FAD on speaking
Background
Spoken Interaction and Spoken Production
Spoken Interaction and Spoken Production
Interaction with other people, most often is done by communicating through speech, either between two or more people as a dialog (spoken interaction) or as a monolog in a spoken Production, when you are giving a talk or presentation.
In the Danish Curriculum for English, part 3, it says, that the purpose with English teaching, is to prepare the students for a life in a globalized society. Therefore it is important to train speaking skills, so the learner will be able to communicate correctly with other people in the chosen language.
Therefore it is important to train these skills, so that the learner will be able to communicate correctly with other people on the chosen language.
Research question
Wich methods should be used to help learners develop their speaking skills?
What are the methods for helping learners develop their speaking skills?
Theory
The European self assessment grid tells us, that there are two different levels of speaking another language.
The level of assessment has 6 levels, from A1 being the lowest and up to C2 being the highest.
Spoken interaction: Spoken interaction is when you communicate with others, as a two way communication.
With spoken interaction you often speak in shorter sentences, your speech is colloquial, use idioms and fillers, unnecessary words, backtrack and overlap. You might even only use body language to give a short reply.
Spoken production is when you talk to an audience, and get little feedback. This means that you have to be specific and clear about your speech and have an aim for what you want to say. Your language is more formal, and you may talk in more general terms. You have to use more fluency and clearer pronunciation.
These theories come from Færch´s Communicative Competence Model wich is listed up in these four areas:
Linguistic competence: the use of Idioms, vocabulary, pronuanciation, grammar etc.
Pragmatic competence: using appropriate words, use of humour, avoiding slang
Strategic competence like finding other words or sentences.
Fluency that covers speed and clarity of speech.
Other models used in TEFL (teaching a foraign language), is the Inter Language (IL) model.
Inter is something “in between” and as a non native, you will never fully master a language.
So if L1 is your native language then L2 is the language that you want to master/learn
What you speak will always be something in between L1 (your original language) and L2 (your target language)
You will move closer to L2 but never fully be a native speaker of L2.
Target Language TL
Language that you want to learn
To capture the interest of the listener - they being the audience or a single person, the principal of the GAP can often be an advantage. This could be information Gap where the listener is receiving new information or can’t guess the outcome. An Opinion Gap can also be used to create interest in the subject through strong or different views on a subject from the learners.
Discussion
Speaking in the classroom
One of the most important ways of teaching students, to speak a new Target language, is to create a forum where there is time and room for them to practice the Target language, here, speaking in front of the class as a production or talking to others as an interaction.
Develop confidence
It is important to get especially shy learners to build up the confidence it takes to utter words in a new language in front of others. This can be helped by giving more preparation time, for them to think and practise on what to say. Let them share what have practised in front of one other learner before they share with the whole class. Use activities where everyone has to participate, so no one can hide away. Make time for repetition, so learners can get more confidence and fluency.
Develop fluency
For learners to develop fluency, they have to practise as often as possible. This means that a lot of the teaching should be with learners working in pairs, in stead of pure teacher – student interaction.
This also means that it is not always a god idea to stop and correct the student when they are saying something wrong, because it will break the fluency of their speech, and make them more insecure.
Monitoring and feedback
When the learners talk, it is a good time for the teacher to listen to students and assess their level of speaking and monitor progress. From this assessment the teacher can plan future work for the students. In this part of the teachers work, they can talk to the learners about mistakes that they need help with.
The before/during/after format:
Before:
Lead-in by introducing the topic, either by making brainstorm about topic to provide ideas, by listening or reding text or perhaps use picture to gain interest. Language focus can be done by introducing key vocabulary and usefull expressions they may use later on in a lesson.
During:
Preparation is done by setting up speaking task with clear instructions, learners can work in pairs or alone to plan what they want to talk about.
Speaking task is done by letting learners work in pairs or groups to perform tasks. At this point the teacher can monitor and listen to the learners and find out how they are doing. By taking notes on learners errors, feedback can later be given to them.
After:
Language focus and focus on errors and difficulties can now be taken up with learners and corrected. Transfer can be done by follow up on the speaking task - perhaps a written activity or something else.
Putting words, phrases, and sentences together, using grammar and vocabulary. Focus on pronunciation and intonation. Choosing language that is appropriate for the receiver(s) ones your teaching?.
Developing confidence. Speaking about a subject in pairs, and then in groups. Developing fluency, by giving a lot of talk time to students. Focus on pronunciation
List of references
Hadfield, Jill and Charles Hadfield (2008): Introduction to teaching English
Oxford: Oxford university press
Lindsay, Cora & Paul Knight (2006): Learning and Teaching English. A course for teachers.
Oxford: Oxford university press
