Teaching Speaking

Content:
1- Aim of the session 5 minutes
2- Warm-up discussion Role-play sketch 5 minutes
3- Situation for speaking 10 minutes
4- What is speaking 5 minutes
5- Speaking genres 5 minutes
6- Language features 20 minutes
7- Teaching speaking 15 minutes
8- Sequencing a speaking activity 10 minutes
9- Micro teaching demonstration 30 minutes
10- Group quiz 10 minutes
Appendix one :role play script
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Teaching speaking

The aim of this session

 To make you think about speaking as a skill.
 To present a variety of techniques to teach speaking.
 To reflect upon the ways of teaching to speak.
What do you have to do in this session?
 Warming up discussion.
 Exploratory and self exploration tasks.
 Micro teaching with observation.
 Integrated tasks.
Exploratory task one:
Warming up discussion
A. Role play activity:
Listen to the conversation between two English language
teachers; Mrs. Huda and Mr. Jamal chatting about their
experience in teaching speaking skills to their students and
inspire aloud. Say what’s good and what’s not? (see
appendix one at the end page)

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Good or Explanation
Not
1. Teacher modeling the
conversation to students
2. Students participation
3. Text adaptation
4. Staging the activities
5. Teachers role as a promoter
6. Provider “Feeding the language”
7. Grammar teaching
8. Homework assignment
9. Information/gab filling
10. Writing evaluation tasks Introducing oneself
to a stranger
B. Complete the grid below indicating the real world in
which it is necessary to speak.

Situation for speaking Describing

an accident

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What is Speaking?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Exploratory Task Two

Match each of the speaking genres with its appropriate
definition
1. Description Opinion and angels of view
2. Narration People working towards judgments
3. Identification Seeking solution
4. Reasoning Talking about one's for example - likes
and dislikes
5. Language in action Telling the development of an event
6. Comment Telling one's train of thoughts to an
7. Debate and active listeners
8. argument Telling the details
Decision -making People doing things and talking

Exploratory Task 3:
Have you ever been in a situation of not knowing to express
yourself ? What did you do then?
Think of some discourse markers that are commonly used in
hesitation pauses. Here down are some. Add more:-
Uhum! Well! Oh! Yes
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Exploratory Task 4
Study your own style of oral speech, mark the following statements
as true or false as referring to yourself .
Describe your communication style , find among your peers a
person of the same oral style as yourself.

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Statement T/F
I am a blunt person
I criticize people
I really admit I am wrong
I can gossip about a mutual
friend
I compliment people
I use rude language at least
sometimes
I like to talk about listener
I push forward my ideas
I talk a lot
I don't mind talking about a
situation where I was
embarrassed , humiliated and
so on

Adopted, Milord, 2001

Language features
Exploratory task 5:
What are some of the necessary elements of spoken production?
Add to the list below:
1.Connected speech.
2. -----------------------------------------------
3. -----------------------------------------------
4. ---------------------------------------------

Can you explain how each is necessary ?

_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
1. Connected speech
Task 6 :
Check “English for Palestine” text books and find dialogues
that foster student's connected speech.
2.Expressive devices. Define:-
_____________________________________
_____________________________________

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Task 7
A) Run a conversation from “English for Palestine “ grade 8
or 7 and show how expressive devices contribute to the
conversation message and ideas.
3.Lexis and grammar
_____________________________________
_____________________________________

4. Negotiation language: Give more examples to show how

Negotiation language is used to facilitate acommunicative
setting.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch that”
_____________________________________
_____________________________________

Teaching speaking
Task8
Why teaching speaking tasks?
1. Motivation :
2.________________________________
3.________________________________
4.________________________________
Task 9:
In groups think of three problems during speaking activities.
Add to the list:
* Students won't talk or say nothing.
* Students chat using their language.
* The lesson is too noisy and the teacher loses control of it.
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________

The Role of the teacher

Suggest three roles played by the teacher during speaking activities?
1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
Class room speaking Activities
Exemplify from” English For Palestine” textbooks
 Acting from a script
 Prepared talks: wh-questions/ work with partners/ask and answer
questions
 Communication games

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 Discussion
 Questionnaires

Simulation and role play

What are some of the advantages of simulation and role-play in language
teaching class?
1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________
4. ___________________________________

Speaking stages: State some pointers:

__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________

Post -speaking stage:

Role-play here is a very good activity.
Have you an idea of how to prepare and run a role-play task?
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
In post-speaking stage, it is highly plausible to extend the newly learned
language items to include creative real-life like communicative settings.

Exploratory Task 10:

Speaking lesson sequence.
A. Work in groups and:
a. Check” English for Palestine” grade 8 and answer:
What two rubrics are attributed to the classroom speaking activities?
b. Tick True or False to determine if there are there any difference
between the two rubrics in terms of
1- main objectives
2- sequencing of activities
3- pre-request
4- Teaching Techniques
5- learning outcomes
Check English For Palestine grade 6 unit 9 lesson 3 SB Exs 2&3 and
prepare a good teaching lesson plan according to the outline below:
Group one: prepare for the pre-speaking stage

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Group two: for the while stage

Group three: for the post speaking stage.
Be ready to demonstrate your work for discussion& feedback.
While watching Tick the ( √) in right box:
Pre-speaking

The teacher
 Made use of the listening task as a pr-request
 Discuss the picture as an approach to the conversation
environment and setting.
 Made sure that student know the interlocutor quite well
 Made sure that vocabulary items are not barriers.

While-speaking

 Gave clear instructions so that every body knows what to do

 Gave enough time to read the script before listening
 Gave enough time for repetition
 Did his/her best to sound authentic use of pitch, stress,
intonation….etc
 Modeling
 Pair practice
 Public practice

Post-speaking stage
1. Gave student enough time to rehearse-individually for
themselves.
2. Gave student the freedom to choose the part to play.
3. Prepare a suitable stage of performance enough space-ability
to move…….etc
4. Made use of grooming, furniture, objectives …etc as to sound
natural.
The teacher was:

5. Supportive ; praised and encouraged student ignored grammar

mistakes.
6. Allowed novelty and creativity. Allowed logic, sound creative
substitution of words or expressions used.
7. Gave feedback about the class performance.
8. Did some remedial work on common mistakes.

Group quiz:
1. What is speaking?

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2. How can you define speaking as a communicative skill?

3. For each of activities below Tick “P” for pre-speaking stage W for
while stage and Ps for post stage:

a. Students read the conversation silently to prepare themselves

for the speaking task.
b. The teacher plays the cassette several times to check his/her
own pronunciation.
c. Students practice the conversation in pairs before coming up to
the front.
d. Students repeat after the cassette.
e. Students are shown a picture about the topic of the
conversation.
f. Students are busy moving here and there practicing the
conversation.
g. Teacher is an observer takes down notes about students’
performance and common mistakes.

B. Study the chart below and reflect on your understanding of the

objectives underlying the two rubrics attributed to classroom
speaking activities namely language & speaking VS listening&
speaking:

Speaking Tasks

Language and Speaking

Speaking Listening

structure Pronunciation Interaction

grammar

Fluency in
Fluency in

Expressing oneself Creating novel-speech Creativity in using

Being native-life speaker
utterances pragmatic real social
expressions and idioms

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Evaluation:
Color one of the faces below to express your opinion about the session
today:

For next session

Prepare a speaking task to present for your colleagues .

Appendix one

Role play activity script:

Listen to the conversation between two English language

teachers; Mrs. Huda and Mr. Jamal chatting about their
experience in teaching speaking skills to their students and
inspire aloud. Say what’s good and what’s not?

Mrs. Huda: Hello Jamal. How are things!

Mr. Jamal: They’re just Fine. What about you?
H: I’m terribly worried about my students’ speaking skills. I’ve spent so
long time modeling the conversation of today’s lessons and when it was
my student’s turn, few could participate?
Jamal: Really? Sorry for that! But have you tried to stage your
conversation and to adapt it to your students?
Huda: Of course, not. How can I? After all I should cover all the tasks
and the activities of the textbook?

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Jamal: I don’t want to argue with you about that, but haven’t you thought
of changing your role from a prompter to a languages provider and snake
some language items to help your Students participate?
Huda: All language items were exhaustedly discussed yesterday. I gave
my students them multiple choice homework exercises. All the items
missing were good grammar points for speaking.
Jamal: And that couldn’t help either? Don’t you think that suspension and
anxiety are two crucial elements in creating and sustaining students
interest and desire to practice Huda Definitely, But you know, I always
run out of time. My students in the evaluation stages had only two
minutes to complete the dialogue and to write it down on their
notebooks?
Jamal: Oh! The bell is ringing. It’s the next period time.

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References:
General Handwriting Teaching Tips Cadapted from Modules 2 by the
)Ministry of Education, 2000
Harmer, J and R. Rossner. 1991. More than
Millrood, R 2001. Modualr course in ELT Methodology

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