English Language Teaching and Learning Strategies

Teaching Speaking

• Organization, socio-cultural aspects, performance effects, communication strategies, speech acts, discourse markers, and features of spoken grammar and vocabulary are essential components of teaching speaking.

Appropriation Activities

• Practice with reduced teacher and peer control, such as:
  • Chants
  • Writing as preparation for speaking
  • Reading aloud
  • Flow-diagram conversations and dialogues with assisted performance and scaffolding

Fostering Automaticity and Autonomy

• Tasks with minimal teacher assistance under real operating conditions, such as:
  • Academic presentations
  • Drama
  • Role-plays and simulations
  • Discussions and debates outside of class speaking

Methods to Increase Individual Speaking Time

Coherent Speaking

• Activities such as:
  • Dramatic reading
  • Talking about pictures, drawings, and other creatives
  • Story-telling
  • 1-minute or book and movie presentations
  • Cooperative methods (TPS, round robin, 4 corners)

Participating in Conversations

• Activities such as:
  • Dialogues with a framework (model dialogues)
  • Talking while walking
  • Interviews: tandem work, information-gaps, job interviews
  • Class surveys
  • Cooperative methods (TPS, round robin, 4 corners, discussions, role play)

Parameters of a Genuine Speaking Situation

• Consider the following factors:
  • Persons: who is talking to whom
  • Relationship of the interlocutors
  • Knowledge the interlocutors have of one another
  • Common knowledge of the topic
  • Communication motive
  • Emotions: individual involvement
  • Urgency of the message
  • Place: where does the conversation take place
  • Speaker's intent: discourse strategy
  • Time: when does the conversation take place
  • Level of language skills
  • Non-verbal signals: facial expressions, gestures, body language
  • Action continuum: actions during the conversation
  • Presence of certain objects
  • Medium: phone, face-to-face, interactive
  • Degree of privacy: intimate, group, media
  • Degree of obligation

Teaching Speaking to Different Learner Groups

Young Learners

• Characteristics:
  • Playful, using songs, games, and role-play
  • Varied practice with a strong element of repetition
  • Focus on verbs and structure words
  • Strong focus on pronunciation to avoid fossilization
• Principles:
  • Balance listening and speaking
  • Use English as a means of communication
  • Present new language using gestures, mime, and action
  • Encourage learners to interact spontaneously and provide support

Advanced Learners

• Characteristics:
  • Real-life type of speaking
  • Activities such as:
    • Telling a joke
    • Greeting a passing colleague
    • Making a phone enquiry
    • Chatting with a friend
    • Explaining medical problems to a doctor
    • Negotiating a sale
    • Giving street directions
    • Making a presentation
    • Communicating live online during an Internet game
    • Explaining a grammatical point

Speaking Activities for Different Stages

• Awareness-raising activities: listening to scripted, semi-scripted, or authentic recordings while focusing on features of spoken language

Communication Problems

• Common issues:
  • Lack of knowledge of pronunciation
  • Lack of knowledge of language (grammar, vocabulary, set phrases)
  • Lack of knowledge of the functions of language, discourse patterns, register
  • Lack of knowledge of cultural and social rules and norms

Challenges and Solutions when Teaching Speaking

Challenges

• Common challenges:
  • Lack of vocabulary
  • Problems with pronunciation
  • Inhibition
  • Lack of time
  • Lack of practice
  • Lack of creativity
  • Low or uneven participation
  • Different levels of speaking competence

Solutions

• Strategies to overcome challenges:
  • Teaching speaking strategies
  • Creating a positive atmosphere
  • Planning phrases with tolerance of mistakes
  • Giving time to conceptualize
  • Using a variety of speaking activities
  • Using a model text/doing a brainstorming
  • Pair or group work/activities
  • Learner orientation
  • Creating meaningful tasks
  • Providing learners with language support
  • Developing the willingness to speak and the ability to speak

Discover effective strategies for teaching and learning English language, including socio-cultural aspects, communication strategies, and speech acts. Practice appropriation activities and foster automaticity and autonomy in language learning.