Silence in the Oral Language Classroom: Teachers’ Use of Motivational and Interactive Strategies

Abstract

It is par for the course that active participation renders the teaching/learning process more productive and confers learners with the occasion to ameliorate their speaking proficiency. Notwithstanding this particular assertion which concurs with an idealistic educational context, in truth, it is more common for learners to show a passive attitude and prefer to remain silent in the oral language classroom. Such a posture misleads students to a plethora of adverse outcomes of which they are unaware. Appositely, this present study aims at inspecting the reasons behind learners’ silence within the oral language classroom, as well as teachers’ reaction to it, and what strategies they might use so as to overcome this phenomenon. In an attempt to postulate the final findings of this study, two hypotheses were allocated. Initially, we hypothesised that teachers of oral expression would make use of a variety of teaching methods and strategies (motivational/interactive) to eradicate learners’ ilence within the EFL classroom; furthermore, we conjectured that these strategies would stimulate earners’motivation and enhance their interaction. For the purpose of checking the validity of the hypotheses, two questionnaires were imparted; one was dispensed to 75 second year EFL students at Mila University, while the other was administered to 10 oral expression teachers at the same university. The results for this research inquiry show that the majority of learners agree on the notion that speaking is a difficult task as most of them face an abundance of obstacles when attempting to share talk, which, in due course, trigger their silence. Pertinently, results also reveal that learners’ silence is attributable to a multiplicity of reasons, most prominently of which are shyness, lack of self-confidence, and low English proficiency level. What is more, it was unveiled that eachers spare no effort in utilising the most effective of strategies so as to encourage students to speak, ncrease their engagement, maximize their interaction, and minimize the encumbering ramifications of silence on their performance and development. Drawing on the established findings, a number of recommendations were delivered to both students and teachers for the sake of adopting more constructive attitudes and practices towards this phenomenon