How is conversation like pulling teeth?
Monday April 7, 2008
Does this sound familiar?
Student: I don't speak English very well. My grammar is good, but my speaking is poor.
Teacher: OK. Let's start with movies. Which movie do you like?
Student: ummm... The Queen.
And that's it. No opinions, no comments, just two words. It's a common challenge, students want to speak, but getting them to speak is like pulling teeth! Here is a fun survey which you can give your students in order to get to know them better, which in turn will help you come up with topics that are likely to get more than a 'yes' or 'no' response.
If you are an English learner, this English learner type quiz will help you understand what kind of learner you are and some of the resources on this site that will help you achieve your goals.
Comments
Hi Ken,
Now that you mention movies, there’s a movie of the silent era titled “The General”, 1927 with Buster Keaton starring Johnny Gray which I recommend if there’s the possibility to do so. I have never laughed this way in all my life with some of the shots in”The General”. In a classroom, with your students, you can explain what you liked most of the films you’ve seen even if they were silent movies!
Thanks for your ideas,
Margarita.
I am also don’t speak English very well. My grammar is good, but my speaking is poor.
n same problem for me also……
plz suggest me
My grammer is good but i feel some hasitation in speaking english….plz suggest me what i will do….
hi
you are right this is the most difficult problem that faces us.we need your help to overcome this problem.
thank you .
suppose you are at class . begin to talk about a subject for example a the story of Hamlet . your classmates are listenig you .
It is very important teachers use as much English as possible in the classroom. Sometimes, the teachers stops speaking the language before the students start trying.
You are absolutely right….. Most of the learning is done by rote, unfortunatly. The student needs to develop an understanding on the use of grammar, i.e. why do you need to learn grammar? What it means when applied, and what are the most common forms. The problem with the English language is that there are as many exceptions as there are rules. So remember teach only what is necessary to enable the student to converse initially and develop a desire in the student to read so that he/she gets exposed to more forms. The meaning will come quite automatically with the context. Excellent survey information. Thank you.
Thank You very much for the suggestion.
Indeed it it always a problem on how to get the students practice speaking with out them having the feeling of being tortured. More suggestions please.
Thanks again. Loida
Hi,
It is my problem so ive got a B.A in english litrature but unfortunatly i could not speak english at all there is not a right way for speaking in iran pls give a suggest thanks a lot
I here by to requist you to help me for english study . thanks
Hi,
I can speak English not very well so I want to improv reading and writing plz suggest me what can I do?
I want a friend who help me to practice write or speank english better by e-mail,sms or other way.
For no. 13 I want to make friend with you special to practice english. How?
Hi!
I think that is the problem of those people who have studied english at school but they had no chance to practice it. I have the same problem while my grammar and writing are goog enough.
I believe that the most effective way to solve this problem is to communicate with people to practice speaking skills and listen to movies which helps the learners to develope their speaking skills.
Well, speakimg can be problem when you donīt see a chance to use spoken language with someone. What I have been trying for some years is speaking with my kids at home who learn English at school and donīt speak it either unless there is an English lesson. So at the beginning they found it quite silly to use a foreign language at home but after some time they got used to at least saying some things in English. It has become much more since and sometimes we start having discussions about many things. And in addition to that for me as their dad it is much easier to speak about things concerning behaviour, education, teengagers, etc. when I use English. They really listen and try to discuss with real arguments. They do not leave me alone when there is something that I think has to be criticized.
It’s true, in your mind you are framing the sound of the word putting to much effort in the pronunciation, of course, based on what you have heard before and… all that sudden a complete and total different sound (word) comes from your mouth…why? seriously we need help
i like to speak english but i don’t know grammer. and i like to learn in speaking and listening please help me
hello
from africa i want to speak english but i don’t know how to use a word to communcat pls help me thankyou..
My english is so so but I want to improve I have been facing difficulties in drafting. Haider
i need to use words with phrases
hi.i`m also poor in speaking in fact iwhenever i wanna speak.even some simple words skip from my mind and my english teacher keeps on telling me you have lots of gaps in your speech .i also lose the thread of mu speech.so…what should i do?please help me.