Honor and respect each student's native tongue at all times. Start the first few classes by allowing each student to share a few vocabulary words in his own tongue, allowing each student to celebrate his culture while encouraging students to open up to and trust one another.
Create a positive classroom atmosphere where students can speak up without feeling self-conscious. Use positive reinforcement to correct mistakes, telling students the correct way to say something rather than focusing on the fact that they were originally wrong. This may help students gain enough confidence to benefit from cooperative learning.
Encourage students to speak to each other in English during open discussions, rather than speaking only to you as an instructor. This gets students thinking, listening and speaking, and can also get them to understand and recognize the spoken errors of others.
Split the classroom into pairs if students are too shy to speak in English in front of the class. Talking to one student who is also trying to learn English is less intimidating than talking in front of an entire class. Once students feel comfortable speaking one on one, they may be more willing to participate in class discussions.
Split the class into teams and play group games that encourage students to speak up, like question-and-answer or identification games that require teams to work together to win. This not only helps make English comprehension and communication enjoyable; it also further strengthens peer-to-peer learning and trust.
Expose the class to real-life situations once students begin to get comfortable with one another. For example, have students watch a movie in English, or take a field trip to an English restaurant. Instead of telling students what's going on in the film or how to interact with native-English speakers, have the students try to work it out for themselves, and only step in if you're needed. This will help students work together to move from the classroom to the real world.