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Teaching English as a foreign language has two edges ,it may attract the learner or may make him loose his care to learn it , if English is used all the time a teacher should be aware that there is some mystery so he may use guessing to make it easy to make learners understand , when it is hard to be gained , the mother tongue should be used directly to make it away of mistaken understanding.
Depends upon the purpose of learning English. If it is only spolen then only speaking practice can suffice. If it is for an Academic purpose then just speaking practice is not sufficient. What I do is to prepare a work sheet with few sections on daily basis. It contains very interesting tasks like idiomatic phrases and grammar parts etc. But all the tasks need conversation within the class. In English language class I never allow the use of any other language. So it creates an environment favorable for the students to converse. They are encouraged to speak in English even if it is incorrect. All the students in the group get opportunity to discuss and converse and ask questions and answer questions and write small assignments. They really enjoy my class and remain punctual.
In teaching of English language as a Foreign language, one size does not fits all! There is no one specific way of teaching English language successfully. The first thing one has to do is to consider the learners' needs of the language. Then, comes the appropriate syllabus designed based on their specific needs. This syllabus should vary in terms of successful knowledge transmission and language engagement.
The best way to learn a language is to speak it.. Teachers should not only speak English in the class they should also discourage the students who speak their mother tongue. This of course requires contstant efforts, encouragement , patience and motivation . Some students feel that English is the language of their teachers. Teachers should create an environment in the class wherein the students don,t feel hesitation.
You forgot to mention the age group which perhaps is the key factor. For instance if students are young learners, you will need to have a 'bag' of activities at hand so you can keep them motivated by engaging them in different activities such as songs, role plays and academic games which perhaps is Total Physical Response technique. Same goes for adults. A good teacher always keep vareity of plans stored in his mind to keep the classroom environment alive.
By motivating the students through different techniques to speak English rather than mother tongue.