C-3.How to motivate students to speak:

Motivation has a crucial role in leading to a successful learning of English. The strong desire to learn it is what drives students to excel. The challenge, however, is to know how to motivate these learners to speak, how to push them to make use of their acquired language. To motivate my students to speak fluently requires and depends on many considerations. To know how and when to motivate is important to ensure learners’ motivation and thus their effective learning of English.

     C-3-1. Motivation during the lesson procedure:

Getting my students motivated, and increasing their interest in using English is not related to a specific time. Enjoyment, interest and desire to practice the language must be ensured along the lesson duration. Moreover, the teacher has to engage and to direct his students' attention and efforts to make use of language in different ways; through varied types of activities and at different moments of a lesson procedure. This has to be done in a smooth, flexible manner.

A sample lesson from the seventh form book, where speaking was exploited and highlighted along the procedure of this lesson taught on Monday, January the 26^th

Module 3

Section three: Market day.

I set my objectives as follow: the ability to:

     - recognize new vocabulary related to clothes; shops,

     - scan for specific details.

     - identify and properly use prepositions

     - reinvest the acquired language in one’s speech.

Skills: speaking-reading.

Procedure:

       - The speaking test (5 minutes): role-play: a conversation about a previously taught topic: what’s your house like? Enacted by 2 pupils (Hersi Abdelhak and Chnib Amani).

       - Warming up (5 minutes): introduction of the topic under study through a class discussion.

@ Presentation(15 minutes): 

·Guided questions meant to introduce/ elicit vocabulary items and the structure point (prepositions of time and of place). These questions targeted the real- life experience of pupils which made them enthusiastic to participate: when is market day in your village (Zarat)? In (Mareth)? What can you find/ see in the market?

                   Name the clothes that you know.

·This led to activity 1 p 86 (related to clothes: done in groups of 4; through speaking. Pupils discussed and decided which clothes are worn by men; which by women and which are worn by both.

                 Discussion between pupils was also during the correction stage, there were different opinions about categorizing "hat, tie, and gloves".

·This led to activity 2 p 87 that introduced names of shops as well as introduced articles "a butcher’s/ an antique shop".

@ Practice(20 minutes):

A transition to this stage was done through questions meant to remind my pupils by Ali Soltane and his British friend Peter visiting him in Jerba.

·A silent reading of the text à for gist.

·To scan for details à to answer the first question; to fill in a table (highlighting prepositions of time and place).

                                          à To answer 2 (b)

                                                                 4: pupils elicited opposites of words from the 

                                                                     text.

          The teacher highlighted again prepositions starting from the answers and from the text (examples are written on board).

This was practised by doing activity 1 p 41 (the activity book).

@ Production(10 minutes):

An evaluation was done through questions meant to check understanding of the covered vocabulary and structure points.

Activity 4 p 89: to fill in the blanks in a short conversation by questioning classmates; then to enact it in pairs. As dealing with the personal experience of pupils, they were eager to enact it in pairs and in front of the class.

A second sample lesson taught to the ninth form on February the sixteenth:

Module4: Services

Lesson 1: At the airport

My objectives were the ability to:

                - recognize/ categorize new vocabulary.

                - infer the emotional state of a speaker.

                - identify the communicative functions of utterances.

                - enact a conversation

Skills, speaking, reading.

Procedure:

- The speaking test (5 minutes): role-play: a conversation between a tree and a pupil, where he asked her about “her problems” and how humans are causing harm to forests and to the environment (in relation with the previous module) enacted by Mhemdi Nizar and Aloui Fawzi

-Warming up (5 minutes): introduction of the fourth module: a free discussion about what this topic may suggest: words, types of services. (Brainstorming).

@ Presentation(10 minutes):

Transport was mentioned as an example of these services and among the words that relate to it that pupils suggested was ''airport''.

In groups of 4, pupils interacted in order to think about words that relate to “airport” à then a spider gram was completed with pupils' suggestions; where some vocabulary items were introduced (a flight attendant; a boarding pass).

A transition.

@ Practice(20 minutes):

-          To skim the text à a conversation between a flight attendant and a passenger.

-          To guess what it is about.

-          To read the text silently.

-          To read it loudly: pupils read the conversation twice (to practise pronunciation).

-     To scan for details: →to answer 1 p 82

                                          Activity 2 p 100 (vocabulary)

                                  Then they answered 2 p 82, that was the way to deal with the structure point related to that lesson.

→ through examples written on board from the text, and with focus on others presented in the book (p 83), pupils noticed and deduced the structures to express a polite request / to ask someone to do something politely:

          - would you mind + v + ing

          - could you +VP

→As practice: pupils were asked, in pairs, to form polite requests using the examples given in the activity entitled: “Ask your classmate politely to…” p83. I moved between the rows monitoring and making sure that my students are using the 2 structures properly.

→ Then, pupils made few examples orally to check their understanding (/ as evaluation).

@ Production(15 minutes):

·        Activity 1 p 100 (the activity book), starting from the text, pupils filled in a table where some functions (including polite request) are given. Students were supposed to look for the utterances they express in the conversation.

→ Other utterances were given by students when correcting.

In pairs, students practised and enacted the conversation using realia. Two pairs did it in front of the class (Jaadi Nabil + Lahouli Majd Eddine; Bouabidi Sana + Dahmani Mannoubia).