[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 15 | June 9, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]
The OUP ELT blog has published an article dealing with the classroom engagement of weaker students.
Erika Osvath, an experienced teacher and teacher-trainer, explores the third of our Solutions Speaking Challenges: ‘It’s so hard getting the weaker students to join in’.
As I am sitting at my desk thinking over the issue of how to get weaker students to join in, my thoughts keep returning to the same questions:
Who are the weaker students?
What makes them ‘weaker’?
How do I want them to “join in”?
I can’t seem to escape them. I could just list various activities that may encourage students to participate more actively in speaking activities, but I feel have to go deeper this time. And as a result, I find myself wondering about my own preconceptions as a teacher.
I expect a “weaker student” to say less, come up with fewer ideas, make more mistakes, and be more insecure. As a result, when they join in – if they ever do – they will be like this. Does this sound familiar to you? This is known as the Pygmalion effect,a psychological principle asserting that expectations decisively influence performance.
