With 17 tips, this section is the longest in the book – justifiably so, I believe, in response to the point made by many colleagues that it is often so very difficult to get teens to talk in the target language. There are sound psychological reasons explaining why the most talkative teen can all of a sudden turn into a monosyllabic stony-faced automaton. Changing that for the better requires the use of a range of strategies aimed to show our learners both that we take them seriously – their emotions, fears (of making mistakes), their opinions, their interests and their own language – and that we can lead them, with the help of the right support and inspiring activities, into a safe and engaged use of the new language.

• 43 Use substitution tables

• 44 Engage your learners in small talk

• 45 Use anecdotes

• 46 Ask the right questions

• 47 Deal with silence successfully

• 48 Do use drills

• 49 Engage learners in effective roleplay

• 50 Have five-minute activities ready

• 51 Encourage learners to speak personally

• 52 Motivate your learners to stick to English in class

• 53 Design engaging problem-solving tasks

• 54 Show me your stickers and I’ll tell you …

• 55 Use concentric circles to foster fluency

• 56 Use consensograms as a basis for discussions

• 57 Engage learners in gallery walk conversations

• 58 Encourage discussions about values

• 59 The role of the learners’ own language (L1)

43 Use substitution tables

Substitution tables support learners in creating linguistically correct sentences and also help them express themselves meaningfully. However, substitution tables need to go beyond mechanical drills. Paul Nation (2013) says, ‘Teachers need to make sure they not only provide opportunities for exact repetition, but that they also provide opportunities for repetition involving generative use. Retrieval involving generative use is one of the most powerful language learning conditions.’

Here is a substitution table for young teens beginning to learn English.

• • Write the table on the board to familiarise learners with a key sentence pattern.

• • Read out the top sentence in the table, pointing at it word for word. Get learners to repeat the sentence pattern in chorus and individually, then repeat with new sentences.

• • Tell learners that you are going to point at an individual word/ phrase in a column that offers more than one option.