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Fondul Social European

PROGRAMUL OPERAIONAL SECTORIAL
DEZVOLTAREA RESURSELOR UMANE 20072013
POSDRU/87/1.3/S/62665
Formarea continu a cadrelor didactice
pentru utilizarea resurselor informatice
moderne n predarea eficient a limbii
engleze i evaluarea la nivel european a
competenelor lingvistice

APPROACHES TO TEACHING
SPEAKING

The goal of teaching speaking skills is to

ensure that students are able to make
themselves understood, using their current
proficiency to the fullest.
To help students develop communicative
efficiency in speaking, teachers can use
activities that combine language input,
structured output, and communicative
output approaches.

LANGUAGE INPUT
comes in the form of the
language heard and read outside
of class, listening activities, class
interaction, and it gives students
the material they need to begin
producing language themselves

LANGUAGE INPUT
may focus on content or form
Focus on Content input involves
information, descriptions of learning
strategies and examples of their use
Focus on Form input involves ways of
using the language: (linguistic competence,
discourse competence, sociolinguistic
competence, strategic competence)

LANGUAGE INPUT
In the presentation part of a lesson, a
teacher combines content-oriented
and form-oriented input. The
amount of input that is actually
provided in the target language
depends on students' proficiency and
also on the situation.

LANGUAGE OUTPUT
Structured output focuses on students
using correct language forms/structures.
They may have options for responses, but all
of the options require them to use the
specific form or structure that the teacher
has just introduced
Structured output is designed to make
learners comfortable producing specific
language items recently introduced,
sometimes in combination with previously
learned items.

 In communicative output, the

students' main purpose is to
complete a task. To complete the
task, they may use the language that
the teacher has just presented, but
they also may use any other
vocabulary, grammar, and
communication strategies that they
know.

 In communicative output activities,

the criterion of success is whether the
student gets the message across. Fluency
and not accuracy is a consideration,
unless the lack of the latter interferes with
the message.
In everyday communication, spoken
exchanges take place because there is
some sort of information gap between the
participants.

Communicative output activities

involve a similar real information
gap. In order to complete the task,
students must reduce or eliminate
the information gap. In these
activities, language is a tool, not an
end in itself.

In the communicative model of language

teaching, teachers help their students
develop knowledge by providing authentic
practice that prepares students for real-life
communication situations.
To help students develop communicative
efficiency speaking, teachers can use a
balanced activities approach that
combines language input, structured
output, and communicative output.

Activities to promote speaking

SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
1. Discussions
foster critical thinking and quick
decision making; students become
involved in agree/disagree discussions;
students are encouraged to ask
questions, paraphrase ideas, express
support, check for clarification.

2. Role Play
students pretend they are in various
social contexts and have a variety of
social roles;
the teacher assigns roles
3. Simulations
similar to role-plays but more elaborate
are entertaining, motivate the students
and increase the self-confidence of the
shy ones

4. Information Gap
students are supposed to be working in
pairs - one student will have the
information that other partner does not
have and the partners will share their
information;
advantages: in solving a problem or
collecting information, each partner plays
an important role because the task cannot
be completed if the partners do not
provide the information the others need;
everybody has the opportunity to talk
extensively in the target language

5. Brainstorming/problem solving
students are required to produce ideas
on a given topic in a given time period;
can be done individually/in pairs/groups;
is effective - students generate ideas
quickly and freely;
students are not criticized for their ideas
so they are open to sharing new ideas.

6. Storytelling
fosters creative thinking;
helps students express ideas in the format of
beginning, development, and ending, including the
characters and setting a story has to have.
7. Interviews
students are required to conduct interviews on
selected topics with various people;
the teacher may provide a rubric to students so
that they know what type of questions they can
ask
advantages: give students a chance to practice
their speaking ability not only in class but also
outside; help them becoming socialized

8. Story Completion
a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking
activity;
the teacher may provide the beginning of a story,
then, each student starts to narrate from the point
where the previous one stopped;
each student is supposed to add a suggested
number of sentences.
advantages: relaxed atmosphere, fosters
creativity, students express ideas in the format of
development, and ending, including the characters
and setting a story has to have, everybody has the
opportunity to talk in the target language.

9. Reporting
students are asked to read a newspaper or
magazine before coming to class, watch a video
clip;
in class, they report to their friends what they find
as the most interesting news.
10. Picture Narrating
activity based on several sequential pictures;
the teacher provides a rubric (rubrics can include
the vocabulary or structures students need to use
while narrating);
students are asked to tell the story taking place in
the sequential pictures by paying attention to the
criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric.

11. Picture Describing

students are supposed to be working in groups;
each group is given a different picture;
students discuss the picture with their groups,
then a spokesperson for each group describes the
picture to the whole class.
advantages: fosters the creativity and
imagination of the learners as well as their public
speaking skills.

12. Find the Difference

students work in pairs and each

couple is given two different
pictures;
students in pairs discuss the
similarities and/or differences in
the pictures.
13. Oral presentations on a given topic

CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE

PRESENTATIONS
I. CONTENT-RELATED
Relevance of ideas to topic (pertinent examples;
no unnecessary details)
Overall coherence ( logical, natural flow of ideas)
Lexical range (variety of words/phrases to suit
complexity of topic)
Register (appropriate choice and consistent use
of either formal or informal level, depending on
the audience)

II.

ORGANISATION-RELATED

Effective introduction (catchy opening :

relevant joke/anecdote, statistics, quotation)
Clear signposting (statement of goals,
indication of stages, emphasis on
conclusions/results)
Emphasizing key points (insisting
on/repeating main points and stating the
presenters conclusion)
Length (organization of materials to fit time
limit, 3-5 mins.)

III.

DELIVERY-RELATED

Clarity and pronunciation

Stress and intonation
Volume
Pace
Body language, eye contact, manner

PLAN FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS

1.INTRODUCTION
State the general theme
2. THE BODY
Refer to learning from ones own experience: give
examples.
Refer to learning from the experiences of others:
give examples.
3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Refer briefly to two or three main ideas
mentioned in the body.
State your own conclusions about the theme.

STEP 1.1 (INDIVIDUAL WORK):

REFLECTION ON NORMAL PRACTICE
How much do your students speak in class?
How do you prepare speaking activities in
class?
What materials do you use?
What particular problems do your students
have?
In what ways do you encourage real
communication to take place in your lessons?

 STEP 1.3 (GROUP WORK): SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT

In groups decide on the following:
Is there any connection between the way we talk and the
setting in which it occurs? (Would you tell the same kinds
of jokes in a hospital and at a party?)
How does the kind of talk limit the topics introduced?
(How does a job interview differ from a reporters
interview of a famous actor?)
Do language functions vary from one kind of talk to
another? (How do campaign speech and a charity speech
compare with regard to the ways they try to persuade
their audiences?)
Is a particular talk likely to change if we change the roles
of the participants? (Does a doctor talk to a patient as he
would talk to a member of his family in need for medical
assistance?)

 STEP 2.1 (PAIR WORK):

SUCCESSFUL SPEAKING
List which are, according to you, the
characteristics of successful speaking
activities.

 STEP 2.2 (PAIR WORK): ACCURACY VS FLUENCY

Consider the following statement: In general, the goal of guided practice
activities is to improve accuracy, whereas the goal of communicative
activities is to improve fluency.
In the Table below fill in the defining features which fit under each heading:
teacher-controlled, learner-controlled, real life, authentic, pedagogical,
analytic (one thing at a time), synthetic/holistic (many things at once), open
(no single answer), closed (one right answer), focus on fluency, focus on
accuracy.

Guided Practice

Communicative Task

 STEP 3.3 (GROUP WORK): INFORMATION-GAP

ACTIVITIES
INSTRUCTIONS
Choose four of the activity types and brainstorm further kinds
of material and activity which might be used.
Example: The following are all examples of information-gap
activities:
One student describes a picture to another student. The
second student has to draw it.
One student arranges objects on the table and directs the
second student to arrange similar objects in the same way.
The students sit so that they cannot see each others objects.
One student has a sequence of pictures which tell a story. The
second student has the same pictures in a jumbled order. The
first student describes the sequence to his/her partner. The
partner has to arrange his/her pictures into the correct order.

 STEP 3.4 (PAIR WORK): DEVELOPING TASKS

INSTRUCTIONS
With your partner develop an information-gap
task for your students.
identify a context (a social event/a game/a
puzzle)
create a visual aid (a spider gram/a map) for
students to fill in as they gather information from
their partners
mention the time limit you will give this task
report to the class

 STEP 3.5 (PAIR WORK): FAILURE

OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
INSTRUCTIONS
Try to identify reasons why
communicative activities, especially
discussions, in the classroom often
fail. Report to the other pairs.

 STEP 4.1 (PAIR WORK): ADAPTABILITY

INSTRUCTIONS
In pairs, decide how teachers can:
1. Provide students with opportunities for
practising specific speaking skills.
2. Teach students to adapt their speech to
specific situations.
3. Provide opportunities to practise speaking
before larger groups.

 STEP 5.1 (PAIR WORK):

FEEDBACK 1

INSTRUCTIONS
In pairs, decide when it is advisable
to give feedback to the whole
class/to small groups/to individuals.

 STEP 5.2 (GROUP WORK):

FEEDBACK 2
INSTRUCTIONS
In groups, decide on ideas for giving
feedback to 1. the whole class/2. to
small groups/3. to individuals.

STEP 5.4 (GROUP WORK): TASK CARDS

INSTRUCTIONS
Task Cards for Process of Spoken Error Correction
Put the cut up cards in a logical sequence.
Compare with other groups to reach a consensus .

Decide on the Will you deal

type of error
with it or not?

Who will deal

with it?

Indicate type Give student

of error made chance to
identify error
Give student Teacher
time to
models correct
self/peer
version
correct
Drill for
Give a mini
pronunciation Practice

Teacher
identifies error
for student
Student
repeats correct
version

 The end