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One of the problems facing language speaking students is their fear of speaking the language they are learning. They fear making mistakes and being scrutinized by their peers. They fear not understanding what others consider “easy,” being misunderstood, or, even worse, not being understood at all. They fear embarrassing themselves and 'losing face.' This fear comes from the student’s lack of confidence in their ability to speak the second language. The fear can even be rooted in an individual’s lack of confidence in themselves. Without confidence, speaking in a foreign language and even voicing their confusion can be perceived as a challenge by students. Depending on the student’s previous classroom experiences, the student may have or have not gone, or are going through a stage where they lacked confidence. With this in mind, teachers should always consider their students personal comfort with speaking and language learning. As teachers, especially so with young learners, it is expected that the roles of mentor and psychologist are taken. To promote student confidence, teachers can establish and rearrange the classroom setting. In terms of the physical classroom, depending on the physical constraints of the classroom, teachers can arrange students into smaller groups. This gives students who are less confident about speaking the language opportunities to speak and practice without the pressure of making a mistake in front of the entire class. If desks are arranged into table groups, students would also be given the opportunity to become comfortable with the students in their groups. By getting less confident students to feel safe and comfortable in smaller, their confidence in group speech can be raised by a slow addition of group members. The behavior of a teacher can also improve a student’s confidence in speaking a foreign language. Positive reinforcement should not only be used when students give correct answers, but also when a sincere and earnest effort is made, despite the answer not being correct. Showing that attempting to use new and previously covered language topics is a desired behavior in classes, a student’s perception on what causes them to ‘lose face’ with the peers can be adapted to exclude making mistakes while speaking a foreign language. Reminding students of the difficulty of language learning, normalizing their struggles, and exemplifying their accomplishments can lessen their fear of not understanding what they think the class considers 'easy' English concepts. Teachers do not need to give up strictness when teaching coherent and correct English, but can help students understand that the process to becoming proficient in the language entails making effort and mistakes. Confidence is not only a trait that students need while learning a second language. It is also a trait that can be built in language classes. A student’s confidence can also be destroyed as fast, if not faster, as it is built. Teacher’s should always motivate their students be confident in themselves and the work they produce, regardless of the subject matter. By increasing student confidence levels, language teachers will not only enable students to better their second language speaking abilities, but also foster a trait that students will need throughout their lives.
