26th May 2017

Seminar 10 TEACHING PRODUCTIVE SKILLS (SPEAKING AND WRITING)

DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS

Discuss the following questions

1. How much did you use to speak in class?

2. How did you use to prepare for speaking activities in class?
3. What materials did you use?
4. What particular problems do you remember having?
5. In what ways was real communication encouraged in your English lessons?

Aims of a speaking activity

1) Accuracy -the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation

2) Fluency-the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously

Types of speaking activities

1) Controlled Activities (repetition practice, set sentences prompted by picture or word cue)
2) Guided activities (e.g. model dialogues that Ss can change to talk about themselves)
3) Creative/ freer communication (e.g. role plays, simulations, discussions, debates)

Types of speaking activities –

1. Discussions
2. Role-play
3. Simulations
4. Information-gap
5. Brainstorming /problem solving
6. Storytelling
7. Interviews
8. Story completition
9. Reporting
10. Picture narrating
11. Picture describing
12. Find the difference
13. Oral presentations
14. Lego-story-telling
15. Invader- game
16. Speaking Games (e.g. the App Story Dice)

Activity 1
Discussion
Work in groups. Discuss the following quotations. Do you agree or disagree with them? Give reasons.
A teacher should have maximal authority and minimal power (Thomas Szasz)
We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master. (Maria Montessori)
Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most
important. (Bill Gates)
Activity 2
Role play
A parent is concerned because their 8-year-old child is unhappy at school. The parent will meet the teacher and the head
teacher of the school. You will take one of the following roles.

Student A: Parent
You are worried that your child is unhappy at school. You think she is being bullied by older children. You have been very
busy at work lately and only noticed the problem recently although your daughter says that it has existed for some time.

Student B: Teacher
You have only been working at the school a few months. You know that a parent is coming to see you and the head teacher
about their daughter. You are pleased they are coming, because the girl has been disruptive in lessons.

Student C: Head teacher

You are going to have a meeting with the parent of one of the children and her teacher. You will run the meeting. You do not
know a lot about this child, but you know that her former teacher felt that she was doing well. The girl's current teacher has
only recently joined your team.

1. Work with another student who has the same role as you. Plan what you are going to say.
2. In groups of three (A,B and C), act out the role play.

Activity 3
Survey and presentation
1. In groups of four, prepare a survey on the topic: Are you a good language learner?
Prepare six questions that you will ask the other students in the class.
For example: Do you do the homework that the teacher gives us?
a. Always b. Sometimes c. Never.
2. Form new groups, so that each student in the new group comes from one of the original groups. Ask the other students
your questions, and make a note of their answers.
3. Return to your original group. Share the results of your survey. Prepare a presentation of your findings. Use
expressions like Five out often students always do their homework. Draw some conclusions from your survey. For
example, It would be good if we could listen to more songs English. This would improve our listening skills ...
4. Take turns to present your findings and conclusions to the class.

Activity 4
Guessing game
Write six sentences about your typical daily routine. Some sentences should be true and some sentences should be false. Work
in groups of three. Take turns to read out one sentence each. Can you guess which of your classmate’s sentences were false?

Activity 5

Write a selection of adjectives relating to feelings on the board. Tell students to choose several adjectives (increase or decrease
the number depending on how long you want the activity to take). Tell them to think of a time when they felt this way, and
that they are going to tell their partner / small group about their experience. Give students time to plan what they are going to
say. They can make notes and ask for vocabulary if they want to. Students tell their stories. Feedback to the class.

Speaking Lessons

Before the lesson:

 Decide on your aims

 Prepare the materials and the instructions

During the lesson:

 Arouse the Ss’ interest through visuals, a lead-in talk, etc.

 Remind Ss the structures or the vocabulary they might need
 Set up the activity so that the SS know the aims of the activity
 Monitor the activity
After the lesson:

 Give feedback

DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS

Pre-writing activities – the ’flow’ of ideas –

 Prepare students for a writing task and activate, review or builds sub-skills that prepare them for completing the
writing task;
 Focus on the content, on the audience, and the vocabulary necessary for the task (typically word and phrase level
activities);
 The role of the teacher is to stimulate students’ creativity, to get them thinking how to approach a writing topic;

While-writing activities

 Engage stduents in recursive writing, self-editing and revisions;

 Students are ready to write-they need clear instructions and resources to complete the next steps in the process: writing
drafts, revising, self-editing.
 Students are allowed to use notes from the pre-writing tasks.

Post-writing activities

 Help students reflect on and revise their writing based on the feedback from an audience, such as peers and/or their
teacher.

Task: Decide whether the following activities are pre-writing, while-writing or post-writing activities.

1. Read the Writing tip. Find at least one conjunction from the list in each note.
2. Use the conjunctions from the Writing tip to complete the sentences.
3. Imagine that you live in a flat and are going away for the weekend. Write a note to your flatmate in which you: tell
him/her you’ve gone; remind him/her to buy some food/wish him/her a very good weekend/say when you’ll be at
home.
4. Find more formal ways of saying the underlined phrases in Sarah’s letter (e.g. I am writing to ask you for the job of
kitchen helper.)
5. Read the job advert. Think about what qualities and experience you might need for the job. Make notes.
6. Write a formal letter of 120-150 words, applying for the job. Follow the writing plan below.
7. Write B next to the phrases for beginning a letter and E next to the phrases for signalling the end of a letter.
8. Write sentences expressing your own ideas of the future in fifty years. Use I think or I don’t think+will.
9. Eliminate unnecessary/redundant details.
10. Read the task below abd think about your own opinions (”Fifty years from now, life will be much easier and healthier
for ordinary people than it is today.’’Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Give reasons).
11. Complete the paragraph plan with your ideas from the task above (Paragrapgh 1- Introduction, Paragrapgh 2-
Argument against, Paragraph 3-Argument for, Paragraph 4-Summary)
12. Rewrite the sentences, putting the indirect object first (e.g. Can you do a favor for me?/Can you do me a favor?)
13. Plan a formal letter to Ms Weatherby making a reservation. Include this information: the dates of your stay and the
number of guests/ correct some information you gave one the phone/request a brochure, if the hotel has one/make an
additional requestion .
14. Re-read your essay, make sure sentences make sense.
15. Write a formal letter of 120-150 words making a reservation. Use your notes from the exercise above.
16. Put the information below in the order that it appears in the invitations. (the time, the event, the place, the day, extra
information or request).
17. Put the words in the correct oreder to make phrases from the postcards.
18. Match the types of holiday accommodation with the pictures.

Marking written work

Work in pairs. Discuss the ways the errors in this learner writing have been indicated and answer the questions.

1. Which of the three ways do you think is the most effective?

2. The writer of this text is an intermediate learner. Do you think the approach to correction would be the same for all levels?

Error correction code.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/writing-activities

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-speaking-unit-6-activities