The negative effect of English speaking outcome leads to the reluctance to practice and communicate more. For example, learners who learn English, typically, are afraid of making mistakes and then their friends would laugh at them (Yoshikawa & Way, 2008, p. 34). If their utterance is rejected or teased, then they would be passive and stop producing the language anymore. Similarly, Harmer (2007) also observed that students are often reluctant to speak because they are shy and are not predisposed to expressing themselves in front of other people, especially when they are being asked to give personal information or opinions. They are constantly worried about speaking badly which lead them to lose face in front of their classmates. He (2007, p. 345) recommended four strategies to help students to overcome their negative effects.
- Preparation: allow students have time to prepare themselves for the speaking they are going to do. They should be encouraged to speak the topics which are relevant to the lessons. However, it can be also any topics or stories.
- The value of repetition: repetition has a lot of advantageous effects. Each new encounter with a difficult word or phrase helps to fix it in the student’s memory. For example, when individuals repeat speaking tasks that they have previously completed, their initial attempt serves as a rehearsal for the final performance.​ Each rehearsal gives them more confidence and improvement.
- Big group, small group: the challenges for the hesitation of some students to participate in speaking activities is that they find themselves having to present in front of a big group. A small group helps them to have more chance to speak and interact with one another.
- Mandatory participation: ensure that all students are equally engage in a task.
It is a technique or game which allows everyone to take part in speaking activities. These activities help students to build up their good relationship with other classmates and teachers, and stimulate their spoken English skills as they are actively practice speaking English.
The role of teachers is to be a prompter, participant and provider. Therefore, the students have sufficient time to acquire the language rather than just learning it (Krashen, 1981).
