Make them Laugh, Make them Speak, and they Will Learn: Communicative Exercises in the Classroom

The greatest joy of learning a foreign language is to communicate in that language. But getting students to speak can be a challenge at times. Even though the commonly accepted communicative approach stresses speaking much more from day one than prior approaches, many students do not volunteer to speak in front of class and some are even reluctant to speak in groups or with a partner. How can we motivate our students to voluntarily speak in a foreign language? This paper presents proven ideas that help teachers of any language to create meaningful dialogues and oral interaction between students.