Use of the Social Constructivist Approach in Teaching Oral Skill to FirstYear BA Students of English

Abstract

Communication plays a vital role in learning oral skill. However, for most learners, particularly first year BA students, speaking remains the most difficult skill to master. Most students are reluctant to speak because of some psychological factors such as anxiety and lack of confidence, or because their motivation is quite low due to some adopted approaches which are mostly teacher centred and dominated by a few skilled and more advanced students. This state of affairs leaves the majority of students with very little or no participation in the classroom. It is, then, a great challenge for teachers to make students communicate verbally and express their thoughts fluently in oral classes. One possible solution to takethis challenge is the application of the social constructivist approach to teaching the oral skill based on the works of Vygotsky. This paper will briefly review social constructivism, which is widely touted as an approach and which has been fruitfully applied in many EFL contexts though with some inevitable drawbacks. It also aims to investigate the possibility of applying it in oral classes in order to overcome the unwillingness of First year BA students to communicate. Substituting the classical monotonous approach by a more motivating one that triggers students‘ interests and enhances their learning strategies will considerably contribute to making them good speakers of English in and out of the classroom