More than just speaking

How can we do more than just give opportunities for speaking and actively develop learners’ speaking skills?

You can get better at speaking simply by speaking 

How can we improve speaking skills?

Good speaking skills involve:

• language 
• fluency 

Speaking strategies enables us to have good and successful communication 

They oil the wheels of conversation

Some examples of speaking strategies. There are plenty of them and they vary according to the situation.

It is important to point this language out to our learners. 

Teaching speaking strategies

• Noticing - to notice the strategies. They can be missed;
• Practising - automaticity should be achieved;
• Using in speaking - incorporating into freer language use;

Noticing 

We can gap out key expressions. 

We can make learners predict the lines. We show one line and the learners try to guess what the other person may say. 

Practice 

Set up mini conversations. 

For example:

And students respond to these situations in different ways, showing surprise or sympathy. 

Intonation is important here. 

Using in speaking

• less is more - if we give our learners a lot of expressions we want them to use, they are less likely to use them at all. In order to teac 15 expressions of agreeing, teach 2-3 that are more likely to be retained;
• empower the students - let them choose. Before they have a discussion, let students tick those expression that they are going to incorporate in their conversation; 
• get feedback - allow learners to speak freely but then ask which did they use/which didn't;
• make it a game - give a point/ let them tick an expression they have used;
• use an observer - one learner is observing and reports back to the teacher what expressions were used in the discussions of their classmates; 

Two ways to help develop fluency 

1. having the language you need;
2. being prepared to speak - giving preparation time;

How can we help your students to prepare? 

Language preparation. Functional language and Speaking strategies. 

Psychological preparation - giving thinking time. 

Links:

Based on the webinar by Adrian Doff - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyiKF_XVTVw