| dc.description.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. | en |
