The following activity is an example of controlled practice of questions and short answers: e.g. did she leave work late? Yes, she did or no, she didn’t. The example is
in the simple past but you can change the tense. The objective of the activity is to answer questions without using the words yes or no.
Start by demonstrating the activity to the class. Students ask you questions about what you did yesterday; you reply without hesitating and without using the words “yes” or
“no”. For the first round, you could write some questions on the board as prompts, so students don’t spend too long formulating their questions. Example:
Did you go to work yesterday? Did you finish work at 6pm?
Did you have lunch with friends? Students read out the questions and the person in the hot seat this is the teacher
during the presentation phase responds with I did or I didn’t. You continue with this for one minute. To help with timing, you can take in a stopwatch,
an egg timer or ask a student to time you. If anybody uses the words yes or no, they are eliminated. If somebody speaks for one minute without using those words, heshe
gets 10 points. You could then ask a student to come to the front of the class to provide further demonstration of the activity.
When students are clear about what is expected of them, separate them into groups of at least three. One person is in the hot seat and the others ask questions; one person
is responsible for keeping an eye on the time.
You can find more games that provide controlled practice of language in the Communication Games series.
3.5 Stage 5: Revision
You will need to go back in later lessons and review the new language briefly. Try to vary presentations by using a different presentation method the second time. Use
presentation methods in a logical order. For example, use explanation before discovery and not vice versa. Doing a brief second presentation will remind students
and give them a chance to clear up any outstanding questions and will help any students who were absent in the previous lesson. You should also give further practice
of the language item. Try to introduce variety into the exercises; if your course book contains a number of exercises, decide which are suitable for use in the first lesson
and which you will save for revision on another day.
3.6 A final word on presenting and practising language
I suggest you go through your course book and see how language is presented and practised. You can decide whether the book’s approach is the best method for your
students and for the language point. Also decide whether the practice exercises are
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Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.
sufficient. You can follow the procedure in the book, adapt it, supplement it or omit exercises as you think necessary.
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Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.
CHAPTER 4: SPEAKING
Speaking is one of the most difficult aspects for students to master. This is hardly surprising when one considers everything that is involved when speaking: ideas, what
to say, language, how to use grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation as well as listening to and reacting to the person you are communicating with. Any learner of a
foreign language can confirm how difficult speaking is.
It is important to give students as many opportunities as possible to speak in a supportive environment. Gaining confidence will help students speak more easily. You
can achieve this by:
setting controlled speaking tasks and moving gradually towards freer speaking tasks; setting tasks that are at the right level for the students or at a level lower than their
receptive skills; setting tasks that are easily achievable and gradually moving towards more
challenging tasks; praising students’ efforts;
using error correction sensitively more about this in Chapter 9; creating an atmosphere where students don’t laugh at other people’s efforts.
The focus of this chapter will be free speaking activities and fluency, not controlled activities and accuracy. For comments on controlled and freer practice, see Chapter 1.
There are three key elements to remember when planning and setting up speaking activities:
1. Language used
2. Preparation
3. Why are the students speaking?
4.1 Language
When planning any speaking activity with students, analyse carefully the language they will be using to carry out the activity. If you use an activity from an EFL book, you
will probably find comments on the language. If not, think about what you would say yourself when doing the activity and consider whether your students have learnt the
language items yet.
Don’t make any assumptions about students’ knowledge. Spend some time in class reviewing the language that will be used. If students don’t have the language required
to carry out the task, the results will be demotivation and frustration. Students might even resort to doing the task in their own language. Of course, you can work on the
language in one lesson and review it very quickly in the following lesson before doing the speaking work.
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