Module eleven 45

MODULE 11
Speaking or Oral Production

I. General comments
Limitations

Speaking is perhaps the most demanding skill for the teacher to teach. In their own language,
children are able to express emotions, communicate intentions and reactions, explore the language
and make fun of it, so they expect to be able to do the same in English. Part of the magic of teaching
young children a foreign language is their unspoken assumption that the foreign language is just
another way of expressing what they want to express, but there are limitations because of their lack
of actual language.

We do not know what they want to say

If you want your pupils to continue thinking about English simply as a means of communication, then
you cannot expect to be able to predict what language the children will use. Their choice is infinite,
and we cannot decide what they will say or want to say. You’ll also find that the children will often
naturally insert their native language when they can’t find the words in English.

Finding the balance

What is important with beginners is finding the balance between providing language through
controlled and guided activities and at the same time letting them enjoy natural talk. Most of our
pupils have little opportunity to practise speaking English outside the classroom and so need lots of
practice when they are in class.

Correction:

When the pupils are working with controlled and guided activities, we want them to produce correct
language. If they make mistakes at this stage then they should be corrected at once. During this type
of activity the pupils are using teacher or textbook language, and the pupils are only imitating or
giving an alternative, so correction is straightforward.

However, when pupils are working on free oral activities we are trying to get them to say what they
want to say, to express themselves and their own personalities. The emphasis for the pupils should
be on content. If pupils are doing problem, then correction of language mistakes should not be done
while the activity is going on. The teacher can note what he or she thinks should be corrected and
take it up in class later. Of course, if pupils ask you what is correct or what the English word for ‘X’ is
while they are talking, then you should give them the answer.

II. Presenting new language orally

When children start learning English, they obviously need to be given language before they can
produce it themselves. Language has to go in before it can come out. At this initial stage the activities
46 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

will be under the control of the teacher. Here are just some of the ways you can present new
language orally:

Through the pupils

The teacher knows what his or her pupil can do, so he or she says:

‘Listen to me, please. Maria can swim. Peter can sing. Miriam can ride a bike. Paula can whistle.
Carlos can draw.’ The sentences should be true and accompanied by the appropriate actions and
sounds.

Then ss can repeat each sentence and even they can change names according to what they know
about their friends.

Using a mascot

One of the most successful ways of presenting language to young children is through puppets or a
class mascot. Having ‘someone’ familiar constantly on hand with whom you can have conversations
about anything and everything is a wonderful way of introducing news subjects and news language
to young children. For example, if you use a teddy as your mascot, you can use Teddy to ask
questions. Pupils can ask through Teddy: `Teddy wants to know...`You can present dialogues with
Teddy as your partner.

For example:
`Teddy, can you swim?
No, I can’t, but I can sing.’
And Teddy then sings a song
OR
`Teddy, do you like carrots?
Ugh, no!
What about bananas?
Yes, I love them

Once the teacher has given the model, pupils can ask Teddy all sorts of questions and Teddy can
provide all sorts of answers. In this way teddy’s name, address, identity, likes, dislikes, etc. will be
built up in cooperation with the children, so that Teddy belongs to everyone in the class. Note that a
mascot should belong to only one class.
Teddy means that you don’t have to present oral work by yourself. Most oral work is directed
towards someone and asks for a response from someone, and having another speaker of English
around can make all sorts of situations easier to get across.

Drawings
You can use very simple line drawings on the board, like stick or box people doing different actions

Silhouettes
You can use silhouettes on the overhead projector; they can be given movement if you attach a piece of
wire to them. (Andrew Wright’s ideas)
 Module eleven 47

Puppets
Puppets don’t need to be more than masks, and these don’t have to be complicated. They can just be
paper bags with holes for eyes.

Other suggestions
You can use simple clear pictures to present new language; you can mime/act situations; you can use
realia – clothes, telephones, animals, toy furniture, etc.

Introducing new vocabulary with cards (4B)

TEACHER: Very good. Now, we have some new animals…

(Teacher holds up a picture card but only shows the animal’s ears)
TEACHER: What’s this?
CHILD: It’s a dog
TEACHER: A dog? No… like a dog. It’s a … a fox. (Teacher puts the picture on the board)
TEACHER: Now what’s this?
CHILD: A fox
TEACHER: Yes, Ok, one more new animal… (Now the teacher covers the picture with her hand so only
the nose and upper face is showing)
TEACHER: Is this a dog?
CHILDREN: No
TEACHER: A kangaroo?
CHILD: No
TEACHER: An elephant?
CHILD: No
TEACHER: No, it’s a mouse … a mouse.
Repeat please.
PUPILS AND TEACHER: A mouse /Pura with nine to ten year olds/

Either/or questions (4C)

TEACHER: Now, remember, this was a?
CHILD: A fox
TEACHER: And this is …?
CHILD: A mouse
TEACHER: Ok, and look at this picture.
Ok. Is this an elephant or a kangaroo?
CHILDREN: An elephant
TEACHER: Yes. Good, an elephant.
Ok, and this one … Is this a mouse or a frog?
CHILDREN: A mouse
TEACHER: Very good. Now… /Pura with nine to ten year olds/

Classifying (4D)
TEACHER: Now let’s draw houses. One big and one small. This is the big animal house and the other one
is the small animal house. Ok. Now what’s this?
CHILDREN: Mouse
TEACHER: Ok, a mouse. Which house does he go in?
CHILDREN: Small house
TEACHER: Yes. The small animal house. Very good, now, let’s see…
/Lucy with nine to ten year olds/
48 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

III. Controlled Practice

Controlled practice goes hand in hand with presentation since it is important that pupils try out
new language as soon as they have heard it. In controlled practice there is very little chance that
the pupils can make a mistake. In the Teddy example above, we have already suggested the
controlled practice – that the pupils ask teddy, ‘Do you like.....?’ They can then go on to ask each
other in pairs, ‘Do you like .....?’, with the other pupil simply answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Once the
pattern is established with the class, they can happily do it in pairs.
Again too, you can use the same variety of ways of getting the controlled practice going – Teddy,
puppets, drawings, etc. Here are some examples of controlled practice:

Telling the time

Pupil A asks: What’s the time? Pupil B answers: It’s .............

What’s he/she doing?

Pupil A asks: What’s he/she doing? Pupil B answers: He’s/she’s .........ing

Activities like these provide the basis for oral work, but do not always produce ‘real’ language at
once. Their purpose is to train pupils to use correct, simple, useful language within a situation or
context. Pupils may have to repeat sentences, be corrected and go through the same thing several
times. Familiarity and safety are necessary to help build up security in the language.

Guessing the picture (4E)

TEACHER: So, let’s see who remembers? I have a picture here … ok something you know … Can you
guess what it is?
CHILD: Star
TEACHER: Very good. That’s right. Now you come out … pick one. Do you know what it is? Whisper it
to me. Yes that’s it Ok, off you go…
FIRST CHILD: What is it?
SECOND CHILD: Sun
FIRST CHILD: No
THIRD CHILD: Garden
FIRST CHILD: No
FOURTH CHILD: Planet
FIRST CHILD: No
FIFTH CHILD: Clou
FIRST CHILD: Yes
TEACHER: Ok, let’s just check pronunciations. Is it clou or cloud?
CHILDREN: (All together) Cloud
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TEACHER: Cloud. Yes very good /Jane with seven to eight year olds/
Remembering a list (4F)

TEACHER: Ok, we’ll start with these four. Ok, are you ready?
FIRST CHILD: I’d like an apple and a pear
TEACHER: Good
SECOND CHILD: I’d like an apple and a pear – and an orange
TEACHER: Good
THIRD CHILD: I’d like an orange … no … an apple and a pear and an orange and a … banana
TEACHER: Very good. That was great, now …
/Brian with nine to ten year olds/

Supporting pupils by saying a word (4G)

TEACHER: Ok, we’re going to play one more game… Do you remember … this game we played? You
have to point to what I am thinking about
(Teacher sits on a chair and starts game)
TEACHER: I spy with my little eye something beginning with “pl”
(One child points to a picture of planet on the board)
TEACHER: Very good Anna … pl … planet, pl … planet
(Now Anna whispers her word to the teacher “sun, sun” and she sits on chair)
TEACHER: Now Anna’s word … I spy with my little eye … something beginning with /s/ … Can anyone
point to something beginning with /s/?
/Jane with seven to eight year olds/

IV. Guided Practice

Guided practice follows on directly from controlled practice and will often be done either in pairs or
in small groups. Guided practice usually gives the pupils some sort of choice, but the choice of
language is limited. Textbooks are full of exercises for guided practice and you can use pictures or
objects or miming to help the pupils understand the content and practise the words – telling the
time, asking the way, talking about colours, etc. here are some speaking teaching situations:

What’s the time?

This exercise would follow on from the controlled practice above. Both pupils have clocks with hands
that move. The situation could be that Pupil A’s watch has stopped and he or she wants to ask Pupil B
the time. This puts the language into context and the guided practice can become a mini-dialogue.
Pupil A: What’s the time, please?
Pupil B: It’s five past ten. (Looking at the clock in the book and putting his or her clock to five past
ten)
Pupil A: Thank you. (Puts his or her clock to the same time and compares)
The language remains the same, but Pupil A never knows what the time is going to be. Since Pupil A
has to do something with the information he or she gets, it also makes the exercise just a bit more
meaningful.

Chain work
Chain work uses picture cards or word cards. Put all the cards face down in a pile. Pupil 1 picks up a
card on which there are some bananas. Turning to pupil 2 he or she says ‘Do you like bananas?’ Pupil
2 then picks up the next card on which there are some apples and answers, ‘No, I don’t like bananas,
but I like....’ and so on. Obviously, this activity can be used to practise whatever vocabulary or
structure you are working on at the time – it is not limited to bananas and apples.
50 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

Introducing a phrase during the game “clothes dominoes”

The cards show coloured clothes. The children play in turns by putting down the same colour or the
same clothes item beside the domino card that is on the table, they are all playing in small groups
and the teacher is working with one group.
Learning a new phrase in context (4A)

TEACHER: Ok, Midori, red shoes …

MIDORI: Red jumper
HARUKA: A purple skirt
TEACHER: Can’t you go?, say “I can’t go”
HARUKA: I can’t go
TEACHER: Good, Ok, now the next card. How do you say this in English trou… trou
PUPILS AND TEACHER: Trousers
TEACHER: Good. Ok, your turn now
HARUKA: Blue trousers TEACHER: Good
MIDORI: I can’t go TEACHER: No – you haven’t got anything blue
MIDORI: No – I can’t go
TEACHER: Ok (Bob with eleven to twelve year olds)

V. Dialogues and role play work

Working with dialogues is a useful way to bridge the gap between guided practise and freer activities.
Controlled dialogues can easily develop into freer work when the pupils are ready for it. Putting
pupils into pairs for doing the dialogues is a simple way of organising even large classes.

First the teacher will have to present the dialogue in whatever way seems most suitable. You might
like to use puppets, or Teddy, or a magnet board or a flannel board – it really depends on what you
have available. Dialogues which involve some sort of action or movement are the ones which work
best with young children. Information is terribly important too, and children love to play around with
this. If the dialogue is a bit hard, explain it to the children using pictures, actions or drawings or as a
last resource translation, what it is important, it is that children should understand what they are
learning. After the pupils have heard the dialogue a couple of times, and you’ve done it with some
individuals, with you ‘giving’ them their parts, let them all repeat it with you, making sure that it
doesn’t become a chant. Then let half the class do it with the other half of the class and then let the
pupils do it in twos.

HOW TO TEACH DIALOGUES

As an alternative way of introducing course book dialogues, rather than playing the recording, you
might sometimes want to read one aloud yourself. This can have the advantage of making the
conversation sound more live and immediate to students. You don’t need to be a great actor to do
this, But it will help if you can make some distinction between characters as you read. Easy way to do
this are:
1. Change the place you stand for each character as you read it, e.g. move one step left or right for
each character.
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2. Write the character names on the board. Use a pen to point to the character speaking. As each
new person speaks, move the pen.
3. Bring in large colorful photos of people’s face cut out from a magazine. Introduce them by holding
each picture up one at time and saying the name of a character in the dialogue. Stick them on the
board. When you read the dialogue point at the appropriate character’s picture.
4. When you read the dialogue aloud, try to make sure that it sounds reasonably natural. Don’t slow
down too much or over-pronounce. Don’t decontract words (e.g. don’t say I am instead of I’m).
Don’t speak with flat intonation or without stresses.

Way of working on dialogues after they have been studied.

After doing all the coursebook exercises on a dialogue. You may decide that you would like to exploit
the conversation a little more. Here are a few ideas:
1. Books closed. Give students one minute to study and try to remember the dialogue.
2. Pairwork, students see how much of the dialogue they can remember and write down. Check with
the book after finishing.
3. Pairwork. Students look at the text and see if they can make few changes to create a very similar –
but slightly different- dialogue. Early on i n the book, students can change small things such as
people’s names, place names, etc. Later on, after students have studied more language, they
could be more adventurous in what they change.

Whole class reading a dialogue aloud

It’s often useful to give the whole class a chance to read a dialogue aloud themselves. It can also help
students to memorize certain patterns, phrases, words and sounds. When reading en masse, you need
to take care that you don’t all sink into that monotonous one-tone one-rhythm style that is all too easy
to do when a large group of people read together. Try these ideas to avoid this:

1. Read the dialogue aloud yourself a few times and ask students to read along with you. Keep up your
original speed, rhythm, etc. If students are quiet, use gestures or facial expressions to encourage
them to speak up more. As you get to the end of each reading, simply start again at the beginning.
Go through the dialogue two or three times in this way- then half-way through one reading, start
speaking more quietly and not saying few words here and there. Do this more and more, making sure
that students keep going. After a while, students should be able to maintain the dialogue on their
own with minimal help from you.
2. Write the dialogue up on the board. Read it aloud once with students. Then with the students
watching, erase two or three words from the written text. Read through the text again with students,
and if all goes well, they will be able to recall the missing words and say them just as if they were still
visible. Now erase three or four more words and start reading again. Go on like this until the whole
dialogue has vanished. Ask students to say the dialogue to each other. Can they remember it all?

Students in pairs reading a dialogue aloud.-

Getting students working in pairs to read dialogues aloud themselves seems like a good idea, but often
doesn’t work as well teachers expect. Worse, if you invite one or two unprepared victims to the front of
the class to inaudibly stumble and muddle their way through a conversation, it can be embarrassing and
make you wonder if it really was a sound idea. But reading aloud can be really a good and useful. The
secret is to prepare carefully rather than throwing students in the deep end.
Try one of these ideas:
52 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

1. Generally, it’s best to do pair work reading aloud after you have practiced reading in the whole
class (see section 1 above)
2. One of the best ways to get reading aloud sounding good is to pay attention to the stresses. Use
the board to go through a written dialogue text, marking all the stressed syllables. Practise
reading it line by line, taking care to encourage students to punch the stresses, i.e. really make
then sound different from the syllables around them.

3. Sometimes students just find there is too much to concentrate on at once. Saying it aloud, with
words in the right order and with good pronunciation, and taking note of what your partner
says- it’s all too much. One way round this is to ask students to start by just mouthing through
the whole dialogue once, i.e. not actually speaking, but moving their mouths as if they are
saying the words. This can help students to get familiar with the words and the mechanics
involved in saying them. Second time, ask students to read whispering. Third time, normally,
students may find that alongside the increase in volume comes a growth in confidence. They
also have a number of opportunities to try the dialogue in unthreatening ways.

Using objects
Here are two dialogues which show how physical movements or objects can make a dialogue come
alive for young children, and give it an amusing communicative purpose. The day before, ask the
children to have something unusual in their pockets the next day. During a quite time, make sure
that each one knows what the word for his or her object is in English.
The children can choose which dialogue they want to follow, and they can go through one or both
with as many other pupils as you have time for.

- What have you got in your pocket? - What have you got in your pocket?
- I’m not telling you. - I’m not telling you.
- Oh, please? - Then don’t.
- O.K. It’s a frog

Clearly, there is a lot more involved in these exchanges than language alone, and you may find that
you want to act them out in the mother tongue. There are also endless ways in which these
dialogues could develop, and young children will very quickly go outside the limits of what is set for
them. This type of activity works well with the five to seven years olds as well as the older children.

Role Play
Another way of presenting dialogues is through role play. In role play the pupils are pretending to be
someone else like the teacher, or a shop assistant, or one of their parents, etc. For young children
you should go from the structured to the more open type of activity.
1. Beginners of all ages can start on role play dialogues by learning a simple one off by heart and
then acting it out in pairs. With the five to seven years olds you can give them a model first by
acting out the dialogue with Teddy, and getting the pupils to repeat the sentences after you. With
the older children you can act it out with one of the cleverer pupils.
 Module eleven 53

A: Good morning. Can I help you?

B: Yes, please. I’d like an ice cream.
A: Here you are.
B: How much is that?
A: 45p. Thank you.
B: Goodbye.
A: Goodbye.
2. The next stage can be to practise the above dialogue, but asking for different things. Your class
now knows the dialogue, and together you can suggest other things to ask for – a bar chocolate, a
bottle of lemonade, a packet of crisps. The prices will, of course, have to be changed too. If you
are introducing ‘a bar of, a bottle of, a bag of’ for the first time, you might want to put the
suggestions on the board, but otherwise you don’t need to. Make it clear that when they are
working on their own in pairs, they can ask for things which have not been mentioned, and they
can add comments if they want to.

3. In real role play, the language used comes from the pupils themselves, so your pupils will have to
be familiar with the language needed before you can do the role play itself with them. This type of
role play is more suitable for the eight- to ten-year-olds at level two. The roles which the children
play can be given to them orally, but if the children can read, then it is easier to give them written
cue cards:

Customer
You go into a kiosk to buy something for Saturday evening. Here are some of the things you can
ask for:
a bar of chocolate
a packet of crisps
a packet of lemonade. Remember to be polite

Shop assistant
You work in a kiosk. A customer comes in. Here are the prices of some of the things you sell:
a bar of chocolate 50p
a packet of crisps 40p
a packet of lemonade 60p. Remember to be polite. You start the conversation.
Again, those who want to can keep to the information given. Others might want to move into a
freer activity and have a completely different conversation. Most pupils like to add a bit extra to
rather matter-of-fact situations like this, and we have had customers grumbling about prices, the
shop assistant trying to sell crisps that are old, lemonade which is wrong colour, etc.

Dialogues and role play are useful oral activities because:

1. Pupils speak in the first and second person. Texts are often in the third person.
2. Pupils learn to ask as well as answer.
3. They learn to use short complete bits of language and to respond appropriately.
4. They don’t just use words, but also all the other parts of speaking a language – tone of voice,
stress, intonation, facial expressions, etc
5. They can be used to encourage natural ‘chat’ in the classroom, making up dialogues about the
little things which have happened and which occupy the children at that moment. At first these
54 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

conversations will be a bit one-sided, perhaps taking place between the teacher and teddy in the
very beginning. But if the atmosphere in the classroom is relaxed and nobody worries too much
about formal mistakes or using the mother tongue now and then, then even beginners can have
great fun trying out the little language they know. There is a very narrow dividing line between
guided activities about things which you want to talk about and actually talking about them.

VI. Free Activities

Using controlled and guided activities which have choices wherever possible provides good
background for activities where children say what they want to say. Let’s look first at some
characteristics of free activities.

 They focus attention on the message/content and not on the language as such, although the
language will usually be limited by the activity itself.

 There is genuine communication even though the situations are sometimes artificial. In a way,
everything we do in the classroom is artificial – we do it to prepare pupils for their lives outside
the classroom. But free activities are one step nearer real life – and they let us know that we
can.

 Free activities will really show that pupils can or cannot use the language – this is something
which you cannot be sure of if you only do guided activities.

 Free activities concentrate on meaning more than on correctness. Formal mistakes don’t really
matter too much unless it means your pupils can’t be understood, so, as we said before, leave
correction until afterwards. In free activities we’re trying to get the pupils to use the language
with a natural flow – with what is called fluency – and so fluency is more important than
accuracy at this stage.

 Teacher control is minimal during the activity, but the teacher must be sure that the pupils
have enough language to do the task.

 The atmosphere should be informal and non-competitive. All pupils ‘win’.

 There is often a game element in the activity.

The range of free activities is endless and goes from playing card games to giving mini – talks or
presenting personal or school news in English to working out what your partner had for breakfast.
We have chosen to look at just a few of these activities which we know work well in classes of
young children.
Most of them are based on the information gap principle – that A knows something B doesn’t
know, and B wants that information.
Here we have some examples:

Talking about brothers and sisters (5A)

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TEACHER: Now everyone listen to my question. Giada, have you got any brothers or sisters?
GIADA: Sister
TEACHER: How many sisters have you got?
GIADA: Em, one
TEACHER: One, very good. So you’ve got one sister. Ok, Federica, have you got any brothers or
sisters?
FEDERICA: Brother … one
TEACHER: One brother. Good. And Francesca have you got any brothers or sisters?
FRANCESCA: Three brothers
TEACHER: You’ve got three brothers! Very good
CHILDREN: Teacher … teacher …
TEACHER: And, eh … Lorenzo, have you got any brothers or sisters?
LORENZO: Three brothers
TEACHER: Ah you’ve got three brothers and have you got any sisters?
LORENZO: No
TEACHER: No? No sisters?
OTHER CHILDREN: Yes … yes … yes
TEACHER: Do you have a sister Lorenzo? How many sisters?
LORENZO: One
TEACHER: One sister. You’ve got one sister. Sara. Isn’t that right? Sara is your sister. Ok, good
Lorenzo. You’ve got three brothers and one sister …

Flaviana with eight to nine year olds

Pass the ball (5B)

TEACHER: Ready. Here’s the music.
Pass the ball
(Music stop)
TEACHER: Ok, Lara tell me three things you can see in this kitchen
LARA: A table … a chair and … a window
(The music is on again and the pupils pass the ball. The music stops)
TEACHER: Ok. Anna, can you name three things in this picture?

Lucy with eight to nine year olds

Guess the mime (5C)

TEACHER: Ok, now you remember what these people in the pictures are doing. Ok, you’re ready.
Now, you two … you’re going to mime. Ok, everyone else – are you watching? Ok, good, now off
you go and guess what they’re doing
(Two children mime together)
TEACHER: Ok, can you guess what they’re doing? Hands up anybody …
CHILDREN: Cooking…
TEACHER: Cooking. So they’re cooking like this man here? Is that it? Do you want to see it again?
No? Is that right?
TWO CHILDREN WHO DID THE MIME: Yes, yes cooking
TEACHER: Yes. You’re right. Ok. Very good. Ok, thank you very much. Next?

Brian with eight to nine year olds

Find four differences (5D)

TEACHER: Then I want you to do pairwork. I prepared two pictures A and B. Ok, so please don’t
show your pictures to your partner. Ok? Sh … s h …
56 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

(The teacher gives out the pictures to each pair)

TEACHER: Ok, everybody, everybody … there are four differences. There are four differences in
the pictures. So please talk about the pictures in the picture and find out what the four
differences are. Ok?
SAORI: A boy is riding a bicycle
HIRO: No. A boy is playing soccer
SAORI: Yes. A boy is flying a kite
HIRO: Yes. A boy is playing golf
SAORI: Pardon? Pardon?
HIRO: A boy is playing golf
SAORI: Yes. A girl is drawing a picture

Fumiko with ten year olds

Personal presentation (5E)

TEACHER: Ok, now start with your name and where you live
HARUKA: My name is Haruka. I live in Ena
TEACHER: Good. And brothers and sisters?
HARUKA: I have two brothers
TEACHER: Good. And what do you like?
HARUKA: I like comics and cartoons
TEACHER: Ok, now tell us again. Put it all together … name, where you live, brothers, what you
like, Ok …
HARUKA: My name is Haruka. I live in Ena. I have two brothers
TEACHER: And you like?
HARUKA: I like comics and cartoons
TEACHER: Very good. Now…

Bob with eleven to twelve year olds

Guess what animal I am (5F)

TEACHER: Now are you ready? You are going to do this all together. Ok, so off you go. Who’s
going to start?
CHILD: Me … I am a big animal. I live out in the country. I have lots of friends. I have four feet
TEACHER: Ok
CHILD: And I have two big ears, a small tail. I am grey. I am very big and I have a big nose. Who am I?
TEACHER: Ok. Does anyone know who he is?
CHILDREN: An elephant

Brian with eleven to twelve year olds

VII. Pair work

First let’s look at some pair work activities. Remember that quite a lot of pair work activities can
be done very simply in class by making half the class turn their backs to the teacher/overhead
projector/blackboard, and making sure that all the pupils who have their backs to you have
partners who are facing you. In that way, you can give information to the half of the class facing
you, and they then have to pass it on to those who cannot see the teacher/overhead
projector/blackboard.
 Module eleven 57

1. With older children working in pairs, give one pupil map A and the other map B. Pupil A
explains to Pupil B where the various places are, or pupil B can ask where the places are. This is
a restricted free exercise in that the vocabulary and language structures are limited, but that’s
how it should be. Don’t give pupils exercises which are so free that they don’t know where to
start or can’t cope linguistically.

2. Here’s an activity commonly used with younger children, but made a bit more communicative
in the language sense by adding the information gap principle. Give everyone in the class a
picture to colour – use one in your workbook. We’ve used a boy and a girl. Ask all the As in the
class to colour the girl and all the Bs to colour the boy. Walk to see about what they’re doing.
When they’ve finished, put an A with a B facing each other and ask them to ask the other
person how they’ve coloured in their part of the picture: ‘What colour is this shirt?’ ‘What
colour is her blouse?’ etc. It’s important that they don’t show each other or the point
disappears. (They can stand a book up between them) When they’ve finished, they should end
up with two identical pictures: if they don’t, then there’s something wrong with their colour or
their clothes vocabulary! Note here that although the language limits are decided by the
picture, the pupils still decide for themselves which colours they are going to use.

In both these activities the teacher plays a non-dominant role – that of the organiser. The same is
true for all these sorts of activities, whether pupils are matching cards, playing Happy Families,
describing a picture for other pupils or doing a ‘find the differences’ activity in pairs.

VIII. Group work

There are lots of examples of group work, but here are two which are easy to arrange, fun to do,
quite easy to organise and which concentrate on oral work.

1. Take any picture story from your text book or workbook, copy it, cut it up and give one picture
to each member of the group.
Each pupil then has to describe to the others what is in or her picture without showing it to the
others. When the pupils have heard what is in all the pictures, the group decides on the
correct order of the pictures.

2. Another story-telling exercise which needs a bit more imagination and is most suitable for the
eight- to ten-year-olds at level two is where everyone in the group has two objects or pictures
of objects which have to be woven into a story. You can use your own objects or you can ask
pupils to bring them along or decide beforehand what their two objects will be. You start off
the story – ‘I met a family yesterday who had never been in Hong Kong before. They were
visiting my neighbours.’ The story then continues with one pupil adding to the story using his
or her object, which might be a packet of tea, or a toy car, or whatever: ‘Of course, they had
tea with me’ or ‘I went out in the car with them’ or whatever sentence comes out. As the story
continues, it gets funnier and more ridiculous, and pupils have to help each other in the end to
work their word into the story. This can also be done as a class story.

IX. Whole class activities

58 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

In these activities all the pupils get up and walk about. Inevitably, they tend to be a bit noisy, and
if you have more than thirty pupils in your class, you should split them into smaller groups.

1. The first activity is a matching activity. Make cards which are similar, but a little bit different.
Make two copies of each (if you want to make the activity more complicated, make several copies
of each). Each pupil has one card, which they look at, memorise, and leave face down on the desk.
Everyone then walks around trying to find the person with the identical card just by talking to
each other. When they think they have the same cards, they check by looking at their cards, and
then sit down at their places. If you have more than two copies of each card, then the activity will
continue until all the matching cards have been found. This kind of activity is useful for
prepositions, colours, actions and all sorts of object vocabulary.

2. Another activity which is useful and versatile and which we have already touched on in the
listening module is using questionnaires. These are a mixture of group work and whole class work,
as well as a mixture of written work and oral work. They can be guided or free activities. Split the
class up into groups – the size will depend on how many pupils are in your whole class – and give
them each a different task. Ask them to find out about favourite foods, favourite books, favourite
television programmes, how much television people watch, when bedtime is, how much pocket
money they get or whatever is relevant to what you are working on at the time. With the five to
seven year olds you will have to provide the questionnaire, which might look something like this:

Which day do you like the best?

Name Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Nancy x

The eight to ten year olds should be able to work out their own questionnaire, although they will
probably need help to work out the actual questions to ask to find out the information they want,
and they will have to write them down. Again their questionnaire may end up being simple just
like the one above, or it may be quite complex if you have level two pupils. This one was used to
find out who watched the most television, boys or girls, and if boys watched different types of
programmes from girls.

Types of programme

a) Detective f) Series
b) Pop g) Children’s T.V
c) News h) Others
d) Sport
e) Films

Name Boy/girl Week days Weekends Type

Nancy B 2 hours 2 hours b
 Module eleven 59

Once the preparatory written work is done, they can all go around asking each other their own
questions. They can present their results orally or in writing. Again, this is a structured activity but
it involves communication and doing something with the information they’re told. It can also
involve a little bit of arithmetic and setting up of tables.
60 Second language Didactics for the Primary level
X. SPEAKING SKILLS AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL
Activity type
1. Look, listen and repeat
The teacher shows a picture, says the word and
pupils repeat: Look! An elephant. Repeat! When the
teacher is satisfied with her pupils’ pronunciation,
she can move on to another word. Once several new
items have been introduced, the teacher can check
by showing a picture and asking, What’s this? and
pupils reply An elephant.
2. Listen and participate
Examples of this are often found in storytelling
sessions or when rhymes or poems are recited in
class. Pupils are encouraged to participate by
repeating key vocabulary and phrases.
3. Reading aloud
Some games, like phonetic Bingo or Snap, require
pupils to read words or sentences aloud.
4. Memory games
Games like ‘I went to market and bought...’ and
Chinese Whispers require children to repeat a
certain structure or word.
5. Dramatization
A story or situation can often be acted out, thereby
involving pupils in a variety of different related
activities such as memorizing lines, making
costumes and props, making posters and invitations.
Purpose Materials
 To introduce new vocabulary or structures Picture cards e.g. animals, food, colours, actions,
 To focus on form and pronunciation clothes
 The same technique, using a word card instead Word cards as above
of a picture card will provide basic reading
practice
 To involve pupils actively when listening to Storybooks, rhymes, riddles, poems
stories or rhymes
 To provide a meaningful and familiar context in
which to repeat language items
 To practise pronunciation and sound/letter Bingo boards and cover cards
combinations Snap cards
 To develop memory skills Short spoken messages or lists of items
 To practise pronunciation
 To provide hidden pattern practice
 To improve concentration and listening skills
 To provide a memorable occasion for practising Storybooks
spoken English Scripts(optional)
 To develop confidence Various materials for related activities
 To develop memory skills Puppets
 Module eleven 61

Short dialogues can also be created around a  To provide integrated skills practice
situation and acted out with puppets  Develop social skills of interaction and turn-
taking
Activity type Purpose Materials
6. Rhymes, action rhymes, songs, chants, tongue  To develop memory skills Rhymes, songs, chants
twisters  To provide pronunciation practice
These are learned as chunks of language and  To consolidate or introduce new language
involve pupils in imitating and miming. Some
rhymes and songs offer ready-made dialogues.
Rhymes or songs with actions also provide exercise
and encourage body control.

7. Retelling a story  To check if pupils have understood the main Storybooks

This activity involves pupils in retelling a events in a story Captions written on cards or in speech bubbles,
simplified version of a story. Children can often be  To provide pronunciation practice, as well as picture prompts
helped in this activity with picture prompts, or by some storytelling techniques, such as disguising
matching speech bubbles with pictures. the voice, alternating pace and so on.

8. Using flash cards  To provide controlled practice where pupils are Flash cards e.g. fruit, objects, clothes
Flash cards are often used to prepare pupils for freer focusing on producing the correct grammatical
activities such as pair work or questionnaires and form and pronunciation
surveys. The teacher gives a flash card to a pupil to
prompt him/her to ask a particular question. The
teacher can then ask the class. Is that right?

9. Guessing games  To provide a realistic context for practising the None

These types of games usually involve pupils in pronunciation of specific structures
asking questions or describing something or
someone. For example, pupils draw a picture of an
animal or think of an animal they would like to
have as a pet, without showing the class must guess
what it is: Is it a cat? and so on.
62 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

Pupils can also describe someone in the class

without saying his or her name: She’s got long hair.
She’s wearing a red pullover, and so on, and the
other pupils must listen and guess.

Activity type Purpose Materials

10. Information gap
These activities are usually carried out in pairs or
groups and often involve pupils in asking and
answering questions. One partner has some
information that the other does not. The aim is to
find out what this is in order to complete, for
example, a worksheet.
 To give pupil a chance to work independently of Worksheets for pupils A and B
the teacher
 To practise fluency
 To use the language for real communication
 Develop social skills of interaction and turn
taking

As above, and Worksheets for pupils to complete

11. Questionnaires and surveys  To practise listening skills
Pupils interview other classmates about, for  To use the information collected for a specific
example, their abilities, their likes and dislikes, and purpose
record the information on a chart.

 To provide fluency practice Pupils may be given role cards, for example
12. Dialogues and role-play  To extend language use
Role-play provides an opportunity for language that  Develop social skills of interaction and turn- PUPIL A PUPIL B
has been presented in one context to be used in taking
another. For example, pupils could act out a You want to buy You haven’t got
shopping dialogue, making use of the ‘shop corner’ some biscuits any biscuits

customer shop assistant

Module eleven 63
64 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

XI. SPEAKING ASSESSMENT

Speaking can be the most rewarding and motivating skill, especially children who get excited when they
are able to express a few things in the target. They want to go home able to sing a song or recite a
rhyme, and are eager to show off their newfound ability to their family and friends. Nevertheless,
speaking can also be frightening and intimidating for shy children. It requires great care in the choice of
speaking-assessment tasks and overall assessment procedure, to ensure that children have
opportunities to perform in ways and situations that are informal and non-threatening. Give them
opportunities to work and speak in pairs or groups, and to speak individually only when they are ready.
Speaking-assessment tasks must also be realistic (i.e. realistic and genuine communicative interactions)
and contextualized (i.e. contexts familiar and interesting to children).

In this topic we offer a variety of examples of how to assess speaking on the basis of these criteria. We
suggest marking schemes relevant to the children's language levels, as well as self-and peer-
assessment, journal writing, interviews, and portfolios. See the assessment examples below for marking
schemes for speaking.

For the class teacher, the main problem in assessing speaking is dealing with the practicalities. How does
one assess speaking in a class of 30 or more children whom one sees, maybe twice a week? One solution
is to get the whole class to prepare for the speaking assessment, but only choose one group of four to
six children to assess at a time. The number of children you assess depends on the task and the time
required for it (the more time you have, the more children you can assess), and how experienced you
are (the more experienced you become, the faster you will be able to assess the children). Keep a record
in which children you have assessed until you have covered the entire class.

Once you have started the assessment task and the children are working smoothly, you can concentrate
on the group you are assessing, making notes if you need to (discreetly, so that you don’t upset the
children). Assign silent follow-up activities, so that fast finishers are kept busy and allow you time to
finish the assessment. If you use the relevant Speaking reports forms, you will have the aims of your
assessment handy, and when you fill it in, you immediately have a completed report to give to the
children. Make sure you fill in the form as soon as possible after the lesson, so that you can still
remember which child did what! When you give the children their reports, try to give them more oral
feedback and encouragement on their performance.

You can assess a larger number of children, possibly all of them, if you use a cassette to record them
while they are carrying out the speaking task. Recording the assessment allows you to listen to the
children in your own time and also provides a permanent record for the children's portfolio.

By observing just four to six children at time, you might worry that the rest of the class feels cheated,
because they prepared for the task but have not been assessed; you can get round this in a way that
satisfies the children. Ask all the children; including the ones you have assessed, to use self-or peer-
assessment at the end of the task. Then find time to collect and look at their self-assessments and
discuss them briefly. You can keep some comments on the discussion and them to their portfolio
together with their self-assessment and their own comments.

In addition, children can also write comments on their performance, their feelings, even on the task
itself in their journals.
 Module eleven 65

 GETTING TO KNOW
Description This is an information-gap activity. The children ask and answer questions to obtain
personal information.
Language Question formation and asking for personal information: What's your name? How old
are you? What's your favourite …..?
Skills Speaking: asking and answering questions, providing personal information.
Assessment Criteria: The children should be able to ask questions to get personal information,
provide information about themselves, carry out the task successfully, use basic turn-taking skills,
and work with others.

Capacity Indicator Procedure Instrument

Ask and answer Ask and answer questions about Observation Observation
questions to obtain personal information with fluency, task guide
personal information. achievement and good pronunciation

In class

1. Show the form that it is below to the children.

2. Explain to the children that they have to fill in this form by asking four of their classmates’
questions. Make sure they ask children they don’t sit with or know too well.
3. Tell them that they can get up and walk around the room to find the four classmates and talk to
them. Ask them not to make too much noise or disturb others. If you have a very large class,
have the children sit at a different place than usual. Then they can ask classmates near them and
not have to walk around.
4. If there is any information they are unable to write (such as a surname), they can ask their
classmates to spell it for them. If the children need help but don’t know how to ask for it, write
the relevant question on the board for them to refer to (for example 'How do you spell … ?')
5. Give out this worksheet

Getting to know you

Name: ________________________________ Class: ___________ Date: ___________________

Choose four friends. Ask them questions and complete the form. Use English!

Friend 1 Friend 2
Name ________________________________ Name________________________________
Age _________________________________ Age _________________________________
Favourite food _________________________ Favourite food _________________________
Favourite colour _______________________ Favourite colour ________________________
Favourite _____________________________ Favourite_____________________________

Friend 3
Name ________________________________
Age __________________________________
Favourite food _________________________
Favourite color _________________________
Favourite______________________________
Friend 4
Name_______________________________
Age ________________________________
Favourite food ________________________
Favourite color ________________________
Favourite ____________________________

Assessment of Outcome Select a number of children to observe while they are carrying out the
task. Use the following task 'Speaking task report' to assess and report on their achievement.
66 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

SPEAKING TASK REPORT'

Name___________________________ Date _____________ Class_________ Task______

All the children complete the self-assessment form presented below.

 Module eleven 67

SPEAKING SELF ASESSMENT

Name ________________________________ Unit _______________ Date __________

Name of task:_____________________________________________________________

I liked working with my friend/s.

I liked speaking in English.

I did the task.

I didn’t make many mistakes.

I asked a lot of questions

I answered my friend’s questions.

I used only English.

I liked the task.

 HICKORY DICKORY DOCK

Description: The children practice reciting a nursery rhyme at home. When they think they have
mastered it, they record themselves and bring the tape to you.

Language: Telling the time: This rhyme does not test any particular language item, but can be learnt
when the class is practicing time. Choose other rhymes according to your syllabus. Some suggestions
are:
- 'Polly put the kettle on 'or 'Knock at the door' for imperatives
- 'Incy-wincy spider' for weather vocabulary
- 'Hey diddle diddle' for vocabulary. The children can change the animals in the rhyme or add new
ones. For dish and spoon, substitute animals.
- 'There was an old woman' for past simple (older children).

Skills: Speaking: intonation and pronunciation.

Assessment Criteria: The children should be able to recite a specific nursery rhyme with acceptable
pronunciation and intonation.

Capacity Indicator Procedure Instrument

Recite the nursery rhyme Recite the nursery rhyme “Hickory, Observation Observation
“Hickory, dickory, dock” dickory, dock” with acceptable guide
68 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

pronunciation and intonation.

In class:

1. Tell the children they are going to learn a rhyme by heart and that they have a week to do this.

2. Give out the worksheet to each child.

3. Read out the rhyme or play the tape to the class.

4. Read or play it again. Then get the children to join in. Repeat the rhyme as many times as
necessary. Add more actions and movements to help the children to memorize the rhyme, for
example:

Hickory dickory dock. The children clap three times.

The mouse ran up the clock. They walk their fingers up their arm.
The clock struck one, They clap once.
The mouse ran down. They walk their fingers down their arm.
Hickory dickory dock. The children clap three times.
5. With younger children, you could give them a drawing of a mouse and a grandfather clock to cut
out. They could them move the mouse up and down the clock as they recite the rhyme.

6. Explain the children that you are going to assess them on how well they say this rhyme at the
end of the week. Give them the deadline date and reassure them that they just have to do their
best. Tell them to practice at home by comparing themselves with the recording. When they
feel ready, they record themselves on the tape and bring it to back to you.

7. If the parents are able to help, try to involve them, too. Tell the children that they can ask their
parents or other family members to listen to them reciting the rhyme and to comment on their
performance. When the children are ready to record, they may need help from their parents to
operate the record function on the cassette recorder.

8. Let those children who feel confident enough to say the rhyme in class do so. If any children are
not happy reciting aloud, you can listen to their tape in private later.

9. Listening to anything up to 30 rhymes at one sitting is likely be too much for even the most
enthusiastic rhyme-lovers. If a lot of children want to recite their rhyme in class, spread their
performances over two or three lessons.

Assessment of Outcome

1. If a child performs in front of the class, you can use peer-assessment. Each performance doesn’t
have to be assessed by all peers.
 Module eleven 69

Name ______________________________
Rhyme _____________________________
Date _______________________________
Rhyme by ___________________________

1. I loved listening to the rhyme.

Very good

2. I liked to the rhyme. Good

3. Listening to the rhyme was OK but Try harder

4. it could be better.

2. Divide the class into groups of three or four. Each child is then assessed by one of the groups
(not the one she/he belongs to). Each child thus carries out four assessments for his/her
classmates and collects four assessment forms with comments about his/her own performance.

3. If you are going to be the only one listening to a rhyme, assign a mark/comment holistically
according to the impression you get from the performance. Emphasize pronunciation and
intonation. You could also ask the parents to give a grade/comment.

MONSTER DIFFERENCES

 Description: This is an information-gap activity in which children colour pictures and then find
the differences between them.
 Language: Questions formation and parts of the body: arms, legs, head, eyes, ears, teeth,
hands; How many …. Has … got; Colours: What colour is/are …? ; Numbers.
 Skills: Asking and answering questions.
 Assessment Criteria: The children should be able to ask and answer simple questions, work co-
operatively in pairs, and carry out the task successfully.

Capacity Indicator Procedure Instrument

Ask questions with how
many and what colour,
answer them to find the
differences between two
monsters’ bodies
Ask and answer questions Observation Observation
about two monsters’ bodies guide
with fluency, task achievement
and good pronunciation
70 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

In class:
1. Tell the children you are going to give each of them a picture of a monster to colour. Point out that
each child will have a different monster from his/her partner's.
2. When they have coloured their monsters, they have to work with a partner, asking each other
questions to find the differences between their monsters.
3. Write the words the children will need on the board for them to refer to, for example: eyes, ears,
arms, legs, teeth: How many heads/eyes/ears/arms/legs has your monster got?
4. Give out worksheet that it is next page and allow the children time to colour their monsters.
5. If you think it necessary, demonstrate the activity to the class. Colour your own monster either on
your own worksheet or on a transparency. Invite a volunteer to work with you so that you can find
the differences between his/her monsters and yours.
If you choose a strong learner, this can help the rest of the class because they see how the task is
carried out. If you don’t use an overhead projector, make sure to show your completed worksheet to
the children, so they can see the differences for themselves.
 Module eleven 71

6. Monitor the class while they are colouring and ask them not to spend time colouring in too carefully.
This can cause problems if some children have finished and their partner are still colouring. If this
happens, tell the children who are still colouring to decide what color they want the hair, arms, etc.
to be and just to put the right coloured dots on the different parts of their pictures: they can finish
colouring later if they want to.
7. Put the children into pairs. Make sure that they change partners If the parents so that they are not
sitting next to the child who saw them colouring.
8. Get the children started on finding their differences. Remind them not to look at each other's
worksheets.
Variation: You can lower the language level for this activity by limiting the language used as well as the
number of differences. For example, if the children don’t colour their monsters, the question will be
How many teeth/ears/eyes/arms/legs has it got? And there will only be five differences focused on.
Assessment of Outcome:
1. Choose two or three pairs of children to observe while the rest are carrying out the activity. Use the
assessment “Speaking Task Report”.
2. The children can also check their own performance by using the score sheet self-assessment. Look at
the first example.

 LOOK AT MY ROOM
Description: The children work in pairs to describe a room. Each child places household objects on a
worksheet according to the other's description.
Language: Prepositions: in, on, under, in front of, between, next to, above, below; top, bottom, left,
right, corner; there is/are; household objects.
Skills: Describing a room.
Assessment Criteria: The children should be able to describe a room, work co-operatively in pairs, and
carry out the task successfully.

Capacity Indicator Procedure Instrument

Describe a room using there Describe a room with fluency, task Observation Observation
is/are and prepositions. achievement and good pronunciation guide
In class:
1. Give out the worksheet below, ask the children to cut out the household objects on the worksheet.
2. Each child places the objects on one of his/her room plans. Make sure that the children do not look at
each other's worksheets. If this is impossible, get them to change partners before they start working
in pairs.
3. Put the children in pairs. When they are ready, they take turns to describe their room. Their partner
positions the second set of objects on their second worksheet according to the description they hear.
Encourage the children to ask questions if they need help.
4. Go round monitoring the activity to make sure all the pairs are working well.

Assessment of Outcome
1. Use the “Speaking Task Report”. Give special emphasis to the children's task achievement and their
communicative competence. This will be reflected in the outcome of the task.
2. You can also use a discrete-point marking scheme, awarding a mark for every object correctly placed.
3. All the children should complete the self-assessment form.
72 Second language Didactics for the Primary level
 Module eleven 73

 WHO'S GOT MY SHOPPING

Description: The children work in groups of four, asking and answering questions to carry out a task.
Language Questions formation and shopping vocabulary: bananas, apples, cat, food, shampoo,
soap, lamp, chocolate cake, ketchup, pencil, milk, water, lemonade, orange juice, chocolates, sweets,
sandwich, crisps, biscuits, jam, chicken, Have you got a/an ….? Have you got any …? Yes! No! Here you
are. Thank you.
Skills Speaking: asking and answering yes/no questions.
Assessment Criteria The children should be able to form comprehensible questions and answers and
use turn-taking skills. Their language need not completely accurate, but should convey the desired
message and contribute to the solution of the task.

Capacity Indicator Procedure Instrument

In class
1. Divide the class into groups of four.
2. Give out one picture to each child so that each group has pictures a, b, c, and d. (page 31)
3. Explain to the children that they go shopping and literally bump into their friends. All their bags fall
onto the floor and their shopping gets mixed up. When they put things back in their bag, they need
to see if they have the right things.
4. Tell the children that each person has their bag and their shopping list. They have first to find out
what things are missing. Then they ask the others if they have the missing items. Whenever they find
an item, they put a tick on their list and carry on until they have recovered everything.
5. Draw a bag and a shopping list on the board and show what things are missing from the bag. Put a
question mark (?) next to the things that are missing.
6. Give the children time to look at their worksheet and put a question mark (?) next to the things
missing from their bags.
7. Use the list on the board to act out the situation with one of the stronger children. Depending on the
ability of the children, it may be necessary to write the dialogue on the board.
Teacher: Have you got any apples?
Child: No
Teacher: Have you got a chocolate cake?
Child: Yes. Here you are
Teacher: Thank you
8. Tell the children to begin the task.
9. Go round monitoring the activity to make sure all the groups are working well.
10. Give out a silent activity to the fast finishers, so that the rest have a chance to finish their task.

Assessment of Outcome
1. Concentrate on one or two groups to observe. If you used cassettes you can also concentrate on the
groups you recorded. Use the next, 'Speaking Task Report' to assess the children in the selected
groups and report on their progress.
2. All the children should complete self-assessment form.
74 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

SPEAKING TASK REPORT

Name: ……………………………………… Task: …………………………………

FOCUS LEVEL  COMMENTS

Frequent and long pauses cause
difficulties in communicating.
Communicates even though there are
Fluency some long pauses.
Communicates effectively without
long pauses
Had difficulties in carrying out the
task.
Carried out the task but with some
Task achievement difficulty.
Carried out the task successfully and
with relative ease.
Pronunciation and /or inaccurate
intonation makes comprehension
difficult.
Pronunciation
Acceptable easily comprehensible
pronunciation and intonation.
Very good pronunciation and
intonation.
Difficulties in recognizing the degree
of formality and /or in using
appropriate language.
Appropriateness Recognizes the degree of formality
but doesn’t use appropriate language
consistently throughout the task.
Recognizes degree of formality and
uses appropriate language.
Discourse Difficulties in initiates interaction and
management in responding
Occasionally initiates interaction and
responds promptly.
Initiates interaction and responds
promptly.
Overall comments

Action suggested
1.
2.

Teacher’s signature
Module eleven 75
 76 Second language Didactics for the Primary level

 THEY'RE THE BEST

Description The children ask and answer questions to complete cards about famous football players.
Language Questions formation: What's his name/surname? Where's he from? How tall is he? How
old is he?
Skills Speaking: asking for and giving information.
Assessment Criteria The children should be able to ask and answer questions on basic personal
facts about famous people, carry out the task successfully and work co-operatively in pairs.

Capacity Indicator Procedure Instrument

In class
1. Divide the children into pairs.
2. Give out worksheets (a) and (b) face down to each pair.
3. Ask the children to turn their worksheets over and look at them. Stress that they must not look at
their partner's worksheet.
4. Tell them that they have to fill in the missing information by asking they partner questions.
5. While they work, go round checking that all pairs are working smoothly.

Variation 1 Give half the class the completed versions of the cards and the other half empty ones.
The children with the empty ones interview the others and fill in the cards.
Variation 2 You can do the same activity using the children's favourite singers, actors, or basketball
players. Older children might like to do the activity with more demanding information about their
favourite artists or historical figures. The children can bring their own knowledge to the task if you ask
them to look up information about their favourite footballer/singer/actor, etc. you could give them a list
of things to research, (for example height, birthday, etc.). When they bring the information to you, you
can choose which people to include and create new worksheets accordingly.

Assessment of Outcome
Use the 'Speaking Task Report', for those you have observed, and have all the children complete a self-
assessment form. Then invite them to write comments on their performance and write up the task in
their journals. Respond to their comments with messages in their journals.