Teachers play an important role in making the class lively and active by their guide and arrangement. Students' initiatives should be encouraged and respected, but it does not mean there is no guide or assessment on the part of the teacher. After all, the guidance and help of the teacher makes his job inevitable in the classroom and education. I try to do these:
1. I try to use many gestures, vivid language and clear expressions in class.
2. I always act as an actor as well as a conductor giving demonstrations and showing them first such as retelling, free talking and storytelling.
3. I give students enough time to prepare what they want to speak. I provide the students with a conversation planning worksheet for this purpose. The conversations can vary in length depending on the level of the class. I think it necessary to give students time to plan what they want to say.
4. Let students know the day before what they will be expected to participate in the next day. Sometimes I will give a handout that asks for opinions and tell the class that I expect each student to have at least one with very low level or particularly shy students, I am more than willing to have them say what they have written down.
5. I ask the students to try to memorize the whole thing, but if I smell rote, I break it up by asking questions and try to let them to think and say in their own words.
6. It is not uncommon for learners to feign understanding when in conversations with one another. I also believe that when learners repeatedly feign understanding, they have lost important opportunities to practice conversation strategies. I encourage students to say: " I beg your pardon" if you fail to understand your partner.
7. I try to teach students to concentrate your attention on the important information of the speech rather than every word that your partner says.
8. I try to explain some cultural background before students talk about a certain subject. Let them know the differences between the two cultures, for instance, the courses of a meal to help their speaking and understanding.
9. In speaking I asked the students to focus on fluency over accuracy. Don't think too much of grammar. However, I remind the students some influence from our mother tongue, such as the confused sounds [au and C:] as in the words "house" and "horse" and the easily swallowed sounds [l] and [n] as in the words "government" and "children".
10. Try first to call those students who express and act better to serve as examples. Then call those students who are poorer in English expressing and acting.
Teachers should invent more ways to let students practise. This will arouse their interest to speak and help them more easily to master this skill.
