…increasing students’ speaking confidence.

The vote, as you can see below, was very close. ‘What does the future hold for Australian ELT?’ has also been very popular so we’ll keep that for our choice of topics for next month’s chat.

Here are some aspects of tonight’s topic to consider before the chat:

• What do we mean by ‘confidence’?
• How confident are you in speaking your L2/L3/L4 etc.?
• What aspects of speaking ability impact (most/least) on confidence?
• What cultural/intercultural aspects do we need to be aware of?
• In what situations/contexts do Australian ELT Ss need to be confident speakers? Would the definition of ‘confidence’ be the same for each of those situations/contexts?
• Are there any risks associated with focusing on developing Ss’ confidence?
• What specific techniques/strategies/tasks can Ts employ to assist Ss?

Remember also that the English Australia Action Research program for 2013 is focused on teaching, learning and assessing speaking – if you have a particular interest in this topic, check out the link and get involved.