Module 3: Macroskill: Speaking

Deepen!

Speaking

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts." It is a crucial part of second language learning and
teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and
English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or
memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking
should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express
themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules in each communicative
circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible,
some strategies and some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and
EFL classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.

Before communicating using sentences, students have to know the sound system of the language
(phonetics).

For Kindergarten to Grade 6 pupils, pronunciation lessons are a must

Vowel and consonant sounds are learned by pupils accurately to avoid misinterpretation of what
they hear to be understood by others

Students should know the proper stress of words, phrases and sentences and observe the proper
pauses when speaking.
English has its own sound system, different from that of Tagalog or any other Philippine dialect

Phonetic differences usually cause difficulty to the Filipino learner

For example, the absence of /æ/ in Filipino makes it difficult especially for older students to
pronounce the sound in

mat, cat, sat, bag, ham, clap, mass, fast

The teaching of the vowels

/I/ - sitting, bit, knit, tilt, lit, knit

/eI/ - say, eight, weigh, sachet, sway

/ɛ/ - met, bed, veterinarian, cleft, chef

/ɔ/ - ball, call, four, soar, sore, explore

/o/ - go, home, sow, load, show, bestow, sew

/u/ - blue, food, cool, drool

/Ʊ/ - put, could, stood

/Ə/ - love, away, cinema

These vowel sounds should be emphasized using contrast drills

Difficult vowel sounds should be given attention and reviewed constantly in pronunciation lessons

Consonants /p/, /t/, /k/ while present in the Filipino sounds system, are produced differently in
English

In English, they are produced with a puff of breath or aspiration (when found at the beginning of the
word & in the middle syllable of words that begin w/ an unaccented syllable)

pale, pole, pick, tail, toe, table, cat, call, cool

key, kind, appoint, appeal, attire, atone, attain

acclaim, accord, account, akin, concur

Consonant sounds not found in the Filipino sounds system:

/ʃ/ - ship, fish, leash, shells

/tʃ/ - church, cheap, cheese, check, chit-chat

/Ɵ/ - thin, birth, sheath

// - them, bathe, lather

/Ʒ/ - treasure, measure, leisure

/dƷ/ - judge, gem, age, lingerie

Phonics Generalization

Tips that might help in teaching pronunciation of common English words:

1. Vowel is short when it is found in the middle of a one syllable word

Example:

mat cab

bed but

top lid

2. If the only vowel is at the end of a word/syllable, the vowel will usually have a long sound

Example:

time take

hate tape

3. When a word ends in y, it has the vowel sound of short i or long e

Examples:
 happy

copy

sleepy

4. The consonants j, g and c have the sound of j and s when followed by e, i and y, and the
sound of ga and ka when followed by a, o and u

Examples:

gem ceiling jealous

jibe gym gut

gun color game

jam gold

5. When a word begins with kn or pn, the k and p are silent

Examples:

kneel

knock

pneumonia

6. When a word begins with wr, the w is silent

Examples:

wrong

write

wring

7. When a word contains ght, the gh is silent

Example:

caught

bought
 sought

8. When ph come together, they have the sound of f

Example:

phone

phonics

philosophy

Philippines

9. When a word ends with the silent final e, the first vowel in the word is long and the e is silent.

Examples:

game hike

mate mole

kite hole

Module 4: Macroskill: Reading

Reading
What is “reading”?

• Decoding written symbols

• Getting meaning from the printed page
• Putting meaning into the printed page
• Process of communication between the author and the reader
• Complex and multi-dimensional

“Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body.” —Richard Sleete

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” —Frederick Douglass

Essential Components of Reading

1. Phonemic Awareness
• Knowledge and manipulation of sound in spoken words
• Ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words

• Phonemes – smallest unit of speech

Blending

- Example: /s/ /u/ /n/ is sun

Segmentation

- First sound isolation

Example: First sound in lamp is /l/

- Last sound isolation

Example: Last sound in sick is /s/

- All of which (sounds)

Example: First sound in tan is /t/

Second sound in tan is /a/

Last sound in tan is /n/

2. Phonics
• The relationship between written and spoken letters and sounds
• The relationship between the spoken and written languages
 • Ability to hear, identify and use sounds that make up words
• Involves teaching children to connect sounds with letters or groups of letters:

e. g. The sound /k/ can be represented by c, k, or ck spellings, and teaching them to blend the
sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciation of unknown word

3. Reading Fluency
• The ability to read with accuracy, and with appropriate rate, expression, and phrasing
• The ability to read text quickly and accurately

4. Vocabulary

• The knowledge of words, their definitions and context

• Includes knowing the meaning and pronunciation of words necessary for communication

5. Reading Comprehension

• The understanding of meaning in a text

• Occurs when readers are able to understand, remember and communicate with others
about what they have read
• Good readers employ many strategies as they comprehend what they read

Reading Levels

1. Independent – target/goal; can access text very quickly and with very few errors

2. Instructional – “stretch level”; provide small amount of assistance; not independent but has
appropriate background knowledge

3. Frustration – needs extensive/moderate assistance

Levels of Comprehension

1. Literal

2. Interpretative

3. Applied

4. Evaluative

Literal

• “reading the lines”, answering questions on knowledge

1. Who?

2. What?

3. Where?

4. When?

Interpretative

• “reading between the lines”

• Combining information and making inferences and comprehending them

1. ‘How?’

2. and ‘Why?’ questions

Applied

• “reading beyond the lines”

• Using information to express opinions and express ideas

• Involves application, analysis, synthesis

Example:

If you were ______, what would you do?

Evaluative

• Evaluation of characters, plot and style

• Answers to open-ended questions regarding the behavior of major and minor characters
and the style of presentation

Example:

What qualities makes _____ the antagonist of the story?

What experiences of ____ led his/her actions?

Vocabulary Development
 Vocabulary development refers to the process of acquiring new words to use in daily life.

It also focuses on helping students learn the meaning of new words and concepts in
various contexts and across all academic content areas

It is critical for both written and oral vocabulary development to increase as students get
older to enable them to comprehend increasingly more complex grade level text (Kamil et al, 2008;
Loftus and Coyne, 2013)

1. Word Structure (Morphology)

• Study of words and how words are formed
• Process of breaking words down into their basic parts to determine word meaning
• Structural analysis

Basic parts:

• Roots – basic meaningful part of the word

• Affix – grammatical element combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived forms

Types of Affix

1. Prefix
2. Suffix

Prefix

• Group of letters placed before the root word

Examples:

1. un- : against, not, opposite

 unhappy – un- + happy (root word) = not happy

undo – un- + do = to change or stop

unusual – un- + usual = not usual or normal; not normally seen

2. il- (not) , im- (not, without) , in- (not, without)

Examples:

illegal, illogical

impossible, improper

inaction, invisible

3. pre- : before

Examples:

prefix

prehistory

precede

precinct – no prefix

4. re- : again, back

Examples:

react

reappear

Suffix

• Group of letters placed after the root word

1. -less : “without”

Examples:

flavorless

tireless
friendless

2. -able: having the quality of, having the ability of

Examples:

comfortable

portable

3. -y : full of

Examples:

messy

victory