Unit 10 Teaching Speaking.ppt

8/14/2019 Unit 10 Teaching Speaking.ppt

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Unit 10 Teaching Speaking

Aims of the unit: Through learning and

discussion ,students will get to know:1. the main characteristics of spoken

language

2. principles for teaching speaking3. typical types of speaking activities

4. How to organize speaking activities?


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10.1 What are the characteristics of

spoken language?

Speaking is a skill, just like swimming,

driving a car, or playing ping-pong.Too often, in the traditional classroom,

the learning of English has beenrelegated to linguistic knowledge only,

e.g. knowledge of vocabulary andgrammar rules, with little or noattention paid to practising languageskill.


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How can we tell the difference between

knowledge and skill?

According to Bygate (1987:4)one fundamental difference isthat both can be understood andmemorised, but only a skill canbe imitated and practised.


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Characteristics of spoken language

Spontaneity

Time-constraint


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Spontaneity

In most situations, people do notplan ahead of time what they aregoing to say.

The fact that speech is spontaneousmeans that it is full of false starts,repetitions, incomplete sentences,and short phrases.

Should we expect the students toproduce complete sentences inlanguage classroom?


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Reading aloud (needs to be supplemented with morerealistic activities as the level increases).

Giving a prepared talk (may be used for advanced

level) Learning a piece of text or dialogue by heart more

realistic activities as the level increases).

Interviewing someone, or being interviewed (Yes. It

helps to prepare students for real life speech .) Doing a drill (needs to be supplemented with more

realistic activities as the level increases).


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Also students must considerwhom they are talking to and be

able to check if they are beingunderstood.

e.g.


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10.2 Principles for teaching speaking

Teacher asks the students to read the part from P159 to 160 and thengets them to think about how they can improve speaking teaching.

Balancing accuracy-based with fluency-based practices

Contextualising practice

Personalising practice

Building up confidence

Maximising meaningful interactions

Helping students develop speaking strategies

Making the best use of classroom learning environment toprovide sufficient language input and practice for the students


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10.3 Designing speakingtasks

One important consideration:Proficiency levelof the students

(challenging but not too difficult.) If the task is too easy or too

difficult, the students may be

demotivated.


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Common characteristics insuccessful speaking tasks

Maximum foreign talk

Even participation

High motivation

Right language level


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Right language level

The task must be designed so that

the students can complete the tasksuccessfully with the language thatthey have. Otherwise the task willbecome frustrating and the

students are likely to give up orrevert to the native language.


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10.4 Type of speaking tasks

It is important to provide thestudents with a variety of speakingactivities because:

A variety of speaking activities willenable students to cope withdifferent situations in reality.

Variety helps keep motivation high. Variety may suit students of

different learning styles.


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There are two major purposes for

listening. One is to get

informationand the other is for

social reasons.

Since speaking is reciprocal oflistening, the same is true of

speaking.


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According to Littlewood, as has

been mentioned in Unit 2 (p. 22)

communicative speaking activitiescan be divided into two types:

functional communication

activities, and social interaction

activities:


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Structural Activities

Pre-C.A.Quasi-com. Activities

(sent. pattern drills, dialogues, etc.)

Functional Com. Act.Com. Act. (obtaining information)

Social Interaction Act.(role-playing, problem-solving, etc.)

Information Gap, Choices & Feed-back)


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Some types of speakingactivities

Controlled activities

Semi-controlled activities

Information-gap activitiesDialogues and role-plays

Activities using pictures

Problem-solving activities

Other speaking activities


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Information-gap activities

Compare 2activities:

Activity A

A ti it B


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Activity B:

Use the same pictures, but cut them up, paste them on

cards, and give each student a different picture.


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Directions: Ask your partner what is inhis/her picture.

Fore example:

Student A:Whats in your picture?

Student B: There is __________.Whats in your picture?

Student A:There is __________.


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Obviously the second activityincludes an information gapthatthe first one does not.

Information-gap activitiescan bedesigned at a very elementarylevel, so that communicative

practice can be done from almostthe very beginning of foreign

language learning.


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Dialogues and role-plays

Two problems with most dialogues intextbooks:

Not authentic or natural.The natural

speech of native speakers is oftenphrases or sentence fragments full ofpauses, false starts, and repetitions.

The way most dialogues are taught.Teachers ask students to memorizedialogues by heart.


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What can a teacher do to make adialogue more communicative?

Example 1: Playing the roles in adialogue


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Example 2: Using cue cardsCard A

You are talking to a new classmate. Beginthe conversation with a greeting.

1. Greet your partner.2. Ask your partner which school he/she

went to before.

3. Ask your partner if he/she lives near the

school.4. Suggest you go shopping together after

school.


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Then students should be ready to move quickly intoless controlled types of role plays, where only the

situation and the relationship between the twospeakers are specified:

Card A

You and your friend are going outto eat lunch. You need to decidewhere to go. You would like to

try something different becauseyoure tired of the same food.

You make a suggestion.


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Notice that the outcome of this role play is notspecified in the cue cards. It only sets up apoint of disagreement.

Card B

You and your friend are going

out to eat lunch. You need todecide where to go. You wouldlike to go to the place where

you always go, because you likethe food. You dont agree withyour friends suggestion.


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Factors that affect the successof role-plays (Ur, 1996:133)

Teachers enthusiasm;

Careful instructions;

Clear situation and roles;Making sure that the students

have the language they will need

to carry out the role-play.


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Activities using pictures

In groups of 3 or 4:


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In pairs: (Littlewood 1981: 23-4)


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In groups of 5:


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Problem solving activities require ahigher level of language proficiency,but the difficulty levels can becontrolled somewhat by the topic.

In problem-solving activities,

participants tend to become personallyinvolved; they begin to relate theproblem as an emotional issue as well

as an intellectual and moral one (Ur1996:128).


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Other speaking activities

Find someone who

e.g. Sand up and walk around the room.Ask your classmates what they like todo. Remember, you must speak inEnglish only!


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Bingo activities

(This seems to be practising listening ratherthan speaking if the words are called out bythe teacher.)


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Change the story

Step 1: Form groups of 3-5;

Step 2: The group together makes alist of about 20 random verbs.

e.g. go, sleep, teach, learn, jump, fall,look (at), hear, laugh, sing,etc.

Step 3: Each one writes a short story,

and underlines all the verbs in thestory;

e.g.


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Yesterday I saw a cat. She was

running in the street. She hada fish in her mouth. A dog wasrunning after the cat. The dog

wanted to eat the fish too.Then the cat climbed up a tree.The dog stopped under the tree.

He could not climb the tree. Atlast the cat ate the fish.


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Yesterday I taughta cat. She wassleepingin the street. She learneda fish in her mouth. A dog was

laughingafter the cat. The dog fellto hearthe fish too. Then the catsangup a tree. The dogjumped

under the tree. He could not heardthe tree. At last the cat looked atthe fish.


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No specific responses

The teacher calls out a verb andstudents hold up a letter card eachand rush to spell a word. (This seems

to be practising listening rather thanspeaking.)


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Documents

Unit 10 Teaching Speaking.ppt