Teaching speaking

Teaching speaking

1. Discussion activities

   • Classroom -or peer- teaching: trying out activities
     • Stage 1: preparation
       • Choose an activity in order of difficulty
     • Stage 2: experience
       • Do the activity, doing groups or even role plays.
     • Stage 3: reflection
       • After finishing, discuss or think about students performace
   • Examples
     • Describing pictures
       • As how many things are in a picture
         • Comments: This is a simple but surprising prodictive activity for begginer classes. Make sure participants understand that it is only necessary to make contributions
     • Pictures differences
       • Students in pairs, each member of the pair has a different picture
         • Comments: A well-know activity which usually produces plenty of purposeful question and answer exchanges. the vocabulary is important here as not cheat
     • Things in common
       • Students sit in pairs, preferably choosing as their partenr someone they do not know very well, and talk to find out as many tings in common they have
         • Comments: an ice-breaker activity, which fosters a feeling of solidarity by stressing shared characteristicts of participants
     • Shopping list
       • Which things of a fantasy would you choose.
         • Comments: An imaginative fun activity without answering simple things as yes or no.
     • Solving a problem
       • The students are told that they are an educational advisory committeewich has to advice something
         • To teenagers, fairly advanced learners.

2. Other kinds of spoken interaction

   • Interactional talk
     • Courtesy
       • Take leave begin and end conversations
         • Culture linked, difficult to explain the conventions in foreing language, teaching and practising them.
   • Long turns
     • The ability to speak as length is one which adult more advanced or academic students will perhaps need and therefore needs cultivating
       • Telling stories; telling jokes, describing a person in detail; recounting the plot of a film, play or book; giving a short lecture or talk; arguing a case for or against a proposal
   • Variated situattions, feelings, relationships
     • Variety of contexts
       • Opportunities to try using target language
         • The obvious classroom activities to use here are those based on the role play.

3. Ixchel Crespo Hernandez

   • LEAIES 2nd III