2.2.Improving of language teaching
Language teaching are essential communication skills that enable individuals
to express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings effectively. It is a vital aspect of
communication that plays a significant role in various aspects of life, such as
education, employment, socialization, and personal relationships. Effective
language teaching require a combination of different elements such as clarity of
speech, appropriate tone and pace, good vocabulary and grammar, confidence, and
the ability to engage the audience. This article explores the implementation of
language teaching in different settings.
Effective language teaching are crucial in education settings. Students need
to develop their language teaching to participate fully in classroom discussions and
present their ideas confidently. Teachers can implement various strategies to
improve students' speaking abilities. One effective strategy is assigning group
projects where students work together to research and present their findings. This
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"Role-Play and the World as Stage in Commedia dell'Arte and Shakespeare" by Robert Henke, 2018,
p-28
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not only helps students improve their language teaching but also builds teamwork
and collaboration.
Language teaching are essential for success in the workplace. Employees
must communicate effectively with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders to achieve
organizational goals. Employers can implement training programs that focus on
improving employees' communication skills. These programs can include
workshops on public speaking, one-on-one coaching sessions, or team-building
activities that require effective communication.
Effective language teaching are also crucial for socialization. People who can
communicate well can build stronger relationships with others by expressing
themselves clearly and confidently. In social situations such as parties or networking
events, individuals with good speaking abilities can engage others in meaningful
conversations that can lead to new opportunities or friendships
In personal relationships such as romantic relationships or family
relationships, effective language teaching are crucial for building strong
connections between individuals. Good communication enables individuals to
express themselves honestly and openly with their loved ones while also being able
to listen actively to the other person's needs and concerns.
Practice: Practice speaking in front of a mirror, recording yourself, or
speaking with friends or family members to gain confidence and identify areas that
need improvement. Use appropriate tone and pace: Speak at a pace that is easy for
others to follow and use appropriate tone to express different emotions.
Build vocabulary: Expand your vocabulary by reading books, newspapers, or
magazines, and learn new words every day. Attend public speaking events: Attend
public speaking events such as conferences or workshops to learn from experienced
speakers. Seek feedback: Ask for feedback from others on your language teaching
to identify areas that need improvement.
In conclusion, effective language teaching are crucial in various settings such
as education, employment, socialization, and personal relationships. Individuals
must develop their speaking abilities by implementing various strategies such as
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practice, using appropriate tone and pace, building vocabulary, attending public
speaking events, and seeking feedback. Developing effective language teaching can
lead to increased confidence, improved communication abilities and better
relationships with others. The communicative approach is an umbrella term to
describe the methodology which teaches students how to communicate efficiently.
It also lays emphasis on students’ responsibility for their own learning. It involves
cooperation within group, self-activity, dictionary work.
The first concern of communicative approach is language acquisition rather
than conscious learning. Acquisition is a natural process, similar to the way children
develop ability in their first language. It is a subconscious process when students are
not aware of the fact they are acquiring language but are using the language for
communication.
To sum up, communicative approach refers to classroom activities in which
students use language as a vehicle of communication, and the main purpose is to
complete some kind of task. Students are required to use any and/or all the language
that they know, and they gradually develop their strategies in communication. There
is a place for both controlled presentation and semi- controlled language practice,
which brings optimal development of students’ language skills.
Many teachers agree on that students learn to speak a foreign language by
"interacting". Communicative language teaching serves best for this aim. By using
this method in class, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each
other in the target language. In brief, teachers should create a classroom environment
where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful
tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in groups
to achieve a goal or to complete a task.
To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, teachers
should first give some ground for further discussion. This technique is called
language input. It comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading
passages, and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the
material they need to begin producing language themselves. Language input may be
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content-oriented or form-oriented. Content-oriented input focuses on information,
whether it is a simple weather report or an extended lecture on an academic topic.
Content-oriented input may also include descriptions of learning strategies and
examples of their use.
Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance from
the teacher or another source on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (linguistic
competence); appropriate things to say in specific contexts (discourse competence);
expectations for rate of speech, pause length, turn-taking, and other social aspects of
language use (sociolinguistic competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to use
to ask for clarification and repair miscommunication strategic competence.
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In the presentation part of a lesson, an instructor combines content-oriented
and form-oriented input. The amount of input depends on students' listening
proficiency and also on the situation. Only after this part of the lesson the students
should be encouraged to speak. It may be done, as an example, in one of the
following ways.
After a content-based lesson or a part of it, a discussion can be held for various
reasons. The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event,
or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that
the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the discussion
points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting
with each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved
in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups
of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial sentences like
“people learn best when they read vs. people learn best when they travel”. Then each
group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the
class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group
members. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea
in the best way.
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"Role Play in Teaching Speaking" by Jack C. Richards, 2002, p-60
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This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students
learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with
the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large
groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The group
members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by
themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that
students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas. Lastly,
in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be
encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for
clarification, and so on.
One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend
they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play
activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and
what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David,
you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…"
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations
different than role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can
bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is
acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and
simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate
the students. Second, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because
in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have
to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same
responsibility.
In everyday communication, spoken exchanges usually take place because
there is some sort of information gap between the participants. Communicative
activities may involve a similar real information gap. In this activity, 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. Information gap
activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information.
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Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if
the partners do not provide the information the others need.
Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is
effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely in a limited time. The good
characteristics of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas
so students will be open to sharing new ideas
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.
Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody
beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling
fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of
beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has
to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of
each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes
as an opening. In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking
ability, but also get the attention of the class.
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people.
Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking
ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized. After
interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class. Moreover, students
can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class.
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which
students sit in a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few
sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the
point where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to
ten sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.
Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine
and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news.
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"Drama Techniques in Language Learning: A Resource Book of Communication Activities for
Language Teachers" by Alan Maley and Alan Duff, 1978, p-24
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Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling
their friends in their daily lives before class.
In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a
topic. For instance: Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student
will write 4-5 questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For
example: If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some
possible questions:
However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that
students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no
students get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-
ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.
This activity is based either on several sequential pictures or on just one
picture. Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the picture. The teacher
may give the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating. This activity
fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public language
teaching . Find the Difference. For this activity students can work in pairs and each
couple is given two different pictures. Students in pairs discuss the similarities
and/or differences in the pictures. Suggestions For Teachers in Teaching Speaking
Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral
language:
Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by
providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials
and tasks, and shared knowledge.
Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice
different ways of student participation. Reduce teacher speaking time in class while
increasing student speaking time. Step back and observe students. Indicate positive
signs when commenting on a student's response. Ask eliciting questions such as
"What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt
students to speak more.
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Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a
good job. I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient
use of your voice…" Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often
while they are speaking. Correction should not distract student from his or her
speech. Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact
parents and other people who can help. Circulate around classroom to ensure that
students are on the right track and see whether they need your help while they work
in groups or pairs
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.
Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves
in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken
language. To sum up, teaching speaking is a very important part of language
learning. Therefore, it is essential that language teachers’ pay great attention to it.
Rather than leading students to pure memorization, the teachers should provide a
rich environment where meaningful communication takes place. With this aim,
various speaking activities can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic
interactive skills necessary for life. These activities make students more active in the
learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun
for them.
To be able to communicate fluently in a foreign language is the number one
goal for many language learners. However, it seems that the teaching of oral skills
in language classrooms does not have an important role. There are many reasons:
the higher status of written language, teaching to the tests of written language,
teaching the textbook with emphasis on written language and lack of knowledge of
how to teach speaking. The purpose of the article is to discuss the issue of how
foreign language speaking can be taught based on how speaking is learned and how
speaking proficiency is defined. More specifically, How do learning theories
translate into teaching speaking at classroom level? and What is the significance of
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"Role-Play in Language Learning" by Gillian Porter Ladousse, 1987,p-92
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the current understanding of language proficiency as reflected in the models of
communicative competence and the Common European Framework and its
Companion Volume with New Descriptors to the teaching of speaking in formal
foreign language contexts? On the basis of the theoretical and research reviews,
some pedagogical implications and suggestions for research are provided.
The pedagogical implications concern the teaching of fluency and formulaic
sequences, the teaching of spoken grammar, the teaching of linguistic,
sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences. Classroom applications of the
sociocultural theory include pair and group work, communicative activities with
opportunities for the negotiation of meaning, and creative spoken production. It is
suggested that teachers· pedagogical content knowledge be applied as a means to
integrate theory with classroom applications. Suggestions for related research are
provided.
Teaching foreign language oral skills in the classroom has traditionally been
informed by the cognitive psycholinguistic tradition with a focus on individual
learning processes. Psycholinguistic processes, such as implicit and explicit
learning, declarative and procedural knowledge, proceduralist and automatization,
are related to fluent language production.
Fluent speaking is learnt as a result of proceduralist. Proletarianization takes
place when learners draw on declarative knowledge by picking a declarative
morphosyntactic rule, using it in communication a number of times, and by the
repeated use of the same rule, they gradually form procedural knowledge,
establishing a habit after some repetition, then gradually automatizing this habit, and
perhaps eventually forming implicit knowledge. The end products are not always
full automatization and implicit knowledge for all rules and for all language learners,
but proletarianization is a necessary prerequisite for fluent language use. This view
represents an interface position which allows a facilitative relationship between
declarative and procedural knowledge.
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