SPEAKING SKILLS (DEVELOPING

MATERIALS FOR LANGUAGE

TEACHING)
A PRESENTATION BY AMIRHOSEN DANESHI, OMID SHAMSI & ALI KARIMI
AZAD UNIVERSITY, WINTER 2024
 SETTING THE SCENE: SPEAKING SKILLS AND
THE NEED FOR RELEVANT MATERIALS
AS SUGGESTED BY BYGATE (1987,PP. 5–6), IS BY VIEWING THEM IN TWO BASIC ASPECTS: MOTOR-
RECEPTIVE SKILLS AND INTERACTION SKILLS. THE FORMER INVOLVES A MASTERING OF SOUNDS
AND STRUCTURES NOT NECESSARILY IN ANY PARTICULAR CONTEXT. THE LATTER INVOLVES
MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT AND HOW TO SAY THINGS IN SPECIFIC COMMUNICATIVE
SITUATIONS TO CONVEY THE RIGHT INTENTIONS OR MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS.
ARGUABLY, SPEAKING SKILLS ARE BEST DEVELOPED WHEN LEARNERS LEARN TO EVENTUALLY
TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR OWN PERFORMANCE FROM AN INSIDER PERSPECTIVE (E.G. FROM THE
LEARNER), RATHER THAN BEING CONSTANTLY DICTATED BY EXTERNAL MANIPULATION (E.G. BY
THE TEACHER).
ONLY BY WRITERS BUT ALSO BY TEACHERS AND LEARNERS, IN A CREATIVE PROCESS WHICH
STRETCHES TO THE REAL CLASSROOM. TOMLINSON’S PERCEPTION COINCIDES NICELY WITH
NUNAN’S (1989) VIEW THAT TEACHING COMMUNICATION SHOULD BE SEEN AS A PROCESS
RATHER THAN A SET OF PRODUCTS.
 TRENDS IN MATERIALS FOR SPEAKING SKILLS

• during the late 1960s and early 1970s, such expressions

as ‘real-life contexts’, ‘functionally based’, ‘meaningful
and effective communication’ are seen to fulfill publishers’
claims; then since the early 1990s, the key concepts have
included ‘systematic development in combination with
other three skills practice’, ‘core grammar structures’ and
‘different learning styles and teaching situations’.
 A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING
MATERIALS FOR SPOKEN LANGUAGE

(1) conceptualizing learner needs, (2) identifying subject matter and

communication situations, (3) identifying verbal communication strategies, (4)
utilizing verbal sources from real life and (5) designing skill-acquiring activities.
• Conceptualizing learner needs

Materials design should begin from who learners are in order to link language study
not only to learners’ future use but also to their present receptivity. it is important
to look at both subjective needs and objective needs in the learner. The former
comprises such areas as learners’ speaking proficiency and difficulties plus real-life
conversational situations outside of the classroom, all of which will help the teacher
decide what to teach.
• Translating needs to subject matters and communication situations

Knowledge about learner needs will serve as the foundation on which experiential content
is selected for instructional materials. As learners reveal what they want to do with the
target language, they also directly or indirectly imply the type of environment where the
language is to be used. It is now important to also explore the context of such environments
and form some idea of what skills their society requires of an effective speaker.
Identifying verbal communication strategies
Conversational strategies must be incorporated in teaching materials because they are
essential tools to serve the communication of meanings. One way of doing so is by
designing tasks for learners to act upon their interlocutor’s speech rather than merely
concentrating on their own.
It is therefore essential to build into materials many practical devices that can help
facilitate oral production and overcome those communication difficulties arising under time
pressure. suggests five of them: (1) using less complex syntax, (2) making do with short
phrases and incomplete sentences, (3) employing fixed conversational phrases, (4) adding
filler words to gain time to speak and (5) correcting or improving what one has already said.
 UTILIZING VERBAL SOURCES FROM REAL LIFE

To modify materials, besides printed sources such as magazine articles or

pictures as a springboard for communication, course developers can also utilize
many verbal interactions taken from real life and in the classroom. One method
to seek for practical teaching ideas, as suggested by Tay (1988) is by taping
learners’ peer group interaction in the target language and analyzing it.
Keeping a diary might also be a realistic way to collect resources for designing
speaking activities with.
DESIGNING SKILL-ACQUIRING TASKS

Once communication content is outlined and its components are selected, the decisive step is to
create relevant tasks that help learners in three essential aspects: to acquire new language, to learn
rules of interaction and to experience communication of meanings – though not necessarily in this
sequence. (a) To acquire new language, learners should be helped to internalize new language before
making it become available to discuss topics. Teaching new language includes not only presenting
linguistic structures but also helping learners to self-discover form and function.
• Examples of such tasks can be ranking exercises, brainstorming for key words and expressions,
generating ideas around the topic and so on. (b) To learn rules of interaction, learners can be
provided with conditions to help them become aware of fundamental skills and develop verbal
strategies in the target topic. This is made possible by having learners read several dialogues within
the topic, by getting them to listen to conversations read by the teacher or from the tape and by
drawing learner attention to and encouraging them to discuss characteristics of verbal
communication.
A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE SPEAKING
MATERIALS

Effective materials for oral communication should enable learners to actively (1) share and
process information, (2) control meanings, (3) choose how to participate, (4) utilize
affectivity, (5) utilize individual knowledge, (6) become aware of ellipsis in spoken
language, and (7) move beyond the Initiation-Respond-Feedback model.
Focus on both sharing and processing information
• Speaking tasks should not merely organize for learners, during interaction, to share
information but should also enable them to process it. Sharing information means
discovering missing information from one’s knowledge gap by learning about it from one
or more partners. Processing information means communicating by exchanging what
belongs in learners’ individuality by allowing learners to use their own backgrounds and
personalities.
RESPECT FOR LEARNER CONTROL OF MEANINGS

communication skills are best developed when learners learn to eventually take control of their own
performance from their own perspective rather than wait to be directed by the teacher.
materials should facilitate ‘self-directed learning’ (Tomlinson, 2010, p. 90) and respect learners’ personal
decisions. This can be done by inviting learners to provide topics of their own interest, raise a question,
talk about their own experiences, bring into the classroom stories that they wish to share with others.
Potential for a range of learner choices
good materials allow for learner choices, which can be provided in a number of different ways. The range
of decisions may involve learners choosing their role in a project that involves many partners, choosing a
sub-task in an activity or choosing a topic from a set of suggested topics.
• good materials do not organize interaction by always putting learners together, thus denying their
choice, but, to reflect real-life communication, should also encourage learners to sometimes seek their
own partners and to decide on the people they want and need to communicate with.
CONCERN FOR LEARNER AFFECTIVITY

• Learners tend to find it easier to articulate their ideas when they feel
emotionally involved and enjoy what is going on. Good materials therefore
must be inspiring enough to stir and enhance individual learners’ interests,
needs and abilities as well as affective involvement.
• Utilization of individual knowledge
• If students are given an unfamiliar topic to write about, they can take some
time to read or research for that purpose. But if they given an unfamiliar topic
to discuss verbally, they are most likely to give up, due to the pressure of time
inherent in oral communication.