HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY

Listening + Reading = Also Important

Studies have shown that extensive reading aids in written and spoken skills and not just in reading.
Also, students who watch a lot of English TV or movies are often the best at knowing when to use a
certain phrase or idiom as well as just having a natural “feel” for the language which is almost
impossible to teach.

Fluency + Accuracy = Keep in Balance

There has been a radical shift in thinking in the past 10 or 20 years and there is a focus on fluency
before grammatical accuracy. It’s how we learn our first language when we’re young. We utter
things, fluently, that actually make no grammatical sense but grammatical accuracy comes later.
You can use communicative, task-based approaches that are kind of like throwing students into the
deep-end and just expecting them to swim as opposed to guiding them along by the hand, to deeper
and deeper water. You could also try some of these activities to work on building fluency:
1. Retell the Story 1-2-3: This is a fluency activity which can be done with beginners by having
them introduce themselves. Higher level students can tell a story they know or recap a story that was
covered in class. Give the students a bit of time to think about what they’re going to say; the lower
the level of students, the more time they will need.
-Working in pairs, each student will tell the same story three times. The first time, they will each
speak for one minute. Then, have the students switch partners. With their second partner, each person
will tell the same story, but add more detail, so they speak for two minutes. Again, everyone will
switch partners. The third time they tell their story, everyone should speak for three minutes. 1
-You might need to reduce these times for beginner students if they are struggling to keep talking.
With an advanced class, you might want to reverse the order to 3-2-1, in order to help them focus on
retelling only the most important parts of the story and working on fluency.
2. Telling a Story: In almost all general, 4-skills ESL textbooks, there are usually pages with
discussion starters that involve telling a story of some kind, often in the unit related to the past verb
tenses. A big problem with telling stories in class is that most students will not do a very good job of
it if they are given no time to prepare. And an activity that could be very useful for generating some
interesting conversation and discussion can be over in only a couple of minutes.
A better way is to give the students 2-5 minutes (depending on the level) of preparation time before
they have to tell their story. Emphasize to the students that it is a speaking activity and not a writing
activity, so while they can jot down a few words, they cannot write full sentences.
 HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY

TOP 5 STUDENT-CENTERED SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

1. BOARD GAMES
2. 20-QUESTIONS GAME
3. MIND MAPS (Brainstorming)
4. ROLE PLAYS
5. TABOO

1. BOARD GAMES: They are a great way to review tenses.

For example, in order to review Simple Past tense, you can find a board game online or you can
prepare your own. (See appendix A)

2. 20-QUESTIONS GAME: With this game, you can review Yes/No Questions in any tense or
modals, adjectives or nouns.
-It can be based on whatever you’re teaching (Animals/Jobs, etc).
-In groups, the students ask the teacher a yes/no question. After the teacher gives the answer, the
students can have one chance to guess the secret thing. -Play a few rounds and the team with the
most points is the winner. You can also have students take turns being the one with the “secret.”
It’s an excellent way for students to practice asking questions in English.
-If you have a very large class, divide the students up into smaller groups and have them play
with each other.
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3. MIND MAPS: They work very well when introducing a new topic, starting a new unit. They
help students visually generate inter-connected ideas. Mind maps are an amazing way to present
new material and help them remember things they have learned previously and need to refresh.

You can place the main topic from the cue card in the middle and then students brainstorm ideas
around it. (See Appendix B)
Finger Pointing Speaking: By laying out parts of the Map in a particular pattern on a worksheet
a teacher can give the students a tool for formulating various answers to a question. By using
their finger to follow the paths made while forming the Map they can form new sentences piece
by piece. At some point the Mind Map becomes more of a flow chart. This approach works well
in low level or Junior High classes where students have trouble forming sentences on their own.
 HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY
4. ROLE-PLAYS: Role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself into
somebody else's shoes, or when you stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary
situation!
Imaginary people - The joy of role-play is that students can 'become' anyone they like for a
short time! The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star …….. the choice is endless!
Students can also take on the opinions of someone else. 'For and Against' debates can be used and
the class can be split into those who are expressing views in favor and those who are against the
theme.
Imaginary situations - Functional language for a multitude of scenarios can be activated and
practiced through role-play. 'At the restaurant', 'Checking in at the airport', 'Looking for lost
property' are all possible role-plays.
Jeremy Harmer advocates the use of role-play for the following reasons:
-It's fun and motivating.
-Quieter students get the chance to express themselves in a more straightforward way.
-The world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world - thus offering a much
wider range of language opportunities.
-In addition to these reasons, students are given a chance to rehearse their English in a safe
environment. Real situations can be created and students can benefit from the practice.
The role of the teacher
-Facilitator - students may need new language to be 'fed' in by the teacher. If rehearsal time is 3
appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage.
-Spectator - The teacher watches the role-play and offers comments and advice at the end.
-Participant - It is sometimes appropriate to get involved and take part in the role-play yourself.
Students working in the business world may find it easy to role-play a business meeting with
colleagues visiting from abroad. If you are working with young children, try to exploit their
natural ability to 'play'. They are used to acting out a visit to the shops or preparing food, as that
is how they play with their friends.

Feed-in language
As students practice the role-play they might find that they are stuck for words and phrases. In
the practice stage the teacher has a chance to 'feed-in' the appropriate language. This may need
the teacher to act as a sort of 'walking dictionary', monitoring the class and offering assistance as
and when necessary. If you are not happy doing this and you feel that the process of finding the
new language should offer more student autonomy, you could have 'time-out' after the practice
stage for students to use dictionaries to look up what they need.

5. TABOO: The game TABOO is a great way to improve vocabulary and fluency. The idea of the
game (simplified rules) is that one student has a card with a word which his/her classmates have
to identify. The player with the card can only use speech to describe this word, and may not use
key words listed on the card - they are TABOO! If you use the actual game, you will probably
have to go through the cards first and select them for the level of your group; or you can make
your own cards, listing taboo words according to the level and culture of your students. If you
divide your class into two teams the competition gets really fierce! (See Appendix C)
 HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY
Picture taboo is a fluency focused activity which also builds vocabulary and acts as an
introduction to a theme. This activity has one important difference to regular Taboo. The student
describing the object has a picture of it so they don’t necessarily need to know themselves what
the English word for the object is. The other students may also not know the name of the
object but hopefully will be able to recognize it from the description and can have their guesses
confirmed by viewing the photo at the end of each turn. In a mono-lingual class I would allow the
students to guess the name of the object in their native language if they recognize it but don’t
know the English name. The teacher then feeds in the English name for the object.

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 HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY
APPENDIX A
You can prepare your own board game

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 HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY
APPENDIX B

http://www.kidseslgames.com/printable%20games/Board%20Games/boardgames.html#.WH-
W5IVOLDc
 HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING - FLUENCY

APPENDIX C