Worksheet 14 - 2022 The Speaking Skill-1
Worksheet 14 - 2022 The Speaking Skill-1
Worksheet 14 - 2022 The Speaking Skill-1
Introduction
Every opportunity for speaking in the classroom should be taken. It’s by trying to
communicate that students realize their need for language and by speaking that they
increase their fluency and confidence.
If we want to get students talking we need to take into account these issues:
Whether the subject is relevant and interesting.
Whether the students already know about or are provided with information to give
substance to the topic.
Whether they feel motivated to talk about it.
Whether they feel that they really want to say something.
At the beginning of the year we should define our objectives to students clearly and
define the core of what students should know from one year to another.
It is also important that students know what they’re going to be able to say and do and
the level expected of them in order to be able to prioritize and set themselves realistic
goals and feel satisfied when they achieve them.
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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find one with those equal requirements, or create your own material if the text
book does not provide relevant, interesting situations.
Put up posters, classroom language, an English noticeboard, etc. to surround
students with English.
Make lessons lively and enjoyable so that the language comes to life. Luckily for us
this is not hard. Given that students have to study a lot of subjects “academically”,
you have the advantage of being able to do something a bit different, i.e. focus on
communication skills and speaking activities.
The classroom atmosphere must encourage students to contribute orally with some
freedom.
The atmosphere in a classroom affects all we do. The ideal class atmosphere is one
which is fun and lively, but also positive and disciplined. To achieve this, we need
to find the right balance of:
Friendliness, sensitivity and approachability
Flexibility
Mutual respect
Sharing of responsibilities
Co-operation
It’s asking a lot of students to co-operate and speak English to each other, so they need
to feel comfortable in our classes and relaxed with us and the speaking activities or they
won’t speak.
Allow students some autonomy and choice. The best way to achieve this with energetic
adolescents is to allow them some opportunity to express their own characters and
ideas. Avoid making them feel inhibited or overly self-conscious.
Students often welcome the chance to get their tongues round new vocabulary and
grammar structures, expressions and model sentences before using them for real. This
is better done during systems-oriented activities.
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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2. Scaffolding
Scaffolding techniques
Showing interest and agreeing: nodding, 'uh-huh', eye contact, 'yes', etc.;
Concisely asking for clarification of unclear information, e.g. repeating an unclear
word;
Encouragement echo: repeating the last word (perhaps with questioning intonation)
in order to encourage the speaker to continue;
Echoing meaning: picking on a key element of meaning and saying it back to the
speaker, e.g. 'a foreign holiday';
Asking conversation-oiling questions (ones that mainly recap already stated
information), e.g. 'Is it?' 'Do you?' 'Where was it?' etc.;
Asking brief questions (or using sentence heads) that encourage the speaker to
extend the story, e.g. 'And then ... ' 'He went ... ' 'She wanted ... ' etc.;
Unobtrusively saying the correct form of an incorrect word (but only if having the
correct word makes a significant positive contribution to the communication) ;
Giving the correct pronunciation of words in replies without drawing any particular
attention to it;
Unobtrusively giving a word or phrase that the speaker is looking for.
How can you transform guided activities into more appealing ones?
Through games, chants, rhymes, songs.
The best speaking activities for children are clearly games. Read the following
articles and find relevant information about the issue.
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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- The role of fun and games in teaching young learners. (Rixon, R. in Brumfit et
al (ed.) 1995. Teaching English to Children. Essex: Longman. Paper 3)
As we know, our students adore playing all sorts of games, we can great take advantage
of this and make games fit our educational goals. On the one hand, we should take into
consideration that many activities are absorbing in themselves but have absolutely no
educational value. We should not discard games because of their simplicity: if we use
them appropriately they might prove very effective. Simple games may help children
learn chunks while having great fun.
Stories also provide students with great fun as well as a chance to develop their listening
skills. However, even the greatest tale might turn out to be a great failure if is
inadequately adapted. This could be the case if the story is too long and has no visual
clues the kids may infer meaning from. Again, simple ad repeated chunks of language
will help the story achieve popularity among your kids. If you combine this with
movement success is guaranteed.
Can you think of traditional chants and how to modify them to suit our teaching
purposes?
Activity
a) Setting up the activity and giving instructions
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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Organise the students so that they can do the activity or section. (This may involve
making pairs or groups, moving the seating, etc.).
Give clear instructions for the activity. A demonstration or example is usually much
more effective than a long explanation.
Check back that the instructions have been understood (e.g. 'So, Jorge, what are
you going to do first?').
In some activities, it may be useful to allow some individual work (e.g. thinking
through a problem, listing answers, etc.) before the students get together with
others.
Decide when it is best to hand out any materials they need to perform the task. Do
they need them to follow and understand your instructions (e.g. role cards) or will
they get distracted (therefore they won’t listen to you)?
Feedback
It is important to have some feedback on the activity. This stage is vital and is typically
under-planned by teachers! The students have worked hard on the task, and it has
probably raised a number of ideas, comments and questions about the topic and about
language. So be prepared to giving encouraging comments and point out all the good
work done. Ask the students to reflect on how well they did the task and what they
found more complicated, more interesting, etc. Briefly answer critical issues and then
go on to the focus stage.
During the activity, you make a mental note of critical points and now you elicit
further possibilities, correct versions, vocabulary enrichment, etc. Add / correct /
revise, through elicitation and guided discovery.
If you focus on fluency, you will have made a mental note of main problem areas,
repeated errors or breakdowns in communication and work on those areas.
Work on accuracy, also consider the same issues as for fluency, but focus on
pronunciation / intonation / grammar / patterns (according to the situation – not on
all of these at the same time!)
Instructions
Planning stage The material consists of two similar but not identical pictures;
(before the there are fifteen differences between the pictures.
class): The task is 'Spot the difference', but each student will only
Familiarise see one of the pictures. Students will work in pairs.
yourself with the Without looking at each other's pictures, they should describe
material and their pictures and compare details, trying to discover as many
activity. Prepare differences as they can.
any materials or Photocopy enough pictures so that you have one 'A' and one
texts you need. 'B' for every pair of students.
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
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b) Students do As students start doing the activity, walk around
the activity unobtrusively, just to check that they are following the
(maybe in pairs instructions correctly (i.e. they understand the task and are
or small groups doing it in English).
while you After that, you could continue with discreet monitoring or
monitor and maybe sit down and wait for students to finish the task.
help.) If you monitor, you could collect overheard examples of good
or problematic sentences. Don't feel the need to join in or
take an active part in the work; this stage is for students to
work together.
c) Close the Keep an eye on students as they finish (the task will take
activity. different pairs different lengths of time). When about half of
Feedback the pairs have finished, announce that everyone has one
minute to finish. After you stop the activity, ask some
students to report their findings. Then ask the group what
was easy or difficult; help them with expressions or
vocabulary they ask for – and provide encouraging
feedback.
Games
As with any communicative activity the areas of language produced may be predictable
and therefore useful as a guided activity, or less predictable and suitable for a freer
stage. Games are particularly useful with younger learners but are generally popular
with students of all ages, especially if they appreciate how they can help them improve
their English.
Board games
Many commercially available board games lead to interesting speaking activities, though
you do need to check them out and ensure that they represent 'good value' in terms of
how much useful language they generate. It’s also quite easy to create new board games
specially designed for your class and their interests. It is very useful to have one blank
board game template. It is then relatively quick to write in a number of interesting
questions or statements in each square round the board. Learners play the game in
groups, moving their pieces and either giving a monologue or discussing squares they
land on. They generally generate lively small-group discussions. This type of activity
uses a board game to get students discussing in small groups. The game element helps
focus attention, and students may find that it adds something exciting and humorous to
a more serious discussion topic. The activity is adaptable for a wide range of topics and
levels.
Instructions
Photocopy one game board for every four students in your
Planning stage
class. You will need a die for all groups and a counter for
(before the class):
each player (these could be coins). Cut some paper into
Familiarise yourself
a lot of small blank 'cards'. Decide what topic you want
with the material
the students to discuss and prepare a list of interesting
and activity. Prepare
clues or actions to perform. Photocopy and cut up one set
any materials or
for each group.
texts you need.
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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writing the word on the blackboard and eliciting related
lexis and structures.
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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Place the cards here
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Instituto Superior de Profesorado Pbro Dr A. M. Sáenz - Professional Practice II
Speaking: games and information gap tasks
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91 92 93 play 95 96 slee
p
98 she 100
83 84 85 86 87 88 89
watc it run
h
71 72 73 74 75 77 78 79
he write
61 62 63 65 66 67 68 70
we I
52 53 54 55 56 59
drink we the I
y
41 42 43 44 45 47 49 50
listen
eat
31 33 34 35 36 37 39 40
jump climb
22 24 25 27 28
swim cook I you fly
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
we I
1 6 8 9 10
She I fall you fight
Snakes and
& ladders
Speaking activities for intermediate and above levels
Real-play
Situations and one or more of the characters are drawn not from cards, but from a
participant's own life and world. Typically, one of the learners plays him/herself, but in a
context other than the classroom. Learners receive guidelines for the interaction.
Drama
Drama is an excellent way to get students using the language. It essentially involves
using the imagination to make oneself into another character, or the classroom into a
different place. It can be a starting point for exciting listening and speaking work and it
can be utilized as a tool to provide practice in specific grammatical, lexical, functional or
phonological areas.
Success or failure of drama activities depends crucially on the perceived attitude of the
teacher and of the other students; without a certain degree of trust, acceptance and
respect the chances for useful work are greatly diminished.
There are some good drama games such as the following ones:
Making a picture: the teacher calls out a subject, the students must all together
quickly form a frozen tableau of that scene.
Interesting situations: students call out any interesting or difficult situation involving
two people and two other students act it out. This technique could, in appropriate
circumstances, be used to real-play. [i.e. act out and explore some of the students’
own real-life problem situations.]
Acting play scripts: acting out