So here are 5 quick tips to get students talking more:
1) Use games where one student holds part of the information and the others have to get that information by asking questions. Two good examples are Battleship and Who Am I? Battleship is a great game to assist in this case. Get them to draw a table with A, B, C, D, E (horizontally) and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (vertically). Ask them to get 10 items of whatever they are learning and place them randomly inside the “cells”. For them to “destroy” each other’s ships (the 10 items), they must locate the words/sentences and ask questions. When they locate something, they can ask 3 questions to guess it.
TEAM A: Is there anything in B3?
TEAM B: No
TEAM B: Is there anything in C4
TEAM A: Yes
Now they can ask 3 questions.
TEAM B: Is it countable? Does it start with letter C? Do we eat it?
If they find out, they “destroy” it. If they don’t, they can either move on to a different “cell” or keep asking questions. Just 3 at a time.
Who Am I? or the Name Game is the one played in Inglorious Basterds (I’m a huge fan!)
2) Work with projects. Ask your students to work together on a poster, a blog or anything else that encourages them to use L2. They will have to work on the target-language. No escape!
3) Have international guests in your class. You don’t need to actually invite a foreigner to physically be in your classroom (that would be cool, though). You can simply connect them through Skype, WhatsApp or Facetime. Your students will realize that they need to use L2 more often to be able to have international conversations.
4) Use ClassDojo or an adapted Swear Jar (I call mine English Jar) to award 1 or 2 points for effort in using L2. Don’t take points off when they use L1, instead, use positive reinforcement and award the use of L2.
5) Don’t take L1 for an answer. When you know your students can produce something in L2 but insist on using L1, well, insist back. I play with them saying I can’t speak that language.
I hope you like my tips and I’d like to make a fairly important point here:
Don’t stigmatize L1 in the classroom. As a matter of fact, you should use it to your advantage. With that in mind, I end this entry with a provoking thought/question:
A student asks you the meaning of a word that is really hard to explain (a vegetable, an animal or a technical concept, for instance). You have no picture of it, no internet access and you decide to try explaining it with different examples. After 5 minutes your student (and the whole class) still doesn’t get it. Would it be such a horrible thing to just write the word in L1 on the board? Please answer considering the following:
a) time spent
b) regard for student’s need to know (curiosity)
c) feeling that assigning it to homework might send a negative message
d) certainty of the clarity of the concept
