From silence to dialogue: secrets to unlock student conversations

How many times have you noticed that your student undergoes a major personality change when you try to strike up a conversation, any conversation longer than a couple of words strung together? 

I don't mean Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, thankfully. But still, suddenly, they start acting like someone who got stopped by the police and decided to exercise their right to remain silent. 

Or, in a better case scenario, resort to monosyllabic answers or even use their mother tongue to reel off thoughts and ideas in hopes of avoiding speaking English.

This can happen in a teacher-student setting or during a group discussion, but in any case, finding the reason behind the phenomenon might help us with the solution.

Very often, speaking a foreign language, especially one-on-one with the peers, is seen as being ‘fake’ and ‘unnatural’ by the students, even at higher levels. 

We both can use our mother tongue and understand each other just fine, so why use English and play pretend? 

And, as a mask, it gets dropped and kicked out of the way as soon as the need is gone. 

But if we look deeper, communication in class isn’t just a performance or act — the English language that we use already serves its very real and practical purpose: it helps us connect, even if on a very basic level, and transfers important information about itself. 

So, help the students imagine their language skills as tools, powerful and indispensable. 

And we know that tools need to be sharpened, cleaned, and maintained in order for them to stay functional. 

They can’t be expected to do the job if you neglect them and let them become rusty.

Our class is where we sharpen the tools, and the feeling of awkwardness will pass with time and consistent effort. 

Perfectionism and fear of making a mistake might be significant contributing factors stopping your learner from expressing their thoughts. 

Very often, their expectation is that you, as their teacher, are looking (and listening!) for errors like a hawk, ready to drop from the skies the moment they mispronounce a word or mess up a grammatical structure. 

The fear of criticism paralyses the mind, so at this stage we are not focusing on accuracy; we have other, more important things to worry about.

Take the time to get to know your learner. Be interested in what he or she has to tell, not so much in the way they tell it. 

Find out about their interests, things they are enthusiastic about, something that gets them going and makes them want to share. 

This sense of connection travels both ways. And once you have established trust, engaging in a conversation becomes easier. 

Correction provided by the teacher, be it delayed or on-the-spot, turns into a helping hand instead of a painful reminder of imperfection, and the students feel free to try and apply whatever knowledge they possess to get their meaning across.

As teachers, we want our learners to achieve accuracy, fluency, appropriacy, and complexity in their speech. 

These are all valid goals, but none of them can be achieved without first getting the ball rolling.

Just like there is writer’s block, when an author experiences an inability to tell their stories, there is also speaker’s block. 

It happens to all of us, even to those who are already fluent and normally quick on the draw, let alone budding speakers lacking vocabulary and uncertain about their grammar and pronunciation. 

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to talk to people who patronise or intimidate you, albeit unintentionally. 

So whether you are working one-on-one or with a group of students, make this special effort to turn your class into a safe space where no judgement is passed and where mistakes are an opportunity to learn and improve. 

For groups, it is necessary to set certain behavioural expectations and teach your students the basics of turn-taking, listening dynamically, and disagreeing politely.

Back-channelling

To begin with, even the smallest things, like back-channelling, can be a great support. 

Instead of sitting and staring blankly while their conversation partner is talking, the student can and should participate non-verbally and show that they’re actually listening, i.e., using their body language, nodding, putting in an occasional ‘aha’, or ‘oh’ to signal the speaker that they are following. 

Sentence stems

If your students need additional scaffolding to start, sentence stems (also known as ‘sentence starters’) can be used. 

They provide a frame for the students to build their complete sentences on and remove the pressure of creating an idea from scratch.

The first speaker initiates the conversation, the second one responds, then the first one provides a follow-up (builds on the newly acquired information).

Similar strategies can be implemented in monologues as well. 

For instance, a game of ‘but-so-because’ suggested by a YouTuber ‘Gringo Jay’ is suitable even for the lower levels. 

The student says a phrase (‘I didn’t go to work today,’ for example), then adds the conjunction ‘but’ and a contrasting thought (‘…but I did a lot of housework…’), and then ‘so’ (or ‘because’) to introduce consequences or reason (‘so I’m tired’ or ‘because I had to do it’). 

Open-ended questions

Ask open-ended questions. This will help your students get out of the sheltered harbour of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers and venture a bit further. 

Small talk

Don’t shy away from small talk. 

Although it can’t be considered a real conversation, it is a safety net of sorts, something comfortable and routine to fall back on when the student is stuck and at a loss for words. 

No matter how scared your student is of putting himself or herself out there and talking, halfway through discussing the weather they might realise they are already doing it — so why not add a couple of words of their own?

Debates and discussions

Engage your class in debates and discussions. 

Get to know your learners and choose relevant topics — something that would provoke thought and promote critical thinking.

Present role-playing scenarios

This activity provides students with a clear purpose for interaction, a setting, and a context, and requires active participation. 

It is especially beneficial for shy students who can practise different roles and gain confidence for further, freer interactions. 

Describing a picture

This activity fosters spontaneity and creative use of descriptive language. 

Using visually stimulating images ensures the students’ engagement, and providing a prompt to refer to reduces possible anxiety linked to speaking. 

Information gap activities

Information gap activities provide students with a common goal to work towards. 

Effective communication and information-sharing are required in order to solve the problem and complete the task as a team. This way, conversation is used as a means to an end.  

“Think, pair, share” speaking activity

This speaking activity suggests time to think an idea over individually, then discuss it with a partner, and finally share with the class. 

Working in pairs provides the students with a low-pressure environment where they can talk their thoughts over with a peer before speaking to a wider audience.  

Talking with a timer  

Finally, here’s a little something your students can try on their own: talking with a timer. 

Provide your students with a list of topics or key words and have them record themselves talking. 

They don’t need to show these speeches to anyone. There is no right or wrong, just the freedom to say whatever comes to mind. 

This exercise will help get their organs of speech used to the process of speaking and put their minds at ease. 

One might argue that all the problems students experience with speaking have to do with the language barrier. 

Well, in one of his science fiction novels, Douglas Adams, an English writer and humorist, describes this fantastic creature called the Babel fish. 

It is a leech-like organism that, being put inside a person’s ear, feeds on the brain energy and provides the carrier with the ‘translation’ of what they hear. 

Surely, such an aid would solve the problem with conversation? Less than likely.

Of course, it would remove the inhibitions and fears of not understanding or not being understood.

Without a certain skill, a conversation quickly chokes, stumbles, and eventually dies down. 

Or, worse, turns into a lengthy monologue on a topic nobody cares about.

Judy Apps, in her ‘Art of Conversation,’ points out that a good conversation should maintain balance between its two main purposes: passing information and creating a connection between the speakers. 

It is a combination of content and emotion, and one cannot be without the other.

Most of these rules sound like common sense, but we know that common sense is not that common, so practising them might require a conscious effort. 

Which, I am sure, is totally worth the while.

And, lastly, with all that being said about conversation, we must never forget that there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. 

Some of the things should be said while others should remain untold, and knowing the difference is an art in its own right.