1. DEZVOLTAREA RESURSELOR UMANE 2007-2013 Investeşte în oameni ! Fondul Social European PROGRAMUL OPERAŢIONAL SECTORIAL DEZVOLTAREA RESURSELOR UMANE 2007-2013 POSDRU/87/1.3/S/62665 “Formarea continu ă a cadrelor didactice pentru utilizarea resurselor informatice moderne în predarea eficient ă a limbii engleze şi evaluarea la nivel european a competenţelor lingvistice”

2. APPROACHES TO TEACHING SPEAKING

3. The goal of teaching speaking skills is to ensure that students are able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, teachers can use activities that combine language input, structured output, and communicative output approaches.

4. LANGUAGE INPUT comes in the form of the language heard and read outside of class, listening activities, class interaction, and it gives students the material they need to begin producing language themselves

5. LANGUAGE INPUT may focus on content or form Focus on Content input involves information, descriptions of learning strategies and examples of their use Focus on Form input involves ways of using the language: (linguistic competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence)

6. LANGUAGE INPUT In the presentation part of a lesson, a teacher combines content-oriented and form-oriented input. The amount of input that is actually provided in the target language depends on students' proficiency and also on the situation.

7. LANGUAGE OUTPUT Structured output focuses on students’ using correct language forms/structures. They may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learned items.

8. In communicative output, the students' main purpose is to complete a task. To complete the task, they may use the language that the teacher has just presented, but they also may use any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that they know.

9. In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the student gets the message across. Fluency and not accuracy is a consideration, unless the lack of the latter interferes with the message. In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is some sort of information gap between the participants.

10. Communicative output activities involve a similar real information gap. In order to complete the task, students must reduce or eliminate the information gap. In these activities, language is a tool, not an end in itself.

11. In the communicative model of language teaching, teachers help their students develop knowledge by providing authentic practice that prepares students for real-life communication situations. To help students develop communicative efficiency speaking, teachers can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output.

12. Activities to promote speaking SPEAKING ACTIVITIES 1. Discussions foster critical thinking and quick decision making; students become involved in agree/disagree discussions; students are encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification.

13. 2. Role Play students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles; the teacher assigns roles 3. Simulations similar to role-plays but more elaborate are entertaining, motivate the students and increase the self-confidence of the shy ones

14. 4. Information Gap students are supposed to be working in pairs - one student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information; advantages: in solving a problem or collecting information, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need; everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

15. 5. Brainstorming/problem solving students are required to produce ideas on a given topic in a given time period; can be done individually/in pairs/groups; is effective - students generate ideas quickly and freely; students are not criticized for their ideas so they are open to sharing new ideas.

16. 6. Storytelling fosters creative thinking; helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have. 7. Interviews students are required to conduct interviews on selected topics with various people; the teacher may provide a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask advantages: give students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside; help them becoming socialized

17. 8. Story Completion a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity; the teacher may provide the beginning of a story, then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped; each student is supposed to add a suggested number of sentences. advantages: relaxed atmosphere, fosters creativity, students express ideas in the format of development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have, everybody has the opportunity to talk in the target language.

18. 9. Reporting students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine before coming to class, watch a video clip; in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news. 10. Picture Narrating activity based on several sequential pictures; the teacher provides a rubric (rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures students need to use while narrating); students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric.

19. 11. Picture Describing students are supposed to be working in groups; each group is given a different picture; students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class. advantages: fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

20. 12. Find the Difference students work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures; students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures. 13. Oral presentations on a given topic

21. CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS I. CONTENT-RELATED Relevance of ideas to topic (pertinent examples; no unnecessary details) Overall coherence ( logical, natural flow of ideas) Lexical range (variety of words/phrases to suit complexity of topic) Register (appropriate choice and consistent use of either formal or informal level, depending on the audience)

22. II.ORGANISATION-RELATED Effective introduction (catchy opening : relevant joke/anecdote, statistics, quotation) Clear signposting (statement of goals, indication of stages, emphasis on conclusions/results) Emphasizing key points (insisting on/repeating main points and stating the presenter’s conclusion) Length (organization of materials to fit time limit, 3-5 mins.)

23. III.DELIVERY-RELATED Clarity and pronunciation Stress and intonation Volume Pace Body language, eye contact, manner

24. PLAN FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS 1.INTRODUCTION State the general theme 2. THE BODY Refer to learning from one’s own experience: give examples. Refer to learning from the experiences of others: give examples. 3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Refer briefly to two or three main ideas mentioned in the body. State your own conclusions about the theme.

25. STEP 8.1 (HW): REFLECTION ON NORMAL PRACTICE How much do your students speak in class? How do you prepare speaking activities in class? What materials do you use? What particular problems do your students have? In what ways do you encourage real communication to take place in your lessons?

26. STEP 8.2- HW: SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT Decide on the following: Is there any connection between the way we talk and the setting in which it occurs? (Would you tell the same kinds of jokes in a hospital and at a party?) How does the kind of talk limit the topics introduced? (How does a job interview differ from a reporter’s interview of a famous actor?) Do language functions vary from one kind of talk to another? (How do campaign speech and a charity speech compare with regard to the ways they try to persuade their audiences?) Is a particular talk likely to change if we change the roles of the participants? (Does a doctor talk to a patient as he would talk to a member of his family in need for medical assistance?)

27. STEP 8.3- HW: SUCCESSFUL SPEAKING List which are, according to you, the characteristics of successful speaking activities.

28. STEP 8.4-HW: ACCURACY VS FLUENCY Consider the following statement: ‘In general, the goal of guided practice activities is to improve accuracy, whereas the goal of communicative activities is to improve fluency.’ In the Table below fill in the defining features which fit under each heading: teacher-controlled, learner-controlled, real life, authentic, pedagogical, analytic (one thing at a time), synthetic/holistic (many things at once), open (no single answer), closed (one right answer), focus on fluency, focus on accuracy.

29. Guided PracticeCommunicative Task

30. STEP 8.5 HW: FAILURE OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES INSTRUCTIONS Try to identify reasons why communicative activities, especially discussions, in the classroom often fail. Report to the other pairs.

31. STEP 8.6-HW: FEEDBACK 1 INSTRUCTIONS Decide when it is advisable to give feedback to the whole class/to small groups/to individuals.

32. STEP 8.7-HW: FEEDBACK 2 INSTRUCTIONS Decide on ideas for giving feedback to 1. the whole class/2. to small groups/3. to individuals.

33. The end