Speaking Corner

Originally, a Speakers' Corner is an area where open-air public speaking, debate and discussion are allowed. The original and most noted is in the northeast corner of Hyde Park in London, England.

In Luyfe we also have our own “speaker’s corner”, where the teacher takes the students individually or in pairs/small groups to practice the language in a more individualised way.

All teachers agree on the importance of practicing English speaking and that teacher-student communication has almost become obsolete, so the best way to learn to speak English for the student is to be engaged in small speaking groups in class.

In language learning, one of the most relevant aspects is to maintain a balance between all the skills. For this reason, the English Team develops activities to complement those skills that are more complicated to develop in large groups, such as speaking.
This is achieved through the Speaking Corner, with native teachers assigned to each class, who work on this skill exclusively, adapting their actions to the grade and level of each student. Among the various activities are the preparation of the oral parts of the Cambridge exams and other activities aimed at more natural day-to-day English.

Frank O'Connor, director of the Teaching Center of the British Council Somosaguas (Madrid), believes that something is wrong when the majority of Spanish students are not able to maintain a fluent conversation in English when leaving high school, despite having 15 years studying the language. According to him, the problem lies in not giving importance to speaking, but thinking only about grammar and vocabulary. However, we also make the mistake of thinking that learning a foreign language is reduced to school hours, when outside the classroom a high dose of content should be maintained in that language.

We can encourage our students and children to develop these skills by watching TV and listening to songs in English, and by practising at home if any family or friends speak English.