How can ESL teachers effectively teach speaking skills?

I have found that students enjoy role-plays relevant to their English learning needs. Teachers should ensure that the target language is taught in such a way that the learner can use it in a role-play exercise at the end of the lesson. Role-plays are challenging for the students but give them confidence if they can participate effectively, especially while using the target language. Fortunately, chatGPT is good at coming up with role-play scenarios and scripts, which significantly cuts preparation time for the teacher!

I did this when I taught ESL and also when I taught Spanish. I always wanted my students to know exactly what would be expected of them at the beginning of every lesson/series and how we would go about learning whatever it was. This is key, no matter what language you are learning because it helps your students get prepared mentally ahead of time for what's going to happen in class.

First and foremost, remember the target that is SPEAKING. So, do not opt for topics that are not even talked about in normal life. Focus on topics which add value to students' everyday life, so they could put that vocab into practice. Like talking about directions, likes or dislikes. Do let your students know the importance of learning words which are positive or negative. A great topic would be to ask students about something funny that happened recently in their class. This will make the class all more engaging and everyone would WANT to take part in the discussion.

Role play. Scenario-based learning. Real life situational learning. At home, students can learn vocabulary. During classtime, students are talking the entire time with each other. They are acting out scenes, asking questions, answering questions. They are helping other "actors" with language and vocabulary, and they are adding their own "flavor" to the scenarios. During these times, students group together based on ability. Let students self-select their starting group, changing groups voluntarily as they feel more comfortable. Let scenarios have defined situations that students can prepare for, and also impromptu for extra challenge.

Varying interaction patterns is very important because it teaches the different forms of speech. When I taught ESL, depending on the level, there were always different ways to interact. Students developed stories, made their own menus to which they had to act out a restaurant scene and also even ran for President where they had to present their speech in front of the entire school. It keeps them on their toes and keeps them active in class as well.

In my experience I found it helpful when students do a group project and share their product online in their social media. Doing an assignment in groups minimizes students' anxiety and other fears because they are doing the task together but one should consider group dynamics and intervene when necessary. So, creating TikTok videos proved to be an enjoyable process for my students

Assessment of students' use of pronunciation has a crucial role. If they don't get to know their pronunciation mistakes, they cannot fix those. Create an environment to reflect on pronunciation mistakes collaboratively. Go step by step. Starting off with recurrent words can be a good idea. As it will improve major part of speaking.