33 ¦ Getting them talking: Ten zero-prep strategies to increase spontaneous speaking

I'm named Printer and this is the Motivated Classroom. Hello, bonjour, hola, Guten Tag, and most importantly, falsche hik on podcast. Welcome to the podcast in Irish, as this is the week of St. Patrick's Day. So very important that we have the Irish in their right to kick us off, and it is a very important topic this week, as we are talking about talking, we're talking about getting the students speaking in class and how can we encourage them for more active, spontaneous discussion and chat in the target language. And there is no better week than the week with St. Patrick's Day for that, because the Irish, we love to talk, we love to chat. I think my fiance realized this very quickly and where it came from whenever my family called me and we're on loudspeaker. And often, I won't be able to get a word in for the first two or three minutes. And then she'll just look at me and go, yeah, I see where it comes from. You really had to fight for airtime, didn't you? And that is the way it is growing up in an Irish household, but in an Irish school, we fight for airtime. We all want to chat and talk. That is who we are. So no better person than an Irishman to lead a podcast on talking and getting people speaking in the target language. And of course, because it is the week of St. Patrick's Day, I have to give you our Irish phrase for the week to start us off. And it is of course, law, failure, Padre Conodic, which means happy St. Patrick's Day. And just as a little note to anybody listening, we do often say happy Paddy's Day, but we never, ever, ever, ever say happy St. Paddy's Day. We just don't say it. So we say it's either happy St. Patrick's Day or happy Paddy's Day. There are the two options or simply you can call it Paddy's Day, and never, ever, ever, Paddy, P-A-T-T-Y, we never say that. So any of you listening who've used those in the past, you now are educators in the inside part of how it works to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day. You either say happy St. Patrick's Day or happy Paddy's Day, but not a mixture of the two. So there you go. Some Irish culture and language to start. The language again was law, failure, Paddy Conodic, happy St. Patrick's Day to you. I also want to start this episode off with a little shout out. Now I have chosen not to do any sponsorship, any adverts, anything like that on this podcast to keep it clean and go straight to the content. However, I do have a really good friend who created the intro music and the outro music for me. His name is Paul Mahan, but he's recently released a new single and with an album forthcoming under the name Tanoki T-A-N-O-K-I. Please go ahead and have a listen unspartified to the song that he has out now called Loading. I really like it. And you will start to hear later on in his album, the intro and the outro for this podcast. Well, at least bits and pieces are samples of it. So please do check that out for him. He really helped me out getting this podcast gone. I'd really appreciate that. Now over the last two episodes, we've been talking mainly about language teacher beliefs, long-held, deeply rooted beliefs that impact our practice. And then I had that wonderful discussion with Dr. Ed Stevens last week all about professional identity. Now to say those episodes were well received is a huge understatement because so many people reached out about it and the listens went through the roof for these last two episodes. Talking about deeply held teacher beliefs really struck a chord. And I think it ties in really closely with today's topic, which is about getting our students talking and speaking in the language classroom. A language is there to be spoken. A language is there for communication. So it is part of our professional identity to get our students talking. And it can sometimes really impact upon our own intrinsic motivation upon our own self-confidence when our students don't seem to be talking that much in class in the target language. And people have reached out to me and asked me about this, how do you get the students talking in the target language? How do we do that? And specifically, how do we move from comprehensible input where we acquire languages through listening and reading to output? How do we bridge that gap and what do we do? So today I'm really looking into this about how to get students talking more in the language classroom. And I'm going to give you 10 tips and I have practiced these 10. And I think I've got 10. But you know me, it could go to 11. It could be 9. We'll see. Just don't count, please. Let me do the counting. So we will see how this goes. But I have some strategies that I like to use to get students speaking in my classroom. Now I want to reiterate, a lot of this comes from my own professional practice. Some of it comes from research about autonomy and competence. But a lot of it has come from over the years, learn about things that I feel work well. And I think that in the most part, students are very comfortable speaking the language in my classes. Now that is not to say they're all really comfortable. And they all are eager to speak constantly in the target language. That is simply not the case. And it will never be the case. We have extraverts and introverts in our class. We have people who aren't very comfortable talking in their own first language in front of other people. So of course, why would they be comfortable speaking in another language of which their level is maybe very low? So that is quite normal. There's also the fact that many of you listening to this, you teach teenagers and adolescents. And you probably notice a difference between when they come into your class, maybe age 11 or 12, really excited, really eager to learn. And then after two years, even though they've got way more of the target language, they're speaking less. That is a phenomenon related to our hormones, our bodies, the changes we're going through, puberty, social acceptance, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, all of that stuff. And we can't really combat that. We can do our absolute best. But please do not be hired on yourself. If some students are not interacting and talking as much as they once did, or as much as other people, because it's just parts of teaching teenagers, however, we can also look at the research for our best bets. What are our best bets to try and get our students speaking and talking in the language at a level appropriate to them in order to boost their confidence and so that they become those people who go out in the world and are willing to communicate and try to speak to other people, even if they make mistakes, because surely that is what we're looking for. So to begin this discussion, I want you to think carefully about this sentence. Now, this sentence came from Grant Boulanger, I've mentioned many, many times on this podcast because the training I did with him really struck with me. And he shared this with us that has always been something that I've taken with me and that it really struck a chord. And that sentence is, the less I force them to talk, the more they want to talk. Now, let's just repeat that. The less I force them to talk, the more they want to talk. That has been really revolutionary and change, I was going to say life changing, but maybe not life changing, but classroom changing and professional identity changing for me. I remember sitting there when he said that and gone, that makes so much sense. Why am I forcing them into these contrived role plays and scenarios and you know, discussions in a restaurant about what you're going to order when they just don't connect with it and I'm forcing them into a conversation that they don't want to do. So it really made me think about how can I create circumstances where they don't feel under that pressure, they don't feel forced to talk. And the thing is, if I don't force them to talk, they often want to bring their own thoughts and interests and passions to the class and they end up wanting to talk and they want to communicate. So how do we get there? Well, here are 10 ideas and tips that I hope some will strike accord with you. Now, before I get into these 10, you're probably thinking, but you know, I do have to create exercises that help them to talk and engage with them in conversation, otherwise they never do it. And you're absolutely right. There of course, there are circumstances when we need tasks set up in which they are encouraged to speak to each other and it's not just total silence all the time. But I think what Grant was getting at was, if I make the class really interesting and about their interests and passions and where they have some autonomy and freedom, they've become so passionate in what's going on and interested that they just want to talk, rather than me saying, repeat this sentence after me, say this sentence, then this sentence, there, there's no autonomy and it feels like it's tough down and they've been forced to do something. So here are these tips and now you're listening on, okay, Liam, come on, get on with it. I know it's Patrick's day week, but get on with it. You've said 10, now give it to me please. All right, here we go. So the first one is creating a culture of interaction from day one. Now there are many comprehensible input teachers who are listening to this right now and going, hold on a second. I thought I was supposed to give them loads and loads and loads of comprehensible input and the output would just come naturally. Why are you talking about interaction from day one? If you go back and listen to the episode with Adriano Ramirez, who I consider a fantastic comprehensible input teacher, she too mentioned having interaction right from day one. Now that is not to say that they are interacting in long sentences in the target language, but there is some form of interaction from day one. And it's really important that these are low stakes, really low stakes to begin with. So for example, day one or two, well, on day one, you know I set up the class constitution, so go back and listen to that. That is done all in their first language or common language, especially with beginners. If they're in their second or third year, we do it half and half target language and first language or language of the school. And by the third year, it's all in the target language with lots of help from me. But that setting up the class constitution is essential because it makes them work together on day one. They're getting to know each other. They're interacting in a language that they're already able to speak. They feel comfortable with each other. And now we can move on. to the interaction in a difficult, different language. So that's important from the beginning. And the low stakes is absolutely vital. There's quite a lot of research out there about the importance of low stakes when we're talking about building competence. So Ryan and Desi in 2020 and their kind of update paper of self-determination theory talk a lot about this, making sure that we are giving students an opportunity to engage with the content, but in a way that is low stakes, that we're not going to ruin their competence completely if they make a mistake with something that we're asking them to do. So how do we do that? What kind of stuff? Just little things like you've given them maybe a character or you're talking about, you've invented a character together and the character as purple hair and it has two different colored eyes and the character's name is Melissa or whatever. And you're bringing this up together. Well then the low stakes thing would be, okay, in pairs now I want you to try and write down three things that we've just learned about the character. So first of all it's writing. They'll automatically end up speaking a bit anyway. And this gradually builds it up together. Can you say three things in pairs that we've just learned and you're going around and they might turn to each other and go, oh, purple hair and a girl. And this is building their confidence because it's low stakes. It's just them and their partner. Now some people are going but now they're not getting your comprehensible input. That's okay. They'll still get the comprehensible input from me when I relay back that information. I might take it from one or two people. Oh, Michael and Nora, what did you guys have for that? Oh, Chica girl. Yeah, and purple hair. Correct. Oh, okay. Very nice. And then I'll relay it in Spanish in the target language. Yes, she has purple hair. She is a girl and you're right. Her name is Melissa. Absolutely. Very nice. And that is the second point. Raising confidence by accepting their ideas and using them during class time. So I'm a firm believer in comprehensive input plus interaction raises confidence and results in fluency. Now, when they're making an effort and they are trying to give you some ideas, take them on, accept them, acknowledge them. That's not to say that you say, well done, great, amazing to every single thing that comes out of the class. But now and again, particularly to those students who maybe haven't interacted much, you jump on something they say. So even if it is the simplest thing that you said, what color was her hair? And then the girl or boy who maybe is quiet in your class and they say purple. And then you turn around and you go, yes, it was exactly. It was purple. That's exactly right. Thanks for helping me because I'd forgotten that. That little interaction can make them think, oh, wow, I did something well there. When they make an effort in Spanish or in the target language, especially those who don't often do it, make a big deal out of it. Again, that doesn't mean you jump around the room and go, oh, look at what Lisa just said. This is the best thing ever. No, but you look them in the eye and you say, thank you. And you say, yeah, that's really nice, actually. And what about you, Lisa? Would you like to have purple hair? She said, no, no, I quite like my hair the way it is. Oh, yeah, of course, obviously. So class, what do you think? Would Lisa like purple hair? Is she okay with the way it is right now? No, she likes it the way it is. And by me turning to the class and saying, what did Lisa just say? It adds some value to what she said. And she feels like, oh, I said something important here. So do make a deal out of it, particularly those quieter students. They mentioned something, they give you something, maybe in their little pair, they've come up with something quite nice on their mini whiteboard. And then you might take that to the room and say, oh, Lisa, could you share what's on your whiteboard there? It's really nice. She says, always said, she has purple hair and she has two blue eyes. Oh, yeah, that's really nice. Good use of Tienne instead of Tienne. So has in the singular form very nice. And that will raise her confidence. Now next number three, I'm trying to keep up my numbers, is choral responses. This really helps students to get confidence to speak out loud on their own when it comes to that. And choral responses are essentially you doing or saying something as the teacher and the whole class response. So I have a few I do particularly with my beginners. And as they get older, they get kind of less and less. But with the beginners that works really, really well, they really enjoy it. So one is, I say, list those, which means ready in Spanish. And they'll all go, see, list those. And it brings them back, particularly if they are not paying attention or looking out the window, they know they're okay. Now we're ready to do some task. Then there's also, I say, kevac clarro, which means is everything clear. And then the whole class, you say, Clarissimo. And they kind of make a swords shape with their hand to kind of go, yes, it's clear. If I say the word suddenly at any time, they all have to clap and then stamp their foot and then go, oh, so it goes one, two, three, like is in stamp, clap, oh. And then that means the whole class, we've just said, de repente, they're learning the word, they're building confidence. And also, when I learned from Margarita Perez Garcia, when she teaches, she got the whole class to stand up. And then she would say the word aura, which means now. And they would all shrug their shoulders and point their hands down like penguins. And then I would say, with my hand, I move my hand across. And that means, and I say, toda la clase. And then they all repeat, toda la clase, everyone in class. And then I make a shape with my hand to say speaking. And then they would go, Abla. And then they would say in Espanol, God, if we must be easier to do this in a video, wouldn't it? So toda la clase, Abla is Spanol. And these are just a few words, but because they're doing it all together, your action, they're speaking all together, it's safe. It's low stakes. And they're wrapping their words around Spanish very early on. Other ones like, for example, if I say juntos, which means together, then they put their two hands together, meaning juntos. And the jobs, I've talked about the jobs in class so many times, they work so well for building confidence. And they understand that word. If I say puerta, meaning door and Mr. Door jumps up and runs to the door, he gets it. And we have fun with it. If somebody forgets to do their job, then I'll say everybody look at Carolina. And then we'll all together go Tienes un trabajo. You have one job. And they find that funny and you make it very lighthearted and you do it for yourself as well. They'll have a laugh with it, but they're wrapping their words around Tienes un trabajo and you're building that confidence all the time. The thing is, if you don't do the interaction and speaking in pairs to each other, not in a forced role play way, just describe the situation, giving them a couple of questions that to work on together, but in the target language. If you don't do that right from the word goal, when you decide to bring it in months later, then they're so nervous because they've never had to do it until then. That's why I like to bring it in right from the start. So number four is in pairs with lots of scaffolding. So this is working together, for example, for retrieval practice. So we can say with some degree of certainty that retrieval practice is very important in terms of memory and in terms of long-term acquisition and long-term learning. So that is essentially revising over things that you've done recently in whatever way you want to do that. Many whiteboards, low sticks, quizzes, little competitions, anything like that. We all do this all the time, but it's now very established in the research, the importance of doing spaced retrieval practice as in doing it throughout the year. So for example, today we have a phrase of the week and it's like an expression. And today I just did, okay, with your partner, try and write down the phrase of the week from the whole year. How many can you write down? And they're like trying to remember they're using their brains. Then I'll allow them to look at notes. Then they're working it together. Then they quiz each other. And little things like that. It's just to start the class to get their memory going. But you give them lots of scaffolding when they're working in pairs, particularly for the beginners. So right from the start, I'm teaching them those chunks of sentences, chunking of words. And you know from the work of Steve Smith on memory and John Franco Conti, the work that they do on memory, a lot of chunking words together is really important for memory. So things like not de preau coupes, meaning don't worry, that's three words, or no hace falta, meaning it's not necessary. Our points, pens, okay. So I think that these things that get right from the beginning, and I teach them, and I show them how they work, and they can recall them, they can use them. And that means when they're in these little pairs, they've got little chunks of phrases they can use. Things like bueno, qué es dicho? What did you say? Or oh, I forgot. Ah, se me olvido. I forgot. I forgot that thing. And if they have those and they're used to using them, they're suddenly saying words together and you've given them correct structures. Okay, the stuff around them maybe isn't perfect and they might have to use English or whatever to share. That's okay. That's all right. Give them lots of scaffolding. Number five is your questioning. How you do your questioning will help them to be confident speakers in the room. For example, if you know someone is quite confident and extrovert, you can ask them a more open-ended question. But for those students who are introvert and who don't want to share very openly, and you are a little bit more nervous, or you maybe you don't hear their voice more, set up the question for success for them. So then you might have a student, let's say she's called Natalie and she's quite quiet in your class. But instead of asking Natalie, what is the character's favorite food? That might be quite difficult. She might not remember. But then you can say it in a different way. Natalie, was the character, did she really like hamburgers or did you really like fast cars? And of course, she's heard the word hamburgers many times. It's low stakes. She's going to get it right. And then therefore she feels better. She's said the word hamburgers says in Spanish and now her confidence is built. So adjusting your questioning, depending on the student is really important. Now, I like to really utilize my extrovert students to build confidence among themselves and others. How do you find out who are extrovert? Split the class into and call one class, let's say you're teaching German. One class, one side of the class is Austria. The other side of the class is Switzerland. And you do start to do actions. You start to say Austria is really side and you look over and they all out. to do the action. But Switzerland is really angry because he can see Austria's side, and you're saying all of this in German, and they're doing their action. And you'll immediately see what students, which students are the ones who act and overact, and they're your exterits. So they're the ones who come to the class when you have a story or when you're acting things out. So in our first story, we often have a man with a crazy mustache shaped like a pencil and he's looking for a pencil sharpener. That's how you get in all of this school vocabulary you're supposed to do in the book. So we do it through his story. And of course, I will ask that character, you know, what's your name? Oh, your name is Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh, and do you have a mustache or a beard? So of course, he's having to speak quite a bit, but I know one is one of my exterits, so that's okay. And if he responds with one word, if I say, "Oh, do you have a beard?" and he says, "No, mustache." I'll say, "Great." And then I might just say quietly say, "Look, if you want to say the whole sentence, I have a mustache. I do not have a beard." That's cool. Go for it. That would be amazing. If you don't want it, that's also no problem. Just give me one word. I think you're probably ready for the whole sentence, but it's up to you whenever you feel. And of course, he or she is going to try and do the whole sentence. And the class now sees that you value when they try even when they make mistakes. And that is going to build confidence and it helps them to speak in class. Number seven, autonomy and interest. According to John Marshall Reeve and the work that he does in engagement. There's four types of engagement I've spoken about before. Behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and this new one called "agentic engagement," where we're so actively involved and interested that we are driving the class forward with our own ideas and interests. Now to get to that, we have to talk about things that are interesting for them. How do we do that? You just ask them questions. Talk to them about things like, when you're talking about, you know, whenever I'm trying to do the perfect tense like I have been, you have done, you have seen. Ask them. Has anyone ever broken a bone? Do you know anyone who's ever broken a bone and that you'll see hands flying up? They're going to want to talk about this. How many bones have you broken? Really? How did you do it? You've broken three bones or I've broken four bones. How many class? How many do you think I have broken in my life? You're repeating that one structure. Getting lots of compressible input, but they're going to want to get involved and tell you who has broken their brother has broken an arm. They may throw it out there in English to begin with, but you give it back to them in the target language and you build that up. Then they'll write it down. Okay, write down who in the class has ever broken a bone? How many bones has Mr. Printer broken? How many bones has Michael's cousin broken? Oh my gosh, he's a broken four bones and they're learning about each other and they're going to want to share at that stage about the experiences they've had or things like what would your parents say if? So let's say I don't know your teaching about food. What would your parents say if you spilled food on the couch and I guarantee the hands will go up. They're going to want to tell you oh my parents would be so angry. They throw it out there in English because they're too excited. Then you can say oh interesting and you give it back to them in Spanish or French then you ask the class in Spanish or French so they're getting that kind of circling of the language but in the target language. Or do you know anyone with the mustache? Who knows anyone with the mustache or you do? Do anyone have a dad or an uncle or a cousin or a friend with the mustache? Oh yeah, what's that like? Is it big or is it small? Oh class Leonardo has a friend who's got a mustache and his name is John and then they'll write that down because they're learning about each other. The autonomy and the interest will help them to speak. Next we have something very similar. This is number eight. Star of the week. We already had this episode all about interviewing our students so that they are giving us things interesting about them and about their lives and then we ask and we work in it together as a group that really helps them with their speaking and their confidence but also reading and acting out. So it's particularly with the younger classes. If you're reading a little novel or you've got texts or little stories have them come and acted out and allow them to be involved in it and you'll see many will want to be involved with reading strategies. For example if you're reading a text that has a male and female role you can evolve the girls speak and read out the part for the girl all the boys for the part for the boy and they're just speaking more talking to each other but one of the best ones is in pairs just simply describe the situation what's going on and they can use those words that they've learned from your stories from the beginning of the year those high frequency structures like there is he has he forgot he's scared and once they have those they are going to speak more. Number nine is the walking debate or the silent debate quite simply you have yes or no on either side of the room and you give them some statements who has ever been to France who has eaten breakfast this morning who has never had any hot drinks or any tea or coffee who has been here yes or no and then it can of course with more students get more controversial who would ban both fighting who wouldn't and then we go on either side you ask for their opinions and they'll come out and they can talk to each other about their opinions oh there's five of you on the yes side and six on the null with the person beside you have a chat why are you on this side and not the other side and give them the phrases like your pens okay I think that I believe that I agree with silent debates the same but writing so going you write down on the pieces of paper that you agree with so here's a statement if you agree write down what you agree if you disagree write down why you disagree now go to the next poster and this is helping their confidence as well and then you can read them out a number 10 not to be forgotten is how we use our language in the class call them linguists explain to them that being a linguist means they're different you are a linguist you're not a learner or a student here you're a linguist and linguists like to speak and we were constantly trying to get involved in conversations we eavesdrop because we're trying to listen in to see can we understand and we're happy to make mistakes and when they say something or they do something in class jump and then go oh exactly I can totally see you're a linguist the way you link that to the other languages you know and the way you said that sentence yeah that's exactly what a linguist does and keep saying to them class what are we here and we're linguists they reply those type of things so there you go nearly 30 minutes from an Irishman on the week is St Patrick's Day about how to get students talking more I mean there's no better person than an Irish person to do that next week we have a question and answer episode so I'd love to hear from you there've been so many people getting in touch with different questions so I'll try my best to get through let many of them next week but do keep letting me know the topics you'd love to hear covered on the podcast I'd like to finish a course with a massive Guramila Mahogat the huge thank you to all the patrons of the podcast on patreon.com please do go look up the motivated classroom on patreon.com if you feel like you'd buy me a drink or a bag of Chris once a month if you bumped into me to say thanks for these four episodes I really appreciate it I've also added a buy me a coffee option to my website lots of people were asking about that why I didn't have it there so it's there now if you feel like doing that wonderful if you're not in a position to do that no problem whatsoever just keep sharing and telling your friends about the podcast make sure you go and check out Tanoki and his song loading which is on Spotify and an album is forthcoming the outro that it's about to come in is from Tanoki now can you remember our Irish expression for the week it is law failure Padre Khonadic happy Saint Patrick's Day Guramahgat's Aga Sloan Awalya the motivated classroom podcast is an original production by Lee Imprinter I'm at Lee Imprinter on Twitter and my YouTube channel is Lee Imprinter the motivated classroom full podcast notes with links to resources are available on my website Leeimprinter.com for more find and follow the motivated classroom podcast on Twitter Facebook and Instagram graphics and music are provided by Paul Mahan intro clips are thanks to the wonderful multi-lingual staff at the international school of Lausanne