How to prepare and organize a successful speaking lesson for high school students

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Thi Phuong
Lan, M.A, without whose valuable comments and guidance, my thesis would
not have been accomplished.
My special thanks go to all teachers of Foreign Languages Faculty and English
major students from Course 35 at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2 in the
academic year of 2012-2013. They helped me to complete my graduation.
Finally, I am immensely grateful to my family and friends for their non-stop
encouragement and support during the research’s finalization.

i


ABSTRACT

Many researchers have done many studies on speaking in general and speaking
lesson in particularly. They give principles, problems, and characteristics of a
speaking lesson. In addition, they mention many other factors in a speaking
lesson, i.e. teacher and students’ role, effective ways of organizing a speaking
lesson. It is obvious that students together with the teacher are the most
important ones. Modern teaching methods of foreign languages count on
involving the use of different forms of organizing activities and activities used
in a speaking lesson.
The thesis focuses on finding the most common ways of preparing and
organizing a good speaking lesson.

Primary data was collected from fifty

trainee teachers from K35A of Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hanoi
Pedagogical University N0.2. Some limitations and directions have been

indicated for future research.

ii


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
Title:
HOW TO PREPARE AND ORGANIZE A SUCCESSFUL SPEAKING
LESSON FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
(Submitted in partial fulfillment for Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English)

I certify that all the materials in this study which are not my own work have
been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which a
degree has been conferred upon me.

Date submitted: May 2013

Student

Supervisor

Pham Thi Thu Trang

Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, M.A.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................i
ABSTRACT........................................................................................................... ii
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ....................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENT .........................................................................................iv

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale .............................................................................................................. 1
II. Research presupposition ..................................................................................... 2
III. Research objectives ........................................................................................... 2
IV. Research scope .................................................................................................. 2
V. Research tasks .................................................................................................... 2
VI. Research methods ............................................................................................. 2
VII. Significance of the proposed research .............................................................. 2
VIII. Design of the research work ........................................................................... 3

PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
I. Literature review .................................................................................................. 4
II. Overview of the speaking lesson......................................................................... 5
iv


II.1. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity .............................................. 5
II.2. Problems with speaking activities .................................................................... 6
II.3. Stages of a speaking lesson .............................................................................. 7
II.3.1. Warm-up ....................................................................................................... 7
II.3.2. Introduction .................................................................................................. 8

II.3.3. Presentation .................................................................................................. 8
II.3.4. Practice ......................................................................................................... 8
II.3.5. Review .......................................................................................................... 9
II.4. Forms of organizing activities in a speaking lesson.......................................... 9
II.4.1. Whole-class .................................................................................................. 9
II.4.2. Group work................................................................................................. 10
II.4.3 Pair works .................................................................................................... 11
II.4.4 Individual work............................................................................................ 13
II.5. Teacher’s roles during a speaking lesson ....................................................... 13
II.6. Students’ roles in a speaking lesson ............................................................... 14
II.7. Tips for teachers on preparing and organizing a speaking lesson ................... 15
II.7.1. Preparing a speaking lesson ........................................................................ 15
II.7.1.1. Preparing the lesson plan ......................................................................... 15
II.1.2. Planning for out-of-class learning ............................................................... 16
II.7.1.3. Choosing appropriate teaching methods ................................................... 16
II.7.1.4. Selecting appropriate teaching aids .......................................................... 16
II.7.2. Organizing a speaking lesson ...................................................................... 17
II.7.2.1. Warm-up .................................................................................................. 17
II.7.2.2. Introduction ............................................................................................. 20
v


II.7.2.3. Presentation ............................................................................................. 21
II.7.2.4. Practice .................................................................................................... 21
II.7.2.5. Review ..................................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER TWO: THE RESULTS
I. Survey................................................................................................................ 24
I.1. Rationale for the use of survey questionnaire .................................................. 24
I.2. Purpose of the survey ...................................................................................... 24
I.3. Population of the survey.................................................................................. 24

I.4. Construction of the survey .............................................................................. 24
I.5. Try-out ............................................................................................................ 25
I.6. Steps of the data analysis

II. Results of the survey......................................................................................... 25
II.1. Preparing a speaking lesson ........................................................................... 25
II.2. Organizing a speaking lesson ......................................................................... 26
II.2.1. Warm-up ..................................................................................................... 26
II.2.2. Introduction ................................................................................................ 27
II.2.3. Presentation ................................................................................................ 28
II.2.4. Practice ....................................................................................................... 29
II.2.5. Review ........................................................................................................ 30
II.3. Students’ reaction .......................................................................................... 30
III. Sub-conclusion ................................................................................................ 31
PART THREE
CONCLUSION
I. Summary of the study ........................................................................................ 33
vi


II. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study ................................ 33
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 35
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE .............................................................................. 36

vii


PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale

In the globalization age today, English assumes as a more and more important
part as a means of international communication than ever. Therefore, in some
recent years, the focus of teaching has been promoting oral skills in order to
respond to the students’ needs for effective communication.
However, due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning
English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not
come up to the study aims. Despite teachers’ efforts to provide students with
opportunities to develop their communicative skills, how to teach and learn
speaking effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students
at many high schools in Vietnam.
English teaching program for high school students in Vietnam has been changed
since the academic year 2006- 2007. Therefore, there are many unprecedented
things in the textbook in which a unit is divided into five lessons, i.e. reading,
speaking, listening, writing, and language focus.
Speaking is one of new skills in teaching program. It is said that speaking is the
skill students have a lot of difficulties in learning. Students seem to be reluctant,
and reluctance to speak is seen as the biggest challenge. Moreover, a speaking
lesson depends on both teacher and learners. While a teacher is trying to
organize a speaking lesson, his students do not pay attention to the lesson or in
other words, they do not take part in speaking activities at class. As a result, the
lesson’s objectives could not be achieved.
Through the process of teaching practice at Nguyen Van Huyen High School
and discussion with English teachers there, I realize that it is necessary to give
some ways to prepare and organize more successful speaking lessons.
1


II. Research presupposition
This study is about speaking lesson and I am making an analysis in preparing
and organizing a speaking lesson so that the question is raised:

What are the effective ways to prepare and organize a speaking lesson?
III. Research objectives
The study is carried out to find out effective ways of preparing and organizing a
speaking lesson at high schools.
IV. Research scope
The general research scope of this study is methodology.
The population involved in the study is 50 students from K35 English major of
Foreign Language Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N0.2.
V. Research tasks
The paper studies reality of preparing and organizing speaking lessons at high
schools and documents that gives tips of preparing and organizing a speaking
lesson to finish the research objective
VI. Research methods
To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been
applied:
-

Documents collection

-

Analysis

-

Survey questionnaire

VII. Significance of the proposed research
In the context of Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University
No.2, the study was carried out to give a clear picture about ways the students

used to prepare and organize a speaking lesson when they have a period of
2


teaching practice. Therefore, hopefully, the thesis is beneficial to both students
and teachers in preparing and organizing a speaking lesson.
VIII. Design of the research work
The study has three main parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion.
Part one is the Introduction. In this part, the rational, the aims, research
questions, the scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design are
presented.
The next part, Development consists of two chapters. Chapter one is entitled
“Theoretical Background” dealing with literature review, overview of speaking
lesson (characteristic of a successful speaking lesson, problems with speaking
activity, stages of a speaking lesson, forms of organizing speaking activities,
teachers’ and students’ roles in a speaking lesson, tips for preparing and
organizing a successful speaking lesson). Chapter two is named “The Results”
including overall of survey and the result of survey.
The last part is the Conclusion which includes the summary of the study,
limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.
References and Survey questionnaire are presented in the last pages of the
study.

3


PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
I. Literature review

Many researchers, i.e. Terry (2008), Richards (2011), Harmer (2001) and
Byrne (1991), have done many studies on speaking in general and speaking
lesson in particularly.
Terry (2008) presented that a speaking lesson consists of three main stages.
Specifically, in the pre-communicative stage, teachers are supposed to introduce
the communicative function, highlight the fixed expression, point out the target
structure and provide students with the necessary vocabulary and the language
of interaction. In the practice stage, teachers prompt and correct students if
necessary. In the last stage of communicative interaction, teachers encourage
language negotiation among students, take notes of any aspects that may hinder
communication such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. After this
stage, teachers give students feedback on pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary and ask students to repeat the task if necessary.
In the book “Creating effective language lessons”, Richards and Bohlke (2011)
introduce four possible ways to arrange a class: whole class teaching, individual
work, group works, and pair works. These four forms of organizing activities at
class depend on the type of lesson and on the particular stage of the lesson.
Whole-class involves teaching all students together, and when carefully carried
out, it can lead to the quick and effective achievement of lesson objectives.
Individual work allows students to work at their own pace and to work on
activities suited to their level or interest. Whereas, pair works can take into
consideration between two students, and students who are not familiar with this
learning arrangement may need careful orientation and preparation for pair-work
4


activities. Lastly, group works are said that they increase students’ talking time
and can increase students’ motivation by providing a risk-free environment for
language practice.
Teachers play important roles in a speaking lesson. Byrne (1991) divides the

roles of the teacher according to the type of interaction activity (fluency and
accuracy activities). In addition, Harmer (2001) mentions three basic roles that
teachers take on including: prompter, participant, and feedback provider.
In short, many researchers have done many research on speaking lesson,
however they have not paid much attention to how to prepare and organize a
speaking lesson for high schools students. Therefore, it is essential to carry out
this study on how to prepare and organize a successful speaking lesson for high
school students.
II. Overview of the speaking lesson
II.1. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
Successful speaking activities are highly motivating, have a real purpose to
prompt communication and can use almost any type of language.
There are many characteristics of a successful speaking activity which are
introduced by Ur (1996) as follows:


Learners talk a lot: As much as possible of the period time allotted to the

activity is in fact occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious, but often
most time is taken up with the teacher and talk and pauses.


Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a

minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak and contributions are
fairly evenly distributed.


Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested

in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to
contribute to achieving a task objective.
5




Language is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in

utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other and of an
acceptable level of language accuracy.
In practice, however, few classroom activities succeed in satisfying all the
criteria mentioned above. Therefore, language teachers should make great efforts
to employ a variety of effective techniques to create some of the mentionedabove criteria.
II.2. Problems with speaking activities
According to Ur (1996), there still exists some problems with speaking activities
as follows:


Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking

requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience. Learners are often
inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom:
worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy
of the attention that their speech attracts.


Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners

complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motive to

express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking.


Low or uneven participation: Only one participant can talk at a time if he

or she is to be heard, and in a large group this means that each one will have
only very little time talking. This problem is compounded by the tendency of
some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.


Mother-tongue use: In classes where all, or a number of, the learners

share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it: because it is easier,
because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and
because they feel less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue. If
they are talking in small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes6


particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones- to keep to the target
language.
In order for the learners to develop their communicative skills, it is advised that
the language teachers should help the learners to overcome these problems with
speaking activities.
II.3. Stages of a speaking lesson
It is advised that a successful speaking lesson often includes five stages: warmup, introduction, presentation, practice, and the last, review.
II.3.1. Warm-up
According to Kerns (2006), warm-up is defined as an activity to focus learner’s
attention on the lesson objective.
Having a good warm-up activity is important to an English language lesson, as it
sets the student up for success on many different levels.

The warm up of a lesson often receives less attention than it should. Teachers
spend a lot of time preparing explanations and worksheets to introduce and
practice the target language, for example. They then enter the classroom without
preparation or not well for the first five minutes.
Because it's the first activity of the lesson, the warm up sets the tone for the next
forty-five minutes. A fun warm up, therefore, raises energy levels. Fun activities
help students relaxed, comfortable and even confident. With the right warm up,
teacher will create a positive atmosphere to practice and experiment with the
language.
A warm up should generally last about five minutes. Without enough time to get
warmed up, though, students will continue to make mistakes during the early
stages of the lesson - important time needed to present and drill the new
material. Students may be slow to understand, too, because those wheels aren't
turning yet. As a final comment, if the warm up takes too long, then valuable
7


time gets lost from the main focus of the lesson. Students have less time to
acquire the new material.
II.3.2. Introduction
The introduction of an effective lesson plan will set up the activities to follow.
This part of the lesson plan will introduce students to the concepts and goals of
the lesson. It will also help students understand how the lesson plan relates to
previous lessons and future lessons (Burden & Byrd, 2003). Giving students a
guideline of what they will gather from the plan will help the class achieve the
goals.
The introduction also provides interest and motivation to the students. It focuses
students' attention on the lesson and its purposes. It also convinces students that
they will benefit from the lesson.
II.3.3. Presentation

The presentation part of the lesson is when teacher presents new information and
checks for comprehension. In order to help students actually digest the new
information rather than just swallow it, this portion of the lesson must be paired
with clear explanations of the grammar, new words along with examples. It is
highly recommended to show several clear and concise examples, in context.
Before moving on to next part of the lesson, make sure students have some
understanding of the material they just learned, as well as an understanding of its
meaning and proper use.
II.3.4. Practice
The practice is defined as when learners are provided opportunities to practice
the new knowledge that has been presented.
The practice stage of the lesson is where the student gets involved. The goal of
the practice stage is that students use the material teacher presented in context.
This is where the teacher provides activities/exercises for students. The teacher’s
role in this part of the lesson is to manage students, and encourage them to use
8


the new language by working in groups or pairs. The activities or exercises
teacher can prepare for this stage may vary: a short role-play, games, fill-in-the
blanks, guided dialogue, information gaps, and problem solving activities are all
some great ideas. The practice in a speaking lesson should focus on oral. Upon
termination, the teacher can collect these activities to grade and return, or review
the answers in class together. This part of the lesson will take up the bulk of
class time. It will serve to ensure students have a solid grasp on the material
teacher had just presented. It's best to use a large range of practice activities to
keep students intrigued and excited.
II.3.5. Review
Review is the stage teacher provides an activity that assesses learners on their
attainment of the lesson objective.

Teacher should aim to leave about 5 minutes at the end of a 45-minute lesson to
this stage. Not only does it signify to the students that the lesson is coming to an
end, but it also allows the instructor to address any problems and clarify what
the students learned.
II.4. Forms of organizing activities in a speaking lesson
A successful lesson obviously depends on the kinds of interaction you provide
for during the lesson. This will include opportunities for interactions between
you and the students as well as interactions among the students themselves.
There are four possible ways to arrange a class: whole-class teaching, individual
work, group work, and pair work.
II.4.1. Whole-class
Whole-class teaching is defined by Richards and Lockhart (1999) as follows:
“The teacher leads the whole class through a learning task.” In addition, Harmer
(1992) provides another name for the whole-class teaching, i.e. lockstep method.
He states that “Lockstep is the class grouping where all the students are working

9


with the teacher, where all the students are ‘locked into’ the same rhythm and
pace, the same activity.”
This mode of teaching involves teaching all the students together; the use of
whole-class teaching depends on the type of lesson you are teaching and on the
particular stage of the lesson. Whole-class teaching is most common used for the
beginning of lesson. (Richards, Lockhart 1999)
Whole-class teaching can aim at focusing students’ attention quickly on a
learning task. And it enables teaching large numbers of learners at the same time
and can serve as a preparation for the subsequent activities. However, the
unavoidable disadvantage is the little opportunity for learners’ oral practice.
To conclude, when planning your teaching, you need to consider when wholeclass teaching is appropriate in order to promote lesson’s efficiency.

II.4.2. Group work
In Adrian Doff (1991), group work is described as follows: “In group work, the
teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five
students in each group).”
Group work has not only great advantages but also considerable disadvantages.
Advantages of group work
By dividing the class into groups, students get more opportunities to talk than in
full class organization, and each student can say something. Penny Ur (1996)
recommends that teachers working with a large class should divide them into
small groups which are the most effective organization for practicing speaking.
Working in a group, children are more engaged not only intellectually but
emotionally as well. They have to think, contribute to the group, evaluate what
other members of the group say, share information, and prepare a presentation
together. They also use information previously given by the teacher or

10


contributed by the members of the group to express themselves more fully and
improve the quality of their performance.
In the long run, group work develops learners' independence. At first preparing a
group presentation may requires more effort from the student. However, using
this technique regularly students become more efficient and skilled at practicing
the language. Students learn how to learn and gradually take responsibility for
their own learning.
Disadvantages of group work
In the process of working, there would be unavoidable problems which might
occur with the students. Because there are usually four or five students in each
group, they can make noise while working on the task, and do not concentrate
on the task if the task is not clear and goes for too long.

When learners work in groups, it is impossible for the teacher to listen and
correct all the mistakes they make and this is not the purpose of the activity.
However, the teacher can reduce the number of mistakes before the students
start working by demonstrating the activity to the class first and by asking
groups to perform in front of the class afterwards and discussing what they said
and pointing out the most common mistakes. (Doff, 1988:141)
To sum it up, group work tends to support cooperative learning, and may give
confidence and encourage shy students when handling the target language.
II.4.3 Pair works
To begin with, Bryne (1991) divides pair work into three kinds: open pairs,
fixed pairs, and flexible ones. During open pair work, a student talks to another
across the class under the teacher’s control. While learners work with the same
partner in order to complete a task in fixed pairs. Finally, working in the flexible
pairs presupposes that students keep changing their partner (for example,
interviewing other classmates).

11


On the other hand, Doff (1991) defines pair work as follows: “in pair work, the
teacher divides the whole class into pairs. Every student works with his or her
partner, and all the pairs work at the same time.”
Similarly as group work, pair work has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of pair work
Harmer (2001) describes five advantages of pair work in a speaking lesson as
follows:
It increases the amount of speaking time when students get in class. It also
allows students to work and interact independently without the guidance of the
teacher, thus promoting students’ independence. It allows teacher time to work
with one or two pairs while others continue working. It helps promoting

cooperation in the class because “two head are betters than one”. If the teacher
gets students make decisions in pairs, they would share responsibility rather than
having to face up to the task themselves. Finally, it is relatively quick and easy
to organize.
Disadvantages of pair work
Harmer (2001) also states disadvantages of pair work beside its advantages.
Pair work is very noisy and some teachers and students dislike this. Teachers
worry that they will lose control of their class.
Students in pairs can have different point of an exercise, so the chance of
‘misbehavior’ can take place in the class.
It is not always popular with students, many of whom want to relate to the
teacher and do not interact with another learner who may be just as weak as they
are.
The actual choice of paired partner can be problematic especially if students
have to work with someone who they are not keen on.

12


II.4.4 Individual work
Harmer (2001) calls it with other name ‘students on their own’. At the opposite
of the spectrum of whole-class grouping, students work with the pattern of
individualized learning. Students must do exercises in their own in class while
teachers are able to spend time working with other students. And Harmer (2001)
also states that “Such individualized learning is a vital step in the development
of learner autonomy.”
Advantages of individual work
Students work at their own pace, they are confident about what they know and
what they need to send more time on, they can use their preferred learning styles
and strategies.

“It can develop learner autonomy and promote skills of self-reliance and
investigation over teacher-dependence.” (Harmer, 2001)
It can be a way for teachers to control class in peace and avoid a ‘noisy and
chaotic situation’. (Harmer, 2001)
Disadvantages of individual work
Students don’t get the benefit of learning from and working with their peers.
When giving individual students different tasks, it means that teachers have a
great preparation of thought and materials than whole-class teaching. When
teachers work with individual students, it takes much more time than interacting
with the whole class. (Harmer, 2001)
II.5. Teacher’s roles during a speaking lesson
Caroline Terry (2008) describes teacher roles during a speaking lesson. A
teacher can act as an organizer, a prompter, an observer, a participant, an
assessor, a feedback provider, and the last, a resource.
 Teachers can act as an organizer means that the teachers can do the task
of getting students engaged and getting the activity.
13


 When teachers act as a prompter, it means that the teachers can provide
students with chunks not words.
 Teachers act as an observer means that the teachers can analyze what
causes communication breakdown.
 Teachers can act as a participant means that the teachers do not
monopolize or initiate the conservation.
 Teachers can act as an assessor when they can record mental or written
samples of language produced by students.
 Teachers can act as a feedback provider means that they can tell students
hoe proficient their performance was.
 The teachers can act as a resource because they can provide students with

tools to improve their oral performance.
Based on the reflection of the students’ behavior in the classroom, Nunan and
Lamp (1996) grade the roles of the teacher from the most problematic, in terms
of participants’ roles and behavior. They include the roles of: controller,
entertainer, disciplinarian, and a developer of a sense of independence and
responsibility. The teacher establishing control, giving directions, threats and
punishment, is labeled as ‘controller’. The teacher acts as an ‘entertainer’ when
the teacher introduces games and recreational activities, or reading stories and
classroom atmosphere is noisy but positive. The ‘disciplinarian’ establishes rules
to be followed and is quick to notice any misbehavior; while the teacher who
spends time teaching lesson, not requiring a close supervision, he/she shows as
‘developer of a sense of independence and responsibility’.
II.6. Students’ roles in a speaking lesson
Riddell (2010) summarizes that our students usually have different favored
learning styles, influenced by their previous learning experiences. Most prefer,
or accept the advantages of, a mostly communicative approach to their learning.
Students have to accept some responsibility for their own learning and not rely
only on the teacher. Learning has to include authentic practice, and has to
14


continue outside the classroom. Students need motivation and commitment.
Students prefer – and expect – English to be the only language spoken in the
lessons, except with very low-level classes. Everything which has been
mentioned inevitably affects the role of the teacher and how she plans her
teaching.
II.7. Tips for teachers on preparing and organizing a speaking lesson
II.7.1. Preparing a speaking lesson
II.7.1.1. Preparing the lesson plan
Most teachers engage in yearly, term, unit, weekly, and daily lesson planning.

Therefore, before they enter a classroom, it means that teachers need to plan to
lecture, outline of content of the lectures and the way he/she will get students
involved. (Svinicki and McKeachie, 2006)
Maybe many teachers may ask themselves why they should write plans for
every lesson. And there is a fact that not many teachers enter a classroom
without some kind of plan. Lesson plan are methodical records of a teacher’s
thought about what will be covered during a lesson. Richards (1998) suggests
that lesson plans help the teachers “resolve problems and difficulties, to provide
a structure for a lesson, to provide a ‘map’ for teacher to follow and to provide a
record of what has been taught”.
Also according to Richards and Renandya (2002), daily lesson planning can
benefit English teachers in the following ways:
A plan can help the teachers think about content, materials, timing and activities,
provides security in the unpredictable atmosphere of a classroom, and a plan is a
log of what has been taught.
Because every teacher has different style of teaching, therefore they must “allow
themselves flexibility” (Richards and Renandya, 2002) to plan in their own
ways. A clear lesson plan will maintain the attention of students, generate their
interest, and save time.
15


II.7.1.2. Planning for out-of-class learning
It is easy for teachers to imagine that what happens in class is important to
students’ learning, but they can see what happens after the lesson finishes
because it is often visible. Therefore when they do their planning , most teachers
give their attention to covering content in class rather than to what happens out
of class, according to Starks and Lattuca (1997) (as cited in Svinicki and
McKeachie, 2006).
In fact, students may spend more time studying out of class than they do in

class. Thus teachers need to focus on what they expect students to do outside
class.
II.7.1.3. Choosing appropriate teaching methods
As any good teacher knows, all students do not learn in the same way. In
addition, it is common for a class of students to be at a variety of levels in
English subject. With so many different approaches and methods available,
many teachers are unsure of which to choose and how to make choice (Harmer,
2001). It is extremely difficult to give conclusions about which approaches and
methods are best or most appropriate for every teaching situation. Teachers need
to use different teaching methods in order to reach all students effectively. A
variety of teaching strategies, knowledge of student levels, and an
implementation of which strategies are best for particular students can help
teachers to know which teaching methods will be most effective for their class.
II.7.1.4. Selecting appropriate teaching aids
It is quite possible to teach an effective speaking lesson without any teaching
aids because students can become bored sitting in a classroom for hours.
Teachers can use various teaching aids besides textbooks to generate students’
interest and demonstrate how things work. Visual aids, such as whiteboards or
chalkboards, charts, maps, flash cards, and calendars are commonly used in a

16


speaking lesson. Multimedia displays and computers have become popular
teaching aids in speaking lessons.
When used appropriately, teaching aids can provide opportunities for students to
interact with the content of the lesson (Svinicki and McKeachie, 2006).
II.7.2. Organizing a speaking lesson
II.7.2.1. Warm-up
In section 1 in this chapter, the Warm Up is shown to be the first stage of the

lesson. In short, the purpose of this stage is primarily to get students' brains into
English mode, to make them feel comfortable with the lessons. What should a
teacher do to organize an effective warm-up?
How long should the warm up be?
It depends on the length of the lesson. In a 45- minute lesson, 5 minutes would
be appropriate. If it is longer, it will take time away from one of the other stages
meaning that the target language won't be practiced enough or there won't be
enough time for students to use it enough in the next stages.
How to do the warm up
Of course there is no unique way to conduct the warm up. However, in order to
achieve the goals of the warm up, the teacher should greet the class at first. And
surely, when making the lesson plan, the teacher prepares the activity he/she will
use in the classroom. By what way does he/she set up an activity effectively?
Choosing a warm-up activity
Depending on the level and lesson plan, you may choose any kind of activity as
long as it's easy, fun, student-centered, and it involves all the students.
Also, it's best not to do a warm-up activity that requires the use of the lesson's
target language. The reason is that the students have yet to learn it. It's effective
to have an activity where they can use their own target language or activate

17


knowledge on the topic. Consider the following warm-up activity for a lesson on
the present perfect.
Students tell each other about their travel experiences and ask each other followup questions.
In this activity, the students will be talking about travel which is related to the
lesson's topic. If students know the present perfect they will use it on their own
accord. If they don't, they can simply use the simple past. Either way, they can
concentrate on the task at hand rather than trying to navigate new target

language. This is also a good opportunity for teacher to see how strong the
students are.
How to set up an activity effectively
The key to setting up an activity is to do it clearly and simply. To do this, you
need to walk into the classroom prepared with a clear idea of what you want
them to do.
However, even the best warm-up activity can fail if it's poorly set up. Here are
some suggestions for setting up the warm up.
Firstly, teacher should speak simply. Teachers need to speak simply. For
example, in beginner's classes, avoid using phrases like 'What I want you to do
is open your book’. This is a high-level grammatical structure. Instead, use
imperatives such as 'Open your book’. Also, teachers need to avoid large,
difficult vocabulary. There is no need to say 'immense' or 'massive' when you
can say 'big' or 'large'.
Secondly, teacher should speak at a speed suitable.
Thirdly, teacher should use the same phrases each lesson. Use the
same phrases every time you set up activities. Here are some useful phrases:
-

In pairs, (do this)

-

Find a partner
18