Here's why you should be raising your hand in class

The significance of class participation cannot be overemphasized, specifically as it relates to engaging in discussions and other verbal activities geared toward enhancing fluency in a language. Being receptive of/volunteering to answer questions posed by the teacher in class is a necessary and invaluable aspect of a student's journey towards learning and further mastering a language.

The term raising the hand is being used figuratively in this article, as a synonym for the term speaking up in class. Of course, in a situation where the classroom comprises more than one (1) student, this term 'raising the hand will also bear its literal meaning, so as to preserve good oder and respect for each another in the classroom. Understandably, in a single-student classroom setting, literally raising the hand may not be necessary, unless the student wishes to immediately interject a lecture being carried out by the teacher, in order to, him/herself, say something of an urgent nature. Further, student verbal participation in a single-student classroom may hardly be avoidable, even while a student may, at the beginning of his/her language course, be somewhat reserved in speaking up, based on a distrust of own competence or fluency in the language he/she is learning.

At any rate raising the hand - speaking up in class - is a magnificent catalyst for learning.

5 Advantages of ''Raising Your Hand''

There benefits of speaking up in class are far-reaching and here a five such ones:

1. You will gain confidence in hearing yourself speak. Speaking up in class will allow you to get accustomed to the sound of your own voice, in the new language, with its new phonology and phonetics. This will make significant pathways into your gaining confidence in speaking the new language. Hearing your own voice at first may sound strange to you and you may not even like hearing yourself speak aloud in the language you are learning. However, the more you hear yourself speak, the less self-conscious you will become of your voice, thereby lifting a barrier to effectively learning your new language.

2. You will improve your pronunciation. Your teacher will get to hear you speak. It is of paramount importance for your teacher to have the opportunity of ascertaining the areas of your fluency that need to be strengthened. Your speaking is of course the best way in which the teacher is to able to do this. The findings of a recent survey carried out by the Oxford University Press, has shown that pronunciation accounts for 70 per cent of misunderstandings in verbal communication. It would therefore suit you to speak more in class. The more you speak, the more opportunities you will have to receive guidance from teacher, hence the more opportunities you will have improve your pronunciation skills. This will go a long way in helping you to become more fluent in the language you are learning.

3. You will enlarge your vocabulary. Speaking up in class allows you to come face to face with your lexical repertoire, to see in real terms where words evade you. This also allows your teacher to ascertain this shortfall and to help you by suggesting words for which you may be searching. You may then be able to make a mental and - strongly recommended - also a written note of the words the teacher suggests, therefore adding to your vocabulary.

4. You will enhance your grammatical competence. In often raising your hand in class, thus seeking and being afforded the opportunity to speak, you will also often be provided one of the best opportunities to improve your grammar in the language you are learning. Your teacher will be able to hear where you make grammatical errors and will be able to correct them. The more often you speak, the more often you will gain the advantage of strengthening aspects of the grammar that you may be weak in, and, of course, the more competent you will eventually become in the language.

5. You will be able to speak the language more fluently, faster. The fundamental and perhaps the most practical point of learning a spoken language, is to be be able to speak it. I always say that, just as the proof of the pudding lies in its taste, the proof of one's competence in a spoken language, lies in one's ability to speak it. Of course one can know a language without speaking it - one may be able to write it, read it, understand it when one hears it - and one might still not be able to speak it. Well then, if your desire is to master fluency in a language, you must not hesitate to speak it.

So then, the next time you are in your language class, do raise your hand - do speak up!