Creating a safe speaking environment and giving feedback to language learners

Abstract

The article is devoted to a safe speaking environment and giving feedback to language learners. It emphasizes that an environment in which students feel safe to speak is vital for supporting students’ language learning. It stresses that creating such an environment requires multiple elements, including time, tasks, topics, peer relationships and feedback. It takes time, endless patience and careful observation to transform possibilities that classroom talk offers into the actual benefits for students’ language learning. It is also proved that a safe speaking environment is one where feedback whether focused on specific linguistic features or on meaning is given in the service of students’ communicative accomplishments.