Over the Wall of Silence

A Final Word 41

A Final Word

T HE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ZERO AND ONE In this little book, we tried to do a few things in our limited space. We looked at how the wall of silence blocks language classes in Ja pan, explained where it comes from, and gave some suggestions to improve your communication class. These strategies are actually very applicable to other areas of sec ond language teaching such as reading and writing, but for a speak ing class, we’d go as far as to say they form, without trying to sound overdramatic, a survival kit of sorts. The wall of silence really is that discouraging, so we need to use everything at our disposal to get our students over it. The strategies we outlined here will be all the more useful if: your students’ level is low; their motivation is low and your classes have large numbers of students. We’d recommend trying them out as simply as possible, without looking for perfection. Remember that the difference between zero and one is infinite! F OR MORE ON OUR APPROACH Due to the condensed nature of this booklet, there is a lot we couldn’t include. We’ll be happy to give you more details about prac tical procedures. Just contact us at: contact@almalang.com.