Speaking

As per pg.343 - pg 353 of

“The Practise of English Language Teaching”
by Jeremy Harmer
 Speaking
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, speaking is,

“To hold talk or discourse, to converse, with

others or with each other.”
Overview
This presentation will cover the following:
● Elements of Speaking
○ Speaking Events
○ Conversational Strategies ● Classroom Speaking
○ Functional language, adjacency Activities
pairs, and fixed phrases ○ Acting out a Script
○ Communication games
○ Discussions
○ Prepared talks
● Students and Speaking
○ Questionnaires
○ Reluctant Students
○ Simulations and role play
○ Teachers’ Roles
○
 Elements of Speaking
● Scott Thornbury - various dimensions - speaking events - describing different
speaking genres.
● Function- Transactional and/or interpersonal
● Purpose/participation - interactive or non-interactive
● Planning - planned or unplanned

For example:

Job interviews may be partly planned, interactive and largely transactional.

Subject to change - not absolute
Conversational Strategies

We are already familiar with Turn taking and discourse markers (to buy time, mark beginnings and ends of sentences/turns).

● Conversational rules and structure: Zoltan Dornyei and Sarah Thurrell - further categories of discourse markers -
conversational openings - interrupting - topic shift - closings.
● Survival and repair strategies: listening in interactive situations - clarify using: formulaic expressions - paraphrase -
all-purpose phrase - appeal for help
● Real talk: need to be exposed to more than coursebooks - well formed - no account of ellipsis - questioning
reformulation - multifunctional question forms (eg: suggestion and criticism) - piling-up of questions (Basturkmen
2001:10).

To raise their awareness:

- analyse transcripts of real speech
- transcribe small sections of authentic speech
and produce a 'clean' version
- use typical discourse markers and phrases
- structure planned transactional (partly
interactive) discourse,
- include structuring/reformulating language.
Functional language, adjacency pairs and fixed
phrases
● Speaking - fixed phrases / lexical chunks (Catch you later, Back in a sec, Can I call you back?).

● Fixed and semi-fixed phrases crop up in functional exchanges (Would you like a...? Shall I get you a...?).

● Adjacency pairs - paired responses .

● Observe functional sequence through functional exchanges.

Students and Speaking
Elements affecting vocal participation in a classroom:

● Class atmosphere
● Student relations
● level of language proficiency
● Topic of task / discussion
Reluctant students
● Reluctant speakers - shyness, unpreparedness,
discomfort, anxiety, fear
● Preparation
○ David Wilson - Rehearsing
○ Marc Helgesen - Thinking in our heads
○ Paul Mennim - record presentations,
transcribe, edit, teacher comment, final
presentation
○ Discussions - buzz groups, brainstorms
● Repetition Athira
● Big groups, small groups
○ Big groups may cause discomfort
○ Start small, gradually increase - dialogue, small
group, big group, presentation
● Mandatory participation
○ William Littlewood - numbered heads
○ Simon Mumford - Speaking grid
Radha Krishna Shilsha Manasa
1 4 3 2

○ Memory - improvement - re-wording - Kadambari 2 1 4 3

familiarise sounds - rehearsal = confident
Pavan 3 2 1 4
performance
○ Plan - perform - analyse - repeat Niharika 4 3 2 1
Role of the teacher
● Prompter - discreet suggestions and gentle guidance
● Participant - animator, enthusiasm, prompting, class dialogue
● Feedback provider - carefully timed and gentle corrections, tact and appropriacy, good feedback
along with criticism.

Students’ understanding of the task is key - clear instructions - demonstrations

Speaking Activities
in the Classroom
They generally fall on or near the communicative end of
the communication continuum

Non-communicative activities Communicative activities

● No communicative desire ● Desire to communicate

● No communicative purpose
● Form > content
● One language only
● Teacher intervention
● Materials control
● Communicative purpose
● Content > form
● Variety of language
● No teacher intervention
● No materials control
Acting from a script
Students act out scenes from plays and/or their coursebooks, or self written dialogues

● Playscripts
○ Real acting - appropriate stress, intonation, and speed - practice - final performance - language
learning and producing activity.
○ Laura Miccoli
■ preliminary stages - relaxing, breathing exercises, laughing with each other.
■ intermediate stage - emotion, action, physicalization, gesture, crying and laughing -
■ presentation stage - script - drama - motivating -'transformative and emancipatory
learning experiences
○ Mark Almond
■ confidence, contextualise language, develop empathy, appropriate problem-solving
■ drama practises gesture,facial expression, eye contact and movement, proxemics and
prosody.
■
● Acting out dialogues
○ Do not choose the shyest students first - supportive atmosphere in the class.
○ Give time to rehearse.
Communication games
Students talk as quickly and fluently as possible.

● Information-gap games: talk to a partner - solve a puzzle, draw a picture (describe and draw), put in
the right order (describe and arrange) or find similarities and differences.

● Television and radio games: twenty questions - just a minute - call my bluff - fishbowl
Discussion
Range from highly formal, whole-group staged -informal small-group interactions.

● Buzz groups: range of discussions - brainstorming - spontaneity

● Instant comment: respond fluently and immediately -insert 'instant comment' - say the first thing that
comes to mind
● Formal debates: prepare arguments - in favour or against propositions - produce well-rehearsed
'writing-like' arguments, Eg: 'balloon debate',
● Unplanned discussion: unprepared for by the teacher -productive speaking in language classes -
prompt and encourage - change our attitude to errors
● Reaching a consensus: decision - choosing between alternatives.
Prepared talks
● Presentation
● not informal or spontaneous conversation
● Writing-like
● speak from notes rather than a script
● procedures and processes
● prepare - rehearse -present
● feedback criteria
Questionnaires
● Pre-planned
● Questioner and respondent speak to each other.
● encourage natural use of certain repetitive language patterns
● middle of our communication continuum.
● basis for written work, discussions or prepared talks.
Simulation and role-play
● Simulate a real-life encounter - real world experience
● Encourage general oral fluency - train students for specific situations - English for specific purposes
(ESP).
● Situation - background information - creativity - create the environment or the
● procedures for the simulation.
● Help prepare students for the real world
Be Im c e W t u r . Spe
wi n ri . Say y at e n.
Avo in h d o p a n
yo l o t si ut r . Use
po f o w in d et o
tuh l e.
- Don e R z
Thank you