I would start with their mindset to help them realize the importance of English for them; I would invest a sufficient amount of time in developing their intrinsic motivation. Also, I would focus on Authentic and Meaningful Communication to help students perceive English as a language rather than a hollow subject. Besides, I would focus on the Comprehension and Communicative Approaches in teaching languages. Sharing goals and objectives with students is also a great way to help students develop self-autonomy.

Students speak more English when they have authentic opportunities to talk about things that matter to them. Speaking is also more intimidating than writing for many. Give them assignments where they can ask questions on social media in English and get responses from other English speakers. Let them practice and record themselves with phones or other devices and then play their responses for each other. Let them write short paragraphs or make outlines of what they want to say and then have them speak. Also, talk them about what they would like to be able to say in English and then design activities to help them meet their goals.

Rather than speaking focus on having them write down what they want to say and then reading it to the class (individuals, pairs, groups). Gradually, have them repeat it without actual reading. Do reading aloud exercises. These are traditional types of activities that are probably more familiar to them.

As already pointed out by Rajasekaran & Anburaj (2015), India is one of the densely populated countries in the world, and probably, illiteracy rate is quite high, which is the case in the most of the rural areas. So, for teaching effectiveness, use teacher-centered approach to learning. This involves conscious drilling and direct instruction on the part of the teacher. Here, the teacher may use the local language of the area intermittently when explaining some concepts to avoid leaving the rural learners in the dark.

One of the best methodology theories I have read on second language acquisition is by Steven Krashen. He is a respected theorist on second language acquisition and his theories revolutionized how English is taught to English language learners, especially in the United States. Here is a link to a page that summarizes key aspects of that theory: https://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash-english.html

From what you describe, I would make a few points related to Krashen's theory. First, my guess is that your student's are suffering from what he calls a "high affective filter", which simply means, they are anxious and fearful about the task of speaking in front of their peers. To lower their affective filter, focus on comprehensible input (understandable listening activities) in the beginning and less on production (speaking and writing).

Find a curriculum for Basic Interpersonal Skills (BICs) and later add a curriculum focused on Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALPs). BICs could include practicing structured dialogues organized around tasks such as asking for directions, talking about hobbies, stating a preference, ordering food in a restaurant, etc. I would also stress activities that are student-centered, such as having them find an interesting topic to research and report on, or interviewing a partner to hear their opinion about various topics, or group work and any activity that maximizes student speaking over the teacher always speaking. Students will feel safer talking to a partner or even in a small group compared to being called on in a class.

For beginners who are self-conscious and fearful of making mistakes, I would not do lots of corrections, except for modeling back (mirroring) the correct usage to them. The same goes for grammar focus. I would avoid much grammar and pronunciation correction early on and focus more on using language to communicate with their peers. Rely a lot on games to also reduce anxiety and get students to take chances using the language. Just do a search for "games for learning English" and you should find some interesting activities. There will be plenty of time later in their language development to focus on correction, but initially, just get them speaking. Correcting at the early stage tends to inhibit speaking.

Think about how young children learn their first language. They spend a great deal of time just listening before they speak, and speaking is always lagging behind listening comprehension, and this is all good. Students need to build up this base of language that they understand before actually speaking. The image of a glacier may express this development with most the base of the glacier that is underwater and not visible representing listening comprehension, and the speaking and writing represented by the small visible peak of the iceberg. Jut like with small children learning their first language, tolerate lots of errors, which eventually will all be corrected by them just listening to parents use the correct form. Start with basic syntactic and lexical structures and add complexity over time. Alway strive for input (teacher talk) that is comprehensible, and over time keep taking one step above what is comprehensible, (comprehension + 1).

These are some general ideas that come to mind. In addition to whatever training your school requires, consider joining professional groups like TESOL where you can ask peers questions like the one you posed. I hope this is a helpful start. Above all else, have fun! If you can show the languages can learned through fun activities, you will greatly reduce student's anxiety and negative feelings about taking a chance to talk in class.

One other helpful resource for me was this book: How Languages are Learned. You can find it here on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Languages-Learned-Handbooks-Language-Teachers/dp/0194541266

Hi there, there are many great suggestions here. I concur that students/ learners need to be intrinsically motivated to learn a new language. What’s in it for me? Why should I learn English? How will it benefit me?

Also, design low stakes assignments which are fun and engaging. If they refuse to speak, let them write or even speak in pairs first. For many, speaking a foreign tongue is daunting and makes them feel vulnerable. Hence, as teachers we have to create a safe space for them to take risks and make errors.

I would allow them to use their mother tongue/ heritage language if they get stuck in English. Read work by Jim Cummins on using heritage language; Suresh Canagarajah on Translingualism and World Englishes; Ofelia Garcia on Translanguaging; Vershawn Young on Codemeshing. Allowing learners to use their mother tongue helps in building self- confidence which allows them to take risks and to understand that language is a tool for communication which they can manipulate to their advantage.

Additionally, I‘ve learnt over the years that sometimes you don’t see their development or progress in tangible ways, but they are absorbing or listening. It may take some time before things click. Learning is not linear so we shouldn’t expect that just because we teach something today, they will learn it today. They may only understand what you taught them today in a month’s time.

Don’t give up; the very fact that you are searching for solutions shows you’re a reflective practitioner who cares about your students. I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

As well as all the above suggestions, I wonder whether in the Tamil Nadu context learners are normally expected to 'speak' in class? If their educational experience is mostly of listening to the teacher, then being expected to speak in English classes can be particularly challenging.

Since these are college level students ,perhaps a starting point might be to spend a class or two talking , in their L1, about language , and the role of speaking in any language... to help them to see that what you are asking them to do (speak in class), is normal for language learning, even if it is unusual in other subject classes.

In India students consider English as subject. First we have to make them understand that it is more than that

Making them speak on common day to day activities will be more effective as adolescents in India would like to show off their proficiency in common activities.

Dear Madam,

in my opinion, you may attempt to make English Fun, you teach while you play a game or sing as song as your ice breaking, in terms of how to stimulate the student to speak, you could also try to make a nice and interesting topic to be discussed and give them some vocabularies related to the topic given, so they could interest to give an opinion, etc. However, you have to try to teach in more fun way to make them feel free to express their idea or opinion in class.

Best regards.