Penny Ur’s Video: How to get them to talk (when they don’t want to)
[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 9 | April 6, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Catch up on this webinar from Cambridge University Press with Discussions and More author, Penny Ur.
Getting learners to talk in English is one of the most difficult challenges facing the teacher. One of the major reasons for this is that speaking – unlike listening, reading and writing – can only normally take place directly in interaction with an audience, in real time: so if you express yourself badly, hesitate, make mistakes – such failings are immediately exposed to the listener(s). Many learners feel uncomfortable and stressed in such a situation, even within a supportive classroom, and often prefer to keep quiet or use their mother tongue.