How to Get Students to Enthusiastically Speak in Online Classes.

Today, during the era of COVID-19 online classes, many teachers, even after several months of experience, are still trying to find ways to make their classes as effective as if they were still in the physical classroom.

When talking to teachers about their experiences, and their opinions of their achievements during this time, there is one topic that keeps raising its head, that of students speaking in the classroom.

Yes, our students constantly speak, yes, they show their teachers their pets, their bedrooms, and talk a bit about their lives, but, most of this is in their mother tongue and is rarely in English or a part of a structured activity.

Most school students, primary or secondary, love to talk, so it isn't normally a problem when you ask a question that you will have a lot of hands go up into the air. However, most activities in a school classroom are initiated by the teacher, which means that they do most of the talking.

While this traditional method of teaching has been the foundation of education for many many years, today's teachers are trying to divert away from these methods and do more student-focused, or initiated activities.

Below are a few tips for getting your students talking more in the classroom.

Know your students and plan ahead

Every class is different, as are the student demographics. Get to know your students, their likes, their dislikes, and then plan accordingly, plan for success. Take the knowledge that you have learned about them and then plan activities that you know will ignite passion in your students, and success in your activities.

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Inject positivity into the class

Set the mood of the class, as the teacher, you are the leader, you set the pace, and the students will take their lead from you in every way. If you are upbeat and positive, then they too will be upbeat and positive, but if you are negative and disinterested, then they will be negative and disinterested.

Time to think and prepare.

When you ask a question, don't stand there waiting for an immediate answer. Give your students time to think about their answers and maybe even plan their response. Writing down their thoughts, or even brainstorming a response on paper would work well with either individual, pair or group activities. Sometimes, a few minutes of silent thinking time is all that students need to arrange their thoughts and plan what to say.

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Use Active Learning Strategies

Active learning strategies are the perfect way to get students talking more in class. Putting students into groups offers them the opportunity to work together and discuss their objective, rather than having to listen to the teacher and take notes. For group activities, implement the Jigsaw method where each student is responsible for learning a specific part of the activity, and then present what they learned to the members of their group. Other techniques are round-robin, numbered heads, and team-pair-solo.

Using open, non-intimidating body Language

Think about the way students see you. Do you have your arms folded when they are speaking, are you paying attention to what they are saying, are you smiling and showing interest or is your mind in another place, thinking about other things? Your appearance and mannerisms will determine how comfortable your students are and how long they will talk for.

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Form questions to ask,

Have a pencil and paper handy, and use it to formulate the questions that you will ask students. At all times, avoid rhetorical, or yes or no questions otherwise, how can you expect your students to talk to any major degree?

Schedule a debate for your students. Come up with a question where students will have to make a decision and take a side. Divide the students into two teams and have them debate and discuss their views.

Never question a student's answer to a question, instead, try asking them how they came to their opinion or conclusion. Allow them every opportunity to evaluate what they said, self-correct and then work out what they did wrong.

Let your students take the lead.

Let your students brainstorm and present questions for the discussion. Also ask them what their learning expectations are about the subject that you are covering. When you allow the students to take the lead, then they will feel freer to talk and discuss the issues because the questions were posed from themselves and their peers.

I hope that you enjoyed this article, and were able to find some tips that you can adapt to your classes.

Good luck, and good teaching.