How to teach Speaking, and Giving Feedback
Topic 2: How to Teach
Look at the picture and listen to the teacher. Think about the feedback she gives the students.
Giving Feedback
Before doing a speaking activity, make sure students know what aspects of speaking you are going to focus on. If the activity is: Interview your partner about their last vacation. You can say: I'm going to listen to how well you use the past tense and check your pronunciation of past tense verbs.
During the activity, you may correct individual students if needed. You can also collect examples of common errors made by all students and correct them at the end. Some students may have anxiety about speaking in class. You can reduce anxiety by giving general feedback to the class without naming specific students.
Focus on errors that interfere with meaning and try to give concrete suggestions for improvement such as: When you use the third person singular, remember to pronounce the 's' or 'es' at the end of the verb.
Look at the picture to see one way of providing corrective feedback. In this example, the teacher gives some positive feedback before asking students to correct their errors with the form of the negative simple past (did not go).
Self Assessment
Encourage students to self assess their performance after an activity. This will help them to become more autonomous.
Ask students to say what they did well and what they need to improve. Help them practice the points they need to improve.
Work with students to develop a checklist of ways to improve speaking and pronunciation. When they finish an activity, check the list with the students and note points that need more practice.
Monitor students' self assessments and notice which points are causing problems for all students. Reteach these points and give some practice activities for students to try at home.
[17/05, 00:10] Ms. Ema: Topic 1: Techniques and Activities
Read the text.
Sample Student Book Activities for Teaching Speaking
The activities on screens 4-8 are common activities for teaching speaking (and pronunciation). They are organized into four groups according to their skill focus. The four groups are: communicative functions, grammar structures, communication strategies, and pronunciation. Navigate to screens 4-8 to view the activities. Refer to them as you read.
Teaching Communicative Functions
Conversations often include some kind of communicative function, such as complaining, asking for information, or giving advice. Textbooks often present these functions in the form of model dialogs. At first, students can repeat the dialogs. Then they can substitute different words or their own ideas. These are controlled speaking activities.
Look at I Activities to Teach Communicative Functions on the attached file. In Activity 1 (role-play), students complete the dialog with words from the box. Then they practice the conversation in pairs. The activity practices making suggestions and accepting or making counter-suggestions. In Activity 2 (information-gap) students ask questions to find missing information. This activity focuses on the communicative function of asking for and giving directions to a place. Both of these activities are controlled.
Dialogs can be used throughout a PPP lesson sequence. In the presentation stage, you can first present a model dialog by reading it aloud or playing an audio of the dialog. You can direct students' attention to the specific language related to the functions you are focusing on. For example, Could you tell me where . . . ? is the language related to asking for directions. In the practice stage, you can practice the dialog with the whole class. One half of the class can take one role. The other half can take the second role. In the produce stage of your lesson, you can ask students to practice in pairs. Then you can ask students to perform the dialog for the class.
[17/05, 00:10] Ms. Ema: Topic 1: Techniques and Activities
Read the text. Refer to screens 4-8 as you read.
Teaching Grammar Structures
Speaking activities for teaching grammar often focus on just one or two grammar structures. These activities usually have a context or a topic that will help students to remember the meaning of the structure. They focus on accurate production of grammar. Two activities that focus on grammar structures in speaking lessons are guided conversations and class surveys. In a guided conversation, students use the same structure several times with different vocabulary. In a class survey, students ask different classmates the same questions. These questions use the target grammar structure.
Look at II Activities to Teach Grammar Structures on screens 3-8. In Activity 3 (guided conversation), students use the information to ask and answer questions about their diaries. They use the present progressive with future meaning. They use different verbs in the same form, such as go, meet, visit, and study. In Activity 4 (class survey), students ask each other questions. They use the second conditional (or unreal conditional as in If I had $1,000,000, I would buy a big house.) with different vocabulary for each question. You can use both types of activities in the practice or production stages of your lesson. In the practice stage, students can repeat sentences or grammatical structures as a class or individually. In the production stage, students try to produce target language independently using new vocabulary.
Teaching Communication Strategies
Communication strategies are fixed phrases or formulaic language. They keep a conversation going. Some examples of communication strategies are asking for clarification or changing the topic. Students can practice communication strategies in an activity such as a mixer activity or a language game. In a mixer activity, students walk around the classroom. They practice the target language repeatedly with different students. In a language game, students can compete with each other to win points.
Look at III Activities to Teach Communication Strategies on screens 3-8. In activity 5 (mixer activity), students practice expressions for greeting, introducing, and saying goodbye. Walking around can help to reduce anxiety when speaking. In activity 6 (language game), students practice interrupting politely and clarfying meaning. In this game, you can award points for using the strategy correctly.
[17/05, 00:10] Ms. Ema: Topic 1: Techniques and Activities
Read the text. Refer to screens 4-8 as you read. When you are finished, click Submit.
Pronunciation
You can include pronunciation activities in your lesson plan for teaching speaking. First, present the new pronunciation point. Then, practice the target sounds receptively. If students can hear the target sound, they are more likely to be able to produce it. Finally, do some activities to practice producing the language.
There are various ways to present the pronunciation of a specific sound or phoneme. You can model the sound or play an audio or a video. When teaching older students, you can teach phonemic symbols and write them on the board. You may also use a diagram of the human mouth to explain how to produce the sound. To show the difference between the sounds for p and b, for example, you can ask students to place their fingers on their throat to feel the difference between voiced b sound and unvoiced sound for p. Place a piece of paper in front of your mouth to show that making the sound /p/ creates a puff of air.
To present the stress of a word or sentence, it is helpful to clap your hands lightly for the unstressed syllables and more strongly for the stressed ones. You can also show this on the board by drawing small circles over the unstressed syllables and larger circles over the stressed syllables. To present intonation you can hum the intonation pattern of a sentence. You can also write the sentence on the board and draw arrows over it.
After presenting the new pronunciation point, it is a good idea to practice it receptively. Some examples of receptive activities are: listen and identify the sound you hear, match words with the same sound or syllable stress, or find the odd word out from a group of words. See Unit 7 for ideas on listening activities for pronunciation.
Finally, students need to practice producing the target sounds. Look at IV Activities to Teach Pronunciation on the attached file. In Activity 7 (pronunciation drill), students repeat the target sounds after the audio (or the teacher). They then write the correct spelling. After that, they repeat the words in a chant or a song. Drills such as these often focus on minimal pairs, such as sheep and cheap. In Activity 8 (pair dictation), students dictate words and numbers. They can compare answers at the end to check. Activity 9 (pair work) is more communicative. Students say sentences using the target sounds in order to complete information in a chart.