Overcoming non-linguistic barriers to effective speaking in Russian adult ESP classroom
The problem of teaching speaking in the adult ESP classroom has not been sufficiently studied in Russia, although the challenges it poses differ significantly from those that traditional research on pedagogy can address. One of these challenges is that some Russian adult ESP students do not feel comfortable speaking English in front of their teacher and classmates, which leads to communication barriers. The review of the literature on andragogy, our observations, and the anonymous survey conducted among Russian adult ESP learners have revealed that this discomfort may be caused or compounded by such socio-cultural and psychological factors as the fear of appearing incompetent and difficulty assuming the subordinate role of a student. The given study explores these factors and suggests creating a number of conditions maximizing the benefits of speaking activities for adult ESP audiences. The first condition is a flexible class organization, in which students are mostly encouraged to interact with equals in respect of their social characteristics and language proficiency. It creates a favorable anxiety-reduced classroom atmosphere in which all learners are given an opportunity to demonstrate their strengths. Another condition is the students’ exposure to relevant learning content with interactive speaking activities representing real-life communicative situations. It raises adult learners’ motivation and reduces the impact of psychological constraints. The third condition is the teaching style of a facilitator rather than a superior, which involves recognizing that both the teacher and the adult learners are competent in their respective fields of expertise and therefore equal in status. This setting proves to foster the development of speaking skills in Russian adult ESP classrooms and thus may be recommended for this audience. Further research into the topic may reveal more factors underlying verbal interactions in adult ESP classroom.