By Leo Jones, the Student – Centered Classroom, Cambridge University Press
Sometimes students keep switching from their native language to English and back again. It’s hard for them to become more fluent if this happens too often. Students may switch when their English isn’t adequate for the ideas they want to express. Sometimes their enjoyment of an activity may make them switch – they really want to say something and it’s frustrating trying to do it in English.
When lost for words, students may need to ask us for help or use a dictionary, or we may need to interrupt the whole class and offer vocabulary help for everyone. Our own explanations should be in English, even if a quick translation may be easier – we have to observe the “Only English” rule, too!
When we overhear too many students speaking in their native language, we may need to interrupt everyone and help them express the ideas in English. Have students start the activity again from the beginning, but this time ask them to try to stick to English all the time. This may be a difficult challenge, but it’s something everyone should aim for.
An effective way of ensuring that an English-only environment is maintained is by making sure that students know the necessary “classroom language” to manage their own group activities in English. This “classroom language” includes simple expressions like:
You start. Do you have a pencil?
What does this mean? What are we supposed to do?
After you. I’m not quite ready.
Let’s ask the teacher. I didn’t hear what you said.
OK, let’s start. Are you ready?
We’re done. What should we do now?
Using classroom language like this to help students manage themselves within their groups creates an English-only framework for the harder tasks of expressing ideas in English. Students should learn such expressions by heart so that using them becomes second nature. They also need to be able to pronounce them easily and comfortably.
- Use only English when talking to students in class.
- Learning “classroom English” will help students speak in English all the time.
- If students aren’t speaking English when working together, interrupt and ask them to start the conversation again using only English.
Source: http://www.ntu.edu.vn/Portals/96/Tu%20lieu%20tham%20khao/Phuong%20phap%20giang%20day/student-centered%20classrooms.pdf
Editor: Michael R. Clarke
