ELE Teachers’ Techniques in Encouraging Students to Speak English in Group Discussions

Abstract

This study uncovers English Language Education (ELE) program students’ reasons of not speaking in English and how the teachers encourage them to speak in English in group discussions. Observations and interviews were used to find accurate data. The findings indicate the students’ reasons regarding to the reluctance of speaking in English include fear of making mistakes, avoiding misunderstanding, group discussion time limitation, difficult topic, lack of speaking teaching in their previous studies, and group mates’ language use. The teachers’ techniques to encourage them to speak in English are also explained in this study, such as speaking in English more often, reminding the students to speak in English, going around the class, and being patient toward the students’ answers. The aforementioned techniques were successful to encourage the students to speak in English in group discussions in the respective research site. The researcher hopes that this study will give insight for other English teachers to encourage their students to speak in English in group discussions.