SPEAKING WILSON BURGOS AROCA MARTHA LILIANA CARRILLO ARIAS Candidates to Master’s Degree on English Didactics Surcolombiana and Caldas Universities Agreement Neiva, November 2009

SPEAKING THEORY CHARACTERISTICS STRATEGIES ACTIVITIES

THEORY According to Bailey and Savage, 1994. Speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills. Canale and Swain (1980) proposed that the teaching of speaking must aim at the development of the communicative competence. Oral skill classes at all levels are often structured around functional uses of language.

CHARACTERISTICS Formal and informal language Stress and intonation Sounds The organization of the speech Formal and informal language Pauses and fillers Syntax and vocabulary of speech

Low or uneven participation Inhibition to speak Low or uneven participation Mother tongue use Nothing to say PROBLEMS

STRATEGIES Teach to students compensatory strategies. Keep a balance between accuracy and fluency. Integrate speaking with other linguistic skills. Vary the tasks Create a safe environment to speak Make connections with real life situations Consider the level and the perceived needs of the students when doing speaking Encourage students to seek for opportunities to practice speaking Teach to students compensatory strategies. STRATEGIES

STRATEGIES Choose the topic and the task carefully. Give instructions or training in discussion skills. Keep students speaking the target language Base tasks on comprehensible language STRATEGIES

WHILE SPEAKING POST SPEAKING PRE SPEAKING Plan and organize for speaking Choosing a speaking topic Determining a purpose and audience Determining format WHILE SPEAKING Engaging students in interactions with peers and other audiences. Engage in formal and informal speaking situations POST SPEAKING Reflection about students performance (critical thinking) Reflect upon performance Giving feedback

ACTIVITIES SPEAKING Conversations Discussions Interviews Role plays Speeches

ACTIVITIES SPEAKING Describing pictures Solving a problem Things in common Solving a problem Pictures differences

Useful websites for Speaking www.eslgo.com This webpage includes speaking activities such as role-plays, “Find someone who...” speaking activities, information gap activities, examination rubrics for ESL oral tests, and discussion questions.   http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk This British Council and BBC webpage has a varied set of activities for speaking. Once you type it, go to try and then to activity and finally to speaking. http://www.esldiscussions.com This webpage provides several speaking activities for your students to discuss. Topics such as abortion, AIDS, immigration among others are available. You type the webpage and the discussion topics are alphabetically ordered. http://www.spokenskills.com This webpage provides English teachers with a variety of speaking activities for oral communication such as English for specific purposes, everyday English, consonant sounds, vowel sounds, business English, dialogues, arts, sports, entertainment, current events among other areas.

Bibliography Kenworthy, J (1987). Teaching English Pronunciation. Brown, G and Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge University Press. Lazaraton, A. (2001). Teaching Oral skills. Bailey, K.M. and Savage, Eds. (1994). New Ways in Teaching Speaking. Alexandria, VA:TESOL. Murphy, J.M. (1991). Oral Communication in TESOL. Integrating Speaking, Listening and Pronunciations TESOL Quarterly 25 (D1): 51-75. Riggenbach, H. (1999). Discourse Analysis in the Language Classroom. Volume 1. The Spoken Language. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Underhill, N. (1987). Testing Spoken Language. A Handbook of Oral Testing Techniques. Cambridge University Press.