CHAPTER 4: SPEAKING
Speaking is one of the most difficult aspects for students to master. This is hardly
surprising when one considers everything that is involved when speaking: ideas, what
to say, language, how to use grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation as well as
listening to and reacting to the person you are communicating with. Any learner of a
foreign language can confirm how difficult speaking is.
It is important to give students as many opportunities as possible to speak in a
supportive environment. Gaining confidence will help students speak more easily. You
can achieve this by:
setting controlled speaking tasks and moving gradually towards freer speaking tasks;
setting tasks that are at the right level for the students or at a level lower than their
receptive skills;
setting tasks that are easily achievable and gradually moving towards more
challenging tasks;
praising students’ efforts;
using error correction sensitively (more about this in Chapter 9);
creating an atmosphere where students don’t laugh at other people’s efforts.
The focus of this chapter will be free speaking activities and fluency, not controlled
activities and accuracy. For comments on controlled and freer practice, see Chapter 1.
There are three key elements to remember when planning and setting up speaking
activities:
1.
Language used
2.
Preparation
3.
Why are the students speaking?
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