A Teacher’s approach to reluctant speakers in the english classroom: A case study

Abstract

This thesis investigates a teacher’s approach to students who experience a reluctance to speak during assessments within the English classroom. Considering “speaking” is one of the five basic skills in the Norwegian “English” Curriculum, further research in the field is required to find out how teachers can best ensure that also reluctant students acquire this skill. There should be a way of catering to a wide range of learning needs through the lesson activities while, additionally, helping students with a reluctance to speak publically, perform well and reach their potential, mainly during assessment situations. The question is how to achieve this most effectively. This project is a case study based on research concerning how a teacher best tailors his or her teaching to the students’ needs. The focus has been on a teacher and her 10th grade students. Throughout year 10, the focus on assessing students increases, in form of both summative and formative assessments, because this is the year Norwegian students receive their junior high school diploma. This research has been conducted with a focus on various teaching approaches to motivating reluctant students to speak, particularly in an assessment setting. Throughout the research process, both learning activities that inhibited and promoted speaking participation within the English classroom were registered and analyzed. The findings in this study suggest that (1) the more similar the ordinary teaching is to the assessment situation, the higher the level of participation shown by the students; (2) an engaging and supportive teacher is crucial to speaking participation with reluctant students; and (3) communicative and activating speaking activities increase students’ willingness to speak. The measures implemented by the teacher for the purpose of increasing participation will be discussed in light of relevant empirical research and peerreviewed studies.