Instructor: Nguyen Thu Hien

FELTE,ULIS, VNU
Contents
 Definition of speaking
 Fluency, accuracy and communication
 Different kinds of speaking
 Principles of teaching speaking
 Classroom speaking activities

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Discussion
 Think of some times you fail to communicate orally
in English in the classroom/or in real world. What
are the possible reasons?
 What do you think are the factors of successful
spoken communication in English?

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What does speaking involve?
 Lexis and grammar
 Connected speech
 Expressive devices
 Compensating language
 Language processing
 Sociolinguistic knowledge

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What does speaking involve?
 Lexis and grammar
 Needed to perform certain language functions
 Agreeing; disagreeing; expressing surprise, approval, etc.
 Connected speech
 Rhythm
 Weak forms ( reductions)

 Assimilation (have to /hæv tu:/ become /hæftə/)

 Elision (Hold the dog! pronounced /ˈhəʊl ðə ˈdɒg/ )

 Linking (/r/, /j/, /w/) (her English, you are)

 Juncture (/ki:ps tikiŋ, keep sticking or keeps ticking)

 Contractions (I’m, couldn’t)

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What does speaking involve?
 Expressive devices
 Used to convey meanings beyond the words
 E.g., Pitch, stress, volume
 Compensating language
 Language of negotiation used to
 Seek clarification
 Show the structure of what we say
 Know when and how to start talking
 How to keep a conversation going
 How to terminate the conversation
 How to clear up communication breakdown, communication
problems

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What does speaking involve?
 Language processing
 Process language in one’s head
 Put language into coherent order
 Comprehensible language produced conveying
intended meaning
 Sociolinguistic knowledge
 Appropriate use of the target language in different
cultural and social contexts
 Giving comments/compliments
 Responding nonverbally/verbally
 Let’s get together for lunch/coffee sometime

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 Difference in way of paying a compliment to some one between
Asian cultures and North American culture

Nice cap,
Doraemon. You
look gorgeous!

My cap? No, it’s not

that good. Very
cheap, indeed.

#&*%*!!!! Am I
saying anything
wrong?

Japanese American
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British understatement (BU)
 During the Korean War, a British army unit was tasked with
holding a hill that overlooked a strategically important river
which the opposing Chinese forces attempted to cross. The
situation however was desperate, since the British unit was
outnumbered at least 8 to 1 and surrounded on all sides.
 The commander of the British unit reported to his American
superior that “Things are a bit sticky, sir”, which really meant
“Things are desperate, sir”.
 Unfortunately, the American superior misinterpreted this so-
very-British understatement and thought the situation was
difficult, but manageable. He told the British commander to
hold the line, and promised no reinforcements and ordered no
retreat.
 After four days, the British position was overrun. 500 out of the
600 soldiers were taken prisoner, with the rest either dead or
managed to escape.

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 Japanese interpreter didn’t know how to
translate a joke (JI)
 Soon after his presidency, Jimmy Carter found himself in a
Japanese college, giving a speech there.
 To ease the tension and get everyone onboard, he decided
to tell a joke (by his own admission, it wasn’t a funny
one, but it was short).
 To his surprise, the Japanese interpreter translated the joke
much faster than he spoke it, and the entire audience burst
out laughing.
 President Carter was curious how the Japanese interpreter
translated his joke, because it was shorter than it should
have been, and people laughed much harder than normal.
 Finally, after much coaxing, the interpreter simply admitted
to translate the joke as: “President Carter told a funny
story. Everyone must laugh.”
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When a burgler didn’t know if he should
give the gun, or fire the gun (Bs)
 A peculiar legal situation occurred in 1953, when two British
men, 19 year old Derek Bentley and 16 year old Christopher
Craig, were caught red handed by the police as they attempted to
rob a warehouse.
 At some point during the robbery, a police officer had cornered
the two and asked Christopher Craig to hand over his gun.
 Derek Bentley then said to Craig “Let him have it, Chris”.
Apparently, Craig understood this as “shoot the guy, Chris”
rather than “give him the gun, Chris”. Craig then fired at the
police officers, injuring one and killing another.
 During the trial, the jury debated about the exact meaning of the
phrase and eventually settled around the notion that it meant
“shoot the guy, Chris”. As a result, Derek Bentley was convicted
of murder by joint enterprise and then hanged.

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The moment you realize it and feel really, really silly
(CN)

 My mom really liked the fried noodles that were

served with soup at this Asian restaurant. She
asked what they were called, and decided to tell
everyone about the “Kwan Chi noodles.” It was a
good while before she realized the waitress was
just saying “Crunchy Noodles” with an accent.

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Fisting Club (FC)
My co-worker is from China. This sometimes leads to interesting mistakes. One day he
came in happy that he joined a new club. When asked what kind, he said, “Fisting!”
I: “Fisting?”
He: “Yes! It’s great! You should join too!”
I: “Are you sure it’s a fisting club?”
He: “Yeah! It’s really cool!”
I: “So… uh… what do you do at this club?”
He: “Work out and stuff.”
I: “Ooohhh!!! You mean “fitness”, not “fisting””
He: “No! Fisting. You know.”
I: “I really don’t think that means what you think it means…”
He: “What does it mean?”
I: “I can’t explain it. Just look it up on google images.”
He: “Oh my god! Why?!?!?! Why would someone do that? Why?!?!?”
(it was an image of a dude by himself…). “Needless to say he doesn’t call it a fisting club
anymore…”

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 Fluency, Accuracy and Communication

Accuracy Fluency

Grammar Lack of undue hesitation

Vocabulary Length

Pronunciation Independence

In your opinion, which is more important,

accuracy or fluency?
 Accuracy or fluency?

• A happy balance of accuracy and fluency – targeted activities will

be the most beneficial to learners.
• Often in a speaking lesson, practices with accuracy come first,
followed by those with fluency.
• Teacher must be clear about the differing
aims and different classroom procedures of
the two.
Running a fluency activity
Principles of teaching speaking
 Teaching of speaking is closely bound up with
receptive skill work
 Give students practice with both fluency and
accuracy
 Plan communicative tasks that are based on the
concept of information gap
 Provide opportunities for students to talk
 Plan tasks that involve negotiation of meaning
 Design classroom activities that involve guidance
and practice in both transactional and
interactional speaking
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Principles of teaching speaking
 Teaching of speaking is closely bound up with
receptive skill work
 Output and input
 Texts
 Reception as part of production
 Production enables reception
 Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy
 form-focused speaking activities
 meaning-focused speaking activities
 Provide opportunities for students to talk
 Using group work or pair work
 Limiting teacher talk
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Principles of teaching speaking
 Plan tasks that involve negotiation of meaning
 Asking for clarification, repetition, explanation, etc.,
 Design classroom activities that involve guidance and
practice in both transactional and interactional
speaking
 Interactional speech
 Communicating for social purposes
 Establishing and maintaining social relationships (E.g., small talks)

 Transactional speech
 Communicating to get something done
 E.g., Ordering food in a restaurant, Changing money at the bank,
Buying things at a store, etc.,
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 Classroom speaking activities

Controlled Free
speaking Communicative
activities activities
 Classroom activities
 More controlled speaking activities
 Interview
 Picture activities (Matching, describing, guessing
games etc.,)
 Controlled role-play activities (use of situations and
dialogues)
 Less controlled/Free speaking activities
 Free role-play activities (not based on textbook
dialogues)
 Discussion activities (controversial issues)
 Performance activities (story telling, oral report, giving
a talk, etc.,)
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 Common activity types in CLT
1. Information-gap activities (a gap of information)
2. Jig-saw activities (pieces of information put together)
3. Task-completion activities (e.g., guessing game, puzzles)
4. Information gathering activities (e.g., surveys,
interviews)
5. Opinion-sharing activities (e.g., comparing values,
opinions)
6. Information-transfer activities (e.g., tables to text)
7. Reasoning gap-activities (reasoning to find out the gap)
8. Role-plays (assigned roles in a situation)

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 Name the activity
type

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 Jig-saw
activities

The teacher takes a 7-sentence

narrative and divides it into 7
sentences. Each student gets
one sentence of the story.
Students must work in groups
of seven, and by listening to
each sentence read aloud,
decide how to put the sentences
into a story in the correct
sequence.

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 Ss ask one student twenty
Task- questions find out the name
completion of a job in this student’s hand
activities

Informatio Ss in group 1 interview

n gathering students from other groups to
activities find out the activities they like
doing in their free time.

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 Opinion-
Ss work in small groups listing
Sharing
the qualities of a good teacher.
activities

S1: Picture A
Information-gap S2: Picture B
activity Asking and answering the
questions about the pictures

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 Information-
transfer
activities
The graph shows Underground
Station Passenger Numbers in
London.

Summarize the information by

selecting and reporting the main
features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

* You should write at least 150 words.

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 Reasoning
Gap-activities

A man is standing by a river with a wolf, a sheep,

and some vegetables. He wants to get
everything across the river, but he has a small
boat that cannot carry all three things at one
time. The wolf will eat the sheep if the man
goes away, and the sheep will eat the vegetables
if the man goes away. Discuss how the man can
get across the river without losing any of his
belongings.

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 Role-
plays

S1: teacher S2: doctor

S3: farmer S4: scientist
S5: university student

Work out who should be the

survivor on a raft in the
Mediterranean.

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Notes for planning
 Listening/Reading:
 Pre-stage

 While

 Post.

 Speaking:
 Warm-up

 Activity 1

 Activity 2

 Activity 3

- ……

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Important notes when teaching speaking

 Sufficient scaffolding is needed

 Working on language and ideas is needed
 Model conversation/talk can be a good idea
 Feedback is needed

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Corrective feedback for Oral work
● When to correct?
○ Immediate correction
○ Delayed correction
● Who correct?
○ Self correction
○ Peer correction
○ Teacher correction
● What to correct?
● The tone of the feedback?

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Practice: Go to Padlet

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