By Ragavendran SS
When I took up a part-time role as an ESL trainer at a local language institute, I was tasked with leading a summer course for students in grades 6 through 12. Most of these students had been attending English-medium schools for years. On paper, they had a solid grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. They could write essays, complete worksheets, and pass exams with reasonable ease. Yet, when it came to speaking, they froze.
Even in informal situations, their spoken English was hesitant, heavily accented by their mother tongues, and often peppered with awkward pauses. I noticed a consistent pattern across the group: they were fluent readers but reluctant speakers.
This mismatch between their academic proficiency and verbal confidence wasn’t due to a lack of intelligence or effort—it was emotional. There was a persistent fear of making mistakes, of sounding “wrong” or being laughed at by their peers. Many students, when prompted to speak, would default to silence or switch back to their first language.
The issues were familiar to anyone who has worked with ESL learners in multilingual societies:
- Sentence structures directly translated from their first languages often resulted in grammatical constructions that felt stilted or confusing in English;
- Intonation patterns that sounded unnatural or robotic, lacking the rise and fall that mark conversational fluency;
- Frequent pauses as students searched for the right word, sometimes abandoning their thoughts mid-sentence;
- The use of local-language interjections—“aiyo,” “arre,” “da,” or “pa”—that crept into English sentences and further marked their speech as uncertain or mixed.
What struck me most was that these students weren’t lacking in ideas or personality. When chatting in their native languages, they were expressive, animated, and quick-witted. The challenge wasn’t content—it was confidence.
I realized early on that if I wanted to help them speak fluently in English, I couldn’t rely on conventional grammar drills or textbook dialogues. I needed to create a space where students felt safe enough to take risks, make mistakes, and discover their own voice in English.
Ragavendran SS is an independent researcher and educator with over 18 years of experience teaching ESL, soft skills, and personality development. He specializes in creative, student-centered approaches that build confidence and communication fluency.
