Prodding Shy Students into Active Participation through Gossiping

Abstract

 This article explores one possible way of exploiting one of our human weaknesses – a tendency to gossip – for language practice. It attempts to show how a number of interpersonal exchanges can be made by making use of our feelings for the people around us. The activity presented in this article, therefore, stresses the humanistic aspect of learning, and is intended to provide the learners with opportunities to talk and to listen with a communicative purpose in mind, thereby helping them to improve their fluency in English.