Centre Régional des Métiers de l’Education et de la

0
Formation Laayoune

English Department

A research submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the teacher-training program

Reluctance to speak among first

year baccalaureatE students in
Wadi Sakia Elhamra high school
Es-Semara

Presented by : Sabra Kaaibich

Supervised by :Lehjef Mohamed

The problem :
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Every teacher enjoys teaching in a class where there is a good learning environment full of
positive interaction and a good rapport with learners. As a teacher of English, I want to
develop my students’ communication skills through involving them in several interactive
activities. However, most of the students seem uninterested and they hesitate to speak in
English especially when I ask them to get involved in a speaking activity during the
production stage of each lesson.

This problem needs more focus and investigation through an exploratory action research
that will help me as an EFL teacher to discover the reasons behind the reluctance of the
students to get involved in speaking activities , the causes that hinder a positive interaction
in the classroom and what I need to do to solve this problem.

Objectives :
 To find out why students do not show a positive interaction during speaking activities.
 To discuss the main reasons behind students’ reluctance to speak in class.
 To find some practical solutions or methods to improve students interaction in the
class.
 To suggest ways to overcome students’ fear to speak

Plan for exploration :

I tried to dive more into the problem and to explore more . I focused on the first year
baccalaureate students. Specifically, I wanted to find out :
 Why are students reluctant to speak, participate or discuss in the classroom?
 How to make students speak in class?
 What are some practical solutions to enhance students’ confidence in speaking?

Exploration methodology :
At first, it was necessary for me to do at least two peer observations with different
teachers and see when students hesitate to speak or when they do speak. Second, I
distributed two questionnaires, each of which contained 5 to 7 questions, to participants.
The first questionnaire was given to first year Bac students and was aimed to identify the
causes of students’ reluctance to speak in English language classes. The second
questionnaire was given to some teachers who teach first year Bac students to determine
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

the most effective strategies to involve reluctant students in speaking activities and
classroom discussions.

Then as a last step in the plan, I interviewed students individually , asking them about
some possible reasons that make them hesitate to speak and get involved in speaking
activities.

Data collection :
Questionnaires results

 Students

Who speaks more in your class?

14%
Students
Teacher

86%

How often do you participate in class ac-

tivities?
Regularly Often Rarely Never

14% 23%

64%
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Do you feel embarrassed when you make a

mistake in front of your classmates ?
Yes No

41%

59%

How do you feel when you speak English in

front of you classmates or / and your
teacher?
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Confident Nervous Very nervous

What will help you to speak and par-

ticipate in class?
better under- Motivation
standing of the 15%
lesson
39%

Enough vocabu-
lary
46%
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Are you afraid that your classmates would

mock you if you speak in English ?
Yes No

41%

59%

 Teachers
Questionnaire Answers
1. How many years have you been 62% Less than 5 years
teaching ? 15% Between 5 and 10 years
23% More than 10 years
2. Are there students who do not 98% Yes
participate in your classroom?
2% No
3. Which of these you think can be 11% Shyness
the reason behind your students’ 10% Anxiety
reluctance to speak in class? 27% Fear of making mistakes
52% Not having enough
vocabulary
4. How can we help reluctant 27% Group work
students get confident in class ? 8% Pair work
36% Motivation
28% Good rapport with sts
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

 Colleagues’ observation:
The teacher used different lesson materials but students seemed uninterested in the lesson .
Maybe the lesson is quite challenging for their level.

Something I noticed was that when you spoke or translated something into the students’
mother tongue, they participated and got motivated to speak; however, when they were
forced to speak in English they just stepped back and watched the teacher speak.

Maybe they got used to more TTT!

Some students weren’t paying attention to the teacher.

 Informal group discussion with students

I invited some students , mainly those who did not pay attention to the lesson, and talked to
them privately to discover why they did not participate or interact during lessons. Some of
them said that they did not understand what I was saying , others said that they did not have
enough vocabulary to use, thus they were afraid tod being mocked by their classmates . Some
admitted that the English language is not on their favourite school subjects list ; they give
much interest to subjects which they have in the regional exam.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Data analysis and interpretation

The students who were called to participate in the survey are students from two different
classes (a first year Baccalaureate science stream class and an economic sciences class . These
classes are made up of 45% females and 55 % males. Students answered the “ who speaks
more in your class?” question, testifying that their STT is lower than the teacher’s TTT. The
number of students who said that they talk more than their teacher is just 14% ( 3 students
out of 22 participants .

The second question was about the extent to which students feel shy . The result was that
14 students out of 22 students said they are shy students. When these students were asked the
same question during the interview, some of them explained that shyness is a real struggle for
them.

This finding connotes that some students feel bashful and inhibited , so they do not take
take part in any activity in class . We can assume that the shyness of these students may stem
from the fact that they are afraid to be asked to participate in classroom activities, which is
anxiety-provoking for many students (Mahfuzah 2013).

Only five participants reported that they felt feeling confident when they speak English
openly, while 12 of them admitted that they feel nervous when they speak English in front of
their classmates or their teacher.

Another issue is error correction . A lot of students feel embarrassed when the teacher
corrects their mistakes while they are speaking in class. Some do not accept it to be corrected
by the teacher or one of their classmates, especially those who are afraid of being laughed at.

The aim behind the questionnaire given to teachers is to find out what teachers think is the
main reason behind students’ reluctance to speak and participate. The partakers of this survey
gave several and different answers. 52% of teachers agreed that lack of vocabulary is the main
reason behind students’ disinclination to speak in class. 27 % of them see that students’ have
different learning styles and interests which the teachers must be aware of.

The survey indicates that students have a desire to participate and speak ; however; there
are some negative factors that affect their participation in class . These factors such as anxiety,
fear of making mistakes or lack of vocabulary hinder their speaking and discussion in class
Thus , these students feel less confident when they are invited to speak.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Looking at the data I came to the conclusion that the causes behind my students’ reluctance to
take part in classroom speaking activities are the following:

 difficulties in pronunciation.
 limited teaching materials.
 lack of confidence.
 over-loaded textbooks.
 fear of making mistakes in front of the whole class.
 not having enough vocabulary to express themselves.
 they might know the answer in their L1 but can't make a meaningful sentence in
English.

Plan for action

Based on the data I gathered, my colleagues and I suggested several ways to enhance my
students’ speaking . The following steps are my key to a classroom full of positive interaction
and participation :

 Daily warm ups and energizers.

 Pre-teaching vocabulary items before starting my lesson.
 The use of different lesson materials , apart from the textbook.
 Reconsidering my students’ interests and learning styles.
 Using classroom surveys during the production stage.
 Getting students to work in pairs and discuss in groups.
 Role plays.
 Tolerating L1 use when appropriate.

Review of literature

Defining reluctance:

When I look up the word ‘reluctance’ in some dictionaries , for instance Merriam Webster,
I find that it refers to “unwillingness or disinclination to do something”. The word reluctance
means a feeling of not wanting to do something or a tendency to avoid doing something
because of a certain reason.

Having reluctant students in the classroom is undoubtedly a serious concern. In almost

every classroom there are students who are reluctant to speak when the teacher asks them to
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

answer a question or to discuss a topic. Landsman, Julie. (2008) considers that “when there
are reluctant students, there are surely reluctant teachers who just leave those learners aside
and see them as special cases who are present in the classroom without speaking, participating
or doing anything that may help them to be active in class. Most of students who are
neglected by teachers stay reluctant and scared of talking in class because of lack of
motivation and help from the teacher .

“Reluctant teachers often avoid students who do not look, act or talk like them. They may
categorize such students as being at risk, having behavior problems or being unteachable.
Ladson Billings (2006) indicates that teachers who define students in such terms create a
classroom environment that is no longer a place of learning and high expectation , but rather a
place rooted in control and management.

Causes of students’ reluctance to speak in the classroom:

1. The fear of making mistakes:

“Fear of making errors is often cited as another cause of the perceived reticence and passivity.
And this anxiety factor is also allegedly related to certain aspects of Eastern culture, such as
the desire to be right and perfect and fear of losing face (Cheng, 2000).

2. Shyness and the inability to speak in front of others

“Speaking in front of students , especially during activities that demand students to speak in
front of the whole class, has been found to be anxiety provoking’’ Hamouda (2012) . Some of
the activities are hated by students who are reluctant to participate not because they are boring
or useless, but because students are asked to stand in front of their classmates and colleagues
and speak in front of them , which makes them feel worried of making mistakes while
speaking.

3. Lack of motivation

According to Jeremy Harmer (2007) motivation is a kind of internal drive which pushes
someone to do things in order to achieve something. There are main categories of
motivation : extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated learners are willing
engage in an activity for the personal satisfaction it brings. It is the kind of motivation
displayed by young children in the preschool years and students of any age when they study
for the pure joy and satisfaction of learning. Intrinsic motivation is almost entirely absent in
students with a history of learning difficulty in school. Extrinsic motivation, on the other
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

hand, refers an individual who tries hard to learn in order to gain some reward or to avoid
negative consequences of not learning.

Both forms of motivation are extremely important. The motivation that exists in any given
learning situation is the sum total of intrinsic plus extrinsic influences. Therefore, motivation
is one of important elements in encouraging students to achieve their goal in to speak fluent
English . We cannot ignore the power of motivation , both in intrinsic and extrinsic especially
for students who learn a language as foreign language, because basically students need to
have willingness from themselves to be success in speaking. Without motivation, especially
intrinsic motivation, students will not try to speak and participate in class because when there
is no determination and willingness to speak , they will not do so.

4. Negative teacher - students relationship

No one can deny that negative rapport with students will help teachers have a positive
interaction with their students. However, the classroom where there is good rapport with
students is the classroom where students speak without fearing anything. According to
Landsman “Nothing alienates students more than threatening them, and nothing creates
reluctance than force”. Force, threatening students and excessive authority of the teacher in
his classroom creates a bad rapport with his students and this will have bad effects on
students’ leaning and participation. “Positive, caring relationships are vital for all students,
especially those who seem hesitant. Students want teachers to understand that they have
problems outside the classroom. They appreciate teachers who are willing to listen and guide
them”. So, reluctance and disinclination of students is very likely to happen when a teacher is
authoritative and has a negative rapport with his students.

The importance of speaking and participation in class

Getting students to participate in class is very important, however it is difficult to make

students speak. Participation in classroom discussions has undoubtedly a big role in students’
acquisition of many skills that will help them in their learning and also in their life. “To
engage the students in participation in a classroom is an important method of teaching. It
provides the students with an opportunity to receive input from fellow students, to apply their
knowledge and to enhance public speaking skills. Through participation, teachers can get a
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

more accurate idea about the understanding level of students and about the concept being
taught ’’ (Maznevski 1996). When we engage our students in speaking more than us, their
STT is maximized ; they feel that they are learning from each other rather than from us,
teachers, and this will for sure let them search and ask questions so as to be always ready for
any discussion in the classroom.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Action for change

As a first step to bring my action plan into reality and owing to my strong willingness to make my

students interact and speak English, I gave them an opportunity to express themselves through daily

warm ups. In every session, one of the students does a ten minutes warm up for the whole class, he/she

brings riddles, puzzles, tongue twisters and sometimes games.

I also decided to pre-teach vocabulary items related to the theme taught and allocate part of

blackboard for 6 to 8 items so that students can refer to them whenever they needed to answer a

question.

To build up positive attitudes among students so that they can feel free to speak in the class, I also

used new methods to teach speaking lessons, such as role plays and the use of classroom surveys.

For example , I planed to use a role play as the main activity to practice “giving and asking for

advice” . I asked students’ to work in pairs, imagine a situation in which one of them needs an advice

and the other provides it. Some pairs imagined and acted like they were in a hospital, others were in

police station or at school. I gently provided feedback and praised their performances.

I designed papers with some questions in the form of a survey and asked students to walk around

the classroom and find the answers :

Survey sample “used to” past habits

Find out what your friends’ lives were like when they were a child
Write “did you use to…?” question for each category, then go around the class asking your
classmates the questions and noting down the answers by putting a tick for yes and a cross for no in
the appropriate column.
√ X
1. Games ( hide and seek … )
 Did you use to play hide and seek ?
2. Toys
 …………………………………...?
3. School subjects
 …………………………………...?
4. Sports
 …………………………………...?
5. Travelling
 …………………………………...?
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

6. Housework
 …………………………………...?
7. Trips
 …………………………………...?
8. Crying a lot
 …………………………………...?
9. Hobbies
 …………………………………...?
10. Friends
 …………………………………...?

Considering my students’ different learning styles, I decided to use other materials and go beyond
the textbook ; for instance, I showed my students a video about studying in a university and asked
them to give their opinions about it . They shared their personal experience and we had a nice
discussion about their future plans after high school. I provided support when needed.

I also focused more on pair/group work. I allowed students to have discussions with their peers
before talking to the whole class which made them feel more confident while speaking English.
Another simple pair work activity I used is that I asked them to draw something on a white paper ,
anything they like, and then I asked them to report and describe their drawings to their classmates.
Besides , I divided the class into groups of four participants and asked them to do presentations
about different themes related to the units taught.

Due to my students’ modest English communicative level, I,sometimes, tolerated L1 use, but I
tactically led them to go back to using English by commenting or asking a question in English.
As a last step in my plan, I set up a club and invited students to join. The club was a good
opportunity for students to encounter English language outside the classroom. 13 students joined the
club. The first two sessions were devoted to projects. Club members worked in groups to make
creative posters which we use stuck on the classroom walls. Those groups had the opportunity to
explain their projects to their classmates. Then we organized a public speaking contest through which I
tried to build up their self –confidence.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

After the action: observation

After applying my action plan in my classroom, I noticed that my students somehow got motivated
to speak in class .They are able to produce an answer related to the question given without hesitation.
Some students repeat what I say and ask about the meaning of words they don’t understand and some
others start to challenge their friends to speak and participate.

In an informal discussion with some students, I asked them questions about their feelings when
they got engaged in the classroom activities and they said:

Student1# stated that when he had the opportunity to do the warm up in class, he had more desire to
speak in English and try to speak like a teacher.

S2#said that she likes acting and her favorite moment in the English session is when the teacher
assigns role plays. She finds it as a practice to her talent.

S3#declared that she always forgets words she learnt in English, but now she can see them and use
them in a sentence , which helped her to keep them on her notebook and memorize them.

S4#reported that he doesn’t participate or speak because it has difficulty in pronunciation, however,
speaking activities are helping him improve his pronunciation.

S5#announced that she cannot produce sentences in English unless she translates them from Arabic to
English , that’s why she kept asking about the translation of some words so as to participate and
elaborate on her ideas.

I invited one of my colleagues to observe if there is an improvement in my students’ desire to speak

and he reported: “students are motivated to speak through the various activities used in the lesson. At
the beginning , they were uninterested maybe because you are used to teach them using the traditional
way ; however, when you used a video and grasped their attention through discussions and
contextualizing and personalizing the activity ( students’ dreams and future plans ) , most of them
seemed comfortable while speaking despite the mistakes they make.”
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Reflection: Lesson learnt

After applying my action plan and observing its results and outcomes, I have come to the
conclusion that the main reason behind students’ reluctance to speak was the difficulties in word
meaning. Either they don’t understand what I say or they don’t know how to express themselves using
the appropriate words.

 Starting lessons with icebreakers or warm ups helped the learners interact and build a positive
attitude towards me as their teacher. Educators have come to the conclusion that icebreakers are
a good way of helping students go beyond their inhibition. They are very important to engage
students and help them participate in the classroom.
 Role plays increased students’ interest and also helped them practice language in an interesting
and entertaining way that made them enjoy learning.
 In a class of a heterogeneous communicative ability, I should expect every student not to
perform in the same way . Likewise, I used different kinds of tasks to suit different levels.
Alternatively, task demands can be adjusted or modified according to individual levels of oral
competence.
 The focus on group and pair work helped me to get students to speak because once students feel
a sense of support from his/her peers, it is likely that they will be more willing to speak in the
target language.
 At a low English communicative level, students are not able to convey their thoughts.
Therefore, I became tolerant of some L1 use. According to Nation (1997), using L1 can help
learning in many cases. The teachers’ attitude to L1 use should be positive so that students are
not humiliated when they use L1 to assist L2 development. When L1 use is not necessary, the
teachers should tactically lead students back to using English, e.g. by commenting or asking a
question in English instead of showing strong objections.
 I allowed students to check their answers with their peers , which encouraged them to speak.
They are also allowed them to have a discussion with their peers before talking to the whole
class , so they felt more confident while speaking English.

“True learning cannot take place when students are passive observers of the teaching
process”.Poorman has summed up all about students learning in the learning and teaching
process. Learning cannot take place until there are some important things that the teacher
should think about so as to make it engaging and entertaining to students; this surely will
make them motivated to participate and speak in the classroom.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Conclusion:

One of the most challenging obstacles that students face is their fear of speaking in front of
the class group. Thus, this research paper focuses on finding some solutions to the problem of
students reluctance to speak and unwillingness to participate in the classroom.

I shed lights on the several reasons that push students to remain silent and hesitant to
participate mainly the lack of vocabulary and low self-esteem. While looking for solutions, I
based my investigation on questionnaires, peers observation, feedback and self reflection.
these data helped me to have a close insight to realize the feelings of students in second
language learning and how shall I, as a teacher, help my pupils to overcome those hurdles
through different effective pedagogical strategies to engage them in the learning process.

The findings of this study suggest that teachers’ use of pair/group work is way beneficial to
motivate students to speak since they make students interact with each other and reduce
anxiety among learners. Promoting interactions between learners through different activities
help to create a strong bond between students and as a result they learn new communicative
social skills and develop the ones they already have.

In a nut shell, I quote, “Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students” Kuralt.

it is hoped that this humble research paper covers reasons and solutions of students reluctance
to speak in the classroom.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

Lesson plans of my action plan

 Daily warm ups

Objectives :
- Ss will be able to express themselves freely.
- Ss will enhance their ability to explore and discover different ESL games, riddles
and puzzles.
- Ss will build up their self-confidence and enhance their communicative skills

Steps :
- T explains/elicits the importance of warm ups
- T asks ss to take turns and prepare a warm up or icebreaker at the beginning of
every session

 Pre-teaching vocabulary items before starting my lesson.

Unit 3 : media
Level : 1st bac
Skill : reading

Objectives :
- Ss will be able to recognize the vocabulary items related to the text
- Ss will be able to understand the meaning of blockers

Steps :
- T writes a group of words on the side of the white board.
- T elicits the meaning of those items.
- T keeps the words and their definitions on the white board for visual learners.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

 The use of different lesson materials apart from the textbook.

Unit : 3 Media
Level : 1st Bac
Skill : Grammar
Present perfect tense

Objectives :

- Ss will be able to identify the structure of present perfect simple.

- Ss will be exposed to other forms of assessment.
- Ss will use the structure of PPS correctly in the given tasks.

Steps :

- Apart from the textbook, Teacher brings hand outs that contain some tasks related to
the lesson “see appendix x”
- Ss work in pairs to find answers.

 Involve classroom surveys during the production stage.

Level : 1st Bac

Skill : grammar

Objectives :

- Ss will find a chance to speak freely in the class.

- Ss will be able to get out of their zone and explore other forms of learning.
- Ss will talk to each other without being judged or corrected.

Steps :

- T gives ss hand outs

- Ss walk around the classroom to gather information and fill in blanks.
- Ss speak to each other and examine their knowledge communicatively.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

 Get students work in pairs and discuss in groups.

Unit : Media
Level : 1st Bac
Skill : speaking
Objectives :

- Ss will be able to express their thoughts and share their ideas.

- Ss will overcome their fear of speaking in front of others.
- Ss will enhance their communicative skills.

Steps :

- T shows ss a video about studying in university

- T asks ss to give their opinion about it.
- Ss share their personal opinions and talk about their future plans.

 Role play

Level : 1st Bac

Skill : functions ‘giving and asking for advice’
Objectives :

- Ss will find a chance to work with their peers.

- Ss will cooperate with each other to imagine a situation and produce a role play
script.

Steps:

- T asks ss to work in pairs, imagine a situation in which one of them needs advice.
- Ss work in pairs to produce the situation.
- Ss present their performances in front of the whole class.
- T provides feedback and praises the performances.
Exploratory Action Research CRMEF Laayoune

 Tolerate L1 use when appropriate.

Objectives :

- Ss will be able to speak without hesitation.

- Ss will reduce their dependence on L1.
- Ss will benefit from translated vocabulary.

Steps :

- T allows the use of L1

- T translates phrases and draws ss attention to the English version of the words.
- Ss reduce the use of L1