Why do so many EFL students say they fear speaking English after all those years of learning?!!!

I have taught many English classes in Korea (which is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting), and most, if not all, of the students would say they often feel reluctant or balk at speaking up their thoughts in English. It is because they fear making a mistake in grammar or in collocating the proper vocabulary to make themselves clearly understood in English. That is why and how I have become very interested in the approach of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as an EFL instructor.

Unlike Grammar-Translation (GT), which emphasizes reading, deduction, comprehension before attempting production, and accuracy, CLT focuses on communication. Then, “What do we know about real communicative activity?” (Mulling, 1997, p.3). It is a willful and meaningful action, which involves one speaker conveying information for some reason and the other or listener responding. Through the exchange of one’s thoughts and opinions focusing on the message, not on the accuracy of utterances, communication is made. Thus teachers who implement CLT are urged to encourage students to actively participate in the classroom procedures of activities without being interrupted by grammatical correction. Berns (1984, p.3) writes that “language is interaction: it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language study has to look at the use/ function of language in context, both its linguistic context and its social, or situational context”. This idea is actualized through various kinds of communicative activities in my CLT classes in which interaction among students plays an important role. Communicative activities involve in-class conversation that is less or not controlled by the teacher so that students feel truly engaged in a real-life communication.

According to my personal teaching experience, most students feel comfortable speaking in English when their mistakes of any kind are not pointed out or corrected on the spot, but brought up as a review session at the end of the class (NOT by being singled out as individuals). This way, I was able to enhance students’ communicative competence – not only grammatical but also sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competences as well - in the EFL classes. As a language teacher, I do hope that all EFL students are provided with ample opportunities at least inside their classrooms to speak up rather than to be corrected in terms of their grammar all the time. Through the communicative approach with spoken English, students will be helped advance in written English as well as spoken  English itself. Yes, I believe in the power of CLT to unlock the secret of making language classrooms noisy!

References

Gebhard, J. (1999, May). Teaching students to communicate in English:

Considerations for non-native speakers of English. Paper presented at a

workshop on EFL Teaching Materials and Pedagody, Foshan, China

Mulling, S. S. (1997). Getting them to talk: Communicative activities

for the ESOL classroom. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.

ED 409731)

Expressions

to feel reluctant: (verb) to be not eager to do….

to balk at doing….:(verb) to resist and object to something; to shy away from doing something

to collocate: (verb) to place/ arrange (words) together or in proper order; arrange side by side.

deduction: (noun) the drawing of a conclusion by reasoning

utterances: (noun) statements/ vocal expressions