Guidelines to design an oral practice (Online

meeting)
An oral practice is a learning space offered to virtual students in
order to help them develop their speaking skill. This kind of practice can
take place virtually (e.g. video conference) or face to face (e.g. at the
Resources Center). The aim of this practice is to help students improve
their oral performance when facing different social situations in diverse
contexts.

Structure of the practice

The practice should include the following information:

Section Purpose

Statement of objective Describe clearly and simply what you expect learners to
achieve.
Practice description Describe the practice and take into account the social
abilities students are developing (description, narration,
explanation, and argumentation), the linguistic
competences, the level of language of the students, as
well as the course content.
Steps Explain the steps that learners should go through in the
oral practice.

Resources Provide a list of authentic online resources that learners

can use to achieve their objective.

Sources and Credits Include the sources in case you used information from
other texts and give credit to yourself if you designed
the practice or adapted it. Include the year.
 Example – Level 1
Unit 1: Introducing myself
Objective: The purpose of this practice is to learn how to describe
personal information.

Practice: Listening and speaking about personal information.

Input: Mathew’s introduction audio

Steps:

1. Students and teacher listen to the audio Mathew’s introduction.

2. Students answer the questions below:

a. Where is Matthew from?

_____________________________________________________
b. What does he do?

_____________________________________________________
c. Where does he live?

_____________________________________________________
d. What are Matthew’s hobbies?

_____________________________________________________
e. Which countries does he mention?
_____________________________________________________

3. Students listen to the audio again and fill in the blanks with the
missing words.

Hello. My name is Matthew _______. I am from _______, but I have

been a language __________ here in Osaka for many years. My wife,
Yukatti, and I _________ here in Nagai Park in Southern Osaka. We
don’t ________ any children yet but we have a lot of _________. My
hobbies are _________ riding, learning new things, and ____________
with my computer. I also __________ music, __________, and movies.
I have been to many countries such as __________, ___________,
_______________ and ______________. I love to travel, learn about
different ___________________ and meet people from different
countries. I am lucky because I can speak English almost
_____________ I go. You can too!
 4. Teacher leads the discussion among students by asking them to
use Mathew’s model in order to introduce themselves. Students
can do this practice in small groups first and then they can
socialize what they learn from other classmates.
5. Teacher takes notes of linguistic issues.
6. At the end of the practice, teacher explains linguistic issues she/he
has identified during the practice.

Sources and credits:

Listening retrieved from: http://www.walshsensei.org/indexintro.mp3 by Matthew

Walsh (July, 2014)
Audio License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 
Adapted by Alejandra Jiménez, September 2015 (for educational purposes)

Example – Level 2
Unit 1: Describing personality
Objective: The purpose of this practice is to learn how to describe
personality traits.

Practice: Reading and speaking about personality traits.

Input: Flatmate profile reading

Steps:

1. Students and teacher read the text “Flatmate profile” before the
online meeting.

2. Students answer the given questions before the online meeting:

a. What are Rachel and Chris’ best qualities?

b. What are Rachel and Chris’ worst qualities?

c. Who do you think is the best match for Robert and Katie? Why?
 d. What is your perfect flatmate? What qualities should she/he
have?

3. During the online meeting students share their answers to the

questions.

4. Then students have a short discussion in group to answer the

questions below:

a. What are your best qualities? Why?

b. What would like to change about your personality?

5. Finally, teacher leads a group discussion among students by

asking them: who is your best match?
6. Teacher takes notes of linguistic issues.
7. At the end of the practice, teacher explains linguistic issues she/he
has identified during the practice.

Sources and credits:

Reading retrieved from: Unknown source

Adapted by Alejandra Jiménez, April 2014 (for educational purposes)

Example - Level 3

Unit 3: Our city, our problems

Objective: The purpose of this practice is to describe one of the
problems affecting Medellin City.

Practice: Reading and discussion about the article “13 Teachers Forced
To Flee Medellin Schools Just This Month”.

Article: http://todaycolombia.com/13-teachers-forced-to-flee-medellin-
schools-just-this-month/
Steps:

1. Students and teacher read the article “13 Teachers Forced To Flee
Medellin Schools Just This Month” aloud.
2. Students and teacher answer questions regarding vocabulary or
idiomatic expression.
3. Teacher leads the discussion among students by using the
questions below:
● What is the social issue of the reading?
● According to the article, when did the problem start?
● Are there other related problems? Which ones?
● According to the article, what are the causes of the
problem?
4. Teacher takes notes of linguistic issues.
5. At the end of the practice, teacher explains linguistic issues she/he
has identified during the practice.

Sources and credits:

Article: http://todaycolombia.com/13-teachers-forced-to-flee-medellin-schools-
just-this-month/

Designed by Alejandra Jiménez Quintero (2019)

Example - Level 4

Objective: The purpose of this practice is to to understand and to

express the changes that a person might have in her/his life

.Practice: Reading and speaking about personality traits.

Input: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=1i9kcBHX2Nw&feature=emb_logo

Steps:
1. Students and teacher watch Steve Jobs’ speech at Standford
University before the online meeting.
2. Students answer the given questions before the online meeting:
 Steve Jobs is going to tell three stories from his life. What is
the first story about?
 Why did his mother decide to put him up for adoption?
 How long had he been at Reed College before he quit?
 What is the second story about?
 When and where did he start Apple?
 What is the third story about?
 What question has he asked himself every morning for the past
33 years?
3. During the online meeting students share their answers to the
questions.
4. Finally, teacher leads a group discussion among students by
asking them: What have the most important changes been in their
lives?
5. Teacher takes notes of linguistic issues.
6. At the end of the practice, teacher explains linguistic issues she/he
has identified during the practice.

Sources and credits:

video retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=1i9kcBHX2Nw&feature=emb_logo
Adapted by Deisa Gómez, 2019 (for educational purposes)