Teaching Speaking Creatively to Grade 6 + Lesson Plan

1. How I Teach Speaking Skills Creatively (4 marks)

Speaking is the most difficult skill to teach at the basic level because learners are shy, have limited vocabulary, fear making mistakes, and get very little chance to speak in a large class. So I teach speaking not by making students memorise sentences, but by creating situations in which they genuinely want to speak. My main creative strategies are:

a) Creating a safe, low-anxiety classroom. I never correct pronunciation in front of the whole class. I use pair work and small-group work so that a weak student speaks to one friend only. I praise effort ("Good try!", "Nice sentence!") more than accuracy. This removes the fear of speaking.

b) Teaching through games and fun activities. Grade 6 learners are children; they learn best while playing. I use:

• Language games — Simon Says (imperatives), Bingo (numbers/words), Word Chain (My name is… and I like…), Twenty Questions.
• Role play and dialogue — shopkeeper and customer, doctor and patient, asking for directions.
• Information-gap activities — each partner has different information (e.g., two different pictures or timetables) and must ask questions to complete the task. This forces real communication, not repetition.
• Picture talk / story telling — students describe a picture or continue a story from a given sentence.
• Show and tell, interviews, mini speeches, rhymes and tongue-twisters for pronunciation and fluency.

c) Using real-life, local and meaningful contexts. I link topics to students' own lives — my family, my village, festivals, my daily routine, my favourite food. When the topic is familiar, learners have something to say and words to say it with.

d) Providing models and language support (scaffolding). Before speaking, I give a model dialogue, key expressions on the board or chart (e.g., "How much is it?", "It's Rs 50."), and sentence frames. I drill pronunciation through choral repetition, then group repetition, then individual repetition — but always inside a meaningful activity.

e) Maximising student talking time (STT). I keep my own talking to a minimum. Every student gets a turn through pair work, group work, role play and presentations. I move around, monitor, and note common errors for later correction.

f) Integrating speaking with listening, reading and writing. A listening text or a reading passage becomes the base for a dialogue; the dialogue is then written as homework. This makes speaking purposeful.

g) Using simple teaching aids and ICT. Flashcards, pictures, real objects (realia), charts, puppets, mobile audio, and short videos make the speaking task lively and clear.

h) Giving feedback positively. I correct through recast (repeating the correct form naturally) and at the end of the activity, not during it, so that fluency is not broken.

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2. Lesson Plan: Teaching Speaking Skill

Subject: English Grade: 6 Unit/Topic: "Talking About My Daily Routine" (Speaking) Time: 40 minutes Teaching Method: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) with pair work, game and role play Teaching Aids: Flashcards (get up, brush teeth, have breakfast, go to school, do homework, go to bed), a clock model, board, marker, chart of sentence frames, audio of a short dialogue (mobile)

Specific Objectives

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. Say at least five sentences about their daily routine using the simple present tense.
2. Ask and answer questions about daily activities with a partner.
3. Pronounce the target words and expressions clearly and correctly.

Target Language / Key Expressions

• What time do you get up? — I get up at six o'clock.
• When do you go to school? — I go to school at nine.
• What do you do in the evening? — I do my homework and watch TV.
• Words: get up, brush, breakfast, school, homework, dinner, go to bed

Teaching Procedure

Assessment (during the lesson)

• Observation: participation in pair work and role play.
• Oral checklist: fluency, correct use of simple present, pronunciation of target words, confidence.
• Homework: write five sentences about your daily routine and record yourself reading them (if mobile is available).

Expected Outcome

Students speak simple present sentences about their daily routine, ask and answer questions, and gain confidence to speak English without fear.

Professional development activities to support English language teachers in a multilingual classroom

A multilingual classroom in Nepal typically has learners who speak different mother tongues (Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Newar, Tamang, Magar, and so on) but are taught English as a second or third language. The teacher therefore has to teach both the language and the content while respecting the learners' home languages. Professional development (PD) for such teachers must go beyond one-off lectures; it should be continuous, classroom-based and collaborative. The following three activities are the most useful.

1. Action research on multilingual teaching strategies

The teacher identifies a real problem in his or her own class — for example, "Why do my Grade 6 students stay silent during English speaking activities?" — and then plans, acts, observes and reflects on a small intervention. For instance, the teacher may allow students to discuss a topic first in their mother tongue in pairs and then report in English. Data is collected through observation notes, simple questionnaires and samples of students' work. The teacher then writes a short report and shares the findings in a staff meeting. This activity is valuable because it is context-specific: what works in one multilingual class may not work in another, so the teacher becomes a researcher of his or her own classroom rather than a receiver of ready-made methods. It also builds reflective practice and confidence.

2. Peer observation and collaborative lesson planning

Teachers of English in the same school or a nearby cluster plan a lesson together, teach it while a colleague observes, and then hold a feedback session. In a multilingual setting the focus of observation can be specific, such as how the teacher uses the learners' first language (L1) as a resource, how instructions are simplified, or how vocabulary is made clear through pictures, gestures and real objects. The observer uses a simple checklist and gives constructive, non-judgemental feedback. This activity develops a professional learning community, reduces the isolation of the English teacher, and allows successful techniques — code-switching at the right moment, bilingual glossaries, pair work with mixed language groups — to spread quickly among colleagues.

3. In-service training and workshops on multilingual pedagogy

Short, focused training sessions organised by the Education Training Centre, the Curriculum Development Centre or NGOs can update teachers on approaches such as translanguaging, task-based language teaching, and the use of local stories, songs and contexts in English lessons. A good workshop is practical: participants design a lesson or a low-cost teaching material (flash cards, picture charts, word walls) and try it out in a micro-teaching session. Follow-up support — classroom visits by the trainer or a refresher session after a month — is essential, because without follow-up most training is forgotten. Such workshops also help teachers understand the theory behind the multilingual approach: that the mother tongue is not an obstacle to learning English but a bridge to it.

Conclusion

These three activities — action research, peer observation with collaborative planning, and in-service training with follow-up — are complementary. Action research produces local knowledge, peer observation shares it among colleagues, and training links it to wider professional theory. Together they help the English teacher manage the linguistic diversity of the classroom, use the learners' mother tongues as a resource, and improve learners' English proficiency without weakening their first language. For the Lower Secondary level, where learners are still developing both their mother tongue and English, such continuous, school-based PD is essential.

Yes, as an English language teacher in Nepal, I do see several shortcomings in using ICT tools, even though ICT has clear advantages. The shortcomings in the Nepalese context can be discussed under the following headings.

1. Lack of reliable infrastructure The biggest shortcoming is the lack of basic infrastructure. Many community schools do not have a stable electricity supply, internet connection or even a sufficient number of computers. Load-shedding and weak Wi-Fi make it impossible to depend on ICT for regular classroom teaching. Even where computers exist, they are often old and slow, so multimedia materials cannot be played smoothly. In such a situation, ICT becomes an occasional showpiece rather than a daily pedagogical tool.

2. High cost and limited budget ICT tools such as projectors, smart boards, laptops and licensed software are expensive. Nepalese community schools receive limited government grants, most of which are spent on salaries and basic needs. Teachers often have to spend from their own pockets for data packs and devices. This makes ICT-based teaching unequal — well-funded private schools use it well, while poor rural schools cannot.

3. Lack of teacher training and technical skills Many English teachers were trained in traditional methods and have not received proper training in ICT integration. Knowing how to operate a laptop is not the same as knowing how to use it pedagogically. Without continuous professional development, teachers either avoid ICT tools or use them only for presentations, which does not improve language learning. Technical problems during class also discourage teachers.

4. Insufficient and unsuitable digital content Most available digital content is produced abroad and does not match the Nepalese curriculum, culture or the proficiency level of our learners. Ready-made materials may contain foreign accents, unfamiliar contexts and advanced vocabulary. Local digital content in English is very limited. Teachers therefore spend a lot of time adapting materials, which defeats the claim that ICT saves time.

5. Distraction and classroom management problems When students use mobile phones or computers, they may be distracted by games, social media and chatting instead of learning English. In large classes with 40–50 students, one teacher cannot monitor every screen. ICT can thus reduce rather than increase meaningful interaction and speaking practice.

6. Reduced teacher–student interaction Over-dependence on ICT may turn the class into a one-way lecture where students passively watch slides or videos. English is a skill subject that needs speaking, interaction and feedback. If the teacher hides behind the screen, communicative language teaching suffers.

7. Socio-economic inequality among students Not all students have equal access to ICT at home. Students from poor and rural families may have never used a computer, while urban students are already familiar with them. This digital divide creates a gap in participation and achievement within the same classroom.

8. Power interruption and maintenance issues Frequent power cuts, lack of technicians and no repair facilities mean that broken devices remain unused for months. Schools cannot afford annual maintenance contracts. As a result, investment in ICT does not give the expected return.

9. Health and psychological effects Long screen time can cause eye strain, headache and posture problems among young learners. Excessive use of videos and games may also reduce their attention span and interest in reading and writing.

10. Weak monitoring and policy implementation Although the government has an ICT policy in education, implementation is weak. There is no proper monitoring of how ICT is actually used in classrooms, and no clear reward or support system for teachers who integrate it well.

Conclusion In short, ICT offers valuable pedagogical tools for English language teaching, but in the Nepalese context its use is limited by poor infrastructure, high cost, lack of training, unsuitable content, distraction, inequality and weak policy implementation. Therefore, ICT should be used as a supplementary tool, not as a substitute for the teacher. The government must invest in infrastructure, local content development and continuous teacher training so that the benefits of ICT reach all English classrooms equally.