Teaching speaking skills

Teaching Speaking Skills
Communication involves the use of four language skills:
listening and speaking in oral communication
reading and writing in written communication.

What difficulties do students have?
What should I do when…
Students just sit and stare at each other
One or two students always dominate
They usually only answer yes or no
Students never have their own opinions
I never know when to corrects all the errors

Any problems?..

Developing Oral Communication Skills
Attention should be concentrated on the following main problems:
syllabus requirements
language and speech
physiological and linguistic characteristics of speech
ways of creating situations
prepared, unprepared and inner speech
types of activities

Syllabus requirements
начинать, вести/поддерживать и заканчивать различные виды диалогов в стандартных ситуациях общения, соблюдая нормы речевого этикета, при необходимости переспрашивая, уточняя;
расспрашивать собеседника и отвечать на его вопросы, высказывая свое мнение, просьбу, отвечать на предложение собеседника согласием/отказом в пределах изученной тематики и усвоенного лексико-грамматического материала;
рассказывать о себе, своей семье, друзьях, своих интересах и планах на будущее;
сообщать краткие сведения о своем городе/селе, о своей стране и странах изучаемого языка;
описывать события/явления, передавать основное содержание, основную мысль прочитанного или услышанного, выражать свое отношение к прочитанному/услышанному, давать краткую характеристику персонажей

Содержание обучения
Лингвистический компонент:
средства выражения мысли (языковые, предречевые подготовленные, речевые эталоны);
способы формирования и формулирования мысли;
темы и ситуации общения
печатные и прагматические (чеки, меню, билеты) материалы
социокультурные и фоновые знания

Психологический компонент:
поэтапное развитие умений строить собственное высказывание от репродукции к продуктивной речи
развитие компенсаторных умений в выражении мысли при недостатке языковых средств
развитие умений коммуникации (слушать и слышать собеседника, выстраивать отношения, приходить к согласию и тд)
формирование речемыслительных умений.

Виды диалогов
диалог этикетного характера – умение начинать, поддерживать и заканчивать разговор; поздравлять, выражать пожелания и реагировать на них; выражать благодарность; вежливо переспрашивать, отказываться, соглашаться;
диалог-расспрос – умение запрашивать и сообщать фактическую информацию (Кто? Что? Как? Где? Куда? Когда? С кем? Почему?), переходя с позиции спрашивающего на позицию отвечающего; целенаправленно расспрашивать, «брать интервью»;
диалог-побуждение к действию – умение обращаться с просьбой и выражать согласие/отказ ее выполнить; давать совет и принимать/не принимать его; приглашать к действию/взаимодействию и соглашаться/не соглашаться принять в нем участие; делать предложение и выражать согласие/несогласие принять его, объясняя причину;
диалог-обмен мнениями – умение выражать точку зрения и соглашаться/не соглашаться с ней; высказывать одобрение/неодобрение; выражать сомнение, эмоциональную оценку обсуждаемых событий (радость/огорчение, желание/нежелание), эмоциональную поддержку партнера, в том числе, с помощью комплиментов;
комбинирование указанных видов диалога для решения более сложных коммуникативных задач

Умения ДР
участвовать в беседе/дискуссии на знакомую тему;
осуществлять запрос информации;
обращаться за разъяснениями;
выражать свое отношение к высказыванию партнера, свое мнение по обсуждаемой теме;
начинать, вести/поддерживать и заканчивать беседу в стандартных ситуациях общения, соблюдая нормы речевого этикета, при необходимости что-то переспрашивая, уточняя;
расспрашивать собеседника и отвечать на его вопросы, высказывая свое мнение, реагировать на просьбу, отвечать на предложение собеседника согласием/отказом, опираясь на изученную тематику и усвоенный лексико-грамматический материал;

Умения ДР
порождать инициативные реплики:
- умение вступать в общение;
- порождать реактивные реплики (ответы на вопросы, комментарии, замечания, выражение отношения к репликам):
умение поддержать общение или перейти к новой теме/ holding a turn;
умение завершить общение/ relinquishing a turn;
умение предоставить слово партнеру/ taking turns;
умение строить развернутые реплики/ transactional skills;
умение проводить свою стратегическую линию в общении в согласии с речевыми интенциями собеседников или вопреки их интенциям;
умение учитывать новых речевых партнеров;
умение прогнозировать поведение собеседников

Виды монолога
Монолог-описание
Монолог-повествование
Монолог рассуждение

Умения МР
делать сообщения, содержащие наиболее важную информацию по теме/проблеме;
кратко передавать содержание полученной информации;
рассказывать о себе, своем окружении, своих планах, обосновывая свои намерения/поступки;
рассуждать о фактах/событиях, приводя примеры, аргументы, делая выводы;
описывать особенности жизни и культуры своей страны и страны/стран изучаемого языка;
сообщать краткие сведения о своем городе/селе, своей стране и стране изучаемого языка;
делать краткие сообщения, описывать события/явления (в рамках изученных тем);
передавать основное содержание, основную мысль прочитанного или услышанного;
выражать свое отношение к прочитанному/услышанному, давать краткую характеристику персонажей.

Умения МР
использовать различные коммуникативные типы речи: описание/характеристика, повествование/сообщение, эмоциональные и оценочные суждения;
передавать содержание, основную мысль прочитанного с опорой на текст;
делать сообщение по прочитанному/услышанному тексту;
выражать и аргументировать свое отношение к прочитанному

Методологический компонент:
формирование общеучебных навыков и умений (вести тетрадь, работать с учебником)
развитие умений самостоятельной работы
умение пользоваться словарями, справочниками
умение создавать опоры
умение пользоваться современными техническими и мультимедийными средствами

Characteristics of
spoken language
Spontaneity
Time-constraint

Characteristics of
spoken language
Spontaneity
In most situations, people do not plan ahead of time what they are going to say.
The fact that speech is spontaneous means that it is full of false starts, repetitions, incomplete sentences, and short phrases.
Should we expect the students to produce complete sentences in language classroom?

Characteristics of
spoken language
Time-constraint
The students must be able to produce unplanned utterances in real time; otherwise people will not have the patience to listen to them.
Which of the following activities do you think would help to prepare students for real life speech in English?

Reading aloud (needs to be supplemented with more realistic 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) .
needs to be supplemented with more realistic activities as the level increases.
may be used for advanced level.
needs to be supplemented with more realistic activities as the level increases.
Yes. It helps to prepare students for real life speech.
needs to be supplemented with more realistic activities as the level increases.

Also students must consider whom they are talking to and be able to check if they are being understood.
e.g.

Kelly: Hey Jack, how’s the project coming along?
Jack: What project?
Kelly: The one you and Craig are working on.
Jack: Craig and I?
Kelly: Yeah, for the science fair.
Jack: Oh, that project. It’s finished. I’m so busy working on another project for my economics class that I almost forgot about it. I hope it’ll work like we want to.
Kelly: Oh, I’m sure it will.

Psychological Characteristics of Speech
Speech must be motivated
Speech is always addressed to an interlocutor
Speech is always emotionally coloured for a speaker expresses his/her thoughts, feelings, attitude what he/she says
Speech is always situational

Linguistic Characteristics of Speech
Linguistic peculiarities of dialogue are as follows:
The use of incomplete sentences (ellipses) in response: e.g. Where do you live? - In Yerevan. How many books do you have? – One.
The use of contracted forms: doesn’t. won’t, haven’t, can’t
The use of some abbreviations: lab, bike, math’s, fridge, comp, etc.
The use of conversational tags. These are the words the speaker uses when he/she wishes to speak without saying anything: e.g. of course, perhaps, surely, etc.

A variety of dialogue structures
1. Question — response.
— Hello. What's your name?
— Ann. What's yours?
— My name is Williams
2. Question — question.
— Will you help me, sonny?
— What shall I do, mother?
— Will you polish the floor today?
— Is it my turn?
— Yes, it is. Your brother did it last time.
— Oh, all right, then.

A variety of dialogue structures
3. Statement — statement.
— I'd like to know when he is going to come and see us.
— That's difficult to say. He is always promising but never comes.
— It's because he is very busy.
— That's right. He works hard.
4. Statement — question.
— I'm going to the theatre tonight.
— Where did you get tickets?
— My friend got them somewhere.
— How did he do it?
— I don't know.

Teaching Two Forms of Speaking
Monologue
Dialogue

Технологии обучения диалогической и монологической речи
Bottom-up processing (модель «снизу вверх», т.е. обучение идет от отдельных речевых действий к их последующему синтезу);
Top-down processing (модель «сверху вниз», т.е. сначала проводится изучение образцов речевых произведений, а далее следует построение собственного высказывания по образцу)

Teaching Monologue
Statement level
Utterance level
Discourse level

Statement level
The smallest speech unit is a sentence. No speech is possible until pupils learn how to make up sentences in the foreign language and how to make statements on the topic or situation suggested.
Pupils are given sentence patterns to assimilate. The sentence pattern is filled with different words, so that pupil assimilates it:
e.g. I can see a … (blackboard picture)
I am fond of… (the pupils repeat + music)
A pattern must be repeated many times with a great variety of changes in its contents until the pattern becomes a habit.
eg. a) give it a name:
We write with… - It is a pen.
b) say the opposite:
I live in… - I don’t live in …

Utterance level
Having assimilated different sentence patterns the pupils should learn to combine statements of various sentence patterns in a logical sequence - in an utterance. In the utterance level the pupils are to say a few words about an object, a subject offered.
e.g. This is a pencil. The pencil is green. It is on the table. I like the pencil.
At this stage pupils learn to express their thoughts, attitude to what they say.

Discourse level
When pupils have acquired habits and skills in making statements and combining in a logical sequence, free speech is possible. At this level pupils are asked to speak on a picture, film or comment on a text they have read or heard, make up a story of their own. The teacher should supply the pupils with “what to speak about.”
e.g. “The farmer’s treasure” … the teacher asks questions about the text and the pupils reproduce the facts by means of agreeing with the suggested idea or rejecting it.

Teaching Dialogue
While teaching dialogue we should use pattern dialogues in three stages:
Receptive
Reproductive
immediate
delayed
modified
Constructive or creative

Receptive
Pupils "receive" the dialogue by ear first. They listen to the dialogue recorded or reproduced by the teacher. The teacher helps pupils in comprehension of the dialogue using a picture or pictures to illustrate its contents. They listen to the dialogue a second time and then read it silently for better understanding, paying attention to the intonation. They may listen to the dialogue and read it again, if necessary

Reproductive
Immediate. Pupils reproduce the dialogue in imitation of the speaker or the teacher while listening to it or just after they have heard it. The teacher checks the pupils' pronunciation and intonation in particular. The pupils are asked to learn the dialogue by heart for homework.
Delayed. After pupils have learned the dialogue at home, they enact the pattern dialogue in persons. Before calling on pupils it is recommended that they should listen to the pattern dialogue recorded again to remind them of how it "sounds".
Modified. Pupils enact the dialogue with some modifications in its contents. They change some elements in it. The more elements (main words and phrases) they change in the pattern the better they assimilate the structure of the dialogue

Constructive or creative
Pupils make up dialogues of their own. They are given a picture or a verbal situation to talk about

Step 1. Practise the dialogue in pairs
A: What time is it?
B: It’s 3:00. Why?
A: Oh, I need to go to the store! Do you want to come?
B: OK. Just a minute. I need to finish this first.

Step 2. Ask a few pairs to perform the dialogue in front of the whole class, speaking in different moods such as happy, irritated, bored, or in different role relationships such as parent and a child, husband and wife, two friends, etc.
The students may paraphrase the underlined parts:
“go to the post office”, “go to the bank”, etc. instead of “go to the store”.
“find my jacket/shoes”, etc. instead of “finish this first”.

Communication strategies
asking for clarification (What?)
asking someone to repeat something (Huh? Excuse me?)
using fillers (Uh, I mean, Well) in order to gain time to process
using conversation maintenance cues (Uh huh, Right, Yeah, Okay, Hm)
getting someone's attention (Hey, Say, So)
using paraphrases for structures one can't produce
appealing for assistance from the interlocutor (to get a word or phrase, for example)
using mime and nonverbal expressions to convey the meaning.

Ways to start a lively discussion

Organizing Communicative Activities
Picture difference tasks
Group planning tasks
List sequencing tasks - Ranking tasks
Pyramid discussion
Role Play
Real Play
Simulation
Problem-solving
Information gap

Picture difference tasks
In pairs, one student is given picture A, one picture B. Without looking at the other picture, they have to find the differences (i.e. by describing the pictures to each other).

Group planning tasks

Where shall we go on holiday?
Preparation: one role card for each student; see below.
Tell the students to form groups of 5-7.
Give each student a role card, and explain that they are a family planning a holiday.
Ask them to study their cards for a minute or two and prepare themselves for the argument.
Ask the family members to introduce themselves, without revealing their tasks.
Ask the father to open the family discussion.
The activity ends when they've come to a conclusion where to go.
You can ask the students to read out their cards at the end and compare how much of their goals they were able to reach

List sequencing tasks
Prepare a list of items that learners can discuss and place in a particular order according to their opinions, e.g.
What's the most useful invention?
What's the best improvement that could be made to our town?
What are the worst programmes on TV?
Who's the most important person of the last 100 years?
What are the qualities of a good language course?

Pyramid discussion
A Pyramid discussion is an organizational technique that works particularly well with simple problem-based discussions, e.g. 'What are the four most useful things to have with you if you are shipwrecked on a desert island?', or list sequencing tasks, e.g. 'Put these items in order of importance'. Here's how to do it:
Introduce the problem, probably using a list on the board or on handouts.
Start with individual reflection - learners each decide what they think might be
a solution.
Combine individuals to make pairs, who now discuss and come to an
agreement or compromise. If you demand that there must be an agreed
compromise solution before you move on to the next stage, it will significantly
help to focus the task.
Combine the pairs to make fours; again, they need to reach an agreement.
Join each four with another four or - in a smaller class - with all the others.
When the whole class comes together, see if you can to reach one class solution.

Role play
Role play requires learners to project themselves into an imaginary situation where they may play themselves or where they may be required to play a character role
A situation or scenario may be realistic (e.g. coping with a problem in a campsite, etc.). It may also be unrealistic for learners (You are a detective, explorer, etc.) or appeal to their sense of fantasy (You are a caterpillar about to become a butterfly ....)

Problem-solving activities
You are on a committee that is in charge of deciding what to do with a small amount of money that has been donated to improve your school. You have a list of things to do, but you only have enough money for 5 of the items. You must reach a consensus (agreement) in your group on which 5 items you will spend the money. Here is the list:

Repaint 3 classrooms.
Paint lines for games on the playground.
Install lights that automatically turn off to save electricity.
Buy curtains for 8 classrooms. This will make it easier to see the OHP (Overhead Projector) when the room is darker.
Buy sound absorption panels for 2 classrooms. This will make the classroom quieter so it will be easier to hear each other.
Buy an air conditioner for one classroom.
Buy 4 new basketball hoops for the playground.
Buy 15 young trees to be planted for shade around the edge of the playground.
Buy fans for 6 classrooms.
Remodel bathroom faucets so students can wash their hands using hot and cold water.
Add soap dispensers and hand dryers to bathrooms.

Real-play
In this case, situations and one or more of the characters are drawn not from cards, but from a participant's own life and world. Typically, one of the learners plays him/herself. This person explains a context (e.g. from his/her work life) to other learners, and then together they recreate the situation in class. The real-play technique allows learners to practise language they need in their own life

Simulation
Simulations may involve learners in imaginative activities, for example how to survive on a desert island in the face of various dangers and difficulties, or, more realistically, in accomplishing a task such as preparing the front page of a newspaper, a publicity campaign, or a radio/TV programme. Participants may also be placed in a situation of conflict where teams take on roles to defend or oppose a proposal before a decision is taken, e.g. whether or not to build a nuclear power plant, to abolish beauty contests, and so on.

Information Gap
In this activity, 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. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

Using cue cards
Card A
You are talking to a new classmate. Begin the 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.

Card B
You are a new student at this school. One of your classmates greets you.
1. Greet your partner back.
2. Answer the question.
3. Answer the question.
4. Respond to the suggestion.

Then students should be ready to move quickly into less controlled types of role plays, where only the situation and the relationship between the two speakers are specified:
Card A
You and your friend are going out to eat lunch. You need to decide where to go. You would like to try something different because you’re tired of the same food. You make a suggestion.

Notice that the outcome of this role play is not specified in the cue cards. It only sets up a point of disagreement.
Card B
You and your friend are going out to eat lunch. You need to decide where to go. You would like to go to the place where you always go, because you like the food. You don’t agree with your friend’s suggestion.

Other speaking activities
Find someone who …
e.g. Stand up and walk around the room. Ask your classmates what they like to do. Remember, you must speak in English only!

A model conversation can be provided
A: Hi, Tom.
B: Hi, Sherry.
A: I’m conducting a survey for our school newspaper. Could you tell me if you like to swim?
B: Yes, I do. In fact, I usually go swimming once or twice a week.
A: Great. Would you mind signing your name here for me please?
B: Sure, there you are.
A: Thanks a lot. See you around.
B: See you.

Directed / guided dialogues
A: Greet your partner, whom you haven't seen for a long time.
B: Respond to the greeting.
A: Ask about your partner's recent activities.
B: Respond. Then ask A about himself/herself.
A: Respond to B. Ask if he/she would like to do something with you this weekend.
B: Respond to A's invitation.

Mapped dialogue
You work in an office. It’s lunchtime now. Usually you have lunch at the Royal Restaurant but you can’t go there today. The road is closed. Somebody recommended you to go to the French Restaurant, but you do not know how to get there. Ask your friend to help you find a place to have lunch at.

Board games

Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity
making sure that teacher talking time is kept to a minimum
making sure that student participation is not dominated by a few talkative students
making sure that students want to speak because they are interested in the topic
making sure that students have something relevant to say
making sure that students can be understood by everyone
making sure that there aren't frequent interruptions while a student is speaking

Interaction and communication
Realistic language,
useful phrases
Information, ideas and
model dialogues
Opportunities for pair practice,
stimulus to develop and extend

Decide if the following ideas for speaking activities are “useful or “not so useful”. Jot down why you think so.
1. It pays to give students some thinking time before they speak.
2. It’s useful to do as much error correction as possible while students are talking.
3. You need to think carefully about grouping and pairing students for speaking activities.
4. It doesn’t really matter what topic you choose for speaking activities. Students can talk about anything.
5. It’s a good idea to encourage students to think about their speaking speed to make them sound more fluent.
6. It is sometimes helpful to base a speaking lesson on a reading or a listening lesson.

What do you need to support interaction?
A reason
to speak
to listen
confidence for the task
Sufficient knowledge of
relevant vocabulary
needed grammar
suitable register
pronunciation which is not a barrier

Опоры и их классификация
по способу презентации материала:
• вербальные:
микротекст (визуальный, зрительный),
текст (визуальный, зрительный),
план (схематический, полный),
слова как смысловые вехи,
лозунг, афоризм
поговорка,
структурный «скелет»
ментальная карта
карта-схема темы
ассоциации,
логико-смысловая схема, задаваемая определенной последовательностью вопросительных слов (например: Who? Where? When? etc.).

• изобразительные
кинофильм,
разнообразные видеоматериалы,
серия рисунков, фотографий,
таблица,
схема,
символика,
плакат,
карикатура,
цифры
даты

2) по способу управления речевой деятельностью:
содержательные опоры (отвечающие на вопрос Кто? Что? Где? Когда? и т. д.)
смысловые (отвечающие на вопрос Зачем? Почему? С какой целью? и т. д.)

What Makes a Personality?
Upbringing
Ideal beliefs
Nature Inborn
Education
Character

Обучение монологу-повествованию

IDEA
CONCLUSION
First, …
Finally, …
Thirdly, …
Secondly, …