The Importance of Communication

It is important to put our ideas into action, and learn by putting things we learn into practice. The problem is that we lack opportunities to practice what we learn; but if we don’t get or seize these opportunities we may never get to reach our fullest potential. As the teacher you can prompt them to use their newly acquired English skills.

A great method that is a classic among teachers is the good old topic and cues. The teacher would bring up a topic of discussion in which the students would have to draw information from a resource such as a book, or an article. The students would then use the information and have discussions and debates in order to understand the topic more in depth, but the important thing is that they are able to practice their conversational English and the fluency in real time.

Another great way that you can aid the students in their learning is by providing structure. Although we need to let them practice communicating they can sometimes get off track or the conversation could die down. It is then the teacher’s job to get the train back on the tracks and moving on by adding an important point that they may have missed or getting them back on topic as to maintain the flow of the conversation.

It is important to ask open questions that are very general rather than non-leading questions that can be answered in one word. It allows the students to express their inner most thoughts and feelings which is a great way to start a conversation as there are often opposing views. Asking a question such as “Do you like swimming?” has one of two results: yes or no. An open question usually begins with Who, What, Why, Where, When and How and has infinite possible responses.

You can also get the students riled up by playing devil’s advocate. Start off by stating something that they will almost certainly object to in order to get them to object using everything they’ve got. An example of this is when stated in class that I thought that we should all have arranged marriages and that we should marry not for love but rather wealth, and status. Several people caved to my statement but a mini discussion began when someone stated their differing views.