15/08/2013
SPEAKING STRATEGIES: Today we will share information about speaking strategies, sometimes is hard to make students practice oral communication due to some reasons:
Students are trying to translate from their native language into English,
Production "blocking" is occurring due to nervousness,
lack of confidence, etc., the speaker is looking for a specific word, rather than using simple language to describe what is meant, there aren't enough conversation opportunities inside of class, Students aren't able to speak to peers,
Exam preparation focuses on grammar, vocabulary, etc. and leaves little time for active use.
How can we help our students to practice speaking but in a meaningful and effective way:
Some recomendaions are:
Give students all necesary elements to perform a communicative activity in class
1-Pronounciation and stress: Be sure you have already practiced sentences and vocabulary pronunciation and stress, before getting students perform a speaking activity.
2-Cueing: Cue your students to speak, use visuals, cue cards, realia,and other cues as much as you can. Help your students to take a short cut to imagination
3-Speaking frames:Speaking frames are a type of sentence frame that provides sentence starters and models for English language learners who may not have sufficient knowledge of standard sentence structure to be able to create sentences independently.
"The ________ lives in a _______."
How to use speaking frames:
Establish the responses you expect the students to make. Sometimes you may need to create more than one of these frames, each one offering different levels of support, like small word banks. -They should always be at the sight of the student.
The benefits of using speaking frames
-Helps to set the criteria for effective responses.
-Reduces vague language, encourages precise and concise language.
-Encourages productive use of academic vocabulary and helps confirm understandings Idiom and real language phrases.
4- When planning, establish the purpose of the class and the speaking frames you will use.
5- Work with interesting topics for your students: Working with information they like, helps to increase memorability, enjoy and retain information. Use meaningful themes and situations.
6- For basic and intermediate levels: structured activities should compose most of the course and class time, but communicative activities can also be used with the correct cueing.
7- Use the text book as a platform to speak
8- Always monitor your students production, but be present as a resource, not as a correction machine.
9- Establish the best way to correct students, based on your group features.
