How to encourage shy students to participate

Well, we have to keep in mind that there are two
types of shy students. The first type wants to
express their own opinions which are hidden by
their shyness but they feel embarrassed to
raise their hands. The other type is the ones
who cannot even express their own opinions
when they are called by their teacher. Each
type can be encouraged to participate in different
ways. For the first type, teachers can encourage
them by calling on them to participate because
if the teacher did not call on those
students, they would not have opportunities
to tell their own opinions. Although they
have their own opinions and want to
participate, they are too shy to raise their
hands to express their opinions in front of
other students. Furthermore, these students
would be happy if a teacher speaks to them
because they want to be noticed and be spoken
to. So, teachers should try to speak to shy students
actively

For the second type, teachers should not
force them to speak, because if teachers were
impatient about the situation and made the
students speak, the students might feel horrible
and hate engaging in classroom
participation. However, if there is a relax
mood in the class and everyone tells their
opinions freely, shy students might think
it is natural to express their thoughts
voluntarily and they can express their
opinions at ease. Moreover, a teacher should
offer some easy classroom activities such
as reading dialogues then ask them to
write down some opinions and to read them
aloud clearly. In addition to that, a teacher
may push them to perform communicative
task such as role-play activities. These
activities can give shy students a mask, which
encourages them to feel liberated as their
own personality is not on display. They
may be just waiting for the opportunity to perform

Overall, it is the teacher's responsibility
to encourage shy students to participate in the
classroom and to help them to overcome their
shyness systematically with great patience

Wishing you the best performance in your
job and always be positive

Regards