Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Teaching Speaking
Teaching Speaking
FELTE,ULIS, VNU
Contents
Definition of speaking
Fluency, accuracy and communication
Different kinds of speaking
Principles of teaching speaking
Classroom speaking activities
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Discussion
Think of some times you fail to communicate orally
in English in the classroom/or in real world. What
are the possible reasons?
What do you think are the factors of successful
spoken communication in English?
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What does speaking involve?
Lexis and grammar
Connected speech
Expressive devices
Compensating language
Language processing
Sociolinguistic knowledge
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What does speaking involve?
Lexis and grammar
Needed to perform certain language functions
Agreeing; disagreeing; expressing surprise, approval, etc.
Connected speech
Rhythm
Weak forms ( reductions)
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What does speaking involve?
Expressive devices
Used to convey meanings beyond the words
E.g., Pitch, stress, volume
Compensating language
Language of negotiation used to
Seek clarification
Show the structure of what we say
Know when and how to start talking
How to keep a conversation going
How to terminate the conversation
How to clear up communication breakdown, communication
problems
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What does speaking involve?
Language processing
Process language in one’s head
Put language into coherent order
Comprehensible language produced conveying
intended meaning
Sociolinguistic knowledge
Appropriate use of the target language in different
cultural and social contexts
Giving comments/compliments
Responding nonverbally/verbally
Let’s get together for lunch/coffee sometime
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Difference in way of paying a compliment to some one between
Asian cultures and North American culture
Nice cap,
Doraemon. You
look gorgeous!
#&*%*!!!! Am I
saying anything
wrong?
Japanese American
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British understatement (BU)
During the Korean War, a British army unit was tasked with
holding a hill that overlooked a strategically important river
which the opposing Chinese forces attempted to cross. The
situation however was desperate, since the British unit was
outnumbered at least 8 to 1 and surrounded on all sides.
The commander of the British unit reported to his American
superior that “Things are a bit sticky, sir”, which really meant
“Things are desperate, sir”.
Unfortunately, the American superior misinterpreted this so-
very-British understatement and thought the situation was
difficult, but manageable. He told the British commander to
hold the line, and promised no reinforcements and ordered no
retreat.
After four days, the British position was overrun. 500 out of the
600 soldiers were taken prisoner, with the rest either dead or
managed to escape.
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Japanese interpreter didn’t know how to
translate a joke (JI)
Soon after his presidency, Jimmy Carter found himself in a
Japanese college, giving a speech there.
To ease the tension and get everyone onboard, he decided
to tell a joke (by his own admission, it wasn’t a funny
one, but it was short).
To his surprise, the Japanese interpreter translated the joke
much faster than he spoke it, and the entire audience burst
out laughing.
President Carter was curious how the Japanese interpreter
translated his joke, because it was shorter than it should
have been, and people laughed much harder than normal.
Finally, after much coaxing, the interpreter simply admitted
to translate the joke as: “President Carter told a funny
story. Everyone must laugh.”
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When a burgler didn’t know if he should
give the gun, or fire the gun (Bs)
A peculiar legal situation occurred in 1953, when two British
men, 19 year old Derek Bentley and 16 year old Christopher
Craig, were caught red handed by the police as they attempted to
rob a warehouse.
At some point during the robbery, a police officer had cornered
the two and asked Christopher Craig to hand over his gun.
Derek Bentley then said to Craig “Let him have it, Chris”.
Apparently, Craig understood this as “shoot the guy, Chris”
rather than “give him the gun, Chris”. Craig then fired at the
police officers, injuring one and killing another.
During the trial, the jury debated about the exact meaning of the
phrase and eventually settled around the notion that it meant
“shoot the guy, Chris”. As a result, Derek Bentley was convicted
of murder by joint enterprise and then hanged.
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The moment you realize it and feel really, really silly
(CN)
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Fisting Club (FC)
My co-worker is from China. This sometimes leads to interesting mistakes. One day he
came in happy that he joined a new club. When asked what kind, he said, “Fisting!”
I: “Fisting?”
He: “Yes! It’s great! You should join too!”
I: “Are you sure it’s a fisting club?”
He: “Yeah! It’s really cool!”
I: “So… uh… what do you do at this club?”
He: “Work out and stuff.”
I: “Ooohhh!!! You mean “fitness”, not “fisting””
He: “No! Fisting. You know.”
I: “I really don’t think that means what you think it means…”
He: “What does it mean?”
I: “I can’t explain it. Just look it up on google images.”
He: “Oh my god! Why?!?!?! Why would someone do that? Why?!?!?”
(it was an image of a dude by himself…). “Needless to say he doesn’t call it a fisting club
anymore…”
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Fluency, Accuracy and Communication
Accuracy Fluency
Vocabulary Length
Pronunciation Independence
Transactional speech
Communicating to get something done
E.g., Ordering food in a restaurant, Changing money at the bank,
Buying things at a store, etc.,
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Classroom speaking activities
Controlled Free
speaking Communicative
activities activities
Classroom activities
More controlled speaking activities
Interview
Picture activities (Matching, describing, guessing
games etc.,)
Controlled role-play activities (use of situations and
dialogues)
Less controlled/Free speaking activities
Free role-play activities (not based on textbook
dialogues)
Discussion activities (controversial issues)
Performance activities (story telling, oral report, giving
a talk, etc.,)
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Common activity types in CLT
1. Information-gap activities (a gap of information)
2. Jig-saw activities (pieces of information put together)
3. Task-completion activities (e.g., guessing game, puzzles)
4. Information gathering activities (e.g., surveys,
interviews)
5. Opinion-sharing activities (e.g., comparing values,
opinions)
6. Information-transfer activities (e.g., tables to text)
7. Reasoning gap-activities (reasoning to find out the gap)
8. Role-plays (assigned roles in a situation)
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Name the activity
type
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Jig-saw
activities
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Ss ask one student twenty
Task- questions find out the name
completion of a job in this student’s hand
activities
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Opinion-
Ss work in small groups listing
Sharing
the qualities of a good teacher.
activities
S1: Picture A
Information-gap S2: Picture B
activity Asking and answering the
questions about the pictures
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Information-
transfer
activities
The graph shows Underground
Station Passenger Numbers in
London.
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Reasoning
Gap-activities
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Role-
plays
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Notes for planning
Listening/Reading:
Pre-stage
While
Post.
Speaking:
Warm-up
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
- ……
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Important notes when teaching speaking
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Corrective feedback for Oral work
● When to correct?
○ Immediate correction
○ Delayed correction
● Who correct?
○ Self correction
○ Peer correction
○ Teacher correction
● What to correct?
● The tone of the feedback?
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Practice: Go to Padlet
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