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Ghapter FrodwetEvekills:

speakimg ndwriting

This chapter examines the two productive skills and looks at \\'avs to approach

them in the classroom.

Approaches to speaking

'lffi ProblemsnorganisingiscussionlassesYouare a student n a foreign anguage lass. A new eacher comes In, stares at theclass and says Todaywe'regoing o talk about oil pollution.Whatdo you think2

Fo l lowinghe eacher 's uest ion , omeof your e l low lassmates ookdownat the i rtab les,make acesat eachotherand keeps i len t .The eacher r ies o encourage

them o speak,and, n do ing o, a lks moreandmoreh imse l f . t he end,noneofyou havesa ida s ing lewordand he teacher i ts downexhausted ndmumbles ohimself, f4le//,hat seemed to go OK.

1 Howdidyou ee l as a student?

2 Whymight ounot have e l t i ke ak ingpar t n he d iscuss ion?

3 Whatadvicewouldyougive o your eacherwhenplanninguture essonsof this type?

The trudr is that a discussion lesson ike the one described in this task is more

likely to produce silence or a desultor_vsentence or tr\,'o han a scorching debate.\Why this happens is not too hard to fathom. As a student in that lesson you

probably had no interest in the subiect, no relevant knouledge or experience, no

motivation, no desire or perceived need to speak about it and worst ofall, a slightpanic: 'The teacher wants me to sav something and I haven't had time to think.'Hence, as a result ofall ofthese, there was nothing to sa1,.

If we rvant to get students talking in class,we need to ansu,er all these objections.If the subject is relevant and interesting, if the students alread_v now about or areprovided with information to give substance to the topic, if they feel motivated to

talk about it, ifthey feel that they really \\'ant to sa]' something, there is a good

chance of somet}ring nrere.ting happen ng.

So, how can we help the tcacher fromThsk 9.1 organise their speaking lessons

better? Here are some suggestions.

. Topic and cues

At its simplest, you (or learners) would possibl_v ring to class a topic (eg'banning

smoking' or 'globalisation'),as vell as a cue (eg in the form ofa short

newspaper artrcle or a pror.ocative question) that will serve to help sparkconversation. Most ofthe lesson would rhen be taken up with discussing this,

stating and comparing viervs.There might be little or no explicit'teaching' ofgrammatical or vocabulary points. In planning the lesson, t rvould bc a good

idea to prepare a number offurther cues (eg a follorv-on article or question) to

keep in reserve in order to move the discussion forward ifit starrc r^ drco



Chapter Productivekil ls: peaking ndwrjting

confusingthe classand closingdown peoplewho wereplanning to speak.

. Open questions

encourageeactions, or exampleVlhentheymake hat noisewith the drill

outside,how do you feel?'

1 Smal l a lk a t the star t o f the lesson: he who lec lasschatsabout ecenr2 Youwrite a controversialquestionbasedon the day's newson the board.Th e

class work n groupsof four or five students o discuss it.Pairs f earners avedjfferent ictures ut rom oday'snewspaperwhichheydon'tshoweachother). hey ompare heirviews, nitial ly escribingheir woEveryones given he name of a famous person which hey keep secret).Th ewhole.classtandsup andwalksaround as f at a party),meeting, hattingansweflng uestions bout ecent vents incharacter'.

Structuring talk

Avoirling the talk-talk loopThere isa dangerof getting lockedtnto a ,talk-talk loop,, in which you saysomedring,but becausehere s no response rom the leamers,you say somethirgelse,and againwith no responseyou add somethingelse,etc. t takesa ittlecourage nitially, but you will usually getfar more conversationout of a classbvaskingone clear questionand then shutting up - andpatiently allowng even quca ong silence,whjle learners ormulate what they want to say.Repeatedlyaddingnew commentsor new questronscan have he oppositeeffect to that intended.

. Playing devil's advocateOneuseful nterventionyou can make s to sometimes lay ,devil,s

advocate.deliberatelyakingan opposingor contrastingviewpoint n order to spuronconversation).

Ways o start a livelydiscussionWhichof these act jv i t ies a l lbasedon he deaof d iscuss ing ecentnews) s Ito give earnersa good opportunity o speak and encourageas many o speaKasposs ib le?

All theseactivitiesseem o likely fulfil thegoals o somedegree_ and,by thealsomakeuseof four common groupings(wholeclass eated, mallgroups,wholeclassmingling).

In termsof the numbersof peoplespeaking,t is mathematicallylue that thewhole-class ctivitywill allowa smallernumber ofpeople to be speakingat hesame ime,whereashe astactivity, n which participantswork individually, s

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1 Approacheso speaking

likely to provideopportuniq,*or the most speaking y rhe argestnumber ofpeople.\X/hetherearners eel cncouragedo speakalsodependson how motivatedthcy feelby the task.Havinga clear,concrete ask(egdescribingaphoto oransrvering specificquestion)ma_v ffer a more manageable tartingpoint than ageneralnvitation o'state ourvierv'.Similarll-, avinga'role'mavgive earnerspermission o speakmore freely, aking arva-vomeof the nervousness ssociatedwith formulating one'solvn vier,v

Fluency and confidence

Fluency and conhdenccare mportant goalswhen consideringspeaking essons.There is no point kno\uinga ot about anguagefyou can'tusc t (which,sadly,hasbeen he experienceof man-vanguage earners n thepast able o conjugateaverb,but unable o respond o a simplequestion).Tohelp achieve his aim, u'eoften want to find u'a1'-sf enablingasman-v tudentsaspossibleo speakasmuchaspossible.Sometimesan all-class peaking ctivity s useful,but ifit takesup the

whole esson,t actualll,offersverl,little speaking ime to each ndividual student.It's usually agood dea o organise peakingactir.itiesn pairs, hreesand smallgroups,aswell as .vith he classas a u'hole.

iffi,.{.S,1: Fluency ndconfidence ims

Theaim or anyconversationlass s or earnerso 'becomemore luentand confident',

Whymight earners eed hrs e whatmayhavepreventedhem lecomingluent)?

Commentary

Very often, r.vhenpcople study a language, thev accumulate a lot of 'up-in-the-head'knorvledge (ie they may knolv rules of grammar and lists ofvocabularyitems), but then find that they can't actually use this language to communicare\\'hen they want to.There seems o be some difficulty in moving language from'up-there'

knor.vledge o actively usable language. For many learners, their'passive'kno,,vledgeis much larger than their 'active'

language.\Tithoutexperience in using the language, learners may tend to be nervous about trying tosay things. Pardy thel' may fear sceming foolish in front of others; they may worryabout getting things tvrong; they may want to avoid your comments orcorrectionsl and so on In addition to these, t may s imply take a long time to'putthe pieccs'ofa communication togerhcr,Ieading o long embarrassed auses$'hile the learner tries to find out ho$' to say rvhat they rvant to san perhaps whilea ticket queue waits behind or a group ofembarrassed friends Iook on.

One ofrhe bestrva-vsor you to help learners activate his knowledge is to put them in'safe'

situations in class ,vherc hey are nspired and encouraged to try using languagefrom their 'storc'.These

lvould not mainly be activities that teach new) language;rather, they would allow learncrs to try outlanguage that they already understandand have learncd',

but not yet made partof thcir active

personalrepertoire.Generally speaking,you arc ikely to wantto create activities n rvhich learners feel

lessworried about speaking,lessunder pressurcr essnervous about trf ing thingsout. It 's a frne balancethough, asyou also u.antlearners to feel undcr sornepressureto take a risk and use anguagethat they may have been avoiding using until now

Man-v activities in class are suitablc for fulfilling these'flucncy and confidence'aims, but for the momenr) let's stick with the class discussion such as miqhthappen in a convcrsation

class'.



Chapter Productivekil ls: peaking ndwriting

ffi Activities hat lead o fluency ndconfidence

This s a lessona im: Learnerswi l lbecomemore luent speak ingmoreconf ident lw i th esshes i ta t ion . 'Whichof theseact iv i t iesmighthe lp u l f i l h is a im?

1 Learners epeat sentencesyou say.

2 At the star t o f the esson, earners hatwi thyouabout the i rweekend lans '

3 Learnersookat a l i s to f h in tsand ips fo r making us iness resenta t lons '

4 Learnersis ten o a record ing nd pract ise epeat ing ordswi th he same

di f f i cu l t owe l ound.

5 Learners ork n pa i rsandagree he i r is t o f the best ive i lmsof a l l t ime '

6 Learnersis ten o and s tudya record ing f a soc ia l onversa t ion '

7 Learners repare mono logue bout he i rhobb ies nd heng ivea f ive-minute

speech o the who lec lass.

8 Learnersearnby hear ta l i s to f use fu l hunksof languageheycan use n

conversa t ions.

Arguably,all ofthesecontribute n somedegree owards he aim, hough esson

stageshat focusmainly on language epetitionor language tudyareat best

conuibuting foundationskillsandknowledge ather han directlyworking on

fluency tseif. The activities hat areprimarily focusedon encouragingluenc1'ar

numbers wo and ltve.

A few keys to getting a good discussion going

. Frame the discussionwell

Don't just ump in the deepend (as he oil pollution exampleabovedid -

'Here'sthetopic, nowTALI(I'). It usuallyhelps o find ways o lead n at he

beginningand ways o closeat he end A lead-inmaybe no more than a briei

focuson apicture; t couldbe a text that everyone eadsandwhich naturalll'flows nto the topic. It couldbe apersonal ecollection rom you'

. Preparation time

Your studentsmay needsomequiet ime before he speakingactivity,not to

write out speechestl-is s to be a speakingactivity,not a readingaloudone)'

but perhaps o look up vocabulary n their dictionaries,hink through their

thoughts,makea note or t\'vo, tc

. Don't interrupt the flow

Ifat all possible, void classroommanagementechniqueshat interferewith

thenatural low ofconversation. 'm thinking particularlyabout earnershavq

to put their handsup before hey speak.Tryalternatives uchaskeepinga

waichful eyeon the classandnoticingthosesmallmovementsand ooks hat

suggest omeonewants o speak, nd hen invite themto speakwitll agesturr'r

bv anaturalcomment suchasDqsft.l,what doyou think?

. Specifrc problerns are more productive than general issues

Rather than giving the students a general topic to discuss, try setling a specrl.}.'

related problem.This is often more challenging, more interesting and more

realistic. In the oil pollution example, you could divide the students into t\ro

groups; managers ofReddoThnkers (a large multinational oil shipping

iompanv) and GreenEarth (a conservationist group) and tell them that the)

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must decide (and agree) ho\, 'to minimise the risk of pollution in funrre -NIak<



1 Approacheso speaking

more interestingb.vgi\ing them some esourcedataregapageor nvo ofessentialnformation about he compan\,) ecentaccidents, raphs,local

newspaper rticlesr apSJtc.

Role cardsGiving studentsbrief role cardssometimes clps,eg,Youarc a motorist $,housesReddopetrol.Explainhorvyou \vant o supportgreen ssues, ut alsonccdto driveyour car.'It canoften bc easier o speak n someoneelse's haracterthan n your orvn. SeeSection3 for more roleplav deas.)

Buzz groups

If a whole-class iscussion eems o be dying on its fect, r-\,splitting dre classup into'buzz groups', e quickll' divide the classnto smallsetsoffour or livestudents.Ask them to summarise he discussion o ar,particularlyconsideringif the-v gree vith r,vhat ifferentpeoplehavesaid.Aftcr a fe$,minutes (withstudentsstill n groups),ask hem to think of three commentsor questionshatwould be nteresting o sharewith the rvholeclass.Thenbrine the rvholeclassback ogetherand continue he discussion. he cntire b,.,rr-g.oup,.rg. -u-utake only about hreeor four minutes,but can help njecta ot more cnergv nroa discussion.

Break the rulesDon't feel hat you can neverbend the above uleslsometimes t ma1,maxesense o go stratght nto the discussion perhapsbecause ou want them togetsomepracticeat unpreparedspeaking, r because he subject sburning sostongly that it just demands o be started mmediately).

ffi Usingmaterialo generateiscussionFinda way o use h is mater ia l n a d iscuss ionesson.Howwould ou ntroducet?Would ou needothermater ia ls?f so , what?

EE

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A discussion ouldbe basedarounda decisionas o which of the tfueebuildingsshouldbe built on the vacantsite.The discussionwould probablvbe a ot moreinterestingf the speakers ad a real nvolvement n the isues.Role cardsmight beuseful, say,or 'architects', local residents'and.town council,.Some ivelvarguments could result.

The whole activity couldbe ntroducedwith a discussionaboutany recentbuilding or renovation work near the students, school,what studentsthink aboutmodern buildings in their town or what they tlrink could be donewith any localYacantplot.

How to organise learners in speaki[g tasks

Getring the physical arrangements right is often a big part of getting a speakingactivity to work well. That may seeman obvious enough comment, but it,s

interesting how often teachersset up agroup speaking activity and ther5 forexample,eavestudentssitting n shoulder-to-shoulderines.

It's hard to talk to someoneyou can't make eye contact with (though sometimesyou may want to play around with this idea, for example, deliberately keepingstudentsapartwhenpractising'phonecalls').

Learnersusuallyneed o be able o:

. make eyecontact with thosethey arespeaking o;

. hear clearly what the other person / people are saying;

. be reasonably lose ogether.

Different variationsof seating standingarrangements an beuseful.Checkideas n Chapter 3, Section3. Plan he arrangement arefully o match therequirements of the specific activityt for example, you may want an anangemenrthat allows students to talk secretlywithout other teamsoverhearing (egmakingplans or a confrontational'public nquiry' meeting o be held ater n the esson)-

Devisinga discussionactivity

Thesubjects popfestivals'.Devise discussion ctivity u table ora range ilevels .

One possible dea: n groups,plan a pop festivalfor our town.$7ho should beinvited to play?\7here would it be?Vhat problims might there be? How willwe keep the localshappy?Finally, designan advertisement poster to includeimportant information and encouragevisitors to come. At the end, theseparategroups pin

up their postersaround the walls and visit eachother,s.the role ofpotential visitors and festivalorganisers, hey ask ano answerquestions.

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2 Communicativeactivities

Communicative activities

The discussions nd conversationsn Section 1 areexamples f communicativeactivities, e classroomactivitiesdesigned o hat earners o speakand isten oone another.

Ve typically communicatewhenone of us has nformation (facts,opinions, deas,instuctions) that anotherdoesnot have.This s known asan information gap'.The aim ofa communicativeactivity n class s to get earners o use l-te anguagethey are earning o interact n realisticand meaningful ways,usually nvolvingexchanges f information or opimon.

W& communicativectivities

Considerhe def in i t ion bove nd ick wh ich temson he fo l lowingis t a recommunica t ivect iv i t ies .

1 Repeating entences hat you sa y

2 Do ing ra lg rammar r i l l s3 Read ing loud rom he coursebook

4 Giv ing prepared peech

5 Act ing ut a scr ip ted onversa l ion

6 Giv ingnstruct ions o tha t someone an use a newmach ine7 l m p r o v i s i n g ac o n v e r s a t i o n s ot h a t i t i n c l u d e s l o t s of e x a m p l e s o f a n ew g r a m m a r

SITUCIU E

8 One earner escr ibes p ic tu re n he textbookwhi le he o thers ookat i t

By my dehnition,only activity 6 above s a communicativeactivity; t is the onlyone hat involvesareal exchange f information. Repetition,drills, speeches, tcall giveusefuloralpractice,but they do not providecommunication. n activity 6,

onepersonknowssomething hat anotherdoesn'tknow and there s a need orthis meaning o be transferred.

Activity 7 is excluded rom the ist because,n real communication, he anguagethat the studentsuse s argelyunpredictable. here may be rnanyways o achieveapartrcularcommunicativegoal.Communicative activitiesare not simplygrammar practiceactivities,or althoughyou could offer likelygrammar orvocabularybefore he activiry the main aim for the studentss achievingsuccessful ommunication ather han accurateuse ofoarticular items oflanguage.

I excludeactivity 8 becausehe communication s meaningless:why other than nthe classroom)would we isten o someonedescribingsomethingwe cansee orourselves?t is a displayactivity,showingofflanguage earned,but there s no realcommunicationhere.\Wean,however, ransform t very easily; fa learner

describes picturethat the otherscannot seeand the istenershaveatask,sayofdrawing abasicsketchofthat picture, hen there s realcommunication,and the'describers'

and artists'will interact with a specificpurpose.Thisclassroomactivity effectivelymirrors activities hat earnersmight be nvolved n when usingthe anguage n the outsideworld,listening to a descriptionof somethingover hephone. or instance.

2 1 7



ChaptergProductivekil ls: peaking ndwriting

Some common cornrnunic ative activities

Here are examplesof somepopular general ypesof communicativeactivitiesyoumaywish to try out. Note that, n everycase,we areprimarily concernedwith

enablingandencouragingcommunication, ather hanwith controlleduse of

particular tems of languageor with accuracJ'-.

Picture difference tasks

In pairs,one student sgiven pictureA, onepictureB. Without lookingat the other

picture, hey have o find the differences ieby describing he pictures o each

other). Seeacompleteexampleactivity n Chapter2, Section4.

Group planning tasks

Oneexample s'planning a holiday'. Collect togetheranumber of advertisemenm

or brochuresadvertisinga holiday.Explain to the students hat they can all go on

holiday ogether,but they must all agreeon where hey want to go Divide the

studentsnto groupsofthree andgiveeachgroup a selectionof this materialTheir task s to plan a holiday or the wholegroup (within a fixed budgetper

person).Allow them agoodamount of time to read andselectaholiday and then

to prepareapresentationn which they attempt o persuadehe rest of the class

that they shouldchoose his holiday.\fhen theyare eady,eachgroup makes heirpresentation nd he classdiscusses ndchooses holiday.

Another example s Survival',which uses in theorestresoutce from the

DVD.Tell studentsa story,make t dramatic (invent he details)and nclude a

disasterof somekind, eg minibuscrashesmiles rom anJ,vr'here,njuries, etc.Give

them themap and he notes.Studentsmust planwhat they shoulddo to have he

best chanceof survival.

Ranking tasks

Preparea ist of items hat learnerscan discussandplace n aparticularorderaccording o their opinions.

. What's he most useful nvention?

. lyhat's the best mprovement ltat couldbe made o our town?

. N7hatare heworst programmesonTV?

. rfi/ho'sthe most mportant personof the ast 100years?

. What are he qualitiesof a good anguage dtrrse?

Pyranid discussion

A'pyramid discussion' s an organisationalechnique hat worksparticularlywell

with simpleproblem-baseddiscussions nd especiallywith item-selection asks.

eg'Vhat are he four most useful hings o havewith you if you are shipwrecked

on a desert sland?',or list sequencingasks,eg Put these tems n order of

importance'.Here'show to do it:

1 Introduce the problem, probablyusing a ist on the boardor on handouts.

2 Startwith individual reflection learnerseachdecidewhat they think might t'r

a solution.3 Combine ndividuals o makepairs,who now discussand come o an

agreement r compromise. fyou demand hat there must bean agreed

compromisesolution beforeyou move on to the next stage,t will significantl]

helo to focus he task.

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4

5

6

2 Communicativectivities

Combine thepairs o makc ours; again, hey need o reachan agreement.

Joineach our with another our or in a smallcrclass $'ith all the others.

\Uhen the whole class omes ogether,see f -vou an rcach one class olution.

\flhat's the point of doing a discussion n this rvay?(After all, t vvill ake some time to

do.)Well, most importand]', the techrriquegires students time to practise speaking n

smaller groups before facing the u'hole class.E 'en the rveakerspeakers end to find

their confidence grou's as he actir.irr* rocccds and they are able to rehearse and

repeat argumcnts that they ha\,e already tested on others. Learners who rvould

usually never dare state heir viervs n front ofdrc cntire class vill still get a number of

chances o speak,and because hey havepractised a itde, ma1-evenget up the

courage to say hem again to ever_vone.t also ends to lead to a much more exciting

and rvell argued u'hole-class discussion.The smaller groups are seedbeds or a variety

ofideas and opinions; ifrve jumped in the deep end u'ith the whole-class stage,ue

r.vouldprobably gct silence or possibly just one or t$'o students dominating.

&$ SeePyramiddisc{rssloneachingechnique n he DVD

Board garnes

Many commerciall.vavailableboard games ead o interestingspeakingactivities,

though you do need to check hem out and ensure hat thc5'rcpresent'good value'in

terms ofhow muchusefii languagedrey generate. t's alsoquite eas-vo createnew

board gamesspeciall-r, eri*.d to. tour classand their interests.I flu.rdtvery useful to

have one blank board game template (there's one in drc Srz{z l-group d:Lscttsnonresource

on the D\D). It is then relatively quick to urite in a number of interesting questions or

statements n eachsquare ound thc board. Learnersplay the game n groups,moving

theirpieces and eithcr giving a monologue or discussiagsquares he-vand on.

Puzzles and problemsThere are many publisl.red books norvadays filled rvith logic puzzlcs and problems.

Many of these make intercsting discussion tasks,ma1'be ollowing a structure of

(a) lening learners spend a little time individuall-v considering the problem, then(b) bringing students together in a group to tr-v and solve the puzzle together.

Alternativell,, some puzzles rvork well with the same stage (a), but then for thc

sccond stagc having a full class'mingle' (all learners rvalking around, mccting and

talking), during u'hich learners can compare dreir solutions $,ith others.

2 1 9




Role play, real play and simulation

Role play

In roleplay,learnersreusually iven omenformation bouta role'(egaperson

or a ob itle).These reoftenprintedon'rolecards'. earnersakea ittlepreparationimeand henmeetup with otherstudentso actout small cenesusing heirown deas, swellasany deas nd nformationrom he olecards

A simple olecardcoulddonothingmore hanname he ole,

or they could offer guidanceas o what to do rather han ttre ole tself,

Role cardsoften contain someof the following information:

Background nformation about herole (name, ob, sex,age,personalappearance.

character,nterests)aswell aspoints relevant o the task(piecesof information

youknow (thatmaybecihers don't), your opinionsabout he ssue problem/situation people,what you want to happen,be decided,etc and tems oflanguageyou may need).

A goodsetofrole cards s often designed o hat theparticipantswill have

distinctlydifferentpointsofview andnatural disagreements.Theyan ead o

excellentdiscussions and arguments without anyonehaving o feelbad at the

end becauseheygot angry.

Role cardscan be designedo offer studentsopportunities o practisespecific

piecesoflanguage(maybegrammaticalpoints, unctional areas,lexical roups,

etc).Theycan allow shyerstudentso challenge r disagreewith other students

with much less isk of offending hem.Thefollowing setof cards s designedo

give pairsofin-company business tudentsa chance o practiseusing modifiers

with adjectives eg quitebig, atherqst,extremeb)ntelligent)Sntdentswill certainll

need agoodamount of time to preparebodr deasand anguage efore acklinga

roleplay

such as his.(As

role card1 requiresmore preparation ime, you could

askboth students n apair to prepare ole card 1, hendo the roleplaynvice,

swapping olesafter he fust, so both studentscan akeboth roles.)

3-month-old aby19-year-old aughter

Duya Irain ,ickeLLoDr iqh lon .

Find ut when ourson's rain from Tarie

willarrive.

22 0



3 Role lay, ealpiay ndsimutation

As well as initiatinggeneraldiscussionon issues)oleplayscan alsobe set nspecificcontexts,providinga startingpoint for speakingpracticeand also orpracticeof specific anguagetems.

W writing ole ardsHereare hree o lecards hat verybr ie f ly e t ou t par t icu la r iewpo in tsn order oencourage smal lg roupd iscuss ion n vegetar ian ismnd meat ,ea t ing .he our thand i f thcardsare miss ing .Wr i te hem.

1 Yoube eve hat meat-ea t ings na tura l o r humansand hat vegetanans remjss ing ut on an mpor tan t ar t o f the i rd ie t .

2 Youhavebeenvegetar ianor s ixyearsbecause oube l ieve t i s hea l th ie r .3 You ike he tasteo f meat ,bu t don ' t ea t t fo r mora l easons, s vou ee l t i s

wrong o kr l lan mals .

There aremany possibilities.he extra cardscould representavegan,a religiousviewpoint,a scientificvierv,a'they're all crazy'view,a chef, abutcher, erc.

Roleplayalsogivesyou thepossibilityofintroducing somemorebizarreorinterestingvariations o a discussion, g'You area chicken.you eel very stronglydratyou arebeing exploitedby rhemeat ndustry.' n a roleplay aboutpollution,you rnighthavea card saying You are heplanetEarth.you don,t think peoplearelistenins o vou.'

f f i Adding missingole ardSame ask aga in .Hereare some olecards.Whatdo you h ink he miss ngcardmighthaveon i t?

1 Youare a store detective.you can see a suspicious-looking ersonat a clothes

ra i lwhoappears o be put t ing ometh ingnto herbag.Gooverand j rmlybutpo l i te ly sk her o come o the of f ice .2 Youbought sweater rom h is shopyesterday, u t youhavebrought t back

because t is oo smal l .Youwant o go o the ass is tan t o re tu rn t andget yourmoney ack,bu t be fore oudo,youstar t ook ing t the othersweaters n the ra i landcompar inghem wi th he oneyougot yesterday, h ch s i n yourbag.

Rolecard 2

. You rehavina mceti .^+^hearabout

"o^"n.i)i",i LX,

proaucts roma, imporiaitouppt ier .

Ab,k loE f quert ior,sand ind""' '"

";i,"";31::,canboLr

?ole card I

YourcomPanYa; Aeeiqned'ranTe f rev luliona(Y e\,N

p.od L,Z 5, omVle et d' fe'enr'

f romyourusual nes

You rehav tnqmeet in0w i tnoneol Your eetcu1trome15Describ h e new?rad'u T a

h\m ner '

22 1



:+ q,.

Chapter 9 Productive skills: speaking and writing

3 Youarea shopassistant. ouhavejustnoticed customer omingnwhowas

very ude o youyesterday. hewantedo buya sweater, hich ou oldherwas

the wrong ize,butshe nsistedwas lght'Finally,heboughthe sweater ndstormed ut of he shop.Youhope he sn'tgoing o causemore rouble'

4 You are he managerofa largedepartmentstore.Thepolicehave ust phoned

you to warn that a number of shoplifters areoperating in this street'You decide

io havea walk around your store and warn the assistantsand t1',e tore detective

to keep heir eyesopen.

Running a role play: some guidelines

Make surethe studentsunderstand the idea of role play Do they know what's

going to happen?Do they know what is required of them?Are they cornfortable

doing that or not?

Make surethe context or situation is clear.

Do they understand he nformation on thei.rown card?Allow reading

dictionary / thinking time (during which you go round and help if necessary)

Givethem time to prepare heir ideasbefore hey start- maybeencourage

note-making - but whln the activity starts,encourage hem to improvise rather

thanrely on preparedspeeches nd notes. he preparationwork theyhave

done wilt inform their role play, but could simply get in the way if they over-rely

A powerful variationon roleplay s real play. In this case, ituationsand one or

mire of the characters redrawnnot from cards,but from aparticipant's own ife

and world. Typically, one of the learners plays himself / herself,but in a context

other han the classioom.Thisperson explainsa context (eg rom his / herwork

life) to other learners, and then together ttrey recreatethe situation in class The

reaiplaytechniqueallows earners o practise anguageheyneed n their ownL

It is particularly useful or business nd professional eople.

feel hat theyhaveachieved omething.

Real play

Possibly:

222

andusedsome nterestingexpressions he teacherwasalsoable o suggest



3 Roie lay,eal tay nd imulation

ideasand anguage.Then hey repeatedhe realplay (with herplayingherself).Shesaidafterwards hat she elt a ittle more confidentabout suchsiruarions.

Rather han a setofrole cards, he most useful ool for realnlav s a blankframework in effect,a card hat allows earnerso create heii own realplay rolecard. n class, startby asking earners o chooseaproblemor situation hat theymight want to work on, and hen guidethem how to fill in their cards.Someframeworkswill need o be workedon indiviitually,some(if they aremutuallydependent) n pairsor groups.

The following framework s for a two-person ealplay (A andB). Each earnerneedsone rameworkcard.They start by agreeingwhich person,s ituation heywill work with first (egA's), and hen A (the nitiator) will explain a l,orksituationro B.Both u ill fill in Lheir wn frameu rk rolecardasapprofriare.

Realplay:work situations nvolvingwo people

Whoare he wo people?

Where re ou?

What reyou alk ing bout?

Whyareyou a lk ing?

Whathappenedust be fore h is?

ls anyother n format ionmpor tan t?

Whataresome po in ts hat wi l lcorneup n he d iscuss ion?

Whatwou ldbe a good esu l t?

\X/hen they are prepared, learners improt'ise a conversation as f it was a normalrole play, quite possibly with someone elseplaying the role of the initiator (ratherthan playing it herself). (/hen it's hnished, it may then be useful for the iniriator togive feedback on how the characters and events seemed, to

,fine-tune,it (eg .My

mother used to speakmuch louder than that'), in preparation for a second go atdoing the role plal', possibly - and revealingly - rvith swapped roles.you can alsoprovide helpful feedback and language help, perhaps suggesting some typicalphrases that might be used. After the second role play, it may be useful to reviewthe task using a form like this:

Realplay: eview

Was he d iscuss ion ike he rea l h ing?

Whatwere some nterestrnghings hat happened that you said?

Whathaveyou earned rom his?Will he task helpvou n real ife?

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speaking l

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