Category Archives: speaking

Teaching Speaking Tactics

When learner’s can’t speak, what can they do? Avoidance is a common strategy. Learners either change the topic, or clam up completely. However, there are a number of other strategies that can help learners and, if used judiciously, are probably more benaeficial.
Also posted in skills, syllabus, vocabulary | 1 Comment

Some more speaking activities

Do you teach speaking with few or no materials? Here are some speaking activities that you can try with your classes.
Also posted in Activities, skills | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Some speaking activities

Here are some more activities, some of which you can use with little or no prepararion. These are activities that I have found by dredging my computer directories. I there fore do not know the sources fo these activities. I would be happy to give any credit where it is due. Lying: an icebreaker air off students. [...]
Also posted in skills | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Oral communication tasks

Here is a suggested taxonomy for oral communication task types, not in any order of importance. Providing extended answers to oral questions. Asking and answering questions about diagrams or other visual representations of information.
Also posted in curriculum, listening, syllabus | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What is meant by automaticity and automatization?

automatic largely or wholly involuntary, especially as with a reflex acting or done spontaneously or unconsciously automatize to make automatic [noun derivations: automatization the process of making automatic; automaticity the state or condition of being automatic]
Also posted in bibliography, curriculum, listening, skills, syllabus, testing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Activity: vocabulary tennis

This is an activity that requires no setting up and can be done at the drop of a hat just the kind of activity that I love to have in my toolbox! Essentially, the idea is to promote automatization through quick responses, under moderately stressful conditions. Aim: learners will recycle vocabulary and/or create short sentences under [...]
Also posted in Activities, skills, word lists | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Speaking activity outcomes – a rough guide

Developing ability to describe objects and processes Responding to various forms of questions and sustained questioning in appropriate contexts Interacting in real world speaking activities Performing one way and two-way information tasks Raising awareness of conversational structure [opening, turn-taking, sustaining a turn, negotiating meaning, nominating a topic, repairing a mistake, linking ideas, adjusting the message by rephrasing, or using [...]
Also posted in curriculum, skills, syllabus | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Speaking sub-skills

To complement the posts on speaking, especially regarding curriculum design, I have included a list of speaking sub-skills.
Posted in speaking | Tagged | Leave a comment

Teaching speaking: fluency or accuracy?

In this post the classroom ideas are marked with a: Whatever type of approach you intend to use for a particular activity in the classroom, making the differentiation between fluency and accuracy is a very important one. However, here are some things to think about. From Brumfit… Just because we are talking about fluency, it does not mean [...]
Also posted in curriculum, skills, syllabus | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The characteristics of spoken language

Some courses fail the learners in that they fail to distinguish between spoken and written language. The litmus test for this assertion is to ask whether the syllabus/curriculum treats spoken language as something distinct from written language with its own grammar, syntax and lexicon. If productive skills work is a vehicle for the teaching of [...]
Posted in speaking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The sequence game

This milling activity is very simple. Each student has a different sequential series written on a strip of paper. Their task is to find the participant wıith the exactly the same sequence as them self. For this to be a speaking and listening task, monitor the learners carefully to ensure they don’t show their [...]
Also posted in Activities, classroom dynamics, listening, reading | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment