SPEAKING SKILLS

Introduction
Many learners, when asked what they want to improve, will
say they want to ‘speak English better’ or ‘speak more fluently’.

It’s important to set up the right kind of class: one where

learners feel relaxed and can interact with each other freely.
 Task

Two teachers describe a lesson they gave to practise ordering

things in a café, using a recorded dialogue as a model.
(Taken from Cambridge English Teacher)
 Teacher A
To introduce the topic, I told the class about my favourite café.
Then I presented a few expressions for ordering things in a
café, and I wrote them on the board. Next, I played a recording
of a conversation in a café between a waiter and a customer.
Learners listened and answered questions.
 Teacher A
After that, I gave them the dialogue on a worksheet with gaps.
I played the recording again, and learners completed the gaps.
Then we went through the answers. Finally, I asked two
learners to come to the front and act out the conversation. I
did this with two or three pairs of learners in turn.
 Teacher B
To introduce the topic, I asked learners to tell me about their
favourite café and what they eat or drink there. Then I asked
them what they would say to the waiter, and I elicited a few
expressions for ordering things and wrote them on the board.
Next, I played a recording of a conversation there. Learners
listened and answered qts.
 Teacher B
After that, I gave them the dialogue on a worksheet with gaps,
and they tried to complete it, working together in pairs. Then
we listened to the dialogue again to check the answers. Then I
asked two learners to act out the conversation. Finally,
everyone practised the conversation in pairs. Then they
changed roles and had the conversation a second time.
 Which one would you choose?
Both teachers in the examples taught the same basic lesson:
they presented expressions for ordering food and drink in a
café, and then they played a recorded dialogue. After that,
learners practised the conversation. But the teachers
approached the lesson in different ways.
 Which one would you choose?
Teacher A kept tight control of the class and didn’t give
learners much chance to contribute. The lesson was teacher-
centred. In other words, the teacher dominated and was the
centre of attention, while the learners were mostly passive and
didn’t get much chance to speak English.
 Which one would you choose?
Teacher B taught the lesson in quite a different way. He
involved the learners more at the start and later let them work
in pairs so they could discuss ideas and practise the language
together. This lesson was more learner-centred. Learners were
more active and took more responsibility for what they did.
Also, they had more opportunities to speak and to use the
language.
Which one would you choose?

If our aim is for learners to develop speaking skills, it’s

important to create a lesson where learners have
opportunities to speak and express themselves. This means
creating a learner-centred lesson, as Teacher B did.
 Teaching speaking

Video:
Teaching Speaking Techniques
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7zsz8fi64
 Task

Choose the things on this list which we often do when we

speak.
(Taken from Cambridge English Teacher)
Task
What issues to bear in mind?
You can see from this list that speaking involves several
subskills:

• making use of grammar, vocabulary and functions

• making use of register to speak appropriately
• using features of connected speech
• using body language
• producing different text types
 What issues to bear in mind?

• oral fluency (speaking at a normal speed, with little

hesitation, repetition or self-correction, and with smooth
use of connected speech)
• using interactive strategies (ways of keeping people
interested and involved in what we are saying).

Our purpose in speaking is to communicate meaning and we

do all these things to achieve this.
 Accuracy and fluency
In spoken language the question we face as teachers is: How
shall we prioritize the two clearly important speaker goals of
accurate (clear, articulate, grammatically and phonologically
correct) language and fluent (flowing, natural) language?
 Accuracy and fluency

Video:
Get it right! Helping students with speaking - Chris Redston
(5’ – 9:04’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS7x5gmKnUY
 Affective factors
One of the major obstacles learners have to overcome in
learning to speak is the anxiety generated over the risks of
blurting things out that are wrong, stupid, or
incomprehensible.

"it's better to keep your mouth closed and have others think
you are ignorant than to open it and remove all doubt."
 The interaction effect
The greatest difficulty that learners have in learning to speak is
not in the multiplicity of sounds, words, phrases, and discourse
forms that characterize any language, but rather in the
interactive nature of most communication.
 What makes speaking difficult?

Video:
Get it right! Helping students with speaking - Chris Redston
(1:40’ -4:05’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS7x5gmKnUY
 What makes speaking difficult?
1. Reduced forms
Contractions, reduced vowels, etc. all form special problems in
teaching spoken English.
Students who don't learn colloquial contractions may
experience problems.

2. Performance variables
Hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and corrections.
You can actually teach learners how to pause and hesitate.
 What makes speaking difficult?
3. Colloquial language
Words and idioms and phrases of colloquial language.
Make sure sts. get practice in producing these forms.

4. Rate of delivery
Help learners achieve an acceptable speed along with other
attributes of fluency.
What makes speaking difficult?
5. Stress, rhythm, and intonation
This is the most important characteristic of English
pronunciation.
 Stress, rhythm, and intonation

Video:
I've Got Rhythm: Intonation & Stress (1:08’ -5:42’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gznzyj23QkU
 Types of speaking classroom performance
With the obvious connection between listening and speaking,
six similar categories apply to the kinds of oral production that
students are expected to carry out in the classroom.
 Imitative
Is drilling a reasonable part of the communicative language
classroom?

A very limited portion of classroom speaking time may

legitimately be spent in the human "tape recorder" speech,
where learners are, for example, practicing intonation, trying
to pinpoint a certain vowel sound. etc.
 Imitative
Drills offer students an opportunity to listen and to orally
repeat certain strings of language that may pose some
linguistic difficulty -either phonological or grammatical.
 Imitative
Here are some useful guidelines for successful drills:

• Keep them short (a few minutes of a class hour only).

• Keep them simple.
• Make sure students know why they are doing the drill.
• Communicative goals.
• Don't overuse them.
 Drilling

Video:
Multi-sensory vocabulary drilling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF7wpZslNRE
 Intensive

It includes any speaking performance that is designed to

practice some phonological or grammatical aspect of language.

Intensive speaking can be self-initiated or it can even form part

of some pair work activity.
 Intensive

Video:
Why teach speaking intensive classes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM1f4BeT99g
 Responsive
Short replies to teacher or student initiated questions or
comments:

T: How are you today?

S: Pretty good, thanks, and you?

T: What is the main idea in this essay?

S: The United Nations should have more authority.

S1: So, what did you write for question number one?
S2: Well, I wasn't sure, so I left it blank.
 Transactional (dialogue)
Conveying or exchanging specific information. Conversations,
for example:

T: What is the main idea in this essay?

S: The United Nations should have more authority.
T: More authority than what?
S: Than it does right now.
T: What do you mean?
S: Well, for example, the UN should have the power to force a country to
destroy its nuclear weapons.
 Interpersonal (dialogue)
With the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for
the transmission of facts and information. They can involve the
following factors:

• a casual register
• colloquial language
• emotionally charged language
• sarcasm
 The use of dialogues

Video:
English conversations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8CvcS5h1Zo
 Extensive (monologue)
Extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries,
or perhaps short speeches.
Here the register is more formal and deliberative.
They can be planned or spontaneous.
 Discussion skills as alternative assessment

Video:
Adults activities (- 6’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtIAtQ-
dmY8&index=11&list=PL7BlTIDdOgZKXgMkfUsDGoFp5HH97T
P_8
 Principles for Designing Speaking Techniques

Make sure that your tasks include techniques designed to help

students to perceive and use the building blocks of language.

Don't bore your students to death with lifeless, repetitious

drills.
Principles for Designing Speaking Techniques
Techniques should be intrinsically motivating.
Appeal to students' goals and interests, to their need for
knowledge:

Help students to see how the activity will benefit them.

 Effective techniques

Video:
Younger learners (1:03’ – 1:30’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agx2mWqIzzU&t=3s
 Principles for Designing Speaking Techniques

Techniques should encourage the use of authentic language in

meaningful contexts.
 Effective techniques

Video:
Using and Adapting Authentic Material
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mgwWhWa0Q8&t=5s
 Principles for Designing Speaking Techniques
Many interactive techniques that involve speaking will also of
course include listening.
Integrate these two skills.
The two skills can reinforce each other.
Skills in producing language are often initiated through
comprehension.
 Speaking and listening

Video:
Putting speaking and listening together - Mike McCarthy
(2:06’ - 10:40’)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9EgQNEz5D0&t=1026s
 Principles for Designing Speaking Techniques
Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication.

Part of oral communication competence is the ability to initiate

conversations, to nominate topics, to ask questions, to control
conversations, and to change the subject.
 Motivating learners to speak
Video:
• What techniques do the teachers use to motivate learners
to speak?
• Most of the learners in this video are primary, do you think
there are different ways to motivate older/younger learners?

MOTIVATING LEARNERS TO SPEAK

 Successful Speaking Activities
You’ll have noticed the learners in the classroom clips were
enthusiastic and were participating well, both in the primary
classes and the secondary classes (British Council).

Read the tips stated by British Council experts about what

makes a speaking activity successful.
 Successful Speaking Activities
1. Choose the right topic
Learners will be more motivated to participate in an activity
which they are interested in and relates to their lives or
experience.

2. Be specific
Speaking activities with a clear communicative goal work best.
Vague activities like ‘Talk about things you like’ can leave
learners wondering what a teacher wants.
 Successful Speaking Activities
3. Give support and preparation time
Sometimes learners simply don’t feel ready to speak. Make
sure they have the language they need and give them a bit of
time to prepare.
Making notes can help, but writing a speech interferes with
fluency.

4. Allow learners to work together

If learners talk in pairs or groups, they get much more speaking
practice.