Better teaching methods,

better speakers- a methodological

presentation by Emilia Frînculeasă,

Nehoiu, January 25, 2017

What can you say about teaching speaking?

Teaching speaking as a productive skill

- is a complex process that requires time, effort and also the right teaching methods - involves activating the learner through motivating practice (interesting topics/ texts, attractive lessons, challenging tasks)- implies communicative situations and a communicative purpose which should engage the students’ personal knowledge and experience and address their linguistic proficiency as well as their age

Teaching speaking in a foreign language is a three-level process

1) Controlled activities

The students’ language is

largely imitative

(they produce short, simple messages by

following a model or the

teacher’s example)

2) Guided activities

The students are gradually

helped to build longer and

more complex

stretches of language,

while getting more and

more freedom

The students are able to

produce oral messages without

guidance, and use the

language functionally

and strategically

3) Free production

To make sure the students become active producers of

language……the teacher must…

-provide opportunities for spontaneous conversationsearly in the language course-challenge the students’ minds and motivate their active participation-provide the necessary support and guidance-create a friendly classroom atmosphere/ environment

-involve all the students in the interactive (pair work or group work) activities-use question-answer exchanges, brainstorming, conversation, simulation, role play, improvisation, discussions and debates to bring about transfer of information, absorb the ss’ attention and reduce anxiety

What do teachers do to improve their students’ speaking skills?

- provide the most useful models (drills and exercises) for the students to learn the basic vocabulary and

structures for different types of contextual interactions

-use linguistic and non-linguistic props (key words, phrases, maps, pictures, charts, cards, video and audio

recordings) to promote the students’ emotional involvement and facilitate independent language

production

- allow the students to become autonomous, less dependent on help and support in order to be able to use

the language meaningfully, fluently and creatively

What else could be done?

-explain how the task will benefit the students or why they are asked to do certain things

-give students opportunities to initiate oral communication (ask questions, suggest topics, control

conversations, change the subject etc.)

-provide appropriate feedback and correction

- use techniques that encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

- recommend sources and resources that the students can use to become better speakers of English

How do we know if a speaking activity is successful or not?

1. The learners talk a lot, not the teacher, and there are few pauses;

2. Participation is even- the classroom discussion is not dominated by

a minority: all the participants get the chance to express themselves and their contributions are fairly evenly distributed;

3. Motivation is high: the learners are eager to speak either because

they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it or because they want to contribute to achieving the task objective;

4. The language used during the lesson is of an acceptable level.

The learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible and of an acceptable level of language accuracy;

5. The target language is spoken, not the mother tongue: the teacher might appoint a monitor in each group to remind participants to use the target language.

Bibliography:

1. Vizental, A.- Metodica Predării Limbii Engleze, Strategies of Teaching and Testing English as a Foreign Language2. Brown, Douglas H. – Teaching By Principles, An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy3. Ur, P. – A Course in Language Teaching, Practice and Theory