Strategies Used by Language Mentors to Encourage Students to Speak English

Abstract

Oral communication in English poses a persistent difficulty for many junior high school learners in Islamic boarding school contexts, where formal instruction alone proves insufficient to build communicative confidence. This qualitative descriptive study examines how language mentors at MTsN 1 Kebumen — an Islamic boarding school in Central Java — facilitate English speaking development through mentoring practices embedded in dormitory life. Data were gathered via non-participant observation across twelve mentoring sessions, semi-structured interviews with six language mentors, and relevant documentation. Thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke (2022) was employed to interpret the data. Three overarching mentoring strategy categories emerged: enforcing an immersive English-only environment during daily activities, conducting structured communicative sessions encompassing role play, storytelling, and group discussion, and applying affective approaches such as verbal encouragement, indirect corrective feedback, and trust-based mentoring relationships. These practices were found to meaningfully raise learners' willingness to communicate and reduce speaking-related anxiety. Recurring obstacles included peer-related embarrassment, lexical limitations, and fluctuating learner motivation. The study highlights the untapped potential of Islamic boarding school mentors as agents of communicative English development and offers pedagogical implications for pesantren-based language programs in Indonesia.