1eachlng speaklng

communlcaLlve approach
esearch (and Lhe common sense) suggesLs LhaL Lhere ls a loL
more Lo speaklng Lhan Lhe ablllLy Lo form grammaLlcally correcL
senLences and Lhen Lo pronounce Lhem lL Lyplcally Lakes place
ln real Llme wlLh llLLle Llme for deLalled plannlng
Spoken f|uency requlres Lhe capaclLy Lo arrange a sLore of
memorlsed lexlcal chunks
Slnce Lhe grammar of spoken language dlffers from Lhe grammar
of wrlLLen language Lhe sLudy of wrlLLen grammar may noL be
Lhe mosL efflclenL preparaLlon for speaklng
Speaklng ls a sklll and as such lL needs Lo be developed
lndependenLly
ln order Lo achleve any degree of fluency some degree of
auLomaLlclLy ls necessary utomat|c|ty allows speakers Lo
focus Lhelr aLLenLlon on Lhe aspecL of Lhe speaklng Lask LhaL
lmmedlaLely requlres lL wheLher L ls plannlng or arLlculaLlon
AuLomaLlclLy ls parLly achleved Lhrough Lhe use of
prefabr|cated chunks
ln Lhls sense speaklng ls llke any oLher sklll such as drlvlng or
playlng a muslcal lnsLrumenL Lhe more pracLlce you geL Lhe
more llkely lL ls you wlll be able Lo chunk small unlLs lnLo larger
ones
@urn tak|ng speakers should Lake Lurns Lo hold Lhe floor
1he skllls by means of whlch lL becomes posslble are as
follows
recognlslng Lhe approprlaLe momenL Lo geL a Lurn
slgnalllng Lhe facL LhaL you wanL Lo speak
holdlng Lhe floor whlle you have your Lurn
recognlslng when oLher speakers are slgnalllng Lhelr wlsh Lo
speak
yleldlng Lhe Lurn
slgnalllng Lhe facL LhaL you are llsLenlng
|fferent types of speech events
Service encounters, such as buying goods, getting information, or
requesting a service, are transactional speech events that follow a
predictable script. Typically, the exchange begins with a greeting,
followed by an offer, followed by a request and so on:
- Good morning
- Good morning
- What would you like?
- A dozen eggs, please.
- Anything else?
An lmporLanL facLor LhaL deLermlnes Lhe characLer of a speech
evenL ls wheLher lL ls |nteract|ve or non|nteract|ve
A casual conversaLlon beLween frlends ls a Lyplcal example of an
lnLeracLlve speech evenL Monologues such as a Lelevlslon
[ournallsL's llve reporL or a unlverslLy lecLure are nonlnLeracLlve
A dlsLlncLlons ls also Lo be made beLween p|anned and unp|anned
speech CerLaln speech genres such as publlc speeches and buslness
presenLaLlons are Lyplcally planned Lo Lhe polnL LhaL Lhey mlghL be
compleLely scrlpLed ln advance A phone conversaLlon Lo ask abouL
LlmeLable lnformaLlon whlle followlng a predlcLable sequence ls
normally noL planned ln advance 1hen each parLlclpanL should
make sLraLeglc and sponLaneous declslons on Lhe basls of Lhe way
Lhe dlscourse unfolds
|scourse markers
esearchers of Lranscrlbed speech have demonsLraLed LhaL
Lhe 30 mosL frequenL words ln spoken Lngllsh make up nearly
30 of all Lalk 1he word we// occurs abouL nlne Llmes more
ofLen ln speech Lhan ln wrlLlng
we// ls an example of a dlscourse marker whlch ls very
common ln lnLeracLlon Spoken language also has a hlgh
proporLlon of words and expresslons LhaL express Lhe
speaker's aLLlLude Lo whaL ls belng sald probob/y moybe
reo//y octuo//y eLc
hunks
Speakers achleve fluency Lhrough Lhe use of prefabrlcaLed chunks
1hese are sequences of speech LhaL are noL assembled word by word buL have
been preassembled Lhrough repeaLed use and are now reLrlevable as slngle
unlLs
Chunks are also known as lexlcal phrases holophrases formulalc language and
prefabs Cf Lhe dlfferenL Lypes of chunks Lhe followlng are Lhe mosL common
co||ocat|ons densely populaLed seL Lhe Lable
phrasa| verbs run ouL of go on abouL
|d|oms catchphrases and say|ngs make ends meeL as cool as a cucumber
sentence frames whaL really puzzles me ls
soc|a| formu|as have a nlce day mlnd your head
d|scourse markers lf you ask me by Lhe way
Iocabu|ary
-aLlve speakers employ over 2300 words Lo cover 93 of Lhelr
communlcaLlve needs Learners can probably geL by half LhaL
number especlally for Lhe purposes of casual conversaLlon
Lven Lhe Lop 200 mosL common words wlll provlde Lhe learner wlLh
a loL of conversaLlonal mlleage slnce Lhey lnclude
How to teach speaking?
Ds|ng ||sten|ng as a too| for teach|ng speak|ng
- Authentic and non-authentic recordings
- Scripted recording incorporated features of
natural speech
- Soap operas, documentaries, extracts from the
films, radio and TV programmes, game shows
The procedure
- Activating background knowIedge
it may help to establish the topic or the
content of the event, brainstorming
vocabulary, the teacher can introduce
new items
- checking gist
playing the extract and asking general gist questions like: Who is
talking to whom about what and why? Repeated listening may be
necessary
- Checking detaiIs
The learners may be set further tasks e.g. a grid to fill, a mutliple
choice questions to answer
- Listen and read stage
hand out the transcript, replay the recording while the students
listen silently
- resoIving doubts
the students are given the opportunity to ask about any doubts or
problems they have about the text
- focus on Ianguage features
filling in the gaps exercises, spot the difference exercises
- Focus on speech acts, focus on discourse markers, focus on
sociocultiral rules, on features of spoken grammar, on vocabulary,
on the use of lexical chunks, stress and intonation
Live Iistening listening to the teacher or guest speaker
The main advantage is a possibility to adjust the speech and interactive
character
Noticing-the-gap-activities
The teacher sets up the context for a speech event e.g. two people
fixing a date to meet or someone returning a faulty item to a shop.
Learners are paired off and attempt to perform a task, using the linguistic
means they have.
Then they listen to the recording or watch a video or two experts
performing the same task.
Recordings of skilled speakers performing the
task are played
-ntroduce the speakers on the cassette;
- Make sure the students realise the speakers
are doing a similar task to the one they will do or
have done;
-Make sure they know that you don't expect them
to understand everything. Tell them it might
sound difficult to start with, but you will play
several times.
aving listened to the task being performed
learners should then have the chance of
studying the transcript of the recording. They
can be asked to note any features such as
useful expressions that they would like to
incorporate into their performance.
Variant of the notice-the gap- activity:
we allow the learner to perform the task in the L1
and then reformulate it in the target language
allowing the student to see the difference.
t would be useful to record both the learner's
monologue and the teacher's reformulation of it
so the difference could be seen.
Minuting the Iesson
The learners can be asked to reflect on the lesson
and recall anything that they consciously noted.
The students are asked to write down a personal
note in the form of "something someone said that
surprised me or "a word or expression particularly
liked tec.
ontro||ed pract|ce
r||||ng
1he noLlon of pracLlsed conLrol need noL rule ouL Lhe value of some
mechanlcal and repeLlLlve acLlvlLles of Lhe Lype LradlLlonally assoclaLed
wlLh drllllng
r||||ng lmlLaLlng and repeaLlng words phrases and even whole
uLLerances
AfLer Lhe sLudenLs have llsLened Lo a Laped dlalogue Lhey may be asked
Lo repeaL some lsolaLed speclflc phrases or uLLerances lf all Lhe dlalogue
were drllled Lhe beneflL would be losL!
urllllng may help ln Lhe sLorlng and reLrlevlng of Lhe chunks and
caLchphrases eLc
MiIIing activities
They involve learners walking around, asking all the other
learners questions with a view of completing a survey or finding a
close match.
For example: Would you ever go hang-gliding? Would you
ever eat a snake?
t will involve the repeated asking of the
question but in a context that requires some
re-allocating some attention away from
grammatical processing and on to some
mental and physical tasks.
Then the students report to the class the
results of the milling activity.
Writing activities
Paper conversations
Learners have the conversations with their classmates but
instead of speaking, they write the conversation on a shared
sheet of paper.
While the students take part in this small talk, the teacher can
make improvements more easily than when students are actually
speaking.
Rewriting diaIogues
Asking learners to rewrite, improve or modify written
dialogues.
-Changing the register
-Making it more interactive (incorporating comments)
-ncluding positive appraisal language
-Adding pause fillers and false starts
-Extend the length of the turns
-ncorporating discourse markers: so, well, right, oh
-ncorporating ellipses: What's your name? Juan
-Making the talk more idiomatic
-Making the talk less direct, using vague language (sort
of, kind of)
DiaIogues
Ordering a jumbIed diaIogue
Chunks on cards learners work in pairs to have a dialogue,
and each has a set of cards with useful expressions on them,
such as -y the way, speaking of which etc. The idea is to
include as many of these features into their conversation as
possible adding the card to a discard pile each time it is used.
This can be turned into a game the first person to discard all
their cards is the winner.
FIow diagram conversations
Learners, in pairs, perform the dialogue, following the route
trough the different functions selecting from memory
appropriate expressions fro the different speech acts.
Conversation tennis
Set the learners the task of having a conversation in which they try
to "bat the conversational ball back and forth as much as possible
without letting it drop.
t is a good warm-up exercise at the beginning of every lesson.
What did you do yesterday?
B I worked all day. Then I went to the gym.
Did you?
B What did you do?
Disappearing diaIogue
The text of the dialogue is written on the board, learners
practice reading it aloud in pairs and then the teacher starts
removing sections of it.
First these could be single words, then the whole lines could
be removed.
. What did you do yesterday?
B I worked all day. Then I went to the gym.
Did you?
B What did you do?
DiaIogue buiIding
The dialogue is not presented to the learners but elicited from them
line by line.
1. Establishing the situation, the context and the purpose (at the hotel)
2. The teacher starts to elicit the conversation.
The ideas for the 1-st, 2-d and 3-d line of the conversation.
3. The complete dialogue is built and drilled.
Communicative activities
-The motivation of the activity is to achieve
some outcome, using language
-The activity takes place in real time
-Achieving the outcome requires the participants
to interact listen and speak
-Because of the spontaneous interaction the
outcome is not predictable
-There isno restriction to the language used
1. Jigsaw activities
2. Surveys (more elaborate versions of milling activities)
3. Blocking games bringing in the element of unpredictability
into a standard conversation
4. Guessing games
5. "The Onion - the chairs are arranged in circles the inner
circle is facing the outer circle, the students of the outer
circle move round one chair so that they have a new
partner
6. Reconstructing a story behind a headline.
7. 4-3-2 activity: the students are allowed less time with each
attempt to do a task (to retell a story)
8. Role-plays
9. Dramatising activities
10. Discussions and debates
Story-teIIing activities
Guess the Iie: Learners tell each other three short personal
anecdotes, two of which are true in every particular, and the third of
which is totally untrue (but plausible). The listeners have to guess the
lie and give reasons for their guesses. They can be allowed to ask
a limited number of questions after the story.
Chain story: in groups the learners take turns to tell a story,
each one taking over from, and building on, the contribution of
their classmates, at a given signal from a teacher.
Discussion cards: the teacher prepares in advance sets of cards
(one for each group) on which are written statements related to a
pre-selected topic. n groups one student takes the first card, reads it
aloud and they then discuss it for as long as they need, before taking
the next card. f a particular statement doesn't interest them they can
move on to the next one. The teacher should decide at which point
to end the activity.
Guessing games
n the games such as "What's my line?one learner thinks of
a job and the others have to ask yes/no questions to guess
what it is. t provides ideal conditions fro automating
knowledge (Do you work indoors or outdoors? Do you work
with your hands? Do you wear a uniform?).
The game takes place in real time, so there is an element of
spontaneity and the focus is on the outcome (not the
language being used to get there).
Other games: What sort of animal am ? Who am ? (One
player thinks of a famous person, alive or dead) The basic
format of this game can be applied to almost any topic.
The onion. f the number of students in
the class is not more than about twelve,
they can be divided into two equal groups.
As many chairs as there are students are
arranged in the centre of the classroom in
two circles, the outer circle facing the
inner circle. The students sit opposite one
another and perform their speaking task
e.g. telling their partner about the current
worry and getting advice. The students in
the outer circle then move round one chair
so that they have a new partner, and the
activity is repeated.
4-3-2 in this pairwork format, the objective is to retell a story
or monologue within a time limit that decreases at each
retelling, thereby encouraging greater automaticity.
Students are paired and take it in turns to do a monologic
speaking task, e.g. recounting a story or explaining the
process, based on picture prompts, or summarising the text
they have just read. For the first telling the speaker is allowed
four minutes, the second time they have to achieve the sam
degree of detail only in three minutes etc.
Presentations and taIks
Show-and- teII. Asking students to talk and answer questions about an
object or image of special significance to them. The talk need to be more
than 2 or 3 minutes and should be unscripted. The use of notes could be
allowed.
Did you read about.? t can be done in small groups rather than
the whole class. The stimulus is "something read in the paper or
heard on the news' rather than an object. The most interesting
story in each group can then be told to the class as a whole.
Academic presentations students studying English for academic
purposes are likely to need preparation in giving academic
presentations or conference papers. t may be helpful to discuss the
formal features of such genres as well as identifying specific
language exponents associated with each stage. These features
could be displayed as a poster in the classroom.
Drama, roIepIay and simuIation
Speaking activities involving a drama element, in which
learners take a leap out of the confines of the classroom,
provide a useful springboard for real-life language use.
Situations that learners are likely to encounter when using
English in the real world can be simulated, and a greater
range of registers can be practiced than are normally
available in classroom talk.
A and B. ou are a married couple. B is from another country. mmigration
officers are going to interview you and you have five minutes to prepare for
the interview. Work together to make sure you give the same information
about:
- how long B has been in the country
- how long you have known each other
- where you met
- your wedding
- your jobs
- what do you do in your free time
C and D. ou are immigration officers. A and B are married. B is from another
country and you don't think it's a real marriage. ou are going to interview the
couple and you have 5 minutes to prepare for the interview. Work together to
prepare questions to ask them.
- how long B has been in the country
- how long have they known each other
- where they met
- their wedding
- their jobs
- what they do in their free time
The Soap learners plan, rehearse and
perform (film) an episode from a soap
opera. The soap opera could be based on
a well-known local version.
Students write detailed profiles of the
characters they are going to play and then
the story is built up through a series of
improvisations and scripted. Work is done
on pronunciation as well as using drama
techniques to improve performance.
Warm-up discussions when introducing a new topic or
preparing learners to read or listen to the text it is common
to set a few questions fro pair or group discussions,
followed by a report back to the class.
PaneI discussions follow the format of a television
debate in which people representing various shades of
opinion on a topic argue the case usually under the
guidance of a chairperson. One way of organizing this is
to let students first work in pairs to prepare their
arguments, then one of each pair takes their place on
the panel, while the others form the audience asking
questions
Audio and video conferencing
These are virtual meetings, in which two or more people
communicate via a live audio or video link over the nternet.
They require microphone, speakers and special software, web
camera.
Both audio and video conferencing have been used to good
effect to bring learners from different parts of the world together
to collaborate on tasks and simulations.