Research Information System
Other, pp.23-29, 2020
One of our goals as English teachers is to set up an activity and have all of our students
communicating with each other in English to complete it. However, in the largely monolingual
classrooms that we have in Turkey, this goal can seem to be an ELT nirvana that very few of us are
fortunate enough to achieve in the span of our careers. As such, many of us may adopt the “a
monolingual class can’t communicate completely in English” mindset and slip into a rut of
acceptance. The result? Our students don’t speak any English at all.
In this article, I will briefly touch upon the speech production process to underline the theory of why
it is challenging to speak in a foreign language. Understanding these challenges can give us a basis
from which we can help our students to develop their speaking skills. I will then turn to our teacher
mindsets regarding how to increase students’ use of English. I will conclude by presenting a
technique for you to try out in your own classrooms.