Coordinación Bilingüe IES Escultor Sánchez Mesa - Otura

TALKING IN THE CLASSROOM

Some Advice for teachers

There is a tendency for teachers to 'lead from the front'. But learners will only learn how to talk
by talking. Talking is also a way of reinforcing the subject content.

Textbooks themselves rarely 'force' speaking through their activities. Normally the teachers will
have to introduce the talk element themselves.

Use of Spanish might be necessary sometimes so that learners can deal with the concepts, but
this doesn’t mean we have to translate word by word.

Teacher themselves often lack confidence in their own language abilities, and therefore it
makes it difficult that they encourage talking.

Thinking on this issue and consciously planning talking activities will help them change this
tendency in the daily classroom.

Some ways of encouraging talk in the classroom

1. Introduce​ at least one activity ​where pupils have to talk in English​ every day.​ Five to ten
minutes might be enough.

2. Make them work i​n pairs or in groups ​of 3, so that everybody has the opportunity to talk.

3. If necessary, ​give them some support​: vocabulary, language frames, etc. and clear
instructions.

4. Give them a “​yellow star​” if the use English and “a yellow card” if they don’t (incentive).

5. Ask them to prepare ​presentations​ (in groups or individually). They don’t always have to be
long presentations, short presentations are also very convenient.

6. ​“Speed” presentations​ allow that everybody presents several times. This will give them the
opportunity to improve the presentation each time they do it.

Some Activities (in pairs, in groups, in front of the classroom)

- ​Describing​ pictures, images, videos.

- ​Describing​ a process / a story / an event, etc.

Coordinación Bilingüe IES Escultor Sánchez Mesa - Otura

- ​Ordering​ pictures, dates, etc. (timelines, actions, etc.)

- ​Guessing​ (data, facts, etc.) at the beginning of a lesson.

- ​Loop activities​: a text made up into pieces; questions and answers. You sort out the pieces
among the pupils, the first one starts and the one who has the next piece of the text or the
answer has to continue.

- ​Matching activities​: terms and definitions. In pairs, in groups of 3 or 4; half and half of the
class. Some of the students have 1/2 of the terms and 1/2 of the definitions and the others have
the rest. One pupil explains the term and the others find the definition.

- ​Paraphrasing​: Asking them to say something in a different way. You can give them the
beginning of the new sentence.

- ​Preparing / Answering​ a survey about a given topic, and p

​ resenting​ the results.

- ​Asking them to ask and give opinions ​about anything in connection to the topic in the unit.