Speaking lessons

The main aim of a lesson can be speaking, yet speaking lessons often include reading or
listening. The text students read or listening to can have two main purposes:

1) Provide material for students to talk about or discuss in the final speaking stage, and or;

2) Provide a model for the speaking. So students might listen to people negotiating to be better
able to negotiate themselves in the productive part.

In the class you are going to look at as an example below the text is used to have something to
discuss.

In speaking lesson, you also often have a stage where you provide language which would be
useful for students to use in the speaking activity. However, here you will not be clarifying a lot
of new language, nor have a complex clarification of new grammar. Instead you would provide
students with useful expression or revise language they may have seen before to remind them
of this and ensure they use natural language for the task. It is therefore a good idea to leave this
“useful” language on the board while students do the speaking so that they can refer to it to do
their task.

In the class you are going to look at as an example below I revise and highlight:
“whereas” and “while” to contrast and “as adjective as” to compare professionals.

Speaking

Stage/Aim:
Lead in: To generate interest in the topic.
Procedure:
Students discuss what they think the qualities of a good employee are.
Teacher boards their ideas, and clarify as needed. If the words “bright” and “smart” come up
the teacher should concept check ad board these as they will appear in the subsequent reading.

Bjarne Vonsild
Stage/Aim:
Pre-teach vocabulary:
To enable students to understand the subsequent reading.
Procedure:
Use pictures to elicit, concept check, drill and board: “giggle, scruffy” and “hangover”.

Stage/Aim:
Stimulus:
To establish a context for speaking
To establish characters (if necessary)
Procedure:
Students read a text which describes 6 employees, including their qualities and flaws. The
task is to read to decide who the best employee is.

Stage/Aim:
1st speaking:
To provide oral fluency practice.
Procedure:
Students discuss who the best employee is.
This should be followed by feedback on language and content.

Stage/Aim:
Clarification:
Clarify language students can use to compare and contrast.
Procedure:
Use examples of the employees in the text to clarify and provide practice of;
“whereas/while” to contrast, and “as adjective as” to compare.

Stage/Aim:
Thinking time:
To give Ss time to prepare for speaking in terms of content
Procedure:
Tell students that the company which they are responsible for has got financial difficulties
and they need to dismiss one. Therefore they have to look at the descriptions of the
employees individually to choose who they´d choose to let go. The teacher should give
students time to think about what arguments they´d use to convince others of their choice.

Bjarne Vonsild
Stage/Aim:
Instructions: To explain to Students the aim of the activity (why?) and the process (how?).
Procedure:
Students discuss their choices and justify why they would let someone go by comparing
and contrasting. They should try to get to an agreement about who to dismiss.
Remember to set time a limit for this.
If you have a lot of students, you can pair up groups so that what was 2 groups of 3
becomes a group of 6. etc.

Stage/Aim:
Speaking activity:
To provide Students with speaking fluency practice
Procedure:
While students negotiate their choices the teacher;
1) Monitors to make notes of ideas and mistakes
2) Helps students with language and ideas
3) Makes some on the spot correction to avoid misunderstandings.

Stage/Aim:
Feedback (i) content (ii) language:
to exploit interest in the discussion/activity
to build Ss’ confidence in their ability to produce good language and upgrade aspects of
Ss’ incorrect language
Procedure:
The teacher gives feedback on content and language. He or she should show interest in
students´ answers and elicit examples of answers and justifications. He or she should also
board mistakes and good language samples from the discussions for students to make
corrections in pairs before the teacher elicits these corrections and highlights good
language examples produced.

Bjarne Vonsild
 General stages for a speaking class:

Stage:
Lead in.
Aim:
To generate interest in the topic.

Stage:
Stimulus.
Aim:
To establish a context for speaking.
To establish characters (if necessary).

Stage:
Thinking time.
Aim:
To give Students time to prepare for speaking in terms of content.
Stage:
Instructions
Aim:
To explain to Students the aim of the activity (why?) and the process (how?).

Stage:
Speaking activity
Aim:
To provide Students with speaking fluency practice.

Stage:
Feedback (i) content (ii) language.
Aim:
To exploit interest in the discussion/activity
to build Students’ confidence in their ability to produce good language and upgrade aspects of
Students’ incorrect language.

Bjarne Vonsild