Teach English in Zhouwang Zhen - Shaoyang Shi

Speaking is the most frequently used language skill. Moreover, English has attained an important status on the international level and become a lingua franca among speakers of languages. This encourages EFL students to learn it. They want to become proficient speakers. However, there are some psychological factors that prevent them from achieving their goal, among them is lack of self-confidence. According to Whitaker (1995), “every learner requires first and foremost: to be noticed, to be attended to, to be valued, and to be affirmed. Out of that attention and affirmation grow the confidence and, yes, the courage to learn: if the teacher dares to teach, that is, to attend to and care for the learners, then the learners in their turn can dare to learn.” Self-confidence provides learners with the motivation and energy to become positive about their own learning. It also creates the drive in them to acquire the target language, enjoy the learning process, and experience real communication. Researches in language teaching have revealed that foreign language learners’ often seem passive and silent in language classroom. This therefore calls for an urgent need for EFL teachers to enhance their students’ confidence to help them take part more actively in classroom oral activities. Some of the strategies to achieve this is as follows; Teachers should create a comfortable and flexible atmosphere. In friendly environment, students feel free to speak up; they are not scared of making mistakes and sounding silly. “they can make certain that even if they make a mistake or run into a difficulty, others will respond in a friendly and encouraging manner” (Javad, 2014, p.118). It is therefore very necessary to provide learners with such an environment where they will have the opportunity to use English at ease and which are supportive to develop self-confidence. They will speak and participate more because the teacher and the classmates are helpful. Creating self-confidence in students requires building a better rapport with them. Brown (2001, p.202) claims that “ Rapport is the relationship or connection you establish with your students, a relationship built on trust and respect that leads to students feeling capable, competent and creative”. Teachers can again build this rapport by praising their students efforts, this helps them to trust their abilities and give them the energy to work more. Teachers should care for their students, listen to them, give them the same chance to participate, and use humor from time to time to establish a positive relationship with them in order to increase their self-confidence and make them less anxious in speaking English. Teachers should be confident in order to foster their students self-confidence. According to (Brown, 2001) “ the development of students’ self confidence is related to the teachers’ behavior. The manner in which they present themselves to the students and how they act in the classroom can affect the students”. Self confident teachers feel comfortable in the classroom and can convey their messages to students without disturbing them. Their calm and confident nature, and actions can promote students’ self-confidence. It is therefore very crucial for teachers to trust their abilities and love what they do in order to be a good model for their students and inspire them to become confident and successful speakers. Another way to increase students’ self-confidence is to put them into groups and pairs. Group and pair work increases cooperation among students, encourage them to become autonomous learners, helps in creating friendly and comfortable atmosphere in which they feel less afraid, offer them more opportunities to speak, share ideas and learn from each other. An important thing to note when putting students into groups and pairs is that; teachers should not put the more talkative students with students who are less talkative or shy together because it will allow the talkative students to dominate the group, which will not give the shy students chance to speak and express their opinions which will affects their self-confidence because they will prefer to keep silent. As a result of that, dominant students should be put in one group so that the other students can feel comfortable and participate without being afraid because their English is not better as the dominant students. Teachers should again change members of the group from time to time because this will allows them to learn from each other, establish a good relationship between them and improve self-confidence. As EFL teachers we may have come across situations where some of our students keep silent all the time in class. They do not want to speak English even when they know the answer to a simple question, they hesitate to open their mouths. Encouraging students to talk in a language classroom is therefore a problem that most language teachers face. There is a direct relationship between students’ confidence and their speaking behavior in second language (L2). Self-confidence contributes to the learners willingness to communicate in a foreign language. This therefore calls for EFL teachers to devise techniques to motivate their students to become confident and successful speakers. REFERENCES: Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education. Javad, M. (2014). Causes of Reticence: Enhancing Willingness to Speak in language Classrooms. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 3 (1), 115-122. http://www.consortiacademia.org/files/journals/3/articles/410/public/410-2259-1-PB.pdf Whitaker, P. (1995). Managing to learn: aspects of reflective and experiential learning in schools. London: Cassell.