A child may know the answer but hesitate to raise a hand. Another may have an interesting idea but wait for someone else to provide the ‘right’ response. Some children may be comfortable speaking with friends but not when asked to speak before a class. These situations remind us that communication confidence does not develop automatically with vocabulary or age but needs to be deliberately nurtured through everyday learning.
Language proficiency is an important part of this process but proficiency and confidence are not the same. A child may know many words and still hesitate to speak. A child with developing vocabulary may communicate effectively when given the confidence and space to try. This is why language learning in the early years needs to create opportunities for children to use language rather than just learn about it.
Foundational skills
The importance of strengthening foundational language skills is also reflected in recent learning data. According to ASER 2024, the proportion of Class 3 children in government schools who could read a Class 2-level text increased from 16.3% in 2022 to 23.4% in 2024. While reading ability is not the same as speaking confidently, the improvement highlights the importance of giving children sustained opportunities to engage with and use language.If speaking is associated primarily with correction, marks, or the fear of getting an answer wrong, children may become reluctant to participate. If language is experienced through conversation, stories, play, and interaction, they begin to understand that communication is about expressing an idea, listening to another person, and trying again. Accuracy remains important but should develop alongside the willingness to communicate. The objective should not be to eliminate mistakes from the learning process, but to create an environment in which children can learn without becoming afraid to speak.
This has implications for classroom practice. Children need regular opportunities to use language for a genuine purpose. Storytelling encourages them to describe characters, predict what might happen, and eventually create their own endings. Role play allows them to practise conversations and respond to different situations without the pressure of formal assessment. Paired discussions and small-group activities give quieter learners a more manageable setting in which to participate.
Even a question such as ‘What do you think?’ serves a different purpose from asking children to reproduce a prepared response. The first invites them to formulate an idea; the second primarily tests recall. Both have a place in education but, if the goal is to develop confident communicators, children need sufficient opportunities to construct and articulate their own responses.
This is also why contextual and multimodal approaches to language learning matter. When children encounter language through stories, conversations, activities, and situations that have meaning for them, they begin to understand not only what a word or sentence means, but when and how to use it.
What teachers can do
Teachers play an equally important role in creating this environment. Building a speaking-friendly classroom does not mean overlooking accuracy. It means understanding when correction helps and when it can interrupt a child’s willingness to communicate. When a child struggles to express an idea, acknowledging the thought before refining the language can keep the conversation open.Teachers can also create more equitable opportunities to participate through pair work, structured turn-taking, and small-group discussions rather than relying only on students who are already confident enough to raise their hands. Learning resources have a role to play here as well. Activities should create genuine reasons for children to communicate rather than simply ask them to repeat a predetermined response.
Follow-up questions such as ‘Why do you think that?’ or ‘Tell me more’ encourage children to develop an idea rather than provide a one-word response. Reading together can have a similar effect when children are asked to predict what might happen next or interpret a character’s actions in their own way. These interactions also communicate something important: that a child’s thoughts are worth listening to. Over time, this can help children become more comfortable expressing opinions, explaining their reasoning, and listening to perspectives different from their own.
The same thinking can shape how schools approach special occasions such as Independence Day. Rather than limiting children to memorised speeches, schools can use such activities to encourage independent expression. Students can be asked what freedom means to them, what responsibilities come with freedom, or what they would like to change in their school or community.
Younger children might draw or describe what a free and happy classroom looks like, while older students could discuss whether freedom also requires us to listen to viewpoints different from our own. Such activities connect language with thought and allow children to develop their own responses. The objective is not just to make a school celebration more interactive, but also to use familiar occasions as opportunities to practise communication, reflection, and participation.
Ultimately, confident communication is built through repeated experiences. It develops when children are encouraged to ask questions, explain ideas, disagree respectfully, listen to another perspective, and try again when their first attempt does not work. These are not skills that belong only to an English classroom but are foundational to collaboration, critical thinking, participation, and learning across disciplines.
As education places greater emphasis on communication, creativity, and independent thinking, these abilities need to become part of everyday learning rather than occasional activities. Education should not only help children find the right words, but give them the confidence to use those words to think, participate, and make themselves heard.
The writer is Managing Director, Burlington English India and Southeast Asia.
