Mohamed Ramadan 
Teaching speaking is one of the most rewarding yet challenging aspects of English language instruction. Whether you work with adults, teenagers, or young learners, helping students speak fluently and confidently requires thoughtful planning, a supportive environment, and well-chosen techniques.
For many non-native English professionals, the challenge is doubled: not only must they guide learners, but they also navigate their own linguistic, cultural, and instructional constraints.
In this article, we will examine why teaching speaking skills can be challenging, the factors that deter students from speaking, and — most importantly — practical strategies to overcome these obstacles effectively.
Why Teaching Speaking Is Difficult
1. Students’ Fear of Making Mistakes
One of the biggest barriers to speaking is anxiety. Many learners hesitate because they fear being judged, corrected, or laughed at. This is especially true in cultures where accuracy is valued over fluency. When students believe their mistakes are unacceptable, they avoid speaking altogether, resulting in limited progress.
2. Limited Vocabulary and Grammar Knowledge
Students cannot express themselves without the linguistic tools needed to form ideas. When learners feel they “don’t know enough words,” they tend to freeze, simplify their ideas excessively, or switch to their native language. This affects fluency, confidence, and participation.
3. Lack of Real Communication Opportunities
Many classrooms still rely on teacher-centred instruction. Students listen, take notes, and answer occasional questions — but they rarely participate in extended speaking tasks. Even when speaking activities exist, they may feel artificial or disconnected from the students’ real-life needs.
This gap between language learning and authentic communication makes teaching speaking skills especially challenging.
4. Mixed Levels Within the Same Classroom
Differentiation is another challenge. In most classes, some learners speak fluently, while others struggle to form simple sentences. Planning a speaking activity that engages the strong speakers without intimidating the weaker ones requires thoughtful task design.
5. Students’ Limited Exposure to Natural English
In many contexts, English is not used outside the classroom. Without daily exposure to natural speech, students struggle to develop listening comprehension, pronunciation, and spontaneous speaking skills. Teachers often become the primary or only model of spoken English.
6. Time Constraints
Speaking activities require more time compared to reading or grammar exercises. Setting up, explaining the task, modelling, giving students time to speak, monitoring, and providing feedback — all of this takes time. In large classes, students may end up speaking for only a few minutes per lesson.
How to Overcome the Challenges of Teaching Speaking Skills
Despite these difficulties, speaking can become one of the most enjoyable parts of your lessons. Below are research-based and classroom-tested strategies that work across different levels and contexts.
1. Create a Safe, Low-Anxiety Speaking Environment
Teachers must first address students’ emotional barriers before focusing on linguistic ones.
Some ways to build confidence include:
- Normalize mistakes. Make it clear that errors are a natural part of learning.
- Use positive reinforcement. Highlight what students do well before correcting errors.
- Set clear speaking rules. For example, “We listen respectfully,” “No laughing at mistakes,” or “Everyone participates.”
When learners feel psychologically safe, they speak more freely — which is essential for developing teaching speaking skills successfully.
2. Provide Structured Speaking Opportunities
Rather than asking students to “talk about your weekend,” give them tasks with a clear purpose and structure. Effective task types include:
- Information-gap activities
Learners must communicate to complete a task (e.g., find differences, solve puzzles, piece together a story).
- Role-plays and simulations
Students practise real-life scenarios such as job interviews, meetings, ordering food, or handling customer complaints.
- Guided discussions
Provide prompts, sentence starters, or key vocabulary so students feel prepared.
- Storytelling frameworks
Use visuals, timelines, or story cubes to guide speaking sequences.
Structured tasks help reluctant speakers feel secure and ensure the activity remains productive.
3. Integrate Useful Language Before Speaking
Many speaking activities fail because students are not given the language they need. Before asking them to speak, teach or revise:
- Key vocabulary related to the topic
- Functional language (agreeing, disagreeing, clarifying, asking for opinions)
- Sentence starters or chunks that support fluency
- Pronunciation of difficult words
This preparation stage reduces anxiety and improves output quality.
4. Use Pair Work and Small-Group Work
Students speak far more in pairs or small groups than in whole-class conversations. Pairing also reduces pressure and encourages more meaningful exchanges.
Tips:
- Change partners regularly to maximise interaction.
- Mix strong and weaker students strategically.
- Monitor discreetly — avoid interrupting unless necessary.
Group interaction offers a more natural communication environment and maximises speaking time.
5. Focus on Fluency First, Accuracy Second
During speaking tasks, avoid correcting every mistake. Too much correction interrupts students’ flow and makes them afraid to speak. Instead:
- Allow students to speak without interruption.
- Take notes while monitoring.
- Provide delayed feedback at the end.
You can even divide correction into:
- Content feedback: React to what they said, not only how they said it.
- Language feedback: Highlight common errors and model correct forms.
This approach respects fluency development and creates a healthier speaking environment.
6. Incorporate Real-Life and Professional Contexts
Non-native professionals greatly benefit from speaking tasks related to their work.
Examples:
- Presenting project updates
- Negotiating terms
- Participating in meetings
- Networking conversations
- Customer service scenarios
When students see the relevance of the task, their motivation increases — and their speaking becomes more natural.
7. Use Technology to Support Speaking Development
Teachers can enhance speaking practice with accessible tools such as:
- Voice recording apps
Students record presentations or reflections and receive feedback.
- Speaking practice websites/apps
These help with pronunciation, fluency, and conversation modelling.
- Video prompts
Students respond to short clips or TED Talks.
Technology provides more practice opportunities and reduces classroom pressure.
8. Encourage Reflective Speaking Practice
After speaking tasks, ask students to reflect on their performance:
- What did you do well?
- What was difficult?
- What new expressions did you use?
- How can you improve next time?
Reflection builds learner autonomy and supports long-term speaking development.
Conclusion
Teaching speaking is undeniably challenging, especially for non-native professionals dealing with diverse student needs, limited time, and high learner anxiety. However, these challenges can be overcome with thoughtful strategies that prioritise structure, emotional safety, and meaningful communication.
By implementing pair work, integrating useful language, offering real-life tasks, and creating a supportive atmosphere, teachers can transform speaking lessons into dynamic, confidence-building experiences. Ultimately, teaching speaking skills becomes not just a challenge — but a powerful opportunity to empower learners to communicate effectively in English.
How to Teach Your Students to Speak in the Best Way Possible
“Mute English learners” is a phenomenon prevailing in Many EFL classes. These kinds of learners are not low achievers. They may be able to read and write English well, but as a result of many EFL teachers neglecting to teach or promote the speaking skill in the class, they find great difficulty speaking, and some of them are reluctant to participate in speaking activities. Consequently, they became unable to communicate in English orally with ease and comfort.
To demonstrate to EFL teachers the best ways to teach their students to speak, I have created this eBook.
I included enough practical activities that can be easily applied in EFL classes to promote students’ speaking and provided suggestions to overcome their reluctance to speak in the classroom.
Additionally, I outlined the key characteristics of spoken English that teachers should consider to support their students’ speaking skills and briefly discussed important points for assessing students’ speaking abilities in the classroom.
Get the eBook from here
About the Author
It is very important for my pupils to explicitly learn how to speak in English, because speaking helps them build confidence and use the language in real situations. I encourage them to speak English every lesson by asking simple questions, using classroom routines in English, and giving them chances to speak in pairs or small groups.