Gilly, Taiwan
When teaching speaking, it is important for the students to feel comfortable. Many will feel self-conscious at first and worry about making mistakes, so take a confidence building approach, giving the students lots of encouragement.

First, introduce new language and reinforce with some guided practice. Then the students need to use the language more 'independently'. Getting them to work in pairs or small groups is essential as each student will
have more time to practice, which is key. For example, give them a picture of people interacting in various situations and get them to compose a short conversation together, incorporating the key words or structures
that have already been introduced and practiced with them.

I then wander around the classroom listening but not interfering too much. When I hear a frequent mistake I stop the class momentarily to focus all the students on that mistake. No student is singled out. Then they continue. This avoids embarrassment for the individual who made the mistake, so they continue to willingly participate in the class. Then they perform their dialogue to the rest of the class.

To sum up, it is most important to give the students as much opportunity to use the language in as 'real' a situation as possible. Communication is key, and accuracy will come later. Encourage students to be creative
and have fun with them. It is great to see them grow in confidence. I hope this helps a little. Good luck!

Pete Thomas, English Language Teacher
University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics
Classroom pair work and group work is my preferred way to target the more conversational and spontaneous aspects of speaking skills. This way, students also get to work on non-verbal communication too (eye contact, nods, etc.) - a vital part of face-to-face communication.

For more advanced students, I find that listening to interviews and discussing (1) meet'n'greet formulas (2) exclamations or response language and (3) linking language is also useful. Get students to listen out for these phrases and repeat them - ask them to mimic the person's intonation pattern if possible. In every class there will be a student with a talent for doing impressions. Finally, showing a suitably highlighted transcript - with the phrases identified above bolded or underlined - can be helpful to students to learn some basic conversational phrases.

As I teach business English, my favourite resource for interviews is:
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/business/webber

However, the Internet is full of transcripts of informal interviews, such as sites that interview pop stars, or celebrity home pages.

Other items to help improve learner spoken fluency include:
- hesitation and silence fillers
- back-tracking techniques, and
- polite forms
Good luck!

Jorge Pineda, Colombia
I really think that the best way to have students talk is by giving them interesting topics to talk about. To do this you have to think first about what is interesting for your students rather than for you, then you will have to ask them a list of topics, then you will have to look for information about those topics because you must know something about the topic which you want your students to talk. Then you have to give students an input, an appropriate input gives a formidable output, for this you can use a video, or an article taken from a magazine or a newspaper. Then you will have to create a series of tasks to develop the topic and finally ask students to talk about that or a related theme. A very good way of having students talk is by using project work The point in this is to give students interesting topics to research and finally to talk about.

Lezley Aldrich, Germany
I find it easier to start with something you know your students have an interest in - it could be anything from painting to football - and then they are eager to 'talk' about the subject. Take football for instance, the students could mime actions and you could give them the English names e.g. pitch, goal, running, kicking the ball and so on. I have found that this method works for both children and adults.

Andrew Gardner, Slovenia
In response to the question "how to teach spoken English?" I have found teaching idiomatic expressions to be very useful, e.g. matching the idiom to its meaning. Students learn both vocabulary and the contexts in which some words can be used, and learn expressions that are commonly used in spoken English.

Doris Cudjoe
To be able to do so, you, the teacher, should try and learn the phonemic sounds because these sounds come together to enable us to pronounce a word. Another thing you need to do is to listen a lot to BBC English programmes on air and articulate the words when teaching in the same way as the presenters. Once in a while you should do the listening with the students and impress upon them to listen a lot to BBC programmes. All the best.

Santhosh Kana
In my opinion, the very concept of "Spoken English" is unscientific and absurd. One can't make omelette without using eggs. To use any language, one has to have the following things: vocabulary, knowledge of tense, knowledge of the structure of that language. Besides these, one needs skills like listening andObserving.

Anyway, the following techniques can be used to acquaint people to the language: providing conversational tips, giving them certain situations and asking them to converse, giving translation drills.Thank you and all the best.

Oscar, Indonesia
Radio and TV-shows could really help you to teach spoken English to the students. They will find it more interesting than a teacher who talks in front of them. But just keep in mind that you have to sort out the type of video or cassette that you would use. After watching or hearing the videos or cassette, just make sure to talk about it together with the students. There are a lot of good English videos available, I believe you can find one, right? I hope it works.