Over the Wall of Silence

2 Over the Wall of Silence

C ONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION

Jack’s bad day ··············································································5 Culture and the speaking classroom············································7 We used to be Jack ······································································8

C HAPTER 1 G ETTING STUDENTS TO TALK

The pressure of the group ·························································11 The sounds of silence·································································13 The magic of testing···································································16 The Progress Sheet ····································································18 But how can I test speaking during class? ·································20 How often should I test?····························································25 What makes a good test? ··························································26 Where is the fun in all this? ·······················································28