Teaching Speaking

By
Dr. Mohammed Ghawi
 Basic Concepts
• Speaking: The act of conveying information or expressing one’s thoughts in spoken language.
• Fluency: Focusing on the delivery of meaning regardless of any language mistakes.
• Accuracy: Focusing on the delivery of oral messages which are free of language mistakes.
• Negotiation: What speakers do to achieve successful communication (indicating understanding
or lack of it; helping each other to express ideas; making corrections)
• Self-correction: Giving students hints and clues to correct their own mistakes.
• Peer Correction: Inviting students’ to correct mistakes made by other students when self-
correction fails.
• Teacher correction: Correcting students’ mistakes when both self-correction and peer-
correction fail.
• Over-correction: Constant interruptions of students’ speaking in order to correct language
mistakes.
 Importance of Teaching
Speaking
 
• A shift of focus from accuracy toward fluency.
• Speaking as the main reason for learning L2.
• Viewing speaking as a measure of success in L2 learning.
• Integrating speaking into the other skills
Criteria for Teaching Speaking
• A competent teacher who is orally fluent.
• An appropriate classroom atmosphere -- anxiety-free.
• Ample opportunities for student participation.
• A variety of speaking activities.
• Enhancing the related sub-skills (grammar, vocabulary
pronunciation).
• Having knowledge of the speech acts.
• Knowing when and how to correct language mistakes.
Some Factors that Influence Speaking Ability

Cognitive Factors Affective Factors

• Familiarity with the topic • Feelings towards the topic

• Processing demands • Self-consciousness
• Knowledge of language • Nervousness
 Differences between Written & Spoken
Written Grammar
• The sentence is the basic unit of
construction.
• Reported speech favored.
• Precision favored.
• Little ellipsis
• No question tags
• No Performance effects.
Grammar
Spoken Grammar
• The clause is the basic unit of
construction.
• Direct Speech Favored.
• Vagueness tolerated.
• A lot of ellipsis
• Many question tags
• Performance effects include
(hesitations, repeats, false starts,
incompletions, syntactic blends)
 Sources of Speaking Support
• Collocations: rich and famous, set the table…etc.
• Phrasal verbs: get up, log on, run out of…etc.
• Idioms/catch phrases: part and parcel, make ends meet…etc.
• Sentence frames: would you like a…?... The thing is…., what really gets me is…
• Social formulas: see you later, have a nice day, mind your head…
• Discourse markers: if you ask me, by the way, to cut a long story short…
• Deixis: (space, time, person)
A. Spatial Deixis:
Here, this (place, thing…etc.)
There, that (place, thing etc.)
B. Temporal Deixis:
Now, this (time)
Then, that (time)
C. Person Deixis:
I, me
You, your
 Types of Speaking
• Transactional: ordering a meal at a restaurant.
• Interpersonal: giving a comment about the weather as an excuse to start a conversation
with someone you don’t know.
• Interactive: A group discussion to solve a problem
• Non-Interactive: a voicemail message.
• Planned: delivering a prepared speech.
• Unplanned: a conversation with an old friend you accidently meet.
Speaking Strategies
 Conversational Strategies .1
• Mastering turn-taking routines: when to talk, how to show desire to talk, how to signal to
someone else to talk.
• Using discourse markers:
To gain time: (ummm, well, you know)
To start a turn: (Well, I would just like to say…)
To signal beginning/ends: (right, now, anyway)
• Using conversational openings: (It’s a beautiful day!)
• Interrupting someone politely: (Sorry to interrupt, but ...)
• Shifting topic: (Oh, by the way, that reminds me ...)
• Closing a conversation: (It was nice meeting you)
 Negotiation of Meaning .2
• Using formulaic expressions: (I’m sorry, I didn’t get that, would you mind repeating that”
• Asking for help (What’s the word for that)
• Paraphrasing: (It’s a kind of …)
• Using “all-purpose phrase (It’s a what-do-you-call it?)
 Functional Language .3
• Using fixed phrases or colloquial expressions: (catch you later, back in a sec, I’ll call
you back in a bit, anyone for coffee, fancy a tea).

• Using adjacency pairs: These are paired responses as follows:

A: Nice day, isn’t it?
B: Yes, it is.

A: Fancy a tea?
B: Yes, please.
Stages of a Speaking Activity
 1. Pre-speaking
• Making notes individually, in pairs, or in groups before oral reporting.
• Silent thinking time before individuals are called on to speak.
• Brainstorming with the whole class before individuals are invited to express their
opinions.
 While-speaking .2
• Repetition (choral, group, individual)
• Activating social loafers/loners (assigning roles or numbers)
• Peer talk (pair- and group-work activities)
 Post-speaking
• Plenary sessions after group-work activities
• Peer and teacher feedback on ideas and language
 Roles of the Teacher
• Organizer
• Prompter
• Participant
• Monitor
• Feedback provider
Kinds of Speaking Activities
 Mechanical Drills .1

•Repetition drills: sounds, words, grammatical patterns

•-Substitution drills
2. Structured Oral Activities
•Structured Interviews: Students question each other and answer factually, thus
exchanging real information while at the same time repeating and reinforcing
certain structures (Yes/No questions; Wh-Questions; Functions: greetings,
introductions; Find someone who: plays football/ doesn't eat meat)
•Picture Description: A picture of my town now (there is; there are) and 50 years
ago (there was/ there were); a picture of what a person looks like; a series of
pictures.
•Guessing Games: Where is my hat? A student goes outside the classroom. His
classmates hide his hat somewhere. He comes back and asks 10 Yes/No
questions using prepositions (Is it in Omar's desk?). The Answer Card: student A is
given a card such as (Beirut) (Dureid Lahaam) (Kabsa). He asks student B
questions so that B gives the exact answer written on A's card.
•Strip Stories: Students organize scrambled sentences into a short story, then
they memorize the strips and present them to the class.
•Story Building: The teacher starts the first sentence of a story, and then asks
individual students to add one sentence each (I had a terrible nightmare last night)
 Free Oral Production .3
•Problem-Solving Activities: Cross-word puzzles; choosing
items for a camping trip.
•Presentations: My best friend, My favorite TV program
•Debates: Tests must be abolished
•Skits: Organized around speech functions (travel agent & a
customer)
•Oral Dialogue Journals
Thank You