A persistent problem for teachers in English as a Second Language (ESL) situations concerns students who speak their shared common language instead of English in the classroom. Considering the inherent difficulty of the speaking skill, this is understandable. Learners often prefer to interact socially in their native language, allowing them to…

According to Ur (1996, 120), "of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important." Indeed, whether for business or pleasure, a primary motivation to learn a second language is to be able to converse with speakers of that language. However, in addition to being an important…