Roleplaying for speaking skill development

English speaking is complicated by anxiety felt by the speaker. Many ESL individuals are perfectly competent at communication but worry about looking bad in the eyes of native English speakers. The purpose of this speech roleplaying exercise is to reduce a learner's anxiety when speaking.

Do this in pairs. Choose a scenario that induces anxiety in the learner (for example, speaking to a group of people on a subject one is unfamiliar with). Ask the learner to produce a mini speech on a random topic chosen by their speaking partner. The learner now has to face this scenario and attempt to speak. Once they've completed the speaking section, their partner should provide some feedback (nothing too critical) about how the learner did with their speech. Does it need to be longer? Did they lose coherence? Did they not seem confident? Did they stumble? Encourage the learner to try again. At the end of the exercise, the learner should Google different readings on topics like speaking in different contexts, managing anxiety, speaking with confidence, and others and try to practice with their partner another day.

The goal of this exercise is to approach every anxiety that the learner has and try to show them that they are in fact doing okay. The learner should read about different speech scenarios and build strategies and confidence in their ability to communicate verbally.

In between social roleplay sessions, learners are encouraged to (when reasonable) attempt to face their anxiety-inducing situations in real, public settings slowly and at their comfort level.