The positive value in silence in the EFL classroom

1. Learners need to focus on a new language and this requires some periods
of silence in the classroom
2. Learners need to say nothing in classroom because silence may be a result
of students planning their utterances at the controlled stage in an effort to
use the new language correctly.
3. Silence facilitates practice because the practise of planning can help
students to develop their complex language abilities and reach the
automatic stage faster.
4. Silence facilitates learning, accuracy making integral feature of a
productive classroom
5. Language learners who are constantly presented with new information
can be expected to remain silent much more often than native speakers
6. Silence is meaningful because it enables students to listen their teacher
carefully, think what they saying and plan what students are going to say
7. Silence is essential for self-study in/outside the classroom and because it
develops learners autonomy.
Reasons for silence in class
8. Many teachers encourage students to speak up in class some others may
consider oral participation not so important especial for academic
achievement and don’t get an attempt to get their students talk in class.
9. Many students learn English as an academic subject or for entrance
examination purposes
10. Students’ learning and academic success are not always related to their
participation and interaction. They get good grades without participating
in class.
11. Students with low levels of proficiency
12. Lack of teacher support.
13. Students are afraid of making mistakes, lack of self confidence
14. Some teachers in tolerate silence and give short time to think and answer
questions and move from one student to other as a result it provides
unequal opportunities to speak
15. Difficult language input provided by teacher.
16. Some students are silent some are not because they come from different
backgrounds, ways of learning and culture or different personality
17. Risk taking plays essential role in learning speaking. Learners take risks
every time they ask question or answer to the teacher. However, some of
the students are afraid of failure, making mistakes, humiliation in front of
other students and the teacher.
 What Is Task-based Teaching?
1. Task-based language teaching 
-is a student-centered approach to second language instruction.
-a communicative approach, students use authentic target language in order to
complete meaningful tasks, i.e. situations in the real world e.g. visiting the doctor,
- task-based teaching the focus is not on grammar but to complete the task
- the emphasis is on spontaneous, creative language use, whether spoken or written,
rather than on absolute accuracy, assessment is based on task outcome.
Why Use Task-based Teaching?
- the center of the learning process moves to the students themselves and allows
them to come to the realization that language is a tool to tackle and (re)solve
real-world problems.
- The process of task-based learning itself teaches important skills. Students learn
how to ask questions, how to negotiate meaning and how to interact in and work
within groups. These are all skills that our students will need in order to be
successful in the real world
- provides students with the linguistic components they will need to accomplish
these real-world tasks. These include: How to introduce themselves, how to talk
about themselves, their families, their interests, their likes and dislikes, their
needs, etc. in the right socio-cultural context.
- task-based teaching focuses on communication and interaction, using
appropriate language at the correct time.
What Types of Tasks Do We See in Task-based Teaching?
Information gap activities are those that involve the transfer of information from one
person to another, from one form to another or from one place to another. For example,
two students might have different schedules, but they want to find time to get together
to have tea. They need to get relevant information from each other to determine when
they are both free, as well as when the available times coincide with when a tea house is
open. This type of activity allows students to request information, ask for clarification
and negotiate both meaning, particularly when misunderstandings occur, and
appropriate conclusions to the task.
Reasoning gap activities are those in which you ask your students to derive some
information from that which you give them. They are required to comprehend and
convey information, much as in an information gap activity, but the information that
they are asked to convey is not exactly the same that they comprehend. They are asked
to use reason and logic to decide what information to convey and what resolution to
make for the problem at hand. For example, you might ask your students to make a
decision between speed and cost or cost and quality, given a certain situation and
various constraints.
Opinion gap activities are those that ask students to convey their own personal
preferences, feelings or ideas about a particular situation. On a higher level, you might
ask them to take part in a discussion or debate about a political or social issue. On a
lower level, you might ask them to complete a story. In these types of activities, there is
no right or wrong answer.