So what happened? Of course we knew that others were watching us; in fact when we were children we often did what we did simply because we had an audience. Then puberty set in and we discovered that the appraisal of others could also be a deadly enemy. Suddenly our entire existence was under scrutiny, or at least we perceived it to be so, and we lived with the constant fear that we would make a mistake that would brand us, humiliate us, or demonstrate that we were vastly different from the rest of our peers. As we waded deeper into adolescence, it felt like it was getting worse.

Young people today are no different than we were, and nowhere is that fear of failure more obvious than public speaking in a language-learning classroom.

I have been working as a substitute teacher in a Norwegian high school and so I asked my 16- and 17-year-old students why so many refused to speak out loud when I knew they understood English. They listened to American music, saw American films, and had been taking English since they were 6 and in the first grade. My students confirmed my suspicions: “I think that high school students are afraid to speak English in front of others because they maybe think that if they say something wrong, or don’t say the words correctly, then maybe they would laugh, and if they do that, you’ll be embarrassed and you’ll feel stupid.”

So what can we as educators do to help students feel comfortable enough with themselves and their classroom environment so that even if they do make mistakes in their English language speech, it won’t be so traumatic for them?

I have the benefit of speaking very poor Norwegian so I can model confidence in the midst of poor grammar and limited vocabulary. Students are often forced to explain things to me in English when I don’t understand their Norwegian. In addition, my attempts at pronouncing the three unique Norwegian letters å, ø, and æ give some students that added confidence they need to attempt, after they stop laughing with me, English pronunciation challenges such as th, v, and w.

I think the most important gift any of us can give our students is positive reinforcement, celebrating what they can do instead of always pointing out errors. They need to know that it’s OK to try―that’s all we ask of them. ”I think it’s because they are not confident in their knowledge of languages,” commented another one of my students. “They may feel like they are pronouncing it all wrong, and that they are going to be judged on what they can’t [do], rather than complimented on what they can.”

We need to help instill a feeling of confidence and trust in our students, to give them opportunities to play with language, and that is why I am a big fan of improvisation exercises. They are fun and nonthreatening, and people speak without thinking about doing so. Last year I played improvisational games with two high school classes for about an hour and a half. These were the students for whom English was not a subject of choice. Of course some were very good and had the confidence that goes along with a native speaker, but most were shy, driven by their fear of making a mistake. When we played the games together, everyone was equal. Knowing that, everyone participated.

Here are a few of those improvisation games designed to loosen up the crowd. They are meant to be silly. No one can make a fool of himself or herself because everybody already is. (For an extensive catalog of improvisation games, go tohttp://improvencyclopedia.org/games/index.html.)

Do This, Do That (this is very similar to Simon Says)

1. One person is the leader. He or she makes a motion with his or her hands or body and says “Do this”; the rest of the group follows.
2. The leader continues with motions, saying “Do this” each time with the group copying that motion. If the leader says “Do that,” and makes a motion, the group is NOT to follow; if anyone makes that motion, he or she sits down. (”Do this” = copy me, “Do that” = don’t copy me.)
3. Once the group has caught on, it is a lot of fun and changes the comfort level in the room to one of playful joy.

Zip Zap Zop (see it demonstrated at www.ehow.co.uk/video_4947062_improv-comedy-games-zip-zap.html)

1. Stand in a circle. One person begins. He or she makes eye contact with another person in the circle, claps at that person, and says “zip.”
2. The person who has just “received” the “zip” then makes eye contact with another person in the circle, claps at that person, and says “zap.”
3. The person who has just received the zap then makes eye contact with another person in the circle, claps at that person, and says “zop.”
4. The person who has just received the zop then makes eye contact with another person in the circle, claps at that person, and says “zip” (and the process continues).
5. The idea is to make mistakes, go fast, and laugh together.

European Intersection

1. Stand in a circle. This game starts slow with one action and, as the game progresses, new actions and sounds are added.
2. One person begins. This person puts his or her hands together as if praying, points to the person on his or her right with both hands, makes eye contact with that person, and says “vroom.” That person does the same to the person on his or her right and so on. The goal is to do this without pausing.
3. Add a new choice. If it is your turn you now have the choice to pass the “vroom” to your right with folded hands or throw one hand up in the air and say “errrk” (like a screeching car). That changes the direction of the circle so now instead of going to the right the action goes to the left.
4. Add a new choice. Once the group is comfortable with passing the “vroom” and changing the direction with “errrk,” they can add a third choice called a slick. In a goofy voice they say “oil slick” and made a figure eight in front of them with palm out. That means the action skips the person next to them.
5. Add a new choice. One the group is comfortable with all three choices the person whose turn it is can add “European Intersection.” When he or she makes that choice, both hands go out in front like one is stopping traffic and everyone (all at once) runs to the middle of the circle screaming and then finds a different place to stand in the circle. The person who yelled “European intersection” then begins again by passing “vroom” to the person on his or her right. If students are very shy about speaking, they can also say “stop” instead of “European intersection.”

Overcoming fear is an important hurdle to jump before there is any hope of spoken participation in the classroom. One student said it well: “I think many students are too afraid of speaking English in public, because they take themselves too formal [seriously]. When I was a freshman, I was terrified of speaking English in front of the class, but sooner or later you just have to try and then you see that it is not so dangerous as you first thought.”

Heidi Håvan Grosch,heidigrosch@yahoo.com, works with ESL students (preK-12) in Norway where she immigrated in 2007. She is a columnist for the international newspaper the Norwegian American Weekly and creates interactive language curriculum for all ages. Follow her weekly blog Wontok (English as a global language) at www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/blog/wontok.