NATIONAL AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF NICARAGUA UNAN-MANAGUA

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

MASTER'S IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

TEACHING ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

FINAL PROJECT

Wilmer F. Zambrana

M.A. Yelsin Ramirez

Managua, January, 2022

CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 3
2. THE CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................... 4
3. THE SKILLS AND STRATEGIES ..................................................................................................... 4
3.1 Listening: ................................................................................................................................ 4
3.2 Speaking: ............................................................................................................................... 5
4. LANGUAGE FOCUS.................................................................................................................... 5
5. THE THEME .................................................................................................................................... 6
6. TEACHING METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................... 6
6.1 Listening Approach............................................................................................................. 6
6.2 Speaking Approach ........................................................................................................... 6
7. THE LESSON PLANS ..................................................................................................................... 7
7.1 LESSON PLAN: 1 ................................................................................................................... 7
7.2 LESSON PLAN: 2 ................................................................................................................. 10
8. THE ANSWER KEY ...................................................................................................................... 12
9. REFLECTIVE ESSAY..................................................................................................................... 13

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1. INTRODUCTION

The following project aims at teaching and enhancing listening and speaking

skills in intermediate EFL students from a private academy. The approaches,

strategies, skills and activities were selected based on the learners’ individual

needs. Since the classes takes place once a week, two lesson plans were designed

in order to provide with a pedagogical sequence. Additionally, there is an

explanation of the teaching context, the skills and strategies being taught, the

main theme, and the approaches.

Even though each lesson plan follows a different approach (PDP, Speaking

Cycle), both contains three crucial moments: Opening activities, Middle activities,

and Closing activities. The lessons are thought to be presented in the following

order: Lesson 1 focused on listening and lesson 2 focused on speaking; this, due to

the complexity of the task and the language required in the production stage. The

classroom management and interaction has been considered for the

development of the lesson too. Individual work, team work, pairs, and whole class

have been included. Additionally, visuals have been used to improve long-term

memory and increase comprehension of information. They has great impact on

the learner emotions and motivation and they engage students to the content

since brain respond to stimuli.

Last but not least, a reflection on the teaching methodology and personal

experiences is presented. With great satisfaction, most meaningful learning could

be highlighted and summarized.

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2. THE CONTEXT
The context selected for this final project is authentic. For the design and

development of both Listening and speaking activities, EFL Learners from a Private

English Academy, whose English proficiency ranks between pre- intermediate to

intermediate levels (B1/ level 6), were considered. Students´ ages are between 12

to 15 years old and the total number of students in the level is 21.

Level 6B students seem to be good at receptive skills: Listening and Reading, they

can easily identify main ideas or details within a listening or reading text. They are

able to manage simple structures and some complex ones too. They have a good

repertoire of vocabulary in different topics. However, when it comes to productive

skills: Speaking and Writing, they seem to struggle with. It has been noticed that

they still lack confidence when producing oral ideas. Although their pronunciation

is mostly clear and understandable, they find it difficult to express long ideas

coherently. When it comes to written skills, students still need to work on paragraph

structure. Despite this fact, some of them are more advantageous than others in

terms of the language.

3. THE SKILLS AND STRATEGIES

3.1 Listening:
Skills: in order to teach Listening as Comprehension, Top-down processing has

been considered, and specifically to develop the skills of identifying main ideas

and supporting details, and predicting content. Furthermore, Bottom-up

processing has been included, with the intention to help learners identify language

structures, and recognize the vocabulary being used.

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 Strategies: Through each stage of the lesson, there is a variety of strategies that

were integrated. First and foremost, cognitive strategies (predicting,

contextualization). Also, Metacognitive strategies to work with planning, monitor

comprehension, listen to get overall message and specific parts. Finally, social

affective strategies were integrated to allow students work and collaborate with

others, as well as asking for clarifications.

3.2 Speaking:
Oral Production Processes

Skills: The lesson plan for speaking helps learners develop speech function (request

clarification, give instructions) as well as interaction management (clarify meaning)

Strategies: Cognitive strategies such as formulaic expressions, or paraphrase;

metacognitive strategies such as planning, and self-evaluation; and interactional

strategies such as clarification request.

4. LANGUAGE FOCUS
The target language covered in the following lessons, is integrated in the macro

and oral skills (listening, speaking). However, learners are exposed to write or read

in some activities and in others to learn grammatical structures or vocabulary. The

core content covered is: Food adjectives / too, enough, really / listening for the

gist and details / informal complaints/ explaining what you mean/ requesting

clarification.

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5. THE THEME
The present lesson plan designs have been thought to deal with everyday

situations with predictable and familiar content, which will allow learners express

their ideas using the L2 within the general content of “FOOD”. This choice allows

learners to cater sociolinguistics aspects of language by encounters different

formal and informal scenarios where language might be used spontaneously.

6. TEACHING METHODOLOGY
In both lessons (listening and speaking), a student-centered approach was

implemented. The Learner´s role is active and participation is a determinant factor

for its accomplishment. Teacher talking time is reduced, allowing learners to have

different interactions: S-S, T-S, individual work, group work. Activities were

scaffolded to aid learners´ cognitive process. They were also chosen to cater

different learning styles and help to student individual needs.

6.1 Listening Approach

The main framework used for the development of listening lesson plan was PDP

(Pre, During and Post). Each stage contains a series of activities that guide students

through the processes of Bottom up and top down. Additionally, Listening as

comprehension and Listening as acquisition were also considered. These two

essential processes are evident in the main listening tasks. Task-based

metacognitive instruction (two way task) was barely used too, by allowing students

interact in a mingle activity where they can listen and speak.

6.2 Speaking Approach

The teaching speaking cycle was used as a main framework. It guides the teaching

of speaking involving different stages (planning, monitoring, evaluation, and

feedback).

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7. THE LESSON PLANS
7.1 LESSON PLAN: 1
A. LESSON PLAN INFORMATION
Teacher: Wilmer Zambrana Program: A/A Level: 6 Group: 6B
Date: 15/01/22 Week: 6 Units: 7 A question of Taste Pages:
Skills: Listening / Speaking Duration: 120 min (10:00am- 12:00am)
Topic: Food adjectives / too, enough, / listening for the gist and details / informal complaints, explaining what you mean

B. COMPETENCY:
Use proper structures to talk about food matters when participating in different communicative settings.

C. Objectives:
1- Show understanding of listening texts by responding to CCQs, and sharing information.
2- Understand an informal discussion about food complaints.
3- Use proper language to describe food matters when interacting in different oral activities

D. LEARNING STRATEGIES
OPENING ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: (Top-down) Brainstorm about food words by creating a digital word cloud. Click to the link and write food words you know:
https://www.menti.com/ouiromf8po . The results will be shared for everyone as a cloud. Check spelling of words. (5min)

Activity 2: (Top-down) In pairs, play the game “Rock, Scissor and paper 1, 2, 3” three times. The one who wins will ask one question
to the students who lost. The questions must be related to food: What is your favorite food? How many meals do you eat in a day? What
type food do you dislike? (5min)

Activity 3: (Bottom-up) Match the pictures to the most appropriate adjective that describes them. Write the number (1-8) to the
corresponding box. Then, share with a partner your responses. (5min)

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1. Salty 4. Juicy 7. Spicy
2. Crunchy 5. Sour 8. Sweet
3. Creamy 6. Greasy

Activity 4: (Metacognitive strategy, predicting) Imagine you will go to a restaurant next weekend, what will you eat or drink? What
are some things you would like and some complaints you might have? Then, share your predictions to the whole class. (10min)

Things you´ll like Possible Complaints

Activity 5: (Metacognitive strategy, predicting) you will listen to three people talking about their experience in a restaurant. In pairs,
make predictions about things they will like or possible complaints they will have. Use the chart in activity 4.

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MIDDLE ACTIVITIES:
ORAL TEXT: Students will listen to a conversation between three people about their experience at a restaurant, some speakers
may express satisfaction and some complaints. Audio will be played three times.

LISTENING AS COMPREHENSION
Activity 6: 1st listening: Listen to the conversation between some friends about their restaurant and food experience. Then answer the
question below by circling the name of the person. (3min)

Who liked the restaurant?

a) Andrew b) Ella c) Andrew and Ella´s Friend d) The Friend´s girlfriend
Activity 7: 2nd Listening: Listen to the audio again and make notes for specific information about the food. Then complete the chart
below. (5min)

THE FOOD WHO COMPLAINS THE COMPLAINT

The pasta: a) Andrew b) Ella ___________________________________________
The soup: a) Andrew b) Ella ___________________________________________
The coffee: a) Andrew b) Ella ___________________________________________
The cake: a) Andrew b) Ella ___________________________________________
The price: a) Andrew b) Ella ___________________________________________

Activity 8: 3rd Listening: Listen to the audio one more time and make notes about the food or dishes they really
enjoyed. Then share the notes to a partner and the whole class. (5min)

LISTENING AS ACQUISITION
Activity 9: (noticing bottom up) Listen to and read the conversation transcripts below and complete with the missing information.
(10mins)

Friend: Hey Andrew. Hi, Ella. Did you go to Maxine’s the other night?
Ella: Yes, we did.
Friend: I’m thinking of taking my girlfriend there. How was it?
Andrew: Oh, it was great. My steak was delicious, and the vegetables were _____________ good, too.
Ella: Hmm. Well, my pasta was ______________ tasteless. I don’t think it was salty ____________. And the soup was ______ spicy.
Andrew: Really? I thought the soup was _____________!
Ella: You like ____________ spicy food, though. What else? Let’s see ... the ice cream was _____________ good, very creamy, but the
coffee wasn’t ___________.
Andrew: My chocolate cake was good, but it definitely wasn’t _____________!
Ella: Oh, Andrew, it was ______________! Anyway, I didn’t think the restaurant was great, and it was ______________.
Andrew: It was expensive, but I thought it was nice.

Activity 10: (noticing bottom up) Listen to and complete the chart below using the information or phrases from the conversation.
Then, compare responses in pairs. (10mins)
Too + adjective Adjective + enough Not + adjective+ enough Really + adjective

Activity 11: (restructuring): Use the conversation in activity 8 as sample, work with a partner and create a conversation about a food
experience you have had. Ask questions about the food, the price, service, or the place in general. You may use Too, enough, not enough
or really to describe a negative or positive opinion. Then, prepare yourself to present it to the whole class. (15min)

CLOSING ACTIVITIES
Activity 12: Use the descriptions from sheet to ask questions to your partners and find someone who matches with them. If someone
does not match the description, he or she must say why by using expressions in study (E.g. Do you like to eat pizza? -No, It´s too greasy)

(15min)

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Activity 13: (reflection stage) Discuss about what you learned in the listening activities. Use the key words in the mind map as a guide.
Then share responses to the whole class. (10min)

Strategies
Difficulties

Listening
Topic Activity
Speakers

Skills

E. HOMEWORK:

Write three sentences using the structures in study: Too + adjective, adjective + enough, not + adjective+ enough, really +
adjective. Record an audio reading these sentences aloud and send it through the email (frankshalom21@gmail.com) or
whatsapp.

F. MY REFLECTIONS ON THE LESSON / OBSERVATIONS

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 7.2 LESSON PLAN: 2
A. LESSON PLAN INFORMATION
Teacher: Wilmer Zambrana Program: A/A Level: 6 Group: 6B
Date: 22/01/22 Week: 6 Units: 7 A question of Taste Pages:
Skills: Listening / Speaking Duration: 120 min (10:00am- 12:00am)
Topic: Food adjectives / explaining what you mean/ requesting clarification

B. COMPETENCY:
Use proper structures to talk about food matters when participating in different communicative settings.

C. Objectives:
1- Use a good range of vocabulary related to familiar topics and everyday situations.
2- Use reasonably accurately a repertoire of frequently used “routines” and patterns associated with more predictable situations.
3- Use proper language to describe food matters when interacting in different oral activities

D. LEARNING STRATEGIES
OPENING ACTIVITIES
Focus learners’ attention on speaking
Activity 1: Think-Pair-Share: Look at some pictures and guess about where the food dishes are from: China, France, Thailand,
Mexico, or USA. Share idea with a partner. (10min)

Activity 2: look at a picture provided about food, but do not show to your partners. Then, describe it by saying its taste, category
(fruit, vegetable, main dish), healthy or unhealthy, etc. In pairs, guess what food it is. (10min)

MIDDLE ACTIVITIES:

Give input and guide planning

Activity 3: Note Taking: choose a dish you like or would like to eat. Make notes of essential information about it: is it a
common/unusual dish? Where is it from? What ingredients does it have? What preparation procedure it has? What does it look like?
What does it taste like? When and how is it usually eaten? And say why you like it. (10min)

Activity 4: Speech preparation: use the following outline to prepare a 2min speech using the information from your notes in activity
3. See the example provided. (10min)
Topic: Noodle Soup
Topic: __________________________________ Language needed: simple tenses, connectors, quantifiers, containers
Language needed: _________________________ Key words: Ingredients (beef/chicken, vegetables, etc), Southeast Asia
Key words: ______________________________ Main idea: One of my favorite dish is Noodle soup.
Main idea: _______________________________ Support 1: Ingredients for Noodle soup may vary depending on the
Support 1: ________________________________ country it is cooked. In Taiwan or china, Beef or chicken is added.
Support 2: ________________________________ Support 2: Noodle soup is served in a vowel and chopsticks are needed.
Conclusion: _______________________________ it may taste salty, spicy or sour.
Conclusion: Noodle soup is not a common dish in our country but it is
in fact one delicious and healthy dish
Conduct speaking task
Activity 5: Information Exchange: in groups of 3, Take turns to deliver your speech. Use your notes and the outline to help yourself.
If another student is talking, you must listen, ask for clarifications or further questions you may have. (15min)

Focus on language/ skills/strategies

Activity 6: Grammar Encounter: SS review language: Sequence markers (first, then, after that, later, finally) to describe procedure
or order, containers and quantifiers (a few, little, many, much/ a spoon of, a bowl of, etc ) to describe food ingredients. (10 min)

Activity 7: Organizers: Complete the diagram below with instructions about How to cook/make: rice, coffee, or a sandwich. (10min)

First, you… Then… After that… Now… Then… Finally…

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 Repeat speaking task
Activity 8: Information Exchange 2: in groups of 3, Take turns to repeat your speech. Include more details and use language in
study. (15min)

CLOSING ACTIVITIES

Direct learners’ reflection on learning

Activity 9: Use a checklist provided to self-evaluate after the speaking task. Reflect on what went well and why. Then Share your
results. (10min)

CODE
1 = I can do this with a lot of help. 4 = I can do this really well.
2 = I can do this with a little help. 5 = I can do this almost perfectly.
3 = I can do this fairly well.

Competencies Skill 1 2 3 4 5
I can understand and use too, enough, and (not) enough. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
Grammar
I can use quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
I can describe different food tastes and textures. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
Vocabulary
I can use common words for food containers. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
I can understand an informal discussion about complaints. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
Listening
I can Identify overall message and specific information ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
I can describe and compare things to explain what I mean. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒
Speaking
I can describe food procedure. ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒ ❒

Facilitate feedback on learning

Activity 10: Whole Class Feedback: Teacher provides feedback focused on: Language, structure of ideas, organization of speech.
Highlighting common errors, give examples or models of target performance. (20min)

E. HOMEWORK:

F. MY REFLECTIONS ON THE LESSON / OBSERVATIONS

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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8. THE ANSWER KEY
LISTENING LESSON PLAN

Activity 3:

3 2
1
1. Salty 4. Juicy 7. Spicy
2. Crunchy 5. Sour 8. Sweet
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3. Creamy 6. Greasy 4

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6 5

LISTENING AS COMPREHENSION
Activity 6:

Who liked the restaurant?

a) Andrew b) Ella c) Andrew and Ella´s Friend d) The Friend´s girlfriend
Activity 7:
THE FOOD WHO COMPLAINS THE COMPLAINT
The pasta: a) Andrew b) Ella the pasta was really tasteless
The soup: a) Andrew b) Ella the soup was too spicy
The coffee: a) Andrew b) Ella the coffee wasn’t hot enough.
The cake: a) Andrew b) Ella it definitely wasn’t big enough
The price: a) Andrew b) Ella it was too expensive

LISTENING AS ACQUISITION
Activity 9:

Friend: Hey Andrew. Hi, Ella. Did you go to Maxine’s the other night?
Ella: Yes, we did.
Friend: I’m thinking of taking my girlfriend there. How was it?
Andrew: Oh, it was great. My steak was delicious, and the vegetables were very good, too.
Ella: Hmm. Well, my pasta was really tasteless. I don’t think it was salty enough. And the soup was too spicy.
Andrew: Really? I thought the soup was spicy enough!
Ella: You like really spicy food, though. What else? Let’s see ... the ice cream was really good, very creamy, but the coffee wasn’t hot
enough.
Andrew: My chocolate cake was good, but it definitely wasn’t big enough!
Ella: Oh, Andrew, it was big enough! Anyway, I didn’t think the restaurant was great, and it was too expensive.
Andrew: It was expensive, but I thought it was nice.

Activity 10: (noticing bottom up) Listen to and complete the chart below using the information or phrases from the conversation.
Then, compare responses in pairs. (10mins)
Too + adjective Adjective + enough Not + adjective+ enough Very/ Really + adjective
too spicy. salty enough wasn’t hot enough. very good
too expensive spicy enough! really tasteless
big enough really spicy food
really good
very creamy

Note: The rest of activities in both lesson plans require students´ own responses.

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9. REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Wilmer Zambrana
Oral Communication Skills
MSc. Yelsin Ramirez

Having taken different English courses in Academies, EFL/ESL workshops and

finished my Bachelor degree at UNAN-Managua; my knowledge in TESOL has been

enriched. This, of course, has gone through a learning process during years. I have

been honored to professionally assist students of all levels and ages, since I have

had the chance to teach in Kindergarten, Primary Education, Secondary

Education, Bilingual schools, Language Academies, and Universities. The service

and help I have offered to my students while learning English, has given me

satisfaction. Something that has inspired me to become a better teacher is the

improvement I have seen in language learners. In my expertise as an English

Educator, I have dealt with different teaching scenarios and contexts (English for

specific purposes, General English, Academic English) and based my teaching on

learners´ language need. Having a deep analysis of the teaching methodology

that I have implemented, a frequent transformation has taken place, from a

grammatical approach to a communicative approach. In between, of these

approaches, other frameworks and methods have been used effectively as well.

For instance, project based learning, task based learning, direct method, audio-

lingual method and total physical response.

When it comes to teaching oral skills, I have been more than willing to

implement frameworks and approaches that fit student needs, teaching time, or

school policies. On one hand, for listening skills, I have effectively used the Pre-

During-Post approach and task based instruction, which have had great result in

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my students. However, I have focused my teaching mainly in Listening as

comprehension, using both Top-down and Bottom-up processes. I have selected

diferent task items for checking comprehension such as gap filling, true/false,

complete, information transfer, note taking, and open questions, among others.

Additionally, essential skills have been considered to develop in students. For

instance, predicting, planning, comprehension check, note taking, inferencing,

listening for gist and specific details and so forth. On the other hand, for speaking

skills I have used the framework ECRIF, which its abbreviation stands for Encounter,

Clarify, Remember, Internalize, and Fluency. Nevertheless, this framework has

helped learners use language spontaneously without raising awareness on speech

or discourse organization.

Surprisingly, taking the course “Teaching Oral communication skills” has

provided me with more EFL/ESL theories and approaches for both skills: Listening

and speaking. First of all, it is delighting to see how listening can be taught through

different stages and approaches. My “aha” moment was when I encountered

Listening as acquisition, and metacognitive strategies, which were not included in

my experience as educator. I consider these two aspects essential for language

learning. Raising awareness of a listening or speaking task in a pre-stage is crucial

for its success; as well as providing with self or peer-evaluation tasks may result on

an increase of confidence and language improvement. Furthermore, Speaking

requires a series of competences and skills that should be taught one at a time.

Traditionally, I have focused on both fluency and accuracy when asking my

students to perform a speaking task. However, this course have taught me that

there are many other areas of speech that needs the same priority. For instance,

Discourse organization, or interactional skills, among others.

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 Therefore, I will definitely adjust my teaching pedagogy not only to enhance

my planning and teaching practices, but also to provide students with more

meaningful learning opportunities. For instance, the teaching speaking cycle is,

certainty, one of the frameworks I would like to start implementing. It seems

advantageous and appropriate to raise awareness on the process of speaking

(attention to task, focus on language requirement, planning the speech,

conducting speech, reflection, feedback). In regards to Listening, I will develop

more Listening as acquisition in order to allow students deduce language usage in

a different way and provide with activities that help both skills, including more

metacognitive and social affective strategies.

Drawing conclusions, listening and speaking are active skills that require a

guidance through the process to master. Although there are several approaches

to teaching both skills, it is critical to select the one that best suits the needs of the

learners; a mixed methodology seems to be most beneficial. Personally, I will make

adjustments in my teaching practices to improve the quality of a foreign or second

language teaching.

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