One of the main objectives a person has when learning a new language is to be able to communicate using it in different situations. For instance, in a phone call at work, or exchanging ideas in a meeting. In case their plan is to speak the language when travelling, the occasions are endless. However, when our students are children or teenagers the immediate use of the language may not be easily identified. Thus, the motivation may not necessarily be intrinsic, making it more difficult to determine a context that is familiar for our students and link it to the contents that should be covered in a course. Let´s consider the following steps:
First: Know your TEAM PLAYER
Despite the difficulty mentioned above, there are some shortcuts we can take. Probably, the easiest one is to ask our schoolchildren to share their interests with us. For instance, we can ask them about their favourite singers, actors, actresses, videogames, pastimes and so on. This could be the first step in the route of designing our lessons. Then we will have some knowledge about the people with whom we are going to work.
Second: Be aware of what you want to achieve
This may seem obvious, but it is still necessary to clearly establish the objective of the lesson. Why? We need to know what we want our students to be able to do by the end of the class or the unit of the book, for instance. What happens is that sometimes we become over enthusiastic about the use of Jamboard, to name one tool, and we forget the methodology that should be present when designing the lesson. We may prepare a very motivating activity but one that does not help us much to achieve our objective and we end up with motivated students that do not know what else to say and start talking about something else or, even worse, using their native language.
Third: Deconstructing the aim
Sometimes we expect too much from one activity. We provide during one class all the tools that students need to communicate (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation), send them to work in groups or pairs and expect them to exchange ideas, basically to converse. But they do not talk and get frustrated. And we also get dissatisfied. What has happened? The avocado was not ready to be eaten. We cut it in halves and discovered that the pulp had the right colour but it was still unripe. Everything has a process and preparing students to speak is not the exception. This is what I recommend: To deconstruct the aim, you need to identify what students need to know to talk about their last weekend, for example. They need to know expressions that refer to the past, how to pronounce the verbs in the past, and what auxiliary they need to use when making questions, or negative sentences. Which of these three aspects can be done at home, on their own or with the help of the book? Which one must be done with the help of the teacher?
Begin with the easiest one: the vocabulary. Ask them to prepare that for the next class. Use an exercise to have them practice and connect the meaning. The focus of the class should be, in that case, to just exchange ideas using the phrases or words practiced at home. Do not worry about grammar or pronunciation at this point. Let the students use the expressions in pair work, for example. When students return to the main room, just give feedback of what was good and demonstrate the correct pronunciation without mentioning who made the mistake. Have everybody repeat twice, just to help them fix the pronunciation. There will be more classes to work on the pronunciation again. The next activity should be one in which students share what they know about their favourite singer from childhood for instance. This time your monitoring time should be devoted to identifying if your pupils are using the correct sentences (grammatically correct) so that your feedback this time would focus on that, using the very same examples you took notice of when monitoring. Do not only show the correct version but provide more examples and have students help you make more correct sentences. Something similar should be done when focusing on pronunciation. Once more, keep in mind the objective of that lesson.
Fourth: Putting all together
Organizing the learning process: This method applies when your students are asked to make ready in advance what they should know; for example, the vocabulary. They can do it on their own, or with the help of the textbook, or any other source. Do not only have them complete exercises using the words or expressions, make sure that they use whatever website to listen to and practice the pronunciation of the new words. If you do not have time to prepare an exercise, just have them copy two or three examples (sentences) provided by the dictionary online. The aim is to have them get ready for the lesson without asking too much, so that it is manageable, and they can accomplish that.
In class: As mentioned above, have them use what they have prepared at home, but do it little by little, focusing only on one aspect, not everything at once; otherwise, it will not be achievable and it could become discouraging.
After class: Have them record their voices talking about somebody or something that is connected to their interests. Optionally, they could make a video or a Tik Tok; the objective is that they reinforce what they have been taught by using it or saying it repeatedly. In the beginning, it may seem a little monotonous but, gradually, they will become accustomed and, sooner or later, they will start creating their own sentences and putting all the ideas together and begin to talk fluently.
As you can see, we need to deconstruct the aim so that it becomes achievable. Give students the opportunity to succeed. Give them the tools to prepare themselves before the lesson; in that way, their confidence will grow stronger because they will have had some control at least over one aspect. Finally, make sure to provide opportunities to reinforce what is done in class in asynchronous activities with immediate feedback.
Remember the key is at least “three times:” before, during and after the lesson!
