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 Overcoming obstacles to implementing spoken communicative activities 
The most commonly cited obstacles facing teachers of interactive speaking are: 
• restriction of the classroom
• limited practice time

Restriction of the classroom 
Traditional classroom seating arrangements often work against you in your interactive teaching of English. 
he flexibility of the seating arrangements would be a good point to bring up with your school director or 
articularly on small items such as classroom arrangements. However, if you 
hare a classroom with other teachers you must consider their needs and find a seating plan which is 
are aiming for a situation in your 
nglish lessons which permits all students to see each other's faces, you, the teacher, and the blackboard. 
for activities such as role plays etc. 
In 
foll
Seating Plan A shows a traditional layout which would not need to be rearranged between classes. The 
dis
he
• learner anxiety 
 
T
head of department when you make a site visit. It is sometimes easier to bring about changes at the 
beginning of your teaching when your director may not know what to expect from an American teacher and 
is willing to accommodate, p
s
acceptable to them, or which requires a minimum of rearrangement. You
E
You also want a situation which permits easy transition between whole class, group, and pair work and 
provides space for you and your students to move between desks 
discussing your needs with your colleagues and your head of department, you may find reference to the 
owing seating plans helpful. (See Figure 3.1.) 
advantage for communication practice is that your students are listening to or speaking to the backs of 
ads or people sitting behind them. 

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Figure 3.1 Adapted from Teacher Training: A Reference Manual Peace Corps Training Manual No. T-45 
Seating Plan B shows a horseshoe. It allows more eye contact between speakers in whole class practice, 
and more central space for role plays. 
Se
ng Pla
show a grou
ayout.
his pla
contact between listeners and speakers in whole-group work, and it needs no rearrangement for small-group 
work. 
 
 
 
time 
as possible to talk. This means group work. With 
your students will quickly become accustomed to moving to groups 
lessons. And you will probably find that the physical movement of breaking into groups is a 
or you as well. Here are a variety of ways in which you can organize your groups: 
small groups, maybe by just turning around, to quickly discuss a 
r a few minutes before reporting their views or opinions to the whole class. By using these buzz 
in your classroom and generate more involvement. 
se in class and someone has answered incorrectly, 
ati
n C
s 
p l
T
n allows for easy movement between groups and good eye 
 
 Limited practice 
Your goal is to give your students as much opportunity
practice and encouragement from you,
during your 
refreshing change f
ps. Your students break into 
Buzz grou
roblem fo
p
groups regularly, you can build up a cooperative spirit
or example, if you are correcting a homework exerci
F
instead of just asking "Does anyone know the correct answer?" ask the buzz groups to come up with an 
answer. Your students probably talk among themselves anyway during lessons. By developing a buzz group 
system you are channelling their energies and creatively controlling the underlying chat which is a feature of 
lmost all classrooms. 
a
Panels. Selected students sit on a panel at the front of the class and are questioned by the "audience" made 
up of the rest of the class. These panels can be a good platform for the more advanced students to show off 
their skills. And if you ask the class to center the questions around, for instance, a book which the whole 

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class is reading, the less advanced students will benefit from hearing the better students talk about 
characters or plot development. 
Fishbowl. All members of the class sit in a trig circle. In the middle of the circle are five chairs occupied by 
students discussing a topic you have given them. Students from the outer circle listen to the debate and may 
replace speakers in the inner circle by tapping them on the shoulder if they feel confident they can present 
the case better. "A Quote to Live By" is an activity which works well with fishbowl groups.