TESTING THE PRODUCTIVE SKILLS:

SPEAKING AND WRITING

Prepared by:
Jan Fe Pamilara &
Ruthcil N. Gaas
 PRODUCTIVE SKILLS

 Speaking and writing skills are called productive

skills.
 They are crucial as they give students the
opportunity to practice real-life activities in the
classroom.
 These two skills can be used as a 'barometer' to
check how much the learners have learned.
Why is it important to teach these productive
skills?

Teaching speaking is vital for it develop a real sense of

progress among learners and boosts their confidence.

Teaching writing is important because written

communication is a basic life skill.

Writing is an effective way of reinforcing what they have

already been studying, and they benefit greatly from
seeing new or unfamiliar language in written form.
What is Speaking?

 It is the action of conveying information or

expressing one's thoughts and feelings in spoken
language.
 to express thoughts, opinions, or feelings orally
(Merriam Webster).
 Teaching Speaking Skills
The following are suggestions from different authors in
teaching speaking:

a. Form-focused Speaking
T

 It is an approach to language education in which learners

are made aware of the grammatical form of language
feature that they are already able to use communicatively.
(Wikipedia)
 It is suitable for beginners.
Teaching Speaking Skills

b. Meaning-focused Speaking

 It is that stage of speaking where the focus is on the

message being communicated.
Why Activities are Provided in Teaching Speaking?

There are three basic reasons why teachers should provide

students with activities:

a. Rehearsal – to organize

Example:
A role-play for students in a shop or an airport offers
them an opportunity to rehearse a real-life event and the
students get the feeling of what is the communication in a
foreign language like.
Why Activities are Provided in Teaching Speaking?

b. Feedback

 Having students to present what they know, that means,

to use all the language they have learnt provides
feedback for the teacher as well as for the students.

 The teachers can see what the students are doing well
and what is needed to be improved.
Why Activities are Provided in Teaching Speaking?

c. Engagement

 All speaking activities are highly motivating and the

students find those interesting to work on and to
participate fully.
Types of Speaking Activities

1. Role Play

Students can pretend they are in various social contexts

and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities,
the teacher gives information to the learners such as who
they are and what they think or feel.
2. Brainstorming

 On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited

time. Depending on the context, either individual or group
brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas
quickly and freely.  The good characteristics of
brainstorming is that the students are not criticize for their
ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas.
3. Storytelling

 Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard

from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own
stories to tell their classmates.

 Story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps

students express ideas in the format of beginning,
development, and ending, including the characters and
setting a story has to have. Students also can tell riddles
or jokes.
4. Interviews

 Students can conduct interview on selected topics with

various people. It is a good idea that the teacher provides
a rubric to students so that they know what type of
questions they can ask or what path to follow, but
students should prepare their own interview questions.
5. Reporting

 Before coming to class, students are asked to read a

newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their
friends what they find as the most interesting news.

 Students can also talk about whether they have

experienced anything worth telling their friends in their
daily lives before class.
 What is Writing?
 Its is a medium of human communication that represents
language and emotion with signs and symbols.
(Wikipedia)

 Pertains to the activity or skill of marking coherent words

on paper and composing text.
 Aspect of Effective Writing
Before looking at how to teach writing skills, aspects of effective writing
should be considered. Correctness and accuracy in the following areas.

1. Grammar
Grammar is important for writing. In writing every grammar error stands
out, which is why it is important to know the rules.
2. Vocabulary
Being able to choose the most accurate words to express your thoughts in
writing is the key to being understood.
3. Spelling
There are few spelling rules in English, and the connection between how a
word is spell and how it is pronounced is less clear-cut than in many other
language. Our students need to learn the spelling of each word.
4. Punctuation
This helps us understand written text the way intonation
helps us understand another person’s speech.
5. Layout
Students must be made aware of the conventions of certain
forms of writing. For example, informal letters, formal
letters, poems,scientific reports, diaries, faxes,notes and
postcards.
6. Linking
Learners must consider linking ideas and information
across sentences and paragraphs to develop a topic or
argument.
7. Style
Appropriate styles should be taught to the students. For
example, our written English on a postcard to a friend is
completely different from a letter to a government office
asking for information.
 Types of Writing Activities
1. Letters
Students can write to make complaints, thank, ask for and give
information or advice or prepare job applications.
2. Creative Writing
You can use pictures or begin a story and ask students to finish it.
Or you can use a personal situation where the student was happy,
sad, surprised,shocked, etc.
3. Diary
Ask your students to keep a diary.
4. Discursive essays
Students need to present an argument, state points for and
against in a logical way, and write a conclusive paragraph.
5. Dictation
A dictation can have a calming effect on young learners. Its
is also useful for teachers who have limited resources and
need to dictate a text for a reading skills lesson.
 Approaches to Teaching Writing

a. Product- oriented Approach

 The concern of this approach is on the correctness of final

products of writing.

 The product- oriented approach to the teaching of writing

focuses more on the linguistic knowledge, such as the
appropriate use of vocabulary, grammar, and language devices.
b. Process- oriented approach

 This approach concerns more on the process of how the

students develop ideas and formula them into effective
writing works.

 Students are seen as the language creators in which they are

given chances to experience the process of writing, try to
organize and express their ideas clearly.
 Roles of Teacher in Writing
 Teachers are required to have various strategies and
great interest when they are teaching writing to the
students.
 The success of students in learning writing is also
determine by the teacher’s performance in helping them
learn writing.
 In the process of teaching writing. The teacher has to
help the students to understand and learn how to write
effectively, give clear explanations and instructions and
guide the students in each step of the writing process.
Four Stages of Learning Writing under Product-
Oriented Approach

1. Familiarization
2. Controlled writing
3. Guided
4. Free writing
Tasks that the teachers must perform before, during
and after the process of writing ( Harmer, 2004 )

a. Demonstrating
b. Motivating and Provoking
c. Supporting
d. Responding
e. Evaluating