1. Homework questions
How does ACTFL define a beginning level learner? (p.30)
What are the principles for teaching speaking to beginning learners? (pp.36-40)
What are six tasks and materials for beginning learners? (pp.41-65)
What information about pronunciation is important (according to the author)? (pp.65-72)
How can teachers assess beginning learners? (pp.77-84)

2. Additional (reflection) questions
Think back to when you were a beginning level learner in English. What things were easy to do? What were difficult?
What were some of the topics that you talked about in your classes? What topics do you think should be taught to beginning learners?
What were some of the most helpful ways to develop your English language proficiency at this stage? What tasks, activities and/or lessons do you remember enjoying the most? Which didn’t seem very helpful or important?
Have you or will you teach students in the same way that you were taught? Why or why not?
What information in the chapter will be the most beneficial to you in the classroom?
Can you make any connections to between teaching speaking and teaching listening (based on your experience and what you learned in the first part of the course)?

3. Beginning level learners (ACTFL)

4. Principles for teaching speaking to beginning learners
Provide something (topic or incident) for learners to talk about (i.e. let them share their ideas and emotions; provide a genuine purpose for communicating with others)
Create opportunities to interact by using groupwork or pairwork (in an effort to reduce anxiety and any reticence, boost motivation, promote choice, independence, creativity, and realism, as well as provide peer feedback)
Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice

5. Six tasks and materials for beginning learners
Controlled conversations (controlled > semi > free) and interviews
Information gap and jigsaw activities
Scripted dialogues, drama, and role-play (prepare > practice > present)
Logic puzzles
Picture-based activities
Physical actions (TPR > Total Physical Response)

6. Important pronunciation information
Be comprehensible (i.e. it’s important for learners to know how the sounds of English are produced)

7. Assessing beginning learners
Placement tests (to provide information about which course students should take as they begin to study English in a new program)
Diagnostic tests (to see what students already know and what they still need to learn in terms of the syllabus of a particular course)
Progress tests (to see how well students have mastered particular parts of the material during a course)
Achievement tests (to see if students have learned the skills and content covered in class at the end of a course)

8. Objective speaking test
Pearson: Versant (
The Versant™ English Test automatically evaluates the spoken English skills of non-native English speakers, using speech processing technology and the advanced science of linguistics.
Versant English Tests can help you hold employees, teachers, and students to the language standards you require for effective communication.
Recruiting: Hire professionals who have the spoken language skills you need for the jobs where speaking is important for clear communication.
Leadership/Management Programs: Ensure employees with management potential have the language proficiency to participate in leadership development and move up in the organization.
Training and Development: Easily benchmark the language levels of employees, teachers, and students to correctly place them in training or remedial programs, and measure learning progress after the program is completed.
The Versant English Test is built using criteria developed by expert linguists. The Versant testing system, based on the patented Ordinate® technology, has been extensively field trialed and validated with reference to the most qualified human evaluators of language proficiency, fluency, and pronunciation.
The Versant testing system allows you to evaluate all of your candidates on an equal basis with objective, unbiased scoring.
Your staff can easily administer Versant English Tests by having candidates take the test over the telephone or on a test center computer. The Versant testing system automatically scores a candidate's test, making a detailed score report available for you in the reporting system within minutes of being submitted.

9. Experience, interest, and use
Have you ever had any experience using this task?
What do you like or dislike about it?
How would you adapt/change/modify it for your current or future students?

11. SARS (*for textbook units)
Select Use
Adapt Change/Modify
Reject Not use
Supplement Add