HOW TO TEACH SPEAKING

Module 1. Understanding speaking – key terms and issues

Unit 1 – Fluency and accuracy

Important terms related to teaching speaking

 Lowering the affective filter

The affective filter describes how a learner's attitudes or emotions can affect their
learning success. If you think of this as a wall, then when the wall is lowered, or
knocked down, it's easier to get over!

 Discussion

Talking about something in order to reach a decision or to exchange ideas

 Appropriacy

Using a level of formality when speaking or writing which suits the situation and
audience.

For example, using language that would work in an email to a friend is probably not
appropriate when writing an email to your boss.

 Problem solving

The process of finding solutions to difficult or complex problems

 Debate

A formal discussion in which opposing arguments are put forward and which often
ends with a vote

 Dialogue

A conversation between two or more people

 Information gap

Information gap activities are very communicative. Learners have to share and find
different bits of information. The information can come from text, images or even
multimedia.

 Learner-centred

Learner-centred teaching allows learners to take more responsibility for their learning
by being more active (for example, doing communicative activities or guided
discovering activities) than passive (just listening to the teacher).

Fluency and accuracy

Reading, watching TV or chatting to proficient speakers are all good ways of learning
how to use a language more naturally.

Accuracy
Accuracy refers to how correct learners' use of the language system is, including their
use of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. For example, a learner might be fluent
(make their meaning clear) but not accurate, making a lot of mistakes.

Language manipulation activities can help develop accuracy. These include controlled
practice, drills, the study and application of grammar rules and activities that help
learners to 'notice' their own mistakes.

Fluency

Fluency refers to how well a learner communicates meaning rather than how many
mistakes they make in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Activities that help to
develop fluency focus on communication, for example discussions, speaking games,
presentations and task work such as projects and emailing.

Accuracy and fluency are important distinctions, but when you use speaking activities
with your learners, you may incorporate elements of both concepts.

Accuracy-based speaking practice is very important, but it needs to be balanced with

opportunities for fluency practice – even if it's as simple as asking learners to tell
classmates about what they did at the weekend.

Fluency activity

1. Learners stand facing each other.

2. Teacher writes question on the board.

3. Learners take turns answering the question for one minute, 30 seconds, 15
seconds, switching partners each time.

4. Learners tell the class about their partner's opinion.

 The main advantage of this activity is that learners don't have time to translate in
their heads, and so have to be spontaneous. They have to try to think in English and
respond quickly. This kind of activity can help build confidence as learners become
more comfortable doing it.

Important considerations for fluency

In order to become fluent, learners have to think in English, not just translate in their
heads.

Learners need to be able to organise their thoughts and make decisions about the
language they use 'on their feet' – or without a lot of time to prepare. This isn't easy
and requires more than just a good command of grammar and vocabulary.

Drilling language is more controlled and so focuses on accuracy rather than fluency.
Answering the teacher's questions can focus on fluency, but also can be more focused
on accuracy.

Experiences and issues

'I only do controlled activities…

where there is a clear grammar focus, so that learners are forced to use the
target forms.'

It's important even for elementary learners to go beyond simple repetition and
manipulation of form. They also need to get away from 'language practice' and to try
to communicate meaningfully about topics of interest to them.

This will inevitably mean mistakes and sometimes frustration. But both these are part
of language learning and shouldn't be avoided. If you give good-quality feedback on
content as well as language, you will encourage your learners to try to create their
own meanings through English.

 Making mistakes is part of the language learning process and shouldn't be avoided.

'If I try to do pair-work…

or group-work activities, discipline breaks down and it's too noisy, so I tend
not to do them.'

First, separate the two points – a noisy classroom and an out-of-control classroom. A
classroom full of learners talking and interacting in English, even if it is noisy, is
exactly what you want. Maybe you feel as if you're losing control because the class is
suddenly learner-centred and not teacher-centred. Classrooms where learners talk in
groups and take responsibility for using communicative resources to complete a task
are shown to be more conducive to language learning than teacher-centred classes.

Losing control of the classroom is a different issue. Walking around and monitoring the
learners as they're working in groups can help, as you can naturally move over to the
part of the classroom where the noise is coming from and calm the learners down and
focus them back on the task without disrupting the rest who are working well in their
groups.

If learners get too noisy, you can change the pace of the class by doing a settling
activity, to calm the learners down.

 A communicative classroom will be more rowdy at times, but that's because the
learners are developing their language in a more natural way.

'My learners make so many mistakes…

– they seem to forget everything I've taught them! So it's better to do

writing. That way I can see if they've learned anything.'

Many learners think that being able to speak a language is knowing the language, and
therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak it. So if learners don't
learn how to speak, or don't get the opportunity to speak, they may soon get
demotivated and lose interest in learning.

Writing is also important, but if you consider all the communications you have in a
day, most of them, for most people, are spoken. If the goal of a language course is to
enable learners to communicate in English, then you need to teach and practise
speaking skills in the language classroom.
 Spoken communication happens more than written, especially the kind of written
activities that are common in a classroom.

'I find it difficult to get my learners to speak in English…

– they start chatting in their own language, so I tend to drill a lot or get
them to repeat after me.'

There are reasons why learners switch to their own language and start chatting. If the
level is too high, they may revert to their first language, or L1. Likewise, if the task is
too easy, they may get bored and revert to their L1. Also, beginners will often use
their L1 as an emotional support at first. With confidence and practice, their
dependence on using their L1 will begin to disappear.
Learners also revert to L1 if they have nothing to say or do, or don't feel the need to
speak. You may find it helpful to walk around the classroom, giving support as needed.
If certain learners persist in speaking in the L1, then you can ask them to stay behind
after class, speak to them individually and explain to them the importance of speaking
English and ask them why they don't feel comfortable speaking in English in the
classroom.
Maybe they need some reassurance or there is some other problem that you can help
them to resolve.

 From time to time you may need to speak your own language, but, especially in
speaking activities, as a teacher you should set an example. This also helps learners
get used to asking questions and getting answers in English.

Unit 2 – Assessing activities and teacher talk time

A communicative lesson

Real communication

In your daily life, you speak in many different ways, depending on where you are, the
environment you're in, who you're speaking to, etc.

You may speak in formal situations – such as giving a lecture – or informal situations –
such as chatting with family around the dinner table.

You tell jokes, you discuss your work with colleagues, you tell the doctor about your
medical problems, you buy food at the market, you ask questions about products in
shops and make transactions at the bank.

Communicative language teaching

There are many well-known approaches to teaching English. The way you teach is
your own personal method, probably a combination due to different factors: the way
you were taught English, the way you like to learn and the way you've been taught to
teach. Of course, your own personality is important too.

The approach that most language teachers today would say they use is the
communicative approach. In his book Learning Teaching (2011), Jim Scrivener
distinguishes between 'weak communicative language teaching' and 'strong
communicative language teaching'.
Weak CLT

Learners learn through a wide variety of teaching, exercises, activity and study, with a
bias towards speaking and listening.

Strong CLT

Learners learn by communicating, i.e. doing communication tasks with a limited role
for explicit teaching and traditional teaching practices.

When aiming to make tasks communicative, there are several things to keep in mind.

1. Does the activity allow for extended speaking time?

For example, if learners only have to give one-word responses, then it isn't really very
communicative. Make sure that there's enough to talk about.

2. Does the activity require sub-skills such as clarifying meaning and rephrasing?

3. Do learners have the language to carry out the speaking task?

Make sure the topic is at the right level and needs language that learners know and
can use.

4. Do learners have enough background knowledge about the topic to speak about it?
Is it a topic they know anything about?

5. Is the topic interesting?

Assessing activities

Look at five classroom activities and decide how communicative each one is.

1. Information gap

The learners work in pairs, A and B. They both have incomplete pictures of a town and
have to ask each other questions to complete their pictures. Example language is
provided:

 Where is the cinema? It's next to the supermarket.

 Where is the school? It's across from the park.

 Somewhat communicative. This activity does allow the learners to speak with
useful target language, but it's still quite structured.

2. Class survey

The learners work in groups to produce a survey on 'habits'. Each group has a set of
four questions, which they move around asking. They then come back to their groups
and write up the information. The question types are:

 Group 1 – What time do you... (e.g. get up on weekdays)?

 Group 2 – How often do you… (e.g. watch TV)?

 Group 3 – What do you eat… (e.g. for breakfast)?

 Group 4 – What is your favourite… (e.g. TV programme)

 Somewhat communicative. This activity is not much more than simply structured
grammar practice. It's not as communicative as it could be.

3. Discussion

The learners work in groups. They discuss the statement 'Mobile phones are a bad
invention.'

 Very communicative. This activity is very communicative (though you may have
selected 'Somewhat communicative' as the answer). However, learners would
probably need support with language.

4. Role play

The role play is set in a restaurant. The learners are divided into waiters, restaurant
managers and customers. They have a menu to choose from, and some of them are
instructed to complain about the food.

 Very communicative. This is an authentic context and has a true focus on

communication. There are opportunities for clarification and rephrasing.

5. Describe and draw

The learners work in pairs, A and B. A has a picture of a person and describes it to B –
face, hair, eyes, clothes, height, etc. B draws the picture described, using coloured
pencils. They then compare pictures.

 Somewhat communicative. This activity allows for some useful communication.

Back to the board

Another common classroom speaking game is 'Back to the board', or 'Hot seat'. This
activity is often used to review a list of vocabulary.

Have you heard of this activity? Read the instructions.

Stage 1. Divide your class into two teams.

Stage 2. Ask for one volunteer from each team to stand with their back to the board.

Stage 3. Write the first word on the board.

Stage 4. Tell each team they must not say the word on the board. They should give
definitions or prompts to get the person from their team at the board to say the word.

Stage 5. The first person at the board that says the correct word wins a point for their
team.

Stage 6. Repeat with other words.

Advantages

It allows learners to learn from each other.

It's learner-centred and fun.

It promotes fluency.

It encourages both co-operation and competition.

It lowers the affective filter, meaning it reduces shyness and fear of speaking.

How could you encourage as much speaking as possible in an activity like Back to the
board? Read some ideas from other teachers.

Functional language

'I have some functional language we always review before this game – I leave them on
the board during the game, so they can easily refer to them. They are phrases like
"It's another word for...", "It looks like...", "It's something that you use to...", "It's a
word you use when...", etc.'

Game language

'I make sure they have useful "game language"; we use these phrases a lot while
playing competitive games: "Whose turn is it?" or "Hey, no cheating!" They have lots
of fun with that type of English.'

Teams and groups

'I sometimes put them in teams of two, and have little groups of four all around the
room, so there are lots of games going on at once. The competitive nature of the
game and small group atmosphere gets even the shyer speakers talking.'

Teacher talking time

The more your learners talk, the more confident they become at using English with
their classmates. One of the key ways to give learners more time to talk is to reduce
teacher talking time (TTT). Look at some of the reasons you may want to try to reduce
your TTT.

 Excessive TTT limits the amount of learner talking time.

 A large amount of TTT can result in long stretches of time in teacher-to-class

mode and may become boring and demotivating for learners.

 TTT often means that the teacher's giving the learners information that they
could find for themselves, such as grammar rules, the meanings of vocabulary
items and corrections.

 If the teacher takes the dominant role in classroom discourse in terms of

initiating the topic, allocating turns and evaluating comments, the learner's role
is only that of respondent. Opportunities for developing their speaking skills can
therefore be limited.

Often, though not always, the overuse of TTT is the result of the underuse of
communicative techniques in the classroom.

You're going to look at some strategies that can help you reduce TTT.

1. Elicit rather than explain. With clear examples and guiding questions, you don't
need to explain everything.

 This kind of guided discovery can lead to better understanding and more successful
learning.

2. Ask learners to give feedback on tasks to each other rather than to the teacher.
 This is more learner-centred and encourages peer co-operation and correction.

3. Keep instructions simple. Ask simple concept questions to check understanding.

 If explanations are clear and concept checking is effective, there should be no need
for re-explanation or interrupting an activity to explain again.

4. Accept silence. Silence is not only important when learners are working individually
but also provides 'processing time'.

Unit 3 – Modifying speaking activities

Modifying speaking activities

When deciding which activities to do with your learners, it's a good idea to look at
activities already in your coursebook and consider modifying them. You don't need to
'reinvent the wheel', maybe just adapt it.

Framework for modifying activities

You're now going to look at a framework that you might also find useful as you
evaluate and modify activities. These are small changes you can make to almost any
classroom activity.

Choice

Ask learners to choose a situation, topic, theme, etc. or use one they previously
studied in their coursebooks. They'll be more motivated to do the activity well if it's
something that interests them. In addition, allow learners to shape the activity how
they want; for example, if they're doing a role play, let them decide what the
situations and outcomes are.

Planning

Give learners time to plan what they'll say. They brainstorm the language they'll need,
recall previously learned forms and vocabulary, and consider noticing and
restructuring tasks they've done. They decide what language is appropriate and
useful. They ask their teacher for help if they need it.

Rehearsing

Give them an opportunity to rehearse – or practise using – and restructure the

language they've chosen.

Feedback

Review the language used. Give examples of mistakes, together with corrected
versions, and ask learners to 'notice' what the differences are and discuss why the
mistakes occurred. Alternatively, ask learners to identify and correct the mistakes.
Provide information on language form, use and meaning to help learners notice.

When you do this, don't forget to include positive examples of good language the
learners used too.

Reflection
Ask the learners to reflect on what went well in their conversations and what they
would like to improve next time. Ask them to think about how they would 'restructure'
language for future use.

Applying the framework

Choice, planning

Find or prepare a picture of a town – a town plan for tourists is good. Ask the learners
to brainstorm the kinds of places they would like to see in their ideal town. Write their
suggestions on the board.

Divide the learners into two groups. Give each group a cope of the town plan picture
and ask them to decide where they'll put the places on the board and then add them
to the picture.

Next, they decide on the language they'll use to describe their town to their partners
in the other group and what questions they'll ask to find out about their partners'
towns.

Rehearsing

Learners practise describing and asking questions in their original groups.

When learners are ready, they divide into pairs – one person from each group – to talk
about and compare their pictures.

Feedback, reflection

Ask learners what they noticed about each other's descriptions. Did they use the
same language? Did they learn anything new from their partners? What would they do
differently next time?

Provide examples of other contexts where they could use this language.

Find someone who...

Now consider a 'Find someone who' activity – an activity where learners are given a
list of things they need to find by asking their classmates questions. For example,
'Find someone who walks to school'; 'Find someone who plays a musical instrument'.

Imagine a teacher is planning the activity and aiming to apply the framework you've
just read about. As you read their thoughts, choose the feature that you believe
they're applying.

1. 'I won't tell them which questions to ask. I'll put the nine squares on the board and
ask each group to think of a question for each square. I want them to use irregular
verbs, so that's a restriction I'll make. And of course they all have to use a different
verb!'

 Planning

2. 'When we've done the activity, I'll ask the learners to think about what errors they
made and to tell their partner if and how they would use the target language
differently next time.'

 Reflection
3. 'Before we start as a class, I'll give them 60 seconds to practise with a partner.'

 Rehearsing

4. 'While they're doing the activity, I'll walk around and listen for examples of good
use of the language as well as errors. I'll put these examples on the board after the
activity and see if they can determine which ones are correct and which ones are not.
Then we can identify why the mistakes happened and how to fix them.'

 Feedback

5. 'I need to review present perfect with them, but instead of just talking about
general 'life experiences' like I usually do, this time I'll put them in groups of three and
give them one minute to think of a topic we can apply it to.

I'll write all the topics on the board, and the class can vote which topic we'll go with. I
guess they'll come up with topics like 'football', 'films' and 'music', but maybe they'll
surprise me.'

 Choice

Modifying more activities

You're now going to look at two more activities, to see how other teachers applied the
framework and aimed to apply some of the features of communicative language
teaching. Then, finally, you'll think about two other activities and apply the framework
yourself.

A class survey

Listen to a teacher talking to her colleague about how to make a class survey activity
more effective. In the activity, the learners work in groups to produce a survey on
'habits'. Each group has a set of four questions which they ask as they move around.

Which of these suggestions does the teacher get from her colleague? Choose six.

 Let learners help create the questions.

 Ask one of the learners to go around and monitor during the activity.

 Let them choose alternative identities for answering the survey questions.

 Review the language they'll need to do the survey.

 Have the learners write down all their ideas.

 Think of ways to extend the speaking.

 Let learners experiment with language.

 Go over some of the answers with the whole class.

Describe and draw

Now look at how one teacher took the simple 'Describe and draw' activity and
modified it. The main adaptations they thought about were:

 giving the learners a chance to practise the language they'd need

  extending the speaking time into writing by having them write comparisons

 adding some competition for motivation (Who has the best drawings?)

 including error correction after the task.

Teacher's notes for an activity

Typed instructions for activity: The learners work in pairs, 'A' and 'B'. 'A' has a picture
of a person and describes it to 'B' (face, hair, height, clothes, etc.). 'B' draws the
picture as described, using coloured pencils. 'A' and 'B' compare their pictures.

Note taking

Now choose one or both of the following activities and take a few minutes to think
about how you would modify them. Think about the features of a communicative
activity and the framework you looked at for modifying tasks, then make some notes.

1. Discussion: The learners work in groups. They discuss the statement 'Mobile
phones are a bad invention.'

2. Role play: The role play is set in a restaurant. The learners are divided into
waiters, restaurant managers and customers. They have a menu to choose from, and
some of them are instructed to complain about the food.

Discussion – ways to adapt it

Let learners brainstorm topics before, then work in groups to choose a topic and write
their own 'controversial' statement.

They can write a statement for another group to discuss.

The teacher can give some useful phrases for discussing opinions: e.g. 'In my
opinion...', 'That's not the way I see it', 'As far as I'm concerned...', 'Well, if you ask
me,...', etc.

Assign one learner in each group to write down sentences or phrases that 'don't sound
right' for error correction and feedback later.

Role play – ways to adapt it

Let learners decide the context and roles.

Consider letting groups set role-play contexts and cards for other groups.

Make sure they have time to prepare their ideas and make some notes.

Encourage improvisation once the activity starts.

Do a 'practice' role play with some volunteers – remind them about some useful
language, depending on the language being reviewed.

The teacher walks around and records phrases and sentences for feedback and error
correction.
Module 2. Understanding speaking – maximising interaction

Unit 1. Pair and group work

Your classroom

Pair and group work

Pair and group work can give all learners a chance to participate and practise, so
everyone gets to listen and speak. In large classrooms, this is often the only way of
getting all the learners actively involved.

Pair and group work

Look at this activity from an English coursebook, then read the dialogues below which
show how two different teachers led the same activity in different ways.

First approach

Teacher: I'm Mr. Mansouri. I come to school by bus. Sophie, how do you come to
school?
Sophie: I come to school by car.
Teacher: OK Sophie, come to the board, write your name in the first column and put a
tick in the row that says 'by car'. Next… Daniel, how do you come to school?

Second approach

Teacher: All right class, everyone please look at the table in your book. You're going
to work in groups to find out how your classmates travel to school. Does anyone know
what question you would ask to find out this information?
Max: I know!
Teacher: Go ahead Max. Ask Raja.
Max: Raja, how do you come to school?
Teacher: Good! Let's say it together. How do you come to school?
Class: How do you come to school?
Teacher: Nice work. Raja, can you tell Max the answer?
Raja: I come to school on foot.
Teacher: Great, now everyone, write Raja's name in the first column and put a tick in
the row with 'on foot'. You're all going to do this with the groups at your table. Ask
each other, and fill out the chart like that.

 most effective in helping learners practise language

In this example, all the learners are talking together while the activity is completed.
Having learners work together in pairs and groups can provide lots of simultaneous
practice, which is especially helpful in a large class.

To introduce a dialogue or a role play, you can first demonstrate yourself, and then
ask two confident and able learners to try it out while the whole class watch and
listen. Then it's their turn.

Putting learners into pairs and groups

Listen to some teachers share their thoughts on how they put learners together in
pairs and groups.

The simplest way to set up pair work is to ask students to pair up with a person who
happens to be sitting next to them. This is often a friend.

Students working with their favourite student has all sorts of advantages: they gain
confidence, everyone likes to talk to somebody they know, they get used to that
person's voice, their partner's voice, and it's comfortable to be with them.

Setting up pairs or small groups with the students immediately in front, behind or to
the side is the simplest, and quickest arrangement. No one has to move, which is
helpful in a crowded classroom.

But students have different abilities, and you'll often have a good reason to combine
better students with weaker ones.

When it comes to group work, sometimes I let them choose their own group members,
but then most of the time I try to arrange the groups in such a way that you've got
mixed ability within the group, so you've got a mixture of the strong students and the
weak ones so that they help each other.

Sometimes I tell the strong ones that they need to give the other members of the
group the chance to participate. That they could be sort of 'facilitators' and help them
develop their own skills rather than taking the lead within the group.

Sometimes there are activities where it would benefit students to be with somebody
of their own level, where you pair the weaker students up together and the stronger
students up together. That way the stronger students may work more quickly and may
finish before the other students, but you can give them other activities to keep them
busy.

 Variety in pairing and grouping keeps your learners on their toes, but it means
clever planning and organisation from you, the teacher!

Benefits of pair and group work

Pair work and group work get learners engaged and motivated.
Pair work and group work encourage learners to help each other.

Pair and group work enable more language practice for learners.

Pair and group work help learners feel more secure.

Challenges

Pair and group work can be very noisy

Most teachers love to hear their language learners chatting and laughing. They see
this as a sign that their learners are engaged and motivated and, best of all, using the
language.

Learners make mistakes

This may be true, but it allows learners to experiment with language and develop their
competency. They may be too shy to speak in front of the teacher or the whole class,
but they can build confidence speaking with a partner or small group.

It's a good idea to prepare learners before pair or group work and to monitor carefully
during the activity so that you can correct important mistakes when the activity is
finished.

Learners can be difficult to control

This may be some teachers' greatest fear – they don't want to lose control of the
class. It's very important to give clear instructions for pair and group work.

Learners must have a clear task to complete. It's also a good idea to introduce pair
and group work slowly over a period of weeks if your learners aren't used to it. And
remember, not all group work needs to be noisy!

Setting up pair work and group work with your classes can be done from the very start
and can give everyone lots of practice.

You have lots of choice in how you organise your class. You can put learners together
with their usual classmates, you can match weaker and stronger learners, or set up
pairs and groups so that learners are working with others of the same level.

Unit 2. Language chunks in games

Teachers in action

You're going to watch a video of some classrooms where learners are doing speaking
activities.

In the video you'll see some teachers in Thailand as they demonstrate techniques to
get their learners speaking.

Listen to their ideas and the tips from teacher trainer John Kay. He gives tips on five
different areas of speaking in the classroom:

1. Warmers

One idea for the warmer is when you're arranging group work.
A teacher walking around a secondary classroom with the learners sitting at their
desks. Remember, the focus is on fluency, so you give each student a picture of an
animal, for example. Learners have a piece of paper with an animal on it which only
they can see. You have five cows, five sheep, five horses and each student has one
card with an animal on it. They don't look at the other person's card, but they say:
‘which animal have you got? I've got a horse.’ ‘OK no, you're not in my group.’ They
are speaking to each other and there is an element of fluency, even before the
activity begins.

Benefits of using a warmer

 It helps learners relax. It helps teachers relax.Correctly checked

 There is an element of fluency even before the activity begins.

 It builds momentum.

2. Instructions

When giving instructions, let them know; ‘Here it comes, here comes the instruction.’
Look around, make sure they can all see you and then go for it.

Together with your friends, read the dialogue and see if you see any conditional
sentences in the dialogue.

In giving instructions in large classes, I would say it and then I would ask students to
repeat what I said. Do you work alone? No, you work with Phanna. Please, do. OK,
work with partner. Do not work alone. OK, two minutes. Learners doing the activity in
pairs.

Once you've given the instruction, check that they understand, usually through their
actions. Watch them. If they do it, they've understood. If they don't do it, they haven't
understood, in which case, go back, give the instruction again and then ask them to
go again.

If enough careful planning goes into the instruction, and the instructions are simplified
enough before the lesson begins, then it may take away the necessity for using the
students' own language.

3. Target language

Make sure you're not using any over-complicated language. For example, can you say
‘What’s this?’ rather than ‘Can anybody tell me what this is?’

Even in your own language, it’s quite difficult to take in more than two instructions.
One instruction, let them move. Then give another instruction, let them move. I
always give instructions in English because the language that I use is language that
you can use in real life.

 A visual prompt or a noise can help learners produce the language as well as
repeating after the model the teacher says. Remember, you need to be able to see
and hear the learners so it's important for learners to repeat after you, not at the
same time.

4. Useful language
If you want the students to practise particular language, then it’s often important that
you do some controlled oral practice of the target language before they start to
practise in groups.

To do this controlled practice, you can use straightforward repetition where the
teacher stands once again where everyone can see the teacher, and then gives them
a model and they repeat after the teacher.

Taking this one step further, to make it a bit more creative for the students, give the
students a prompt. It can be a visual prompt, it could be a noise. It depends on the
teacher.

Think about what language the students are going to need in order to complete the
task successfully. This language can be practised before they start doing the task.

5. Extension

Feed in something else for them to do which will allow them to practise language that
they’ve practised in previous lessons and push themselves so they’re getting the most
out of the fluency lesson.

Speaking activities

Role plays

With role plays, learners are given information about a 'role' they must play. They
practise small dialogues using the roles they've been given. Often, they're given 'role
cards', which could be just the name of the role, or sometimes they're given
instructions as to what to do.

Here are some of the benefits of using role plays:

 They can lead to interesting discussions on topics that learners don't often get a
chance to talk about.

 They can be set in specific contexts and created to practise specific target
language or vocabulary.

Some fun twists

Try something different! Introduce strange variations:

1. You're a pair of sports shoes. You feel used and abused. Nobody really takes care
of you... you're dirty and smelly.

2. You're a red sports car. Convince the buyer that they should purchase you and
not the practical, grey family car next to you.

Real play

Try 'real play'. In this version of role play, learners play themselves. You can provide a
situation, or the learners can think of their own. You could ask learners to choose a
problem or situation that they might want to work on, and then they create a dialogue
based on the situation.
Roles could be switched, and learners could role play each other. For this type of role
play, make sure a framework is set: What is the situation? Who are the people in the
role play? How do they know each other? What kind of result do you want to have?

Surveys

Surveys are another fun way to practise target language. You're probably familiar with
the common survey 'Find someone who', which is so easy to adapt based on the
target language.

You can also get learners to write their own surveys. In groups, they prepare a few
questions each, with choices. For example:

When do you usually do your homework?

 As soon as I get home.

 Right before I sleep.

 Before school the next day.

 I don't do my homework!

Then you can form new groups with one learner from each of the first groups. They
survey their new group members, then go back to their original groups, share their
findings, come to a conclusion and prepare a short presentation for the rest of the
class.

Surveys can be easily personalised, are highly communicative and can help learners
build effective presentation practice as they present their findings to the class.

More speaking activities

Ball throwing game

 Throw the ball to a learner who has to say something, e.g. how they are feeling,
an introduction to themselves, what their future plans are.

 The learner then throws the ball to someone else who has to speak.

 This continues until everyone has had a chance to say something.

 You can also do this by asking learners to make a question and then throw the
ball for someone else to answer it.

Pyramid discussion

 Hand out worksheets with items for ranking.

 Put learners into pairs.

 Each pair has to order the items from most important to least important.

 Now put two pairs together (i.e. four learners in each group) and ask them to
agree on the order of the items.

 This is done again with two groups of four getting together and trying to agree
and then with two groups of eight.
  Finally, the whole class has to rank the items and come to an overall agreement.

Survival

 Divide the learners into groups of five or six.

 Describe a survival scenario to them, e.g. a plane crash in a jungle, miles from
anywhere.

 Give them the task: they have to decide which eight items out of a possible 20
they would take with them on their search for help and why.

 The teacher needs to decide what the 20 items are or the class can brainstorm
20 items and these can be written on the board.

 Either each group presents their reasoning to the class, and the class votes on
the best choices or learners are regrouped, as in a jigsaw task, and they have to
agree on eight things to take.

 As a follow-up task, the group can make up the story of their trip and then be
interviewed by reporters.

Onion rings

 Make sure you have enough space for this – you could do it outside.

 Divide the class into two.

 One half stand in a circle facing outwards; the other half stand in a larger circle
around them facing inwards.

 Each learner should be opposite another learner.

 Tell them they have two or three minutes to ask and answer as many questions
as possible.

 Tell the outer circle to move on to the next learner.

 Stop when they've come 'full circle'.

 This can be used for any functional language and for practising any language in
a more interesting way.

Real speaking

In your daily life, you speak in many different ways. This depends on many things,
including where you are, the environment you're in and who you're speaking to.

You may speak in formal situations – such as giving a lecture, or informal situations –
such as chatting with family around the dinner table.

You tell jokes, you discuss your work with colleagues, you tell the doctor about your
medical problems, you order food at a restaurant, you ask questions about products in
shops and make transactions at the bank.

Look at these two classroom conversation examples.

Conversation A shows a controlled practice exercise, practising the structure should.

Conversation B shows how the same structure might be used in real communication.

Conversation A

Teacher: I feel tired.

Learner: You should have a rest.
Teacher: I feel ill.
Learner: You should see a doctor.
Teacher: I feel hungry.
Learner: You should have a sandwich.

 is very controlled and has only one purpose, to practise should.

Conversation B

Learner 1: I'd like to try to study in Britain for a few months. What do you think I
should do?
Learner 2: Well, first of all, you should go and see the British Council. They'll give you
a list of language schools in Britain where you could go and study, and then they'll
also tell you if there are any ways of getting a grant or a scholarship. And then you
could try…

 more natural and has a real purpose for using the language.

Practical ideas
Here are some ways to inject more 'real' speaking into your classroom.

 At the beginning and end of classes, pair the learners and get them to tell their
partner what they learnt in the previous or current lesson.

 They can also tell their partner something connected with the topic of the
lesson. For example, where they were last night or what their likes and dislikes
are.

 Every time you feed back on a task, tell them to peer check their answers with a
partner. This will help to build confidence before speaking in front of the whole
class.

 If groups are working together on a task, when they finish, move one learner
from each group to check their answers again or to share/check more
information before eliciting feedback.

More controlled practice

You've just looked at the difference between traditional classroom practice and more
natural, real-life communication. This doesn't mean that traditional practice is a waste
of time! It's a very useful way of practising the structure should, for example.

But on its own, this kind of practice won't prepare learners very well for real
communication in English. Try to give practice that is controlled but which also
includes some of the features of real communication.

Listen to one teacher giving some advice to another teacher about this.

First of all, your learners need practice with more than just single sentences. They
need to develop the ability to mix different functions and grammar. Otherwise all they
can do is produce those sentences you drill them with… and that's not very
meaningful, is it?

It's important to encourage learners to give their own answers, not a 'set' answer, so
that the language they produce is creative.

In addition to just reading fake dialogues from the book, or filling in the blanks, you
can give them scenarios that are realistic, but not tell them exactly what to say. If
you're teaching future predictions, why not let them talk about how they think their
lives will be different in 10 years. That would really give them a reason to use the
grammar for future prediction.

Unit 3 – Making reading communicative

Making reading communicative

Reading stages

Because classroom reading aims at helping learners develop the skills they need to
read more effectively in a variety of ways, it's normal to plan 'pre-reading', 'while-
reading' and 'post-reading' stages.

These stages can help you make reading more communicative. You'll learn more
about the actual reading skills if you complete one of the modules about teaching
reading.

Stage 1: Pre-reading

Before reading a text with learners, it's good to raise their knowledge of what they're
about to read (their schematic knowledge) as this knowledge will help them to
understand the text. The most effective way to do this is by collaborating.

Here are some speaking activities you can get your learners to do before they read:

 Tell your partner what you know about the topic (perhaps see which pair
can come up with the most 'facts'?).

 Look at some pictures related to the topic and predict what will happen.

 Read the first paragraph and then predict.

Stage 2: While-reading

Reading in pairs may seem like a strange approach, but it helps to get learners
speaking during reading tasks. Here are two common approaches to accomplishing
this:

1. Running dictation

 Divide the class into Learner A and Learner B pairs. Give Learner A a list of
questions to ask Learner B.

 Learner A asks one question at a time, and Learner B runs to the text on the wall
to find the answer, then dictates the answer to Learner B, who writes it down.
Continue until all the questions are answered. You can have the learners swap
roles halfway through.
  The first pair to correctly answer all the questions wins.

2. Jigsaw reading

 Photocopy a suitable text and cut it into four parts.

 Seat learners in fours. Give a piece of the text to each learner. They mustn't
show their piece to the others.

 Give each group a set of questions.

 The group have to work collaboratively to answer the questions since no one
has the whole of the text.

 Groups can compare answers when they've finished.

Stage 3: Post-reading

In everyday life, you often talk about what you've read. You can generate discussions
about texts in your classroom too. Give learners questions to discuss in groups about
their reactions to the text. You can give them creative questions to ask a partner, like
'Which of the characters would you like as a friend? Why?'
Here are some more ideas for pairs or groups:

 Write short role plays from the text to act out in class.

 Write quizzes for each other.

 Create a short film clip from the story.

 Create an interview with one of the characters from the story.

When speaking is integrated into reading lessons, learners can feel more motivated
because they are more engaged.

Benefits of speaking in reading lessons

By adding speaking activities in your reading lessons:

 the learners are more engaged

 they improve speaking and listening skills in addition to reading

 their communication skills and confidence naturally improve.

Not all reading tasks need to include pre-, while- and post- speaking activities. For
example, you may find that with more mature learners, you can simply have
individuals read a text and then discuss.

Read these instructions from a teacher during a reading lesson. Decide if they're most
likely during pre-, while-, or post-reading.

1. Memorise as much as you can of the text, then come back and dictate it to your
partner. Keep doing this till you've finished.

 While-reading. This is from a running dictation, where learners work in groups to

make a replica of the text on the wall. They run and remember sections of the text to
bring back to their group. This is done while they're reading and gets learners moving
and engaged.
2. Look at the pictures with the article. What do you think the story is about?

 Pre-reading. Before reading, it's good to ask questions to predict what the text will
be about. This helps learners get ready to read.

3. Don't show your text to your group mates (each person has a different section of
the text). Together, decide what the text is about, and write a summary.

 While-reading. This is an example of a jigsaw reading activity. Each group member

has a different section of the text and learners work together to find out what the text
is about. This allows learners to work collaboratively and also to practise speaking.

4. Would you have made the same decision as the shopkeeper did? Tell your partner
why or why not.

 Post-reading. This is a question that can only be answered after reading the text.
This type of activity gives learners an opportunity to share their reactions to the text.

5. This story is about the sinking of the Titanic. Take three minutes and work with your
partner to write down all the things you know about the story of the Titanic.

 Pre-reading

6. With your group, create a WANTED poster for the arrest of the murderer.

 Post-reading. Creating a poster is done using the knowledge gained from reading
the text. The text isn't used again and so this is a post-reading activity. This type of
activity gives learners a chance to work collaboratively and to practise speaking.

A visit to a speaking class

Sometimes, you can use a text as an effective springboard for a speaking lesson
without even reading the story. In an extract from the TeachingEnglish Radio series,
you're going to listen to Clare, a teacher in Turkey, use a reading text to get her
learners speaking.

Clare's lesson

Clare's going to introduce her class to a short story by an author called Roald Dahl.
He's very well known in the English-speaking world, particularly for his children's
stories – stories such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr
Fox, and Matilda, among many others. Many of these have been made into films. The
story in this lesson is called The Landlady.

Listen to Clare introduce the activity. What's her goal?

I will be introducing a Roald Dahl short story to my 7th grade class this afternoon.
They have some background information on the author, but this will be the first time
that they will see the text, and my goal is to make it as interactive as possible.

The story

The title of the book, The Landlady, refers to someone who runs a small hotel. In the
story, a 17-year-old boy takes a train to another town and looks around for a place to
stay on a cold snowy evening.
He finds a small hotel with a landlady who seems to be friendly, but it's not a good
decision... because this short story is a horror story!

Predicting

The first stage of the activity will be the prediction stage. The learners haven't read
the story yet, just some background information on the author and the title, which
Clare checks.

Then she shows them six pictures of scenes from the story, such as a young man, a
snowy scene and a train station.

OK, on the board here, I am going to show you six pictures that are connected to our
story. I am going to show you them very, very quickly. You'll get to see them twice.
And then with your partner, I'd like you to discuss, just for one or two minutes, how
you think these pictures are connected.

Clare wants her learners to predict how the story goes. After making sure the class
has understood her instructions, Clare divides the learners into pairs so that they can
look at the six pictures and discuss how they're connected. When the time's up, she
goes round the room asking what their conclusions are.

It's an excellent way to get learners talking and trying to make sense of information.
Later it will give learners a strong motive to read the real story.

Running dictation

Now it's time for the next stage, which is a running dictation. Clare explains that she
wants the learners to copy down four sentences from the story in the correct order –
in pairs. Only one person from each pair is allowed to go and read the sentences.

The sentences are posted up on the classroom walls on pieces of paper in different
corners of the room.

This is the part that younger learners really like because it's so active, and at the
same time they have to concentrate to memorise as much as possible every time
they run back to tell their partner the new sentence.

I didn't want the running dictation to go on for too long because I realised that they
could get extremely bored if there is an excessive amount of slips of paper that they
have to then go and memorise, and the fun kind of gets sucked out of it.

A quiz

The next stage of the lesson is a quiz. Now that the learners have more details from
the story, Clare forms teams and asks each team to write some questions to ask the
other teams.

Final speaking activity

After the learners have time to quiz other teams, the basic questions are answered,
and everyone is clear about the facts of the hotel in the story, The Landlady.

Next, Clare introduces a final speaking activity related to the topic of hotels. She tries
to get everyone involved and makes sure they understand the task.
A radio advert

Next, they need to create a radio advert for their hotel. Each team starts by discussing
what information they will include in their advert.

Finally, listen as Clare talks about how she took a bit of a risk with this activity – she
didn't know how it would go.

Clare's tips

 Instead of jumping right into a story, try getting learners to predict what will
happen. It's a great way to create and generate vocabulary.

 Instead of 'Copy this down into your books', try a running dictation. It requires
speaking and listening skills, and it's fun!

 Instead of giving learners a quiz to check that they know facts of a story, let
them write the quiz. They can share and learn information from each other and
continue to practise speaking skills.

 Try creative group projects, like the radio advert. With creative freedom and the
aspect of competition, learners' motivation is high.

Teaching speaking effectively requires skill and creativity. Remember:

 communicative pair and group activities can mean more speaking time for
learners

 'real speaking activities' can involve your learners in more authentic

communication

 exploiting reading tasks to include more speaking makes reading lessons more
engaging and again increases learner talk time.
 Module 3. Understanding language practice activities

Unit 1 – Which activity?

Why practise?

We need activities to practise speaking, listening, reading and writing that we can use
with all our classes.

Storytelling, dictation techniques as well as songs and poems can be used with all
ages and levels in the English classroom.

Flexible activities that we can adapt to use with various levels and different ages are
essential when we have limited resources and large groups.

The importance of practice

One aspect of learning that they all share is the need to practise communicating in
the language they're studying.

Now listen to some teachers speak about language practice activities, then choose
the option that's true for you.

Adapting the coursebook

Sometimes each unit of a coursebook follows a predictable pattern and that while this
can be reassuring for the teacher and students, it can also become monotonous. If
you know of other activities, you can introduce these instead when appropriate, or
you can adapt the coursebook activities to add variety to the lessons.

Favourite activities

You want your learners to enjoy the lessons, and most of your groups probably have
their favourites, which you might do as a reward for good behaviour or hard work. At
the same time, however, it's important to be aware that different activity types have
different underlying purposes and that the activities you choose ought to correspond
to lesson aims.

Having fun

All teachers want their learners to have fun and for learning to be a positive
experience in their classroom. However, there are other factors to consider, such as
the language or skills you want to develop appealing to all of your learners'
preferences and meeting all of their needs. It is important to consider advantages and
drawbacks too.

'Find someone who'

[Find someone who] can be used to practise a range of language. There are other
activities which can also be adapted in this way, such as dictogloss, role plays, jigsaw
reading and so on.

Trying new activities

As a teacher you probably tend to 'collect' as many activities as you can. Teachers are
always on the lookout for new ideas! There's nothing wrong with this, but introducing
new and fun activities all the time does not guarantee effective teaching and learning.
You also need to consider the suitability and effectiveness of activities in achieving
learning aims, and not just their novelty value.

Accuracy and fluency

In the language classroom, practice can cover a wide variety of activities, from
repetition drills, which develop language accuracy, to communicative activities, which
develop learner fluency.

Accuracy

Accuracy refers to how correct learners' use of the language system is, including their
use of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. For example, a learner might be fluent
(make their message clear) but not accurate (make a lot of mistakes).

Language manipulation activities can help develop accuracy. These include controlled
practice, drills, the study and application of grammar rules, and activities that help
learners to 'notice' their own mistakes.

Fluency

Fluency refers to how well a learner communicates meaning rather than how many
mistakes they make in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Activities that help to
develop fluency focus on communication, for example discussions, speaking games,
presentations and task work such as projects and emailing.

Accuracy and fluency are important distinctions, but when you use speaking activities
with your learners, you may incorporate elements of both concepts.

In a successful conversation class, teachers balance fluency and accuracy activities

according to the needs of their learners. This can be reflected in their choice of
practice activity.

And it's not only speaking and grammar that you should consider. There are other
skills like reading, writing and listening, as well as strategies like turn taking,
interrupting and asking for clarification.

Different activities

What opportunities do your learners have to practise what they're learning? Naturally,
in order for language habits to become automatic and for learners to build confidence,
the practice stage is necessary.

In more controlled practice activities, the learner's focus is mainly on the forms of the
language (related to accuracy), while in other more communicative activities, the
focus shifts to the meaning (related to fluency). Both language and skills can be
covered. The choice of task will depend on what you want your learners to achieve.

Riddles

The first practice activity to think about is riddles. This is an example riddle:

I have no doors but I have keys. I have no rooms but I do have a space. You can enter
but you can never leave. What am I?

Feedback
If learners work together to solve a riddle, they can practise speaking and developing
problem-solving skills. Although the text of a riddle is short, they also practise reading
for detail, and there's an element of grammar recognition as they might notice the
use of the present simple for habits and daily routine.
You can find lots of riddles online. The answer to this riddle is: a keyboard.

Word categories

Next, look at this word categories game for language practice:

Put learners in groups and give each group a set of word cards (these are simply cards
with different words on them). Have them discuss the types of words on their cards,
create categories for the words and make a table in their notebooks. They give the
word cards back to you when they finish.

Categories learners use can include topics (depending on what they're studying) or
words to talk about language, such as:

 parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.

 tenses – present perfect, simple past, past continuous, etc.

Feedback

This activity can involve speaking and a certain amount of functional language, as
learners have to work together and agree on which category each word belongs in.
It also clearly practises vocabulary and word recognition and, depending on how the
teacher sets it up, it could also involve an element of pronunciation.

Jigsaw readings

Now read about a jigsaw reading activity. Have you ever done this?

In this type of activity, each learner in a group of four reads about a different part of a
topic and reports back to the group about what they read (without reading directly
from the text). For example, if the topic is cooking, the four texts could be about four
different cuisines, such as Italian, Turkish, Ethiopian and Japanese.

After this stage is done (or even before), the teacher hands each group a list of
questions that they should answer based on the combined information of their texts.

Feedback

This activity gives learners opportunities to develop their reading and speaking skills,
specifically summarising. They also have to listen carefully to each other, and will
ideally learn some vocabulary from the article if they use it in discussion while
answering the questions.
This kind of activity demands communication, so learners can develop general oral
communication skills and fluency.

Getting learners to speak

Building confidence

If you find some classes don't want to speak English when doing activities, try to start
small and build their confidence. For example:
  Elicit grammar rules or activity instructions instead of giving them. Have
learners repeat the instructions to a partner.

 Ask learners questions as they walk in the door; show interest in learners as
individuals and give them chances to talk to you as much as possible.

 Have an 'AMA' (ask me anything) session occasionally, where learners can ask
you questions about yourself, your interests, etc., as much as is appropriate, but
only in English.

 Make sure learners have easy access to a list of useful classroom phrases, like
'How do you say ___ in English?', 'What does ____ mean?' and 'Can I ____?'
Consider printing a few useful phrases in large text and having them at the front
of the room so that all learners can see them and use them confidently. They'll
be able to use the phrases with all kinds of interactions.

Engaging learners

It's not just speaking which can be a problem. Perhaps it's also difficult to get some of
your classes to do more than the minimum in activities. It can be frustrating, but try to
find out the reasons for this.

Think back to your favourite class when you were the age your learners are now. Why
did you love that class? Was it because the content was so interesting to you? Or was
it because the teachers planned engaging lessons?

Interesting content

Did you like your class because the topics were interesting?

Your learners may be bored. Or perhaps they'll never be language lovers. Not
everyone loves all subjects, and that's OK.

One way to build interest in English is to know your learners well and choose topics or
approaches that appeal to them in their own language too. Would your learners like to
read about football? Current pop music stars? Cuddly pets?

Engaging lessons

Consider also the modes of communication your learners enjoy. Can you find English
video games or online puzzles for them? How about email penpals with another
school? Or films and music in English?
Today's world allows for so much variety in language learning, and if you can tap into
your learners' preferences, you may be able to effectively build their enjoyment and
motivation for learning.

Unit 2 – Flexible activities

Using songs and rhymes

Teachers often see songs as a fun way to spend some time in class, perhaps at the
beginning or end of the lesson. Seema, though, says that she thinks songs are much
more valuable than that. She talks about using songs:

 to develop whole sets of vocabulary (animals, parts of the body, etc.)

  to help with sound recognition, and the rhythm and stress of English

 to motivate learners.

Seema also says that parts of songs (words or phrases) can be recycled in other
aspects of the lesson, such as when she gives instructions. Finally, she lets her
learners choose some of the songs they do in class – she compares it to karaoke.

Whichever way you choose to approach practice activities based on songs, you have
to be able to answer the following questions:

 What exactly are the learners practising? Is it grammar or vocabulary? Are you
focusing on accuracy or fluency? Are you practising listening only or do you
want to use a song as an introduction to then practise speaking, reading or
writing?

 Who is this practice for: What is the age group and level? What are the needs of
the learners, and what are they capable of?

What

Imagine, for example, that you're going to teach your learners how to say common
spoken imperative phrases in a natural way, like 'Tell me why' or 'Let me know'. First,
they listen to and identify these phrases in a song. After this, you ask them to practise
saying the phrases exactly as they heard them in the song. Finally, they try to use the
phrases in response to some prompts you give them, making sure their pronunciation
is just right.

These activities are clearly focused on listening and speaking accurately, but if you
ask learners to, say, do an activity in which they spend a lot of time writing down the
phrases, you might lose that focus on speaking. You need to be clear about which skill
or language area you want to practise, and then choose or design activities which are
best suited for this purpose.

Who for?

The obvious answer to this question is: for the learners. Of course practice activities
are designed for learners. But there are different learners in every class, with different
levels of language proficiency. An activity which is appropriate for some might prove
too simple or too difficult for others.

A practice activity can be considered effective only when it provides learning

opportunities for learners of more than one level. In teaching the present perfect, for
example, an ordinary transformation drill can be good for lower-level learners, but it'll
soon become unnecessary and boring for others. If instead you show them a picture
and ask what they think has happened, everyone will be able to form answers
according to their level of knowledge, while still (hopefully) using the present perfect

Older learners

Songs are an excellent resource for older learners too.

Song building

Write the lyrics in couplets or line by line on strips of paper (photocopied for a large
group). Learners have five minutes to learn their strip of paper.

Learners in groups then try to 'put together' the song. One of them may be secretary
and write out their lyrics. Listen and check, then they can sing if they want. You can
do this with very simple or more complicated songs. It's especially fun to do with a
pop song many of your learners may know.

Song project

In pairs or small groups, learners choose a singer, group or musical genre. They
prepare an oral presentation, including extracts from songs, a biography of the group
and description of the instruments they use.

You can follow up with a song from the groups/singers/genres in the following lessons,
perhaps with a worksheet prepared by you. This activity can be very motivating and
gives a few weeks of learner-centred learning.

Contrasting two styles or themes

Pick two songs covering a similar theme to compare and contrast. Learners are split
into two large groups, and each group listens to a different song and prepares a short
presentation of the song – its style, its theme, the type of music – to give to the other
group.

You can ask each group to present to the whole class, or get them to make pairs with
one learner who listened to song A and another learner who listened to song B.

You can also do this as a competition, so that learners have to guess what song the
other group listened to.

Ear training and pronunciation

Make a worksheet with lyrics from a popular song, but remove all the rhyming words.
To begin, don't give the learners the worksheet, but give the learners those rhyming
words mixed up on another piece of paper or on the board. They first match the words
which rhyme.
Then they try to guess what the song is or what it might be about. Listen to the song
and ask the learners to put the rhyming words in order as they hear them. Then give
out the lyrics worksheet and they insert the missing rhymes.
This is good for vowel contrasts and practice of key vowels or consonants.

Using stories

As a teacher, you can create memorable learning experiences for your classes by
harnessing the power of storytelling in the classroom.

Managing storytelling

To make sure learners take turns and stick to English in their groups in storytelling
activities, you can ask one person from each group to act as a referee.
In the story circle example you heard from Sri Lanka, the aim was to use the simple
past tense in a new context, to create a fairy tale. But remember, it's a fluency
activity, so you could accept that some of what they say will be a bit experimental.

A time limit helps to stop the group from continuing for too long, and in a large class
you can ask a few sample groups to report back on the general idea of their story.

For lower levels, you can set a scene for your story or give out prompts in the form of
small cards with pictures or words. In this case, each learner picks up one of those
cards and must continue the story using the prompt. Storytelling can also lead to
writing, either in class or for homework. It's very flexible.

The picture talk

It's an activity in teaching either speaking or writing, and it can be done in both
elementary and secondary level. The teacher will have grouping in her class. Each
group will be given five different pictures. Each group will write a story based on the
pictures.

This is another storytelling activity using pictures or flashcards to stimulate speaking

or writing. Again, this works well with students working in small groups. In Nerissa's
example, each group has to decide on a possible order for the five pictures they've
been given, and then make up a good story for speaking or writing practice.

And it's highly creative, in the sense that the students will make, like, funny stories
out of all the pictures that they have.

To prepare for this activity, teachers can invite students to suggest vocabulary, and
then put some useful words and expressions on the board. This is a very flexible
activity, which could be used at almost any level, depending on the images you use
and how it's set up and developed. Teachers often collect pictures or prepare sets of
flashcards to use for many different teaching activities. These can be made, shared
and kept somewhere safe, ready for use with different classes.

Using mobile phones

Take a moment to look at all the words in the image. What do they have in common?
Check your answer below.
A word cloud

One link is that they're all potentially useful language learning tools. Another link is
that they can all be accessed or used through mobile phones.
Mobile phones can potentially offer learners a huge number of real-life language
practice opportunities (and a chance to become more autonomous in their learning).
What's more, the portability of mobile phones means that not only can these learning
opportunities be exploited in the classroom and at home, they can also be used during
free time on public transport, in a queue, in a café… wherever and whenever an
opportunity arises.
This section will look at three ways you can give learners opportunities to practise
English using their mobile phones. You'll watch Chris, a teacher in Hong Kong,
demonstrate with his learners.

Photos

First, think about mobile phone photos as a way to get learners practising their
speaking. Do you ever use your mobile phone to show photos to your classes? Do you
ask your learners to show photos on their phones? Are there any risks in doing this?

Watch Chris demonstrate how he uses mobile phone photos with one of his classes.

When they're talking about a picture from a textbook, they're talking about someone
removed from them, someone they don't care about.

While people are often keen to talk about friends and family, it's important to be
sensitive and aware this may be upsetting for some.

Allowing learners to discuss their own pictures ensures they are all describing a
familiar context, about which they are likely to have lots to say.

Audio recorders

Do you remember when the teacher had to book a language lab, tape recorders or
voice recorders in order to do some audio recording in the classroom? Maybe you
have had to do that too.

Watch Chris talk about using audio recorders on mobile phones now, then answer the
questions.

Speaking activities

 monologue

 conversation

 reading a script from a book

 pronunciation activity

Using apps

Another benefit of using mobile phones with your learners is that they can access a
wide range of apps to help with their learning. Often the apps are quite different from
the normal kinds of learning materials learners use, and can be quite an exciting
alternative.
What apps could you suggest to try to get your learners excited about practising
reading, writing, speaking and listening in English?

Teaching tip

You can include your learners in deciding which apps could help them. Why not ask
them to review some language learning apps and report back to you or to the rest of
the class.

You can even ask them to leave a review in English on the app store they're using. You
could also ask learners to report back regularly about their progress with the app
they're using – perhaps every week or every month.

Unit 3 – Activities and aims

Thinking about learners

Focus

For example:

 Is the focus on grammar or vocabulary? Or are you practising other skills, such
as reading, writing or listening?

 Is the focus on accuracy or fluency?

 Does this all link to the lesson aims?

In Unit 2, you read an example related to a song lesson that was very clearly focused
on listening and speaking accurately. It can be easy to move away from your planned
focus. For example, asking learners to write a dialogue in a lesson which focuses on
speaking may not be the best approach, because the focus may become more about
writing the dialogue than speaking it.

Your learners

What is the age group and level? What are the needs of the learners, and what are
they capable of?

Again, as you saw in Unit 2, remember that even if your learners are all the same age
and roughly the same level, they'll have different needs, interests, strengths,
weaknesses and more.

Flexible extensions

It can be good to plan activities which have flexible extensions, for learners who finish
more quickly or who need to be more challenged.

You can also offer learners a choice of how they do an activity. Allow them to choose
sometimes if they want to work alone or in pairs, or if they want to work on one part
of a text or another. Giving learners a choice can be motivating for them.

Activities and aims

Learning aims

Read the following learning aim from a speaking lesson.

To develop confidence and fluency in speaking English and give all learners the
opportunity to speak.

Challenge learners

It's important to try to keep your aims challenging. Read what Jim Scrivener (2011)
says about this:

Teaching means (a) finding out where the learning is, and (b) going there. It means
asking 'Where is the challenge?' not 'How can I avoid the difficult bits?' A struggle on
the part of students means that learning is probably going on.

Don't assume that when all students 'get' the thing you are teaching, it means that
you have taught well; it may mean you aimed too low or avoided the challenge.
Students trying and failing (but making progress) means that more learning is
probably going on than when a student 'gets it' immediately.

Teachers generally avoid the struggle when it arises: 'OK, let's stop that and do
something different.' They sell the idea of struggle-free learning to their students:
'This isn't difficult'/'This is fun'/'Here's a game'/'This should be easy', etc.

 The easily achieved aim is no achievement.

 Maybe we'd do better to try stating what the linguistic challenge will be in each
lesson or activity… and then learn to let the students 'wrestle' with this
challenge in class.

Activities and aims

When you plan lessons and activities, do you think carefully about what will help you
best reach your aims? Watch a couple of teachers talking through an activity they
chose to do with some of their learners.

 What activities do they talk about?

 What were their learners' needs?

 What were the learning aims?

Tips for language practice activities

Here are some final tips to keep in mind when planning practice activities for your
classes.

What do your learners need?

First, really take time to think about your learners' needs and your learning aims, so
that practice activities in your lessons are motivating and relevant. Lots of
coursebooks use the same types of practice activities in every unit. Can you improve
them?

In this module you saw some examples of how you can make language practice
motivating: using songs, rhymes and stories is a great idea. Taking advantage of your
learners' mobile phones, if they have them, can also help encourage learner
autonomy at the same time as motivating your classes.
Teaching tip

Find time for fluency. It's normal for teachers to spend a lot of time in lessons
presenting language and doing very controlled activities related to accuracy and form.
Sometimes the practice activities for fluency are at the very end of the lesson, and
there might not be time to do them well.

If this happens in your lessons, why not try to plan a little differently? Make sure
there's time for fluency practice earlier in the lesson, for example. You can make an
action plan.

1. Identify one change that you're going to make.

2. Decide on when you're going to do it.
3. Reflect on it or talk to a colleague about it. Did it improve your lesson?

Focus on their needs

Remember to consider the aims of the lesson and the needs of your learners when
choosing an activity to use in the classroom. Most activities are flexible and can be
used with different ages and levels. You just need to consider who your learners are,
what their abilities are and what they need.

Some activities might practise a variety of skills, while some might focus more
particularly on language or one skill in particular like reading and comprehension. If
you're clear on what you want your learners to achieve, make sure you choose an
activity which will help them do this.