can create an atmosphere in which the student feels enough at ease to struggle through  a situation to find the words to express himself.  The following approaches help to develop the desired relaxed atmosphere:

1. Learn the Student’s Name. In a conversation class, it is especially important for the teacher to know the name of each student. This indication of personal interest puts the student at ease and helps him overcome inhibitions about speaking out in a group. Remembering the names of the students is an art that the teacher can master. The following suggestions will help:

a. Concentrate on the Student. When a student introduces himself, the teacher should repeat the name at least once aloud and twice to himself. At the same time, he should concentrate on some distinguishing feature about the student and associate it with the name, making a careful mental note of the two. While talking to the student, the teacher should focus his attention primarily on the student’s eyes, and he should give the student his full attention.

b. Take Notes. The teacher should ask the student to write his name on the notepad (which the teacher should always carry to class). This will add visual reinforcement to the teacher’s effort to remember the student’s name.

c. Identify the Seats and Use the Students’ Names. The teacher may write the students’ names on slips of paper and attach these to the students’ chairs or desks, to help everyone learn everybody else’s name. Participants in a conversation class should never point or nod at each other. Instead, each person should politely address another as Miss X, Mr. Y, and Mrs. Z.

2. Give Praise When it is Deserved. The teacher should complement a student when he does well. He should make it a practice to reinforce a good performance with encouraging comments. He should be careful, however, to be discreet along this line, setting high standards for the class.

3. Smile. A smile generates warmth and response. The teacher should not be afraid to smile – or even to give a hearty laugh if the situation warrants it.

4. Speak Naturally. There is a tendency on the part of some teachers, in their efforts to make the students understand, to speak very slowly, increase the volume of their voice, and over-enunciate words or use artificially-emphasized intonation patterns. What such teachers fail to realize is that the students will learn these strange practices and carry them over into his own conversation. The teacher should speak as naturally as possible in a conversation class.

5. The Student Should Talk, Not Take Notes. A conversation class should give each student the maximum opportunity to talk, and to that end everything should be subordinated. The student should not take notes. A person does not usually carry on a conversation with a notepad and pen in hand.

6. Everyone Should Use English. The teacher should discourage the use of the student’s mother tongue and should confine his own remarks to English, even if at first the students miss much that is said. He should allow the translation of words and phrases only when the conversation cannot continue without it. And these times should be few in number. Their recurrence would suggest that the teacher is not exercising sufficient control over the conversation as to sentence structure and vocabulary.

                                                                (adapted  from English Teaching Forum, Vol. 50, Number 1,  2012)

 

By: Gina R. Bagtas | T-III | Limay National High School