Some suggested activities in speaking lessons- 123docz.net

*Discussions

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons.

The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial

sentences like “people learn best when they read vs. everyone needs a smart phone”.

Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members. In class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.

*Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students. Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.

*Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.

*Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of

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each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. In this way, not only will the teacher address students‟ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class.

*Playing Cards

In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For instance:

 Diamonds: Earning money

 Hearts: Love and relationships

 Spades: An unforgettable memory

 Clubs: Best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example:

If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:

 Is money important in your life? Why?

 What is the easiest way of earning money?

 What do you think about lottery? Etc.

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.

*Picture Describing

Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students discuss the picture with their groups, then, a spokesperson for each group describes

the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

*Find the Difference

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures.

To sum up, it will take time to raise the standard of speaking lessons.

However, rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired. With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills. These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them.

It is likely to affirm that the study has merely mentioned a very small part of teaching speaking skills at a concrete research context. This study only concentrates on relevant difficulties in teaching of English speaking skills to first-year students at TNC- ET and makes some suggestions for teachers and suggests certain classroom techniques and activities which help to motivate reluctant or reticent to speak English.

Though I have made efforts toward carrying out this study, due to the limitation of time, lack of resources and the researcher‟s ability, drawbacks are unavoidable. For example, not all the first-year students at TNC-ET are involved in the survey questionnaires, so the results may not be generalized for all students. The research instrument for the data collection which is simplified with few and short questions, to some extent; does not cover the whole of the dimensions of teaching speaking skills. However, the current teaching and learning situations have been figured out in the study.

By means of this thesis I realized how important it is for the teacher to have a great amount of information concerning teaching speaking to be able to provide the students with efficient conversational lessons. The methodology literature I was reading through enabled me to have a look at a speaking skill from a different point of view and think about this issue more deeply. All the theoretical information I gained from this literature was used in the practical part of my thesis. Based on that, I reached several findings.

Due to various reasons such as variety in students‟ level of language proficiency, lack of interesting topics, prior experience in learning speaking, distant teachers and fear of full English instructions, more than two-thirds of the students remain reluctant to respond to the teacher and keep quiet until they are singled out to answer questions.To meet the needs of multi-level classes, teachers need to make use of various methods, which means the teachers can never stop exerting themselves in their career. In order to help reduce students‟ reticence, lessons

should be made with a lot of fun and comfort with interesting and motivating activities or games.

Besides, teachers should prepare more topics which are not only interesting but also related to students‟ life so that students have the interest in and ability to talk about them in English. In addition, teachers should try to establish a friendly, supportive, and non-threatening learning environment, as well as introducing activities that motivate students to speak. It is important for teachers to be friendly rather than strict and critical in class, in order to make students feel easy to speak English. I hope these ideas will be considered by my colleages and they can be suggestions for further future researches concerning teaching speaking skills.

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2. Brown, H.D. (1994), Teaching by principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

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Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

4. Bui, H. (2004). Situation of learning English at HUS. Improving English Teaching, Hanoi: Vietnam National University.

5. Bui, H. (2006). “Teaching Speaking Skills at a Vietnamese University and Recommendations for Using CMC”. Asian EFL Journal September.

6. Burkart, G.S. (1998), “Spoken Language: What it is and how to teach it”.

Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998. Retrieved from http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/spindex.htm

7. Burns, A., & Joyce, H. (1997), Focus on Speaking. Sydney: NCELTR.

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Longman.

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14. Hutchinson, R. (2001). Lifeline. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

15. Koch, A.S., & Terrell, T.D. (1991), “Affective reactions of foreign language students to Natural Approach activities and teaching techniques”. In E.K. Horwitz

& D.J. Young (Eds.), The Language Anxiety: From Theory and Research to Classroom Implications (pp. 109-126). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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Appendix 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

This questionnaire is conducted with a view to finding out relevant difficulties from teachers when teaching English speaking skills to first-year students at TNC- ET. Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated. The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for any other purposes.

Thank you for your cooperation!

* Background information

- Your gender:  Male  Female

-Your age: ………

-Your name: ……….

-Your years of teaching English: ……….

Please put a tick (v) in the box beside the option(s) appropriate to you.

1. How confident do you feel about teaching speaking?

 Very confident (be willing to communicate in all various situations)

 Confident enough (communicate in different situations if expected)

 Not very confident (avoid communicating in various situations as much as possible)

 Not confident at all (feel a bit frightened if coping orally with different situations)

2. According to you, what are the reasons for ineffective speaking lessons?

 Students‟ levels of proficiency are varied.

 Students are unwilling to speak.

 Teaching speaking takes time when I have to cover all other contents of the course book.

 English classes are often large and multi-level.

 I can‟t find suitable and interesting speaking activities.

 I don‟t have enough time to prepare speaking activities.

3. What do you do to motivate students to speak in class?

 I ask the better students to speak first.

 I give them many questions.

 I create interesting games and activities.

 I always listen attentively to and appreciate students‟ answers.

 I never forget to praise them before pointing out their mistakes in speaking.

 I encourage students to learn by reminding them of the proportion of speaking skill in their end of course test.

 I introduce interesting and familiar topics.

 I let them talk about whatever topic they like.

 I ask the better students to speak after other students.

 I set funny classroom rules/punishment for those who keep quiet or speak Vietnamese in class.

Phiếu điều tra dưới đây nhằm tìm hiểu những khó khăn mà sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên gặp phải khi học kĩ năng nói tại các lớp học tiếng Anh. Các thông tin và các câu trả lời mà bạn cung cấp rất quan trọng và cần thiết đối với khảo sát này. Bạn cũng yên tâm rằng các dữ liệu mà bạn cung cấp chỉ sử dụng cho nghiên cứu chứ không nhằm mục đích nào khác.

Cảm ơn sự hợp tác của bạn!

* Thông tin cá nhân

- Giới tính:  nam  nữ

- Họ và tên: ...

- Tuổi: ...

- Lớp: ...

- Bạn đã học tiếng Anh được bao lâu? ...

Bạn hãy đánh dấu (V) vào ô bên cạnh câu trả lời mà bạn lựa chọn.

1. Lý do bạn học tiếng Anh?

 Tôi thích tiếng Anh.

 Vì tiếng Anh là ngôn ngữ quốc tế.

 Để học về 1 nền văn hóa tiêu biểu.

 Để xin được công việc tốt.

 Để giao tiếp với người nước ngoài.

 Nói được tiếng Anh là có lợi thế.

 Vì bắt buộc phải học.

2. Kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh quan trọng như thế nào đối với bạn?

 Rất quan trọng.

 Khá quan trọng.

Some suggested activities in speaking lessons

Presentation of the statistical results