think of X?’. Instead, teachers should plan the discussion sequence giving students material to react to, and time to plan what they are going to say.
A popular way of emphasising the rehearsal aspect of speaking activities is to use simulations and role plays. This is where students pretend that they are in a different situation, either as themselves or playing the role of someone quite different. We could ask them to be guests at some party and go there as different characters. We might clear the classroom so there is an open space for them to party in. They could, as themselves, pretend to be at an airport trying to check in luggage, or either as themselves or another character take part in a television programme. In all these cases the students are using language in order to participate in the activity rather than the other way round! Some students find it very comforting to use language in a simulated environment, playing the role of someone else - it allows them to experiment more freely than they ordinarily would. 4) When should students speak?
Many people have thought that speaking activities should come at the end of a teaching sequence; you have taught the present continuous for future, for example, and now you ask students to role-play situations in which they make arrangements and invite each other: (What are you doing this evening? How about coming to a movie? etc.). There is nothing wrong with this of course, but it should not be thought that there has to be that kind of linear relationship between a speaking activity and non-speaking material that went before it. Indeed, students probably need quite some time for new language to sink in before they can produce it spontaneously in conversation.
Speaking activities can be used at any stage. Indeed, a direct opposite of what we have just described is a kind of ‘boomerang’ procedure, where students are involved in a speaking activity and it is their performance in this activity that helps the teacher to decide what to teach next. Speaking activities are often part of longer sequences (as discussed above). Teachers may use speaking activities as welcome relief from more concentrated study, or as a way of seeing how well students have been learning over the last few days or weeks. 5) What do teachers have to do?
It is vitally important to be sure beforehand what students need to know for the activity to be successful and to make sure that they are given suitable information or provided with key language.
Tell them the purpose of the task, how they should carry it out, how long they have got. If this is the first time they have used an information gap activity, for example, they must be told not to look at each other‘s material.
Many teachers prefer to demonstrate an activity before getting students to do it. Such demonstration clarifies the procedures in a way that instructions sometimes do not. 6) How should teachers correct speaking?
When teachers are conducting drills or checking written homework they often correct all the mistakes they hear or see immediately they hear or see them. But if they do the same when a student is trying to speak fluently, they may throw the student off balance and make fluency impossible. It will also suggest that the teacher is more concerned with the ’how‘ than with the ’what‘ of what is said. Of course there are times during speaking activities when teachers may intervene gently to help out a communication problem (though he or she should consider how important this is and whether or not it might disrupt the activity), but in general it is better for the teacher to listen to what the students are saying, intervene as little as possible, and then give feedback when the activity is finished. First they should tell students what they liked about the activity and comment on the ideas conveyed and then go on to point out mistakes, and do some work to correct them. 7)What do students need?
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Practice at using L1 (mother tongue) strategies, which they don't automatically transfer. An awareness of formal / informal language and practice at choosing appropriate language for different situations.
? The awareness that informal spoken language is less complex than written language. It uses shorter sentences, is less organised and uses more 'vague' or non-specific language.
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Exposure to a variety of spoken text types.
The ability to cope with different listening situations. Many listening exercises involve students as 'overhearers' even though most communication is face-to-face.
? To be competent at both 'message-oriented' or transactional language and interactional language, language for maintaining social relationships.
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To be taught patterns of real interaction.
To have intelligible pronunciation and be able to cope with streams of speech.
? Rehearsal time. By giving students guided preparation / rehearsal time they are more likely to use a wider range of language in a spoken task.
Part Two Practical suggestions
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Transferring L1 strategies
When preparing for a spoken task, make students aware of any relevant l1 strategies that might help them to perform the task successfully. For example, 'rephrasing' if someone does not understand what they mean.
? Formal / informal language
Give students one or more short dialogues where one speaker is either too formal or informal. Students first identify the inappropriate language, then try to change it. Also show students how disorganised informal speech is.
? Vague language
Using tapescripts of informal speech, focus on examples of vague language.
? Different spoken text types
Draw up a list of spoken text types relevant to the level of your class. Teach the language appropriate for each text type.
? Interactive listening
Develop interactive listening exercises. Face-to-face listening is the most common and the least practised by course books. Any form of 'Live listening' (the teacher speaking to the students) is suitable. (See Try article for a more detailed outline of this)
? Transactional and interactional language
Raise students' awareness by using a dialogue that contains both. It could be two friends chatting to each other (interactional) and ordering a meal(transactional).
? Real interaction patterns
Teach real interaction patterns. Introduce the following basic interactional pattern: Initiate, Respond, Follow-up. This is a simplification of Amy Tsui's work. See Tsui (1994)
The following interaction could be analysed as follows: A: What did you do last night? (Initiate) B: Went to the cinema (Respond) A: Oh really? (Follow-up) What did you see? (Initiate) B: Lord of the Rings (Respond) Have you been yet? (Initiate)
A: No it's difficult with the kids (Respond) B: Yeah of course (follow-up)
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Understanding spoken English
After a listening exercise give students the tapescript. Using part of it, students mark the stressed words, and put them into groups (tone units). You can use phone numbers to introduce the concept of tone units. The length of a tone unit depends on the type of spoken text. Compare a speech with an informal conversation. In the same lesson or subsequent listening lessons you can focus on reductions in spoken speech, for example, linking, elision and assimilation.
? Preparation and rehearsal
Before a spoken task, give students some preparation and rehearsal time. Students will need guidance on how to use it. A sheet with simple guidelines is effective.
? Real-life tasks
Try to use real-life tasks as part of your teaching.
Part Three Some experiences on Teaching Speaking
1) What language should I teach?
Spoken language is both interactional and transactional, but what should teachers focus on in class? Brown and Yule (1983) suggest the following:
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When teaching spoken language, focus on teaching longer transactional turns. This is because native speakers have difficulty with them and because students need to be able communicate
information efficiently whether in their country or in a native-speaker country.
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Teach interactional language by using an awareness-raising approach. For example, with monolingual classes by listening to a recorded l1conversation before a similar l2 recording. For recordings of native-speaker interactional and transactional conversations, have a look at 'Exploring Spoken English' by McCarthy and Carter (1997) It not only contains a variety of text types, but each recording comes with analysis.
2)How do I get students to use new language?
Research by Peter Skehan on Task-based Learning shows that giving students preparation time significantly increases the range of language used in the performance of the task, whereas the accuracy of the language is not as influenced. If this is so, then it seems sensible to give students preparation time when encouraging them to use new language.
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Imagine you have been working on the language that would be useful for the following task: 'Having a conversation with a stranger on public transport'. You have now reached the stage where you wish students to perform the task. Rather than just give students 10 minutes to prepare and rehearse the task, give students guided preparation time.
A simple preparation guide for the task could be a few key questions like: How will you start the conversation? What topics are you going to talk about?
How are you going to move from one topic to another? How are you going to end the conversation?
After the preparation stage, students give a 'live performance'. This can be in front of the class or group to group in a large class. This increases motivation and adds an element of real-life stress.
? Another way of encouraging students to use new language in a communication activity is to make a game out of it. Give students a situation and several key phrases to include. They get points for using the language.