Theme: effective lecturing in teaching foreign languages contents Introduction

2.3 Techniques the teacher uses for teaching speaking

There are two forms of speaking: monologue and dialogue. Since each form has its peculiarities we should speak of teaching monologue and teaching dialogue separately.

In teaching monologue we can easily distinguish three stages according to the levels which constitute the ability to speak: (1) the statement level; (2) the utterance level; (3) the discourse level.
1. No speech is possible until pupils learn how to make up sentences in the foreign language and how to make statements. To develop pupils' skills in making statements the following procedure may be suggested:
Pupils are given sentence patterns to assimilate in connection with situations.
The sentence pattern is filled with different words. Thus pupils can express various thoughts. For example:
I can see a ... .
P u p i l 1: I can see a blackboard.
P u p i 1 2: I can see a picture.
P u p i l 3: I can see a map, etc.
I am fond of ...
P u p i l 1: I am fond of music.
P u p i 1 2: I am fond of classical music.
P u p i 1 3: I am fond of pop music, etc.
We are proud of ...
P u p i l 1: We are proud of our country.
P u p i 1 2: We are proud of our sportsmen.
P u p i 1 3: We are proud of our school, etc.
Pupils are invited to perform various drill exercises within the sentence patterns given:
— substitution: I have a book (a pen);
— extention: I have an interesting book,
I have an interesting book at home;
— transformation: He has a book,
He has no book;
— completion: If I have time I’ll ... .
Pattern practice, of course, makes no pretence of being communication. However, pattern practice for communication is what playing scales and arpeggios is to a musician. Each pattern will have to be repeated many times with a great variety of changes in its contents until the pattern becomes a habit.
Pupils make statements of their own in connection with the situations suggested by the teacher.
Give it a name.
Teacher: We write with it.
Pupil: It is a pencil (pen).
Make statements on the picture.
Teacher (silently points to the picture of a cat)
P u p i l 1: This is a cat.
P u p i l 2: This is a black cat.
Say the opposite.
Teacher: I live in Gorky Street.
Pupil: I do not live in Gorky Street,
Teacher (pointing to the boy): He likes to play hockey.
Pupil: I don't like to play hockey.
When pupils are able to make statements in the foreign language within grammar and vocabulary they have assimilated their speech may be more complicated. They should learn to combine statements of various sentence patterns in a logical sequence.
2. Pupils are taught how to use different sentence patterns in an utterance about an object, a subject offered. First they are to follow a model, and then they do it without any help.
Teacher: Say a few words about it. (He points to an object.)
Pupil: This is a pencil.
The pencil is green.
It is on the table. I like the pencil.
Or Teacher points to a boy.
Pupil: This is a boy. His name is Sasha. He lives in Gagarin Street.
Get information and sum up what you have learnt from your classmates.
Teacher: She cut her finger.
Pupil: Who cut her finger?
Class: Ann.
— When did she cut it?
— Yesterday.
— What did she cut it with?
— With a knife.
— Why did she cut her finger?
— Because the knife was sharp.
Pupil: Yesterday Ann cut her finger. She cut it with a knife. The knife was sharp.
This exercise is useful both for developing dialogic and monologic speech.
Therefore the pupil's utterance involves-2—4 sentences which logically follow one another. At this stage pupils learn to express their thoughts, their attitude to what they say using various sentence patterns. Thus they learn how to put several sentences together in one utterance about a subject, an object, etc.
3. After pupils have learned how to say a few sentences in connection with a situation they are prepared for speaking at discourse level. Free speech is possible provided pupils have acquired habits and skills in making statements and in combining them in a logical sequence. At this level pupils are asked to speak on a picture, a set of pictures, a film-strip, a film, comment on a text they have read or heard, make up a story of their own; of course, this being done within the language material (grammar and vocabulary) pupils have assimilated. To help pupils to speak the teacher supplies them with "what to speak about". The devices used for the purpose are: visual aids which can stimulate the pupil's speaking through visual perception of the subject to be spoken about, including a text read; audio aids which can stimulate the pupil's speaking through auditory perception of a stimulus; audio-visual aids when pupils can see and hear what to speak about.[8]
The three stages in developing pupils' speaking should take place throughout the whole course of instruction, i. e., in junior, intermediate, and senior forms. The amount of exercises at each level, however, must be different. In junior forms statement level is of greater importance as a teaching point.