Sometimes it is really difficult to avoid students talk in their mother tongue, so usually I choose a corner of the whiteboard and draw a small circle and write Portuguese Area.
So if a students want to say anything that he/she can’t say in English he/she has to stand up and go to the Portuguese Area. This is interesting because students don’t want to stand up all the time in front of all his/her classmates just to say a few words.
So this makes students try to produce more in the target language. But if you have a class with outgoing students and they are not shy at all you can limit the times he/she can go to the Language Area. By the way, I call Portuguese Area because I’m Brazilian so do my students! I hope I can help.
Language Area!,
