SPEAKING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

 Learning strategies are ‘operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information, specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations.’ Such as using mental pictures…..everybody uses strategies of one way or another…phonetic stress shape of a word to recall it…writing it down to commit to memory

Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to to participate suceessfully in oral interactions often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them to build up a stock of minimal responses. Some communication situations area associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges – a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, buying something in a shop

 Language learners are often too shy or embarrassed to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realise that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction

 Compensation strategies are for when the learner does not know or is not sure that they have the correct vocabulary or structure in the L1  Switching to mother Tongue. ‘Code –Switching’This involves using the mother tongue for an expression without translating it to the L2.  Getting Help.  Using mime or gesture.  Avoiding communication partially or totally.  Selecting the topic.  Adjusting or approximating the message  Coining words.  Using a circumlocution or synonym

 Speaking activities in second language learning usually involve language functions which are common in native speakers use of the language outside of the classroom. However in most cases they differ from these outside activities in that they contain features that are there to make them successful classroom activities. Thsee features may be called, roles, outcomes, procedures, split information and challenges

 Mr and Mrs Brown have no children, They live with Mr Brown’s elderly father in a two story house. Mr Browns sister Janet, has come to stay with them for two weeks, She has two children aged two and five who are very active. Janet is worried that the Browns house is not arranged for young children and that the children might hurt themselves or other people.  You would need to think of precise role descriptions for each character, to give potential happenings.

Providing Directions Completion Ranking Listing uses Matching, classifying, distinguishing Data Gathering Problem solving Producing material

 A procedure divides the speaking activity in steps. It increases the amount of speaking involved in the activity, and in some cases makes sure that each learner in the group will participate in the activity. All the learners follow all the steps of the procedure.  One of the most useful of procedure is the move from individual to pairs to group to whole class activity. In a ranking exercise this involves learners working on their own for five minutes to make their own personal ranking. This ensures they bring some definite ideas to the later group discussion.

 SPLIT INFORMATION.  CHALLENGES  COMPETITION  MEMORY  A HIDDEN SOLUTION  Using all the features together, i.e. FRONT PAGE. The learners work in groups of four. Their job is to prepare the front page of a newspaper. The group has to decide which will be the main story, decide on the number and order of paragraphs in each story, and write headlines for each story they choose.

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