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ELT Methodology
Teaching Speaking
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
Instructor: Dr. Hanita Hassan
Ehsan Ataei 1-9
Saeid Farid 10-15
Vijaya Govind 21-27
Mehrnoosh Jebelli 28-34
Somaye Mirzababaie 16-20
Speaking Group Feb,2011
Teaching Listening and Speaking
From Theory to Practice (Speaking part)
Jack C. Richards
First published 2008
Teaching Speaking (TS)
Speaking is the most important skill among other
skills
Learner’s judgments and self-evaluation is based
on their speaking
It is a tough job for teachers to engage student to
speak, because there are some barriers and
affective filters
You can write or read or learn grammar or listen
individually but you can not speak with your self
so teaching speaking needs more consideration
Approaches in TS
• Teachers and textbooks make use of a variety of
Approaches, ranging from Direct Approaches focusing on specific features of oral Interaction
(e.g., Turn-taking, Topic management, and questioning strategies) to Indirect Approaches that create conditions for oral interaction through Group
Work, Task work, and other strategies (Richards, 1990).
We will discuss over task based approach in oral communication in an academic setting in India as an example later.
Features of Spoken Discourse
•Composed of idea units (conjoined short phrases and
clauses)
•May be planned (e.g., a lecture) or unplanned (e.g.,
a conversation)
•Employs more vague or common words than
written language
•Contains slips and errors reflecting online
processing
•Involves reciprocity (i.e., interactions are jointly
constructed)(A relation of mutual dependence, action or
influence)
•Shows variation (e.g., between formal and casual
speech),
•reflecting speaker roles, speaking purpose, and the
context
Conversational routines
• Fixed expressions, or “routines,” that often has
specific functions
• There are routines for beginnings and endings of
conversations, for leading into topics, and for moving
away from one topic to another.
Let me think about it.
I‟ll be with you in a minute.
It doesn‟t matter.
Pawley and Syder (1983) suggest that native speakers
have a repertoire of
thousands of routines like these, that their use in
appropriate situations creates
conversational discourse that sounds natural and
native-like, and that they have to be learned and used
as fixed expressions.
Styles of speaking
Style of speaking is appropriate to the particular circumstances.
Different styles of speaking reflect the roles, age, sex, and status of participants in interactions and also reflect the Expression of politeness. I guess it must be quite late now?
You wouldn’t have the time, would you?
Lexical, phonological, and grammatical changes may be involved in producing a Suitable style of speaking, as the following alternatives illustrate: Have you seen the boss? / Have you seen the manager? (lexical)
Whachadoin? / What are you doing? (phonological)
Functions of speaking
Interactional functions deal with social relations
Transactional functions deal with exchange of information
Three-part version of
Brown and Yule’s framework
Talk as interaction
Talk as transaction
Talk as performance
It is in the form of conversation related to social function like Greetings, engage in small talk, recount.
Main Features
• Has a primarily social function
• Reflects role relationships
• Reflects speaker‟s identity
• May be formal or casual and Reflects degrees of politeness
• Uses conversational register
• Focus on participants and their social needs
• Interactive, requiring two-way participation
Talk as interaction
• Opening and closing conversations
Open dialogs to practice feedback responses
• Choosing topic, Making small-talk
• Recounting personal incidents and experiences
• Turn-taking, Reacting to others
• Classroom group discussions and problem-solving activities
• A class activity during which students design a poster
• Discussing sightseeing plans with a hotel clerk or tour guide
• Making a telephone call to obtain flight information
• Asking someone for directions on the street
• Buying something in a shop or Ordering food from a menu
in a restaurant
skills involved (talk as interaction)
Include greetings, small talk, compliments, personal recounts, and narratives
focus is on what is said or done.
Communication is more important than fluency or accuracy.
Talk as transaction
Talking as transaction
First type
giving and receiving information (asking someone for directions describing how to use
something–sharing opinions and ideas–discussing plans)
Accuracy may not be a priority, as long as
information is successfully communicated or
understood.
Second type
obtaining goods or services (checking into a hotel or ordering food in a restaurant)
Focus on message not the participants.
skills involved in using talk for transactions
Explaining a need or intention.
Not dependent on grammatical accuracy • Information-gap activities
• Role plays
• Group discussions
Teaching talk as transaction Talk as transaction is more easily planned since current communicative materials
are a rich resource of group activities, information-gap activities, and role
plays
Role-play activities are another familiar technique for practicing real-world transactions and typically involve the following steps:
Preparing
Modeling and eliciting
Practicing and reviewing
a role play using cue cards or realia to provide language and other
support.
Talk as performance public talk transmits information before an audience, such as
• classroom presentations
• public announcements
• speeches
welcome speech given by a university president:
“Good morning. It’s not my intention to deliver the customary state of the university address. There’s good reason for that.
It is in the form of monolog rather than dialog,
often follows a recognizable format (e.g., a speech of welcome.
Examples of talk as performance
• Giving a class report about a school trip
• Conducting a class debate
• Giving a speech of welcome
• Making a sales presentation
• Giving a lecture
The main features of talk as performance • A focus on both message and audience • Predictable organization and sequencing
• Importance of both form and accuracy
• Language is more like written language Often in monolog form
skills involved in using talk as performance
• Using an appropriate format
• Presenting information in an appropriate sequence
• Maintaining audience engagement
• Using correct pronunciation and grammar
• Creating an effect on the audience
• Using appropriate vocabulary
• Using an appropriate opening and closing
Note : Some students are more comfortable with talk as interaction than as performance and vice versa
Features of performances An audience
Speaker creates a “product”
A single speaker
produces longer stretches of discourse
Recognizable “scripts”
e.g., welcome speech, business presentation, class talk
Accuracy of language
speech is monitored for accuracy
Language more formal
more like written language
Teaching talk as performance
Use model speeches, presentations, and other model texts
Examine discourse and grammatical features
Ss construct and practice parallel texts
Implications for teaching Three core issues need to be addressed in planning speaking activities for an English class.
The first is to determine what kinds of speaking skills the class will focus on.
The second issue is to identifying teaching strategies to “teach” (i.e., provide opportunities
for learners to acquire) each kind of talk.
The third issue involved in planning speaking activities is determining the expected level of performance on a speaking task and the criteria that will be used to assess student performance
Goals for a successful speaking lesson/course
o Activities address specific aspects of oral skills
o e.g., talk as interaction, transaction, or performance
o Sufficient language and other supports for tasks
o Balance of accuracy and fluency activities
o Modeling for speaking activities
o Activities are suitable for students of different proficiency
levels o Ss have sample talking time o Ss participate actively in lessons o Grammar and pronunciation errors are addressed
appropriately
o Activities have take-away value
o A progression from controlled practice to freer practice
o Opportunities for personalization
o Ss experience success
o The pleasure factor
Teaching Oral communication skills by Mojibor Rahman
A task based approach based on Indirect approaches
Students : engineering and technology students at
Indian institute.
Students Target : less proficient students
Students goal: to be master in language Oral
communication covers formal presentations to
participation in teams and meetings
Setting :academic experience in teaching communication
According to Halliday oral communication defined
as sociological encounter ,in oral communication
exchange of meaning happens and some realities are
created .
Communication is a dynamic interactive process that
involves the effective transmission of facts, ideas,
thoughts, feelings and values.
It is not passive and does not just happen; It is
dynamic because it involves a variety of forces and
activities interacting over time.
it includes some steps called process, besides during these steps some changes happen in the relation and interaction between people.
Communication is an interactive process
Effective oral communication Be Confident in Academic ,professional and personal
environments
eye contact
body language
style
understanding the audience
adapting to the audience
active and reflexive listening
politeness
precision
conciseness
A task is a „work plan‟; that is, it takes the form of materials for researching or teaching language. The general perception among language teachers and educators that task-based teaching is mainly directed at improving students‟ abilities to use the target language rather than at enabling them to acquire new linguistic skills (Samuda, 2000)
Task four criteria
1. meaning
2.a goal which needs to be worked towards
3. the activity is outcome-evaluated
4. A real-world relationship
Task based approach
Widdowson argues that „exercise‟ and „task‟ differ
with regard to the kind of meaning, goal, and outcome
they are directed towards. An exercise is premised on
the need to develop linguistic skills as a prerequisite
for the learning of communicative abilities, while a
task is based on the assumption that linguistic abilities
are developed through communicative activity
Willis (1996: 35–6)
Identifies eight purposes for Task-based language
teaching
1. to give learners confidence in trying out whatever
language they know;
2. to give learners experience of spontaneous interaction
3. to develop learners‟ confidence that they can achieve
communicative go
4. to give learners chances for negotiating turns to speak
5. to engage learners in using language purposefully
and cooperatively
6. to make learners participate in a complete
interaction, not just one-off sentences;
7. to give learners chances to try out communication
strategies;(communicative effectiveness )
8. to give learners the chance to benefit from noticing
how others express similar
meanings;(L2 acquisition)
Balance between Communicative tasks and other tasks
Communicative tasks
promoting students' confidence
Improve students‟ communicative abilities
provide opportunities for trying out communication strategies
But
Fail the development in linguistic skills
Oral Communication Skills Skills Offered to prepare the students to take more advance level prepares the students to use the language in the real-life situations (academic, social or professional situations)
1. The nature, purpose and characteristics of good
conversation
2. Phonological forms to use in speech
3. Developing conversation skills with a sense of
stress, intonation and meaning
4. Use of question tags
5. Starting, maintaining and finishing conversations
6. Standard conversational exchange
7. Spoken language idioms
8. Effective listening and attention to others
9. Gestures and body language
10. Do‟s and Don‟ts in conversation
11. Telephonic conversation
12. Functions of English in conversation: introductions,
greetings, clarifications,
explanations, interruptions, opinions,
13. Agreement and disagreement, complaints, apologies
14. Participating in informal discussions and situations
15. Using information to make some decision, i.e., making
social arrangements
with friends
16. Reproducing information in some form (question/answer,
summarizing, oral
reporting, etc.)
Core Activities ( Show strengths and weaknesses of the students )
• Individual oral presentations
• Practice in class participation
• Discussion skills(informal discussion)
•Oral presentations: In between the discussion/debate
activity, the students are asked to prepare a topic
assigned to them and present in the class. This activity
is less emphasized because we have a full-fledged
course in Oral Presentation Skills. Students make
formal oral presentations. Each presentation is followed
by a question/answer period, and concluded by the
teacher‟s comment.
In class participation (Role-play): For this activity, the
students are asked to make group of three to five
students. In the beginning The teacher listens the
performances of the students and comments on the
individual performances. He points out the errors of the
individual students. At the end of the semester, students
are assessed using these tasks
Discussion/debate: This core activity runs every week. The
students are engaged in a formal/informal discussion/debate
activity on an assigned topic. This activity is completely
student-led, i.e., students play all the roles (conductor,
observer, group presenter, and participating members).It is
more appropriate to call this activity a "discussion/debate"
activity because it includes both group discussions and
debates, including a little bit of oral presentation.
Conclusion
activity in speaking divided to
interactions, transactions, or performances
Always Consider
•Model of activities
•Divided activity stages
•Needed language support
•Needed resources
•Needed learning arrangements
•Expected level of performance
•Time and ways of feedback
•task-based approach in teaching oral communication has
much potential, but it has a long way to go.
•majority of the Students understand the tasks and found the
experience to be rewarding, interesting, and educationally
beneficial.
•Students involved in the task because the tasks were giving
the feeling of real life situation
• Their final performances were much improved(70 percent
students scored grade „A‟)
•Problems in carrying out these tasks: Sometimes it went out
of control from the hand of students or from the hand of the
teacher.
• Lack of curriculum emphasis on speaking skills
• Teachers 'limited English proficiency
• Class conditions do not favor oral activities
• Limited opportunities outside of class to practice
• Examination system does not emphasize oral skills
Reasons for poor speaking skills