| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Paladin Brewer
Joined: 25 Dec 2009
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:33 pm Post subject: Ideas for speaking classes |
 |
|
| So, I get the impression my co-teacher(s) don't really want me to "teach," so much as they want me to get the students to talk. Which sounds awesome....but how? The students don't seem all that excited about talking to me, ever. Some of them maybe, but not most. So any thoughts on lesson plans, games etc that get the students to talk? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Take a page from the textbook photocopy and paste it on the blackboard.
Divide the class into teams and give each team a blank piece of paper. Tell them they must copy the page without refering to the text. One person on each team write while the rest take turns coming to the front reading the original text memorising the text and repeating to the others in your group so they can write it. This activity can get quite noisy but it's good.
Jigsaw reading take a passage from the text re-write omiting every seceond sentence. Make two copies a copy A and B. Student A must get the information from student B's paper and student B must get information from student A's paper without looking. Walk around if they start copying from the paper tear them up nad make them start again.
Side by Side listen and repeat substitution drilling back-chanting
http://eflclassroom.com
Great Powerpoints for using Side By Side for Substitution drilling.
Great Kareoke Karafuns
Get" Lost" Season One adjust it so it has English subtitles. Every now and then put it on Pause and have the students repeat the sentences that appear on the screen. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 8:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
Take a page from the textbook photocopy and paste it on the blackboard.
Divide the class into teams and give each team a blank piece of paper. Tell them they must copy the page without refering to the text. One person on each team write while the rest take turns coming to the front reading the original text memorising the text and repeating to the others in your group so they can write it. This activity can get quite noisy but it's good.
Jigsaw reading take a passage from the text re-write omiting every seceond sentence. Make two copies a copy A and B. Student A must get the information from student B's paper and student B must get information from student A's paper without looking. Walk around if they start copying from the paper tear them up nad make them start again.
|
These exercises sound like dictation and the others like pronunciation drills. Dictation has its uses but developing 'speaking' skills is not one of them I assume when the OP said he wanted to get his students to 'talk' he meant produce language rather than read aloud from a pre-written text. Dictation theoretically improves listening skills, grammar, vocab, spelling and pronunciation. However, what tends to happen when it's used with young leaners is that, in order to achieve the task as quickly as possible, they make no attempt to chunk the sentences and either repeat them as single words or even worse spell the words out letter by letter.
Thus, often the only language practised is memorising and repeating simple words such as 'the', 'and' etc... and producing and listening to the sounds of the letters of the alphabet.
Better exercises would be information gaps where the students have to produce language themselves. Either with prompts or pictures.
e.g. they get a picture of a dog/cat and they have to ask 'do you have a pet?' etc...
or they get the words 'have/pet?' and they have to form the same question.
Or information gaps where there's a word missing and they have to ask their partner a question to find the missing word
e.g. Jim Carey is from _______________
'Where is Jim Carrey from?'
There are heaps of other activities like this, in adult text books and on the internet, for developing speaking skills, which you can adapt to suit your learners |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Seoulio
Joined: 02 Jan 2010
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| Quote: |
Take a page from the textbook photocopy and paste it on the blackboard.
Divide the class into teams and give each team a blank piece of paper. Tell them they must copy the page without refering to the text. One person on each team write while the rest take turns coming to the front reading the original text memorising the text and repeating to the others in your group so they can write it. This activity can get quite noisy but it's good.
Jigsaw reading take a passage from the text re-write omiting every seceond sentence. Make two copies a copy A and B. Student A must get the information from student B's paper and student B must get information from student A's paper without looking. Walk around if they start copying from the paper tear them up nad make them start again.
|
These exercises sound like dictation and the others like pronunciation drills. Dictation has its uses but developing 'speaking' skills is not one of them I assume when the OP said he wanted to get his students to 'talk' he meant produce language rather than read aloud from a pre-written text. Dictation theoretically improves listening skills, grammar, vocab, spelling and pronunciation. However, what tends to happen when it's used with young leaners is that, in order to achieve the task as quickly as possible, they make no attempt to chunk the sentences and either repeat them as single words or even worse spell the words out letter by letter.
Thus, often the only language practised is memorising and repeating simple words such as 'the', 'and' etc... and producing and listening to the sounds of the letters of the alphabet.
Better exercises would be information gaps where the students have to produce language themselves. Either with prompts or pictures.
e.g. they get a picture of a dog/cat and they have to ask 'do you have a pet?' etc...
or they get the words 'have/pet?' and they have to form the same question.
Or information gaps where there's a word missing and they have to ask their partner a question to find the missing word
e.g. Jim Carey is from _______________
'Where is Jim Carrey from?'
There are heaps of other activities like this, in adult text books and on the internet, for developing speaking skills, which you can adapt to suit your learners |
Maybe not Jim Carrey though, if they do happen to know the name they will think he's from America  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Paladin Brewer
Joined: 25 Dec 2009
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 10:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yeah I wouldn't want the students to just read, very boring.
One of the English teachers here wants me to do 1v1 interviews in class, where I let them ask me questions individually while the other students self study. It would sound alright, if it wasn't a 35ish student class in a 50 minute time frame. But whatever they want I guess heh |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 10:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| Quote: |
Take a page from the textbook photocopy and paste it on the blackboard.
Divide the class into teams and give each team a blank piece of paper. Tell them they must copy the page without refering to the text. One person on each team write while the rest take turns coming to the front reading the original text memorising the text and repeating to the others in your group so they can write it. This activity can get quite noisy but it's good.
Jigsaw reading take a passage from the text re-write omiting every seceond sentence. Make two copies a copy A and B. Student A must get the information from student B's paper and student B must get information from student A's paper without looking. Walk around if they start copying from the paper tear them up nad make them start again.
|
These exercises sound like dictation and the others like pronunciation drills. Dictation has its uses but developing 'speaking' skills is not one of them I assume when the OP said he wanted to get his students to 'talk' he meant produce language rather than read aloud from a pre-written text. Dictation theoretically improves listening skills, grammar, vocab, spelling and pronunciation. However, what tends to happen when it's used with young leaners is that, in order to achieve the task as quickly as possible, they make no attempt to chunk the sentences and either repeat them as single words or even worse spell the words out letter by letter.
Thus, often the only language practised is memorising and repeating simple words such as 'the', 'and' etc... and producing and listening to the sounds of the letters of the alphabet.
Better exercises would be information gaps where the students have to produce language themselves. Either with prompts or pictures.
e.g. they get a picture of a dog/cat and they have to ask 'do you have a pet?' etc...
or they get the words 'have/pet?' and they have to form the same question.
Or information gaps where there's a word missing and they have to ask their partner a question to find the missing word
e.g. Jim Carey is from _______________
'Where is Jim Carrey from?'
There are heaps of other activities like this, in adult text books and on the internet, for developing speaking skills, which you can adapt to suit your learners |
What a load of bull. When you have 30-45 students you need to use anything that gets the students using the target language. BTW Andrew Finche's Textbook Tell Me More has lots of great dictation activities. Also most of students that I have used that material have really improved. You can get spontanious English speach from Information gaps that show two different pictures of a living room and students describe how they both look different. You can also show a Mr. Bean video and have students try to summarize it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
venus envy
Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Location: chicago
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 11:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
My school directed me to teach nothing but "conversation", so I can relate.
I use game board templates and fill them with questions related to the book. Next week is lesson 6 natural disasters, so they'll play a game and answer q's like "What would you do if there were an earthquake tomorrow?", etc. I can send you the game if you'd like.
You might also have them work in pairs and make authentic dialogues using key expressions, idioms, etc from the text. Then have them present for the class.
I've also used "Chinese Whispers" and they seem to really enjoy that.
Best of luck OP |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 12:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| What a load of bull. When you have 30-45 students you need to use anything that gets the students using the target language |
Don't use the old '40 students in the class' excuse for not thinking about what you're doing. Dictations are not designed to practise or develop speaking skills. So don't tell someone who has been told to improve their students in that specific area to use them. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jinks
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Location: Formerly: Lower North Island
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Dictation-based activities can be great for getting students to speak. Maybe not if the teacher reads and the students write, but Fishead Soup's running dictation activity certainly does encourage some generative language use and also helps to familiarise students with chunks of language. Other variations on dictation for talking are dicto-gloss and dicto-comp activities where students work in groups to create either a word for word reconstruction of a short text, or even an 'in their own words' version of a short passage that they've heard the teacher reading two or three times. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
How does a kid running up to the board, memorising one or two words from the text book then running back and repeating them to his classmate who writes them down, produce any worthwhile language? To complete the activity neither kid even has to know what any of the words mean. The teacher has no way of finding out if they know what they mean either. Even if they do produce a chunk, the chances are it'll be by accident as they just happen to be the next two or three words in the text. I could do a running dictation in Korean and I can't even order a beer in the language
Running dictations can be useful for improving listening and spelling and providing a change of pace but I wouldn't use them to get their speaking skills up to scratch.
Of course dictation based activities can be useful for developing speaking skills when discussions are involved but I can't see them being a viable option with young learners |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jinks
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Location: Formerly: Lower North Island
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 4:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
You choose your texts according to the studentrs' level/interests. Running back and forth between the group and the text is just one part of the activity. Someone else in the group is responsible for writing, another for checking and another for clarifying (roles change for each sentence). After the text is complete, the students can discuss the text in a variety of ways - 5/4/3* (though I would recommend 90/60/30 seconds for younger or less advanced students), questions and answers or even a quiz format.
*Students work in pairs, listener and speaker, and the story is retold 3 times; 1st time 5 mins, second time 4 mins etc. in order to practice fluency. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 4:39 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I was just talking about the dictation part. What you're saying is the same as claiming a reading activity can be good for developing speaking skills if the students discuss what they've read afterwards. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jinks
Joined: 27 Oct 2004
Location: Formerly: Lower North Island
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 4:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
| but that's the point - there is no 'just dictation' part in a running dictation, it is an activity that utilises the four skills (5 even, if you include speaking AND listening is a seperate skill). Running dictation is a great activity for getting students to speak, especially if the text is well within their range with few new words and on a topic that most of the class is interested in. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tanklor1
Joined: 13 Jun 2006
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Talk show. show them a clip of your favourite late night talk show e.g. Jay Leno, David Lettermen. and interview a couple of guests each class. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
recessiontime
Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Location: Got avatar privileges nyahahaha
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
1.play mafia but in English. They know how to play it in Korean.
2.get a picture book for children and get them to tell you what is happening, page by page.
3.a really good one is to get everyone involved. Get one student to sit at the front of the class facing everyone. Then on the projector show them a picture and a word describing what it is. Then have people describe what the picture is using English but without using the words on the screen. You might also want to include Taboo words.
So for example, the picture is of dog soup or boshingtun or whatever. At the bottom of the page include taboo words that they cannot use: soup, food, eat, dog, pet, restaurant.
Now it's important to explain the rules to them and tell them that they cannot use the taboo words.
The person at the front will have to keep guessing what the word is until he gets it. You give him 3 minutes, if he gets the word, he gets a treat. Kids in middle school to high school love this. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
