My schoolchildren are so shy

I am a new teacher to Hong Kong in the NET [Native English Teaching] scheme. I work at a local Chinese school. I notice that the children are afraid to ask questions in class. I am a very quiet, gentle teacher and not intimidating at all. So I am unsure why they are hesitant to raise their hands. Can you give me some advice?

Amy Stewart answers: This is not a reflection of your demeanour or skills in the classroom but instead is likely to be a result of two factors.The first being that students’ in local schools can be very shy when they met a new NET, this will improve over time as they become more familiar with you but this can take longer than you expected.

The second factor is likely to be that the students are worried that they must communicate with you in perfect English because you are a native speaker and it is better to say nothing than to embarrass themselves by contributing in less than perfect English.

There are several things that you could implement but first I would make a point to assure students that you are looking for people to contribute as best they can and it does not have to be perfect because you will help them. This assurance will need to be given every lesson and perhaps even throughout the lesson. When students to contribute or ask a question, you can never be too positive or give too much encouragement. Always praise the student for their ideas and try to avoid overtly correcting errors in their language, instead you can subtly amend their response by rewording it back to the class or including the amended version in a summary of the question and answer.

It is also important to remember when asking questions of the students, remember that the ‘wait’ or ‘thinking’ time for second language learners is much longer so don’t rush the students to answer and they may need to stop several times throughout a contribution or question.

In order to further encourage students to be more verbally active in your lessons you can introduce some incentives. Students love some healthy competition, so divide the classes into groups or teams and award points for each contribution with a daily winner, even a symbolic win over their peers is enough motivation and reward.

It takes courage for an individual to contribute in a second language in a classroom situation. A student’s peers are their harshest critics and also often their best teachers. You could also use the group situation mentioned previously to employ a ‘Tell 3 before me’ scenario, where the students discuss in their groups before presenting a collective response. This makes contributing less of a risk to individual students.

Don’t expect too much from your students at first and work on creating a positive and encouraging environment in your lessons while the students get to know you. They will become more confident with time and motivation.