FREER SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Kateryna ProtsenkoInternational House Kyiv

Aims

- To remind teachers of what is involved in speaking as a skill.

- To remind teachers of a range of freer speaking activities and ways of setting them up.

- To enable teachers to better develop students’ fluency through a range of appropriate activities.

CHARACTERISTICS OF:

SPEAKING AS A SKILL• Ss use any language at

their command.• There is a clear

communicative purpose.• Speech is often

characterized by pauses, hesitation, paraphrase, fillers etc.

• Activities are motivating and interesting, they promote real language use.

SPEAKING AS LANGUAGE PRACTICE

• Ss use the language prescribed by the teacher.

• There may or may not be a communicative purpose.

• Ss receive language support.

• Activities may or may not be of interest to Ss.

SPEAKING SKILLS

• Turn-taking (could I just make a point)• Hedging (it was kind of a stupid thing to say)• Buying time (um, uh, what I mean to say is…)• Using adjacency (How’re you? - Fine)• Using openings and closings (Anyway, nice to see

you again)• Backchannelling (no way! You’re kidding me!)• Using chunks (by the way, did you hear the joke

about…)• Using ellipsis (- When did you go to the cinema?

– I went there on Saturday• Topic sensitivity

STAGES

• Orientation and preparation• Set up of the activity• Feedback on content• Feedback on language• Task repetition

Discuss this question. Do you agree or disagree with your

partner?

What is the best way to pass a job interview?

Some useful websites with conversation topics:http://iteslj.org/questions/

http://www.esldiscussions.com/http://foxhugh.wordpress.com/non-fiction/esl-discussion-questions/

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/discuss.htmlBook: Roth E., Aberson T. Compelling Conversations. Chimayo Press, 2008

Job security is a better motivation than money

Think of minimum three reasons why the

statement is true

Think of minimum three reasons why the

statement is false

Try to convince your partner

You work for an arts museum. Your organization has just been awarded a

grant to set up a collection for either films or books. There is not enough money to

have a collection of both.

You represent films.

You represent books

PREPARE A CASE ON WHY YOUR MEDIA:- is important;

- is better than the other one;- should be chosen.

Adapted from Language Leader Intermediate, Pearson Longman 2008

WORK SITUATIONS INVOLVING TWO PEOPLE

• Who are the two people?• Where are you?• What are you talking about?• What happened just before this?• Is any other information important?• What are some points that come up in the

discussion?• What would be a good result?

TV RADIO

BOOKS

MAGAZINES

INTERNET

NEWSPAPERS

Adapted from Keep Talking by Klippel F. Cambridge University Press

INTERRUPT ME!

• Sorry, but…• Excuse me for interrupting, but…• Can I add here that…• I’d like to comment on that.• Can I add something?• Can I say something here?• I’d like to say something if I may.• Can I ask a question?• May I ask something?Adapted from Conversation Gambits by Keller. E and Warner S., Language Teaching Publications

Last weekend

A party

New Year’s Eve

Football

Last Sunday

Shopping

Supermarket

A delicious meal

Your own idea

Talking of…

That reminds me of…

By the way,…

Oh, before I forget,…

Adapted from Conversation Gambits by Keller. E and Warner S., Language Teaching Publications

Kateryna.Protsenko@ih.kiev.ua