LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

1. The Definition of Speaking

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of
verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13).
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its
importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English
language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or
memorization of dialogues.
However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should
improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can
express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules
appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach second
language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities
are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom settings, together
with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.

2. The Definition of Teaching Speaking

What is meant by teaching speaking is to teach ESL learners to:
 Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns
 Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the
second language.
 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social
setting, audience, situation and subject matter.
 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.
 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.
 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which
is called as fluency. (Nunan, 2003)

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

3. How to Teach Speaking

Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in
the second language by "interacting". Communicative language teaching and
collaborative learning serve best for this aim. Communicative language teaching is
based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in
ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in
the target language. In brief, ESL 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.

4. Activities to Promote Speaking

 Discussions
After a content-based lesson, 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. 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

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

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.

 Role Play
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 "You are David, you
go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)

 Simulations
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different
from 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, as Harmer (1984) suggests, 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.

 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. In addition, each partner plays an important
role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the
information the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has
the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

 Brainstorming
On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on
the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners
generate ideas quickly and freely. The good characteristic of brainstorming is that
students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new
ideas.

 Storytelling
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.

 Interviews
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a
good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what
type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare
their own interview questions. 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.

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

 Story Completion
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activities 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.

 Reporting
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. Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth
telling their friends in their daily lives before class.

 Playing Cards
In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a
topic. For instance:
 Diamonds: Earning money
 Hearts: Love and relationships
 Spades: An unforgettable memory
 Clubs: Best teacher
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:
 Is money important in your life? Why?
 What is the easiest way of earning money?
 What do you think about lottery? Etc.
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.

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

 Picture Narrating
This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell
the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria
provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or
structures they need to use while narrating.

 Picture Describing
Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students
just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity,
students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students
discuss the picture with their groups, and then a spokesperson for each group
describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and
imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

 Find the Difference

For this activity, students can work in pairs and each couple is given two
different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture
of girls playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in
the pictures.

5. 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.

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

 Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that
conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more.
 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.
 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.

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

CONCLUSION

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning.

The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently

contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every

phase of life. Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great

attention to teaching speaking. Rather than leading students to pure

memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful

communication takes place is desired. With this aim, various speaking

activities such as those listed above 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.

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LTS Assignment by the 6th Group | Teaching Speaking 2014

REFERENCES

Baruah, T.C. 1991. The English Teacher's Handbook. Delhi: Sterling

Publishing House.
Brown, G. and G. Yule. 1983. Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Celce-Murcia. M. 2001. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign
Language (3rd ed). USA: Heinle&Heinle.
Chaney, A.L., and T.L. Burk. 1998. Teaching Oral Communication in
Grades K-8. Boston: Allyn&Bacon.
Harmer, J. 1984. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London:
Longman.
McDonough, J. and C. Shaw. 2003. Materials and Methods in ELT: a
teacher’s guide. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell.
Nunan, D., 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. NY:McGraw-Hill.
Staab, C. 1992. Oral language for today's classroom. Markham, ON:
Pippin Publishing.