speaking English 10

TEACHING SPEAKING
AN INTRODUCTION

Why should we teach speaking
skills in the classroom?

Motivation
1. Learning the language = learning how to
speak the language
“Success is measured in terms of the ability to
carry out a conversation in the (target)
language." (Nunan, 1991)
⇒
No opportunities to speak=> Ss get de-
motivated and lose interest in learning
2. Speaking in class can be a lot of fun

Why should we teach speaking
skills in the classroom?

Speaking is fundamental to human
communication
–
In our daily life, we speak more than we
write
–
Goal of an English course is truly to
enable students to communicate in
English

TEACHING SPEAKING
COMMON ARGUMENTS

COMMON ARGUMENTS AGAINST
TEACHING SPEAKING IN
CLASSROOM

Students won't talk or say anything

When students work in pairs or groups they
just end up chatting in L1

When all the students speak together it gets
too noisy and out of hand and I lose control
of the classroom

DEALING WITH COMMON
ARGUMENTS AGAINST TEACHING
SPEAKING

Students won't talk or say
anything

Arrange classroom desks differently

Teach classroom language on the very first lesson, keep on
teaching and encourage students to ask questions or for
things in English

Give positive feedback


Allocate a percentage to their final grade (on-going
assessment)

Use communicative speaking activities to capture their
interest and create a real need for communication

Speak in English yourself as much as possible in class

When students work in pairs or
groups they just end up chatting
in L1

Is the activity or task pitched at the right level for
the students?

Are all the students actively involved and is the
activity interesting?

Is the timing good?

Is another way to discourage students speaking in
their L1 to walk around the classroom monitoring
their participation and giving support and help to
students as they need it?

When all the students speak together it
gets too noisy and out of hand and I lose
control of the classroom


A classroom full of students talking and
interacting in English, even if it is noisy is
exactly what you want

Losing control of the classroom?: walking
around and monitoring the students or
change the pace of the class and type of
activity to a more controlled task