Abstract:

Speaking is one of the most neglected skills in English teaching in Spain. It is not that professional teachers at the different levels of education do not try hard to make their students speak and participate in the class with a number of creative activities. The problem arises when the teachers’ efforts clash with the students’ reluctance to speak in front of the class and make mistakes. After the experience of many years, we have come to the conclusion that there is an invisible barrier which prevents Spanish students from expressing themselves in English and attaining an acceptable level of competence and performance in their spoken English. This inner resistance can be lowered significantly when the student is given the opportunity to communicate their own personal experience and feelings in a friendly atmosphere free from tension and formalism.
In this paper we will present a study on several groups of Spanish adult students of English as a second language who were given such an opportunity in intensive courses. The results of our team research reveal that making the students the real protagonists of their learning process increases oral proficiency significantly. By giving them meaningful scenarios related to their own life experiences -allowing them the opportunity to self-evaluate their learning process- and focusing on expressing themselves freely rather than avoiding making mistakes, the students are able to speak at ease and achieve high standards in oral English in a relatively short time.

Keywords:

Personal involvement, confidence building, self-evaluation, speaking skills.