What is Teaching?

Instruction
Not a small portion of my students complain bitterly when they fill out their student
evaluations of the courses I teach. The typical complaint goes like this:

He isn't organized. He frequently digresses into things that are not part of the
subject and never tells us exactly what we are supposed to be learning.
A more eye-opening version goes like this:
He would not tell us what things were going to be on the test so we could focus on
learning them. I felt totally unprepared for the exams.
Sadly such comments are becoming more frequent in the last ten years.
One of my pet peeves in education is the use of the term instructor as a catch all
for the person who is supposed to be teaching. Even dictionary.com blurs the
distinction, essentially equating the two terms. And in vernacular usage people do
not make much of a distinction. But if you consider the root of instructor, instruct,
you get closer to the issue. To instruct means to give orders (British dictionary
version) for how to do something. That is, an instructor gives instructions in the
performance of a task. The term applies to, for example, flight instructors or combat
instructors who give specific directions in algorithmic like sequences to people who
have to learn a procedure. Such learning has little to do with the growth and
development of the intellect. It is not intended to enhance thinking. Quite the
opposite; it is intended to instill the procedure in tacit knowledge so that the
performer doesn't have to think when doing.

Contrast that to the idea that a human being should learn how to acquire concepts,
to modify them in light of new information, to manipulate them in the mind to look
at them from different perspectives, and, most important, to try combinations of
concepts to see if something new, a meta-concept, emerges. In other words people
need to be able to think. I had always believed that the objective of higher
education was to teach people to think. And not just higher education; I believed
that the whole education enterprise should be dedicated to teach people both how
to think and how to do things automatically that would support their success in
thinking. For example, when learning mathematics you do need to be instructed in
procedures but you also need to understand what those procedures are for in real
life.

Teaching should encompass both instruction in procedures, a process to guiding

students to the information they will need, and challenging them to engage in
thinking about concepts they construct in their minds. All of these processes are
needed in order to teach students to become fully functional thinkers.

What my complaining students were telling me is that they only wanted me to

instruct them in the sense of how to prepare to take an examination. They were
frustrated because their entire previous experience in education appeared to be this
instructional process. People generally feel comfortable receiving instructions,
following them, and then being assessed on their success in assimilating the
instructions. And if their entire experience had been along these lines it would be
understandable that not being instructed, while being expected to construct
knowledge and understanding would be extremely stressful. But that is OK. We all
need to learn how to deal with stress and we especially need to learn how to learn.
Your boss will not be your instructor. That isn't her job.

This last spring quarter I had some frank conversations with a few freshmen
students who were in my core course on systems science. I asked them how they
learned in high school, what did they have to do to succeed in their classes. I was
prompted to do this because a large number of them claimed to have taken various
science courses such as biology or chemistry (and claimed to have liked the
subject), yet they could not answer very simple questions I would ask about those
topics (I use a Socratic method style in lectures). They would say things like, I
remember we talked about that, but I don't remember exactly what it was. How
could someone take a course in biology in this day and age and not have learned
something like the mechanisms at work in genetic transcription and translation for
protein construction? This is so fundamental to understanding biology it seems
incomprehensible that the schools are not teaching it. Yet the students proclaimed
that it wasn't something that had been emphasized. I have one of my son's biology
text from high school at home so I checked it out on the subject. Sure enough it is
covered quite well. Any student who had actually studied this should have come
away with a fairly good grasp of how the cell manufactures all its component parts.
The same is true for metabolism. The book covered it well, but the students could
barely remember what it was, what it did, or why.

So on probing deeper what they told me was basically this. In school they are told
what is going to be on the test, explicitly. That is they are told the nature of the
questions they will be asked so that they can memorize little factoids from the text
books. This is almost ritual and it applies most strongly to subjects that are related
to the standardized high-stakes testing associated with No Child Left Behind or Race

to the Top. However the practice appears to be wide-spread through many

academic subjects. I could see why my students were complaining now.

I would not tell them what was going to be on the test for several reasons. First I
consider all of the subject to be relevant or I wouldn't have included it in the
curriculum. But also, the tests I give are not the so-called (and terribly misnamed)
objective exams. The latter is fine for testing the assimilation of specific facts and
procedures. You can test someone's success at memorizing, for example, a
mathematical procedure, like solving a quadratic equation, with such tests. There
are right and wrong answers. But those kinds of tests do not assess how well the
student can think. For lower-division courses I give exams that are a mix of
fact/procedure learning and thinking using those facts and procedures. These
students are new to the subjects and they need to build a lexicon of terms, simple
relations, and procedures for things like solving problems and communications. But
they also need to start getting used to displaying an ability to think about the
subject. So at least 50% of the exams will be asking open-ended questions (short
answer) for which there are good answers (i.e., putting ideas together in a logical
way) but there are not purely right answers. Many, perhaps most of the students
hate this.

In upper division courses, especially electives, the situation changes and all of my
exams and project assignments require a high degree of thinking. Generally most of
the students have finally matured to a point that they can understand the reasons
for this, though there are still a few who complain.

There are probably several factors that contribute to the devolution of education to
becoming essentially vocational-like instruction. Certainly the NCLB-type high stakes
testing that has become the norm for so-called accountability has reinforced the
practice since the emphasis on passing the tests puts pressure on teachers as well
as students. Their jobs are on the line. The whole system is pressed to performance
as defined by objective measures, a significant proportion of students producing
right answers. But the tendency to rely on objective exams has been a feature of
school education for a long time. Let's face it. Such exams are easy to prepare and
grade. They only probe the surface of student learning and reduce the burden on
teachers, especially considering the issue of class sizes. Since the measure of
student success is the grade point average (GPA) and teachers surely want to see
their students succeed, it is quite natural that they resort to teaching to the test.
The pattern is widespread and deeply established in the hall of academia.
Additionally the use of student evaluations of courses, by administrators desperate
for a convenient objective measure of teaching effectiveness, again for

accountability, produces a subtle pressure on teachers to please the students.

Their actions need not be the result of conscious decisions to do so. The effect
comes through the subconscious bias that follows from basically understanding that
their jobs could be on the line if the students aren't happy. In public higher
education this effect is amplified by the issue of retention, or keeping students in
school so that the graduation numbers look good. If you flunk out too many
students or too many quit from frustration then you look bad and the social milieu
will frown on you.

Irony of Ironies

Hardly a week goes by when I don't read a news item about how American
education is failing to produce enough scientists and engineers. Many articles are
about how schools are failing. The calls for reform are echoed from every corner of
society. I talk directly to employers who are very vocal about how graduates they
hire can't think. They can't communicate. They can't learn on their own. They might
have good skills (say at programming), but cannot figure out how to analyse
complex problems or design complex solutions.

The louder the din is about how education is failing the more pressure there is to
double down on accountability. And since the only thing most educators know how
to do is focus on facts and procedures, that is where the effort will go. It will
accomplish exactly the opposite of what is needed.

More ironic still is the belief that somehow on-line education will solve these
problems. I expect it to exacerbate the situation considerably. My own opinion is
that on-line learning might work for, say, special topic courses, especially graduate
level courses in professional fields. But to believe that whole baccalaureate
programs can be delivered on-line and that the students will actually learn how to
think in that subject is to be ignoring everything modern psychology of learning has
to tell us about how people actually learn.

The more our society panics about the failures of education the more they will do
the exact wrong things. They want an inexpensive, quick solution to education
reform. But the reality is that there is no magic bullet that can replace teachers who
help students learn to think. It is inherently an expensive enterprise. Society invests
in doing a good job so that it will benefit in the future when those graduates are

active in the workforce and as citizens. But society has chosen to do the exact
opposite. They want to find cheap ways which invariably rely on putting the burden
(as well as the blame) on teachers. And that attitude will simply produce a much
worse situation.

I love my job. I love working with students who have finally gotten the fact that
learning isn't the job of the teacher. I love being able to explore ideas such as I write
about in these blogs. I love to exercise my intellect and challenge students to do the
same. But there are parts of the job that are definitely unlovable! I do not like the
whole process of assessment based on there being right and wrong answers. I do
not like the grading system that only rewards successes and punishes failures when,
in fact, most people learn more from failures than successes. I do not like having to
be the bad guy who forces lower-division students to have to think when they have
literally been trained to not do so. But I accept these negative parts and the
responsibility for being accountable to their long-term interests even as they see me
as their enemy. It goes with the job.

Every once in awhile I get a communique from a former student who has been out
in the world for a while. And those communiques make it all worthwhile. A not
atypical message will say something to the effect:

I have to confess when I took your course I really hated it. But I have found out that
you were really right about learning to think. I started practising what you said and
today I am a chief designer for my company. Just wanted to say thanks. And also
apologize for giving you low scores on the student evals.
Teaching isn't (just) training. It is a whole constellation of guidance skills. But mostly
it has to be about getting students to think well. It has become a steep uphill battle
in recent years thanks to society's penchant for cheap and fast preparation for
specialist jobs being the basis for education. I'm just glad I got to work in the field
while there was still some semblance of rationality abiding. I just feel sorry for the
masses who are moving inexorably toward deep ignorance as a result of being
educated in the US.
teaching
the activities of educating or instructing; activities that impart knowledge or skill
What Is Speaking?

speaking
"Speaking" is the delivery of language through the mouth. To speak, we create
sounds using many parts of our body, including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords,
tongue, teeth and lips.

Speaking is the second of the four language skills, which are:

Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
In our own language, speaking is usually the second language skill that we learn.
This vocalized form of language usually requires at least one listener. When two or
more people speak or talk to each other, the conversation is called a "dialogue".
Speech can flow naturally from one person to another in the form of dialogue. It can
also be planned and rehearsed, as in the delivery of a speech or presentation. Of
course, some people talk to themselves! In fact, some English learners practise
speaking standing alone in front of a mirror.

Speaking can be formal or informal:

Informal speaking is typically used with family and friends, or people you know well.
Formal speaking occurs in business or academic situations, or when meeting people
for the first time.
Speaking is probably the language skill that most language learners wish to perfect
as soon as possible. It used to be the only language skill that was difficult to
practise online. This is no longer the case. English learners can practise speaking
online using voice or video chat. They can also record and upload their voice for
other people to listen to.
What speaking is

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing

and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its
form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the
participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and
the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.
However, speech is not always unpredictable. Language functions (or patterns) that
tend to recur in certain discourse situations (e.g., declining an invitation or
requesting time off from work), can be identified and charted (Burns &Joyce, 1997).
For example, when a salesperson asks "May I help you?" the expected discourse
sequence includes a statement of need, response to the need, offer of appreciation,
acknowledgement of the appreciation, and a leave-taking exchange. Speaking
requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language
such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also
that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language
(sociolinguistic competence). Finally, speech has its own skills, structures, and
conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter &
McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and
knowledge to succeed in a given speech act.

What a good speaker does

A speaker's skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange
(Van Duzer, 1997). Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the
expected patterns of specific discourse situations. They must also manage discrete
elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns
& Joyce, 1997). For example, a learner involved in the exchange with the
salesperson described previously must know the usual pattern that such an
interaction follows and access that knowledge as the exchange progresses. The
learner must also choose the correct vocabulary to describe the item sought,
rephrase or emphasize words to clarify the description if the clerk does not
understand, and use appropriate facial expressions to indicate satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with the service. Other skills and knowledge that instruction might
address include the following: producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic
structures, and intonations of the language; using grammar structures accurately;
assessing characteristics of the target audience, including shared knowledge or
shared points of reference, status and power relations of participants, interest
levels, or differences in perspectives; selecting vocabulary that is understandable
and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in

which the speech act occurs; applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility,

such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, or checking for listener comprehension;
using gestures or body language; and paying attention to the success of the
interaction and adjusting components of speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech,
and complexity of grammar structures to maximize listener comprehension and
involvement (Brown, 1994).

Teachers should monitor learners' speech production to determine what skills and
knowledge they already have and what areas need development. Bailey and
Savages New Ways in Teaching Speaking (1994), and Lewiss New Ways in
Teaching Adults (1997) offer suggestions for activities that can address different
skills.

General outline of a speaking lesson

Speaking lessons can follow the usual pattern of preparation, presentation, practice,
evaluation, and extension. The teacher can use the preparation step to establish a
context for the speaking task (where, when, why, and with whom it will occur) and
to initiate awareness of the speaking skill to be targeted (asking for clarification,
stressing key words, using reduced forms of words). In presentation, the teacher can
provide learners with a preproduction model that furthers learner comprehension
and helps them become more attentive observers of language use. Practice
involves learners in reproducing the targeted structure, usually in a controlled or
highly supported manner. Evaluation involves directing attention to the skill being
examined and asking learners to monitor and assess their own progress. Finally,
extension consists of activities that ask learners to use the strategy or skill in a
different context or authentic communicative situation, or to integrate use of the
new skill or strategy with previously acquired ones (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce,
1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995).

Example of a speaking lesson:

Choosing appropriate topics for small talk

1. Preparation. Show the learners a picture of two people conversing in a familiar

casual setting. (The setting will be determined by a prior needs assessment.) Ask
them to brainstorm what the people might be discussing (i.e., what topics,
vocabulary, typical phrases).

2. Presentation. Present several video clips of small talk in casual situations. Have
learners complete a worksheet in which they describe or list the topics discussed,
the context in which the speech is occurring, and any phrases that seem to typify
small talk. Follow up with a discussion of the kinds of topics that are appropriate for
small talk, the factors in the specific situations that affect topic selection (e.g.,
relationships of participants, physical setting), and typical phrases used in small
talk. Chart this information.

3. Practice. Give learners specific information about the participants and the setting
of a scenario where small talk will take place. In pairs, have them list topics that
might be discussed by the participants and simple phrases they might use. Learners
then engage in improvised dialogues based on these simple phrases.

4. Evaluation. Give pairs a teacher-prepared dialogue based on their scenario from

. Ask them to compare their improvised dialogues with the prepared dialogue,
analyzing the similarities, differences, and reasons for both.

5. Extension. Have learners go individually or in small groups into various contexts

in the community (work, school, church, bus stop) and record the conversations
they hear. Ask them to report their findings back to the class, and then have the
class discuss these findings.

In-class speaking task

Although dialogues and conversations are the most obvious and most often used
speaking activities in language classrooms, a teacher can select activities from a
variety of tasks. Brown (1994) lists six possible task categories:

Imitative-

Drills in which the learner simply repeats a phrase or structure (e.g., "Excuse me."
or "Can you help me?") for clarity and accuracy;
IntensiveDrills or repetitions focusing on specific phonological or grammatical points, such as
minimal pairs or repetition of a series of imperative sentences;
ResponsiveShort replies to teacher or learner questions or comments, such as a series of
answers to yes/no questions;
TransactionalDialogues conducted for the purpose of information exchange, such as informationgathering interviews, role plays, or debates;
InterpersonalDialogues to establish or maintain social relationships, such as personal interviews
or casual conversation role plays; and
Extensive
- Extended monologues such as short speeches, oral reports, or oral summaries.

These tasks are not sequential. Each can be used independently or they can be
integrated with one another, depending on learners' needs. For example, if learners
are not using appropriate sentence intonations when participating in a transactional
activity that focuses on the skill of politely interrupting to make a point, the teacher
might decide to follow up with a brief imitative lesson targeting this feature.

When presenting tasks, teachers should tell learners about the language function to
be produced in the task and the real context(s) in which it usually occurs. They
should provide opportunities for interactive practice and build upon previous
instruction as necessary (Burns & Joyce, 1997). Teachers should also be careful not
to overload a speaking lesson with other new material such as numerous vocabulary
or grammatical structures. This can distract learners from the primary speaking
goals of the lesson.

Assessing speaking

Speaking assessments can take many forms, from oral sections of standardized
tests such as the Basic English Skills Test (BEST) or the English as a Second
Language Oral Assessment (ESLOA) to authentic assessments such as progress
checklists, analysis of taped speech samples, or anecdotal records of speech in
classroom interactions. Assessment instruments should reflect instruction and be
incorporated from the beginning stages of lesson planning (O'Malley & Pierce,
1996). For example, if a lesson focuses on producing and recognizing signals for
turn-taking in a group discussion, the assessment tool might be a checklist to be
completed by the teacher or learners in the course of the learners' participation in
the discussion. Finally, criteria should be clearly defined and understandable to both
the teacher and the learners.

Conclusion

Speaking is key to communication. By considering what good speakers do, what

speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners report,
teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency.

References

Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language

Hayriye Kayi
http://unr.edu/homepage/hayriyek
kayih[at]unr.nevada.edu
University of Nevada (Nevada,USA)

Introduction

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal
and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is
a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for
many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language
teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or
memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of
teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in
that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and
cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach
second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking
activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom
settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.
What Is "Teaching Speaking"?

What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach ESL learners to:

Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns
Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second
language.
Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting,
audience, situation and subject matter.
Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.
Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.
Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called
as fluency. (Nunan, 2003)
How To Teach Speaking

Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the
second language by "interacting". Communicative language teaching and
collaborative learning serve best for this aim. Communicative language teaching is
based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in
ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in
the target language. In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment
where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful
tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in
groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.

Activities To Promote Speaking

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. people learn best when they
travel. 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. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who
defended the idea in the best way. This activity fosters critical thinking and quick
decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite
ways while disagreeing with the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always
better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in
large groups. The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the
students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every
discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be
open to different ideas. Lastly, 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.
Role Play

One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they
are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play
activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and
what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David,
you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and" (Harmer, 1984)
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.
Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the
context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate
ideas quickly and freely. The good characteristics of brainstorming is that the
students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new
ideas.
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 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.
Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good
idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of
questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their
own interview questions. Conducting interviews with people gives students a
chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps
them becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her
study to the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his
or her partner to the class.
Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in
a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he
or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where
the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to ten
sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.
Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in
class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news.
Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling
their friends in their daily lives before 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 Narrating

This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the
story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria
provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or
structures they need to use while narrating.
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.
Suggestions For Teachers in Teaching Speaking

Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral
language:

Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by

providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials
and tasks, and shared knowledge.
Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different
ways of student participation.
Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step
back and observe students.
Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.
Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that
conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more.
Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good job. I
really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your
voice"
Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking.
Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.
Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents
and other people who can help.
Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see
whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs.
Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves
in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken
language.
Conclusion

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning. The ability
to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the
success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life. Therefore, it
is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking. 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 necessary for life. These activities make students
more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more
meaningful and fun for them.

Teaching Speaking

Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a

language. These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much
more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard
speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their
progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication.

Language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of

knowledge:

Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): Using the right words in the
right order with the correct pronunciation
Functions (transaction and interaction): Knowing when clarity of message is
essential (transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not
required (interaction/relationship building)
Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses
between speakers, relative roles of participants): Understanding how to take into
account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what
reason.
In the communicative model of language teaching, instructors help their students
develop this body of knowledge by providing authentic practice that prepares
students for real-life communication situations. They help their students develop the
ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences that are
appropriate to specific contexts, and to do so using acceptable (that is,
comprehensible) pronunciation.

Section Contents

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Speaking

Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills

Developing Speaking Activities

Using Textbook Speaking Activities
Assessing Speaking Proficiency
Resources
Material for this section was drawn from Spoken language: What it is and how to
teach it by Grace Stovall Burkart, in Modules for the professional preparation of
teaching assistants in foreign languages (Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.; Washington,
DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998)

Teaching Speaking

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Speaking

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be

able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest.
They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation,
grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in
each communication situation.

To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors can use

a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output,
and communicative output.

Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading
passages, and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the
material they need to begin producing language themselves.

Language input may be content oriented or form oriented.

Content-oriented input focuses on information, whether it is a simple weather report

or an extended lecture on an academic topic. Content-oriented input may also
include descriptions of learning strategies and examples of their use.
Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance from the
teacher or another source on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (linguistic
competence); appropriate things to say in specific contexts (discourse competence);
expectations for rate of speech, pause length, turn-taking, and other social aspects
of language use (sociolinguistic competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to
use to ask for clarification and repair miscommunication (strategic competence).
In the presentation part of a lesson, an instructor combines content-oriented and
form-oriented input. The amount of input that is actually provided in the target
language depends on students' listening proficiency and also on the situation. For
students at lower levels, or in situations where a quick explanation on a grammar
topic is needed, an explanation in English may be more appropriate than one in the
target language.

For more on input, see Guidelines for Instruction.

Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output, students may have
options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or
structure that the teacher has just introduced.

Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific

language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously
learned items. Instructors often use structured output exercises as a transition
between the presentation stage and the practice stage of a lesson plan. textbook
exercises also often make good structured output practice activities.

In communicative output, the learners' main purpose is to complete a task, such as

obtaining information, developing a travel plan, or creating a video. To complete the
task, they may use the language that the instructor has just presented, but they
also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies
that they know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is
whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration
unless the lack of it interferes with the message.

In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is some

sort of information gap between the participants. Communicative output activities
involve a similar real information gap. In order to complete the task, students must
reduce or eliminate the information gap. In these activities, language is a tool, not
an end in itself.

In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these
different categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency levels, including
beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also more likely
to result in effective language learning.

the principles of teaching speaking

1. TEACHING SPEAKING INTHE SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS TEFL 2 (2011)
2. ObjectivesBy the end of this lesson you are expected to beable to demonstrate
sound understanding of:1. The reasons for teaching speaking2. The definition of
Speaking3. The special features of spoken language4. The definition of Teaching
Speaking5. The rationales for teaching speaking using communicative approach
and collaborative learning
3. 6. The basic features of communicative language teaching & collaborative
learning7. Some communicative activities to promote speaking8. Things a teacher
should/should not do in teaching speaking
4. 1. REASONS FOR TEACHING SPEAKINGSpeaking is a crucial part of second
language learning and teaching.The mastery of speaking skills in English is a
priority for many second- language or foreign-language learners.
5. Our learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the
effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how much they feel they have
improved in their spoken language proficiency. Oral skills have hardly been
neglected in todays EFL/ESL courses (witness the huge number of conversation and
other speaking course books in the market)
6. 2. WHAT IS SPEAKING? Speaking is :"the process of building and sharing
meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts"
(Chaney, 1998, p. 13).
7. 3. Some Features of Spoken Discourse in daily life: Composed of idea units
(combined short phrases and clauses) May be planned (e.g., a lecture) or
unplanned (e.g., a conversation) Employs more vague (rather unclear) or generic
(simple) words than written language

8. Employs fixed phrases, fillers, and hesitation markers; Contains slips and
errors reflecting online processing; Involves reciprocity (i.e., interactions are jointly
constructed); Shows variation (e.g., between formal and casual speech), reflecting
speaker roles, speaking purpose, and the context. (Luoma, 2004)
9. 4. WHAT IS TEACHING SPEAKING?Teaching speaking is to teach our learners
to:Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns Use word and
sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second
language.Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social
setting, audience, situation and subject matter.
10. Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence. Use language
as a means of expressing values and judgments. Use the language quickly and
confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency. (Nunan, 2003)
11. 5. THE RATIONALES FOR TEACHING SPEAKING COMMUNICATIVELY For many
years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers
have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of
dialogues.
12. Todays world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve
students communicative skills,Only in that way, students can express themselves
and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each
communicative circumstance.
13. students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting it is
necessary for learners to recognize: 1. the very different functions speaking
performs in daily communication, and 2. the different purposes for which our
students need speaking skills. communicative language teaching & collaborative
learning
14. 6. Communicative Language Teaching & Collaborative Learning
Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require
communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the
opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language.
15. ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have
real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote
oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a
goal or to complete a task.
16. 7. EXAMPLES OF VARIOUS TYPES OF SPEAKING IN REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS
Chatting to a passenger sitting next to you during a plane Chatting to a school
friend in a canteen A student chatting to his or her teacher while waiting for an
class Telling a friend about an amusing weekend experience, and hearing him or
her recount a similar experience he or she once had.

17. Classroom group discussions and problem-solving activities A class activity

during which students design a poster Discussing needed computer repairs with a
technician Discussing sightseeing plans with a hotel clerk or tour guide Making a
telephone call to obtain flight information Asking someone for directions on the
street
18. Buying something in a shop Ordering food from a menu in a restaurant
Giving a class report about a group/individual assignment Conducting a class
debate Giving a speech of welcome Making a presentation Giving a long talk
19. 9. Suggestions for Teachers in Teaching Speaking Provide maximum
opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich
environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and
shared knowledge. Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this
aim, practice different ways of student participation.
20. Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time.
Step back and observe students. Indicate positive signs when commenting on a
students response. Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did
you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more.
21. Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good
job. I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of
your voice Do not correct students pronunciation mistakes very often while they
are speaking. Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.
Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact other
people who can help.
22. Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and
see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs. Provide the
vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities. Diagnose
problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the
target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.
23. 8. Some Types of Communicative Activities to Get Students to Speak1.
Discussions 8. Story Completion2. Role Play 9. Reporting3. Simulations 10.Playing
Cards4. Information Gap 11.Picture Narrating5. Brainstorming 12.Picture
Describing6. Storytelling 13.Find the Difference7. Interviews
24. 1. Discussion- A discussion can be held for various reasons: to arrive at a
conclusion, to share ideas about an event, or to 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.

25. 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. people learn best when they travel. Then each group works on their
topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class.
26. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group
members. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the
idea in the best way. This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision
making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways
while disagreeing with the others.
27. For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups,
because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The group
members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it
by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so
that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas.
Lastly, 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.
28. 2. Role Play In role-play, students pretend they are in various social contexts
and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives
information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus,
the teacher can tell the student that "You are Ahmad, you go to the doctor and tell
him what happened last night, and" (Harmer, 1984)
29. Stages in a Role-Play Lesson1. Introduction. Explain the role-play setting, roles
involved, duration, requirements, etc.2. Assessment. Make it clear to all students
what aspects are to be assessed in the role play (e.g. language accuracy, effort,
imagination, costumes, properties, etc)3. Preparation. Allow enough time for
students to prepare their dialogues (if not available yet)4. Check Understanding. the
teacher should ensure that students understand what they have to do and are
confident with the vocabulary used on the role play handout before they begin.5.
Practice. students are given time practice their dialogue (in or out of class), and
create the right mood.6. Performance.7. Feedback & Comment.
Why should we teach speaking skills in the classroom?
Motivation
Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and
therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as
Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a
conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to
speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may

soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right
activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising
general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and
dynamic place to be.

Speaking is fundamental to human communication

Just think of all the different conversations you have in one day and compare that
with how much written communication you do in one day. Which do you do more of?
In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers
still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring
speaking and listening skills. Do you think this is a good balance? If the goal of your
language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then
speaking skills should be taught and practised in the language classroom.

Dealing with common arguments against teaching speaking skills in the classroom
Students won't talk or say anything
One way to tackle this problem is to find the root of the problem and start from
there. If the problem is cultural, that is in your culture it is unusual for students to
talk out loud in class, or if students feel really shy about talking in front of other
students then one way to go about breaking this cultural barrier is to create and
establish your own classroom culture where speaking out loud in English is the
norm. One way to do this is to distinguish your classroom from other classrooms in
your school by arranging the classroom desks differently, in groups instead of lines
etc. or by decorating the walls in English language and culture posters. From day
one teach your students classroom language and keep on teaching it and
encourage your students to ask for things and to ask questions in English. Giving
positive feedback also helps to encourage and relax shy students to speak more.
Another way to get students motivated to speak more is to allocate a percentage of
their final grade to speaking skills and let the students know they are being
assessed continually on their speaking practice in class throughout the term.

A completely different reason for student silence may simply be that the class
activities are boring or are pitched at the wrong level. Very often our interesting
communicative speaking activities are not quite as interesting or as communicative
as we think they are and all the students are really required to do is answer 'yes' or
'no' which they do quickly and then just sit in silence or worse talking noisily in their
L1. So maybe you need to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities you

are using and see if they really capture student interest and create a real need for
communication. (Why not try out some of the speaking activities on this web site).

Another way to encourage your students to speak in English is simply to speak in

English yourself as much as possible in class. If you are shy about speaking in
English, how can you expect your students to overcome their fears about speaking
English? Don't worry if you are not completely fluent or don't have that elusive
perfect native accent, as Swain (1985) wrote "We learn to speak by speaking" and
that goes for teachers as well as students. The more you practise the more you will
improve your own oral skills as well as help your students improve theirs.

When students work in pairs or groups they just end up chatting in their own
language.
Is the activity or task pitched at the right level for the students?
Make sure you give the students all the tools and language they need to be able to
complete the task. If the language is pitched too high they may revert to their L1,
likewise if the task is too easy they may get bored and revert to their L1. Also, be
aware of the fact that some students especially beginners, will often use their L1 as
an emotional support at first, translating everything word for word to check they
have understood the task before attempting to speak. In the case of these students
simply be patient as most likely once their confidence grows in using English their
dependence on using their L1 will begin to disappear.

Are all the students actively involved and is the activity interesting? If students do
not have something to say or do, or don't feel the need to speak, you can be sure it
won't be long before they are chatting away in their L1.

Was the timing of the activity good? The timing of a speaking activity in a class can
be crucial sometimes. How many teachers have discovered that their speaking
activity ended up as a continuation of the students break-time gossip conducted in
the L1? After break-time, why not try giving students an activity to calm them down
and make them focus before attempting speaking activities that involve groups or
pair work. Another way to discourage students speaking in their L1 is to walk
around the classroom monitoring their participation and giving support and help to
students as they need it. If certain students persist in speaking in the L1 then
perhaps you should ask them to stay behind after class and speak to them
individually and explain to them the importance of speaking English and ask them

why they don't feel comfortable speaking in English in the class. Maybe they just
need some extra reassurance or they don't like working with certain students or
there is some other problem that you can help them to resolve.

When all the students speak together it gets too noisy and out of hand and I lose
control of the classroom
First of all separate the two points a noisy classroom and an out-of-control
classroom. A classroom full of students talking and interacting in English, even if it
is noisy, is exactly what you want. Maybe you just feel like you are losing control
because the class is suddenly student centred and not teacher centred. This is an
important issue to consider. Learner-centred classrooms where learners do the
talking in groups and learners have to take responsibility for using communicative
resources to complete a task are shown to be more conducive to language learning
than teacher-centred classes (Long & Richards 1987). Nevertheless, many
classrooms all over the world continue to be teacher centred, so the question you
have to ask yourself is, how learner centred is my classroom?

Losing control of the classroom, on the other hand, is a different issue. Once again
walking around and monitoring the students as they are working in groups can help,
as you can naturally move over to the part of the classroom where the noise is
coming from and calm the rogue students down and focus them back on the task
without disrupting the rest of the students who are working well in their groups. If
students really get too rowdy then simply change the pace of the class and type of
activity to a more controlled task, for example a focus on form or writing task where
students have to work in silence individually. Once the students have calmed down
you can return to the original or another interactive group activity.

Conclusion
These are just some of the problems that teachers with large classes face when
teaching speaking activities in the classroom. These problems are not new nor are
the solutions offered above. Teachers all over the world continue to face the same
hurdles, but any teacher who has overcome these difficulties and now has a large
class of energetic students talking and working in English in groups together will tell
you it is worth all the trial and error and effort at the outset. If you believe in the
importance of teaching speaking skills in the classroom but are having difficulties
making speaking activities work in your classroom why not contact your local
teaching associations or branch of TESOL. Maybe they run workshops for teaching
speaking skills, or maybe they can put you in contact with other teachers in similar

situations but with more experience teaching speaking skills who will be willing to
share their experiences with you.
Say That Again? Why We Should Teach Strategies for Listening and Speaking
APR 20
Posted by efftips
1 Vote

Think of a challenging speaking or listening task youve accomplished lately.

What did you do to try to plan for or get through this task?

Now consider, what kinds of listening and/or speaking tasks non-native speakers
may find challenging.
Would the approach you used in the above situation assist them to communicate
effectively for any of these tasks? Which ones?

As educators, we are often encouraged to teach strategies for reading to our adult
learners, as well as strategies for writing and even strategies for solving various
types of mathematical problems. But we dont hear nearly as much about teaching
specific strategies for listening or for speaking to our adult learners. What strategies
should we teach? and how?

For most of us, listening and speaking is something we do repeatedly throughout

every day. Thus we often take these skills for granted unconsciously implementing
important strategies that help us to communicate with those around us. When a
speaking/listening task is more challenging or more critical, however, you are likely
to slow down and think through how to handle it engaging in strategic thinking.
Language instruction expert Andy Nash provides an example and some information
from the research:

I know how to monitor my comprehension when Im listening I am skilled at

checking that things make sense, asking for clarification, taking notes,
paraphrasing, etc. But I dont always use these skills. I may let my mind wander and
lose track of whats being said. However, if I know the speaker is going to be talking
about something that really matters to me and that Im prone to drifting off, I may
think ahead about which of my skills Ill use in this situation. I might plan to take
notes or sit up front to stay focused. My skills then become purposeful strategies
that Ill use to make sure I understand and remember what I hear.

Studies have found that good language learners are aware of the communication
strategies they use and are skilled at matching these strategies to the task they are
working on. For instance, good learners know that if they lose the meaning because
someone is speaking too fast, they need to use a repair strategy that will solve the
problem (e.g., asking the speaker to slow down) in order to regain their
understanding.

Less strategic learners, like many adult ESL students, may be aware of being
confused, but may not know what to do, or may choose a less effective strategy
(e.g., asking for repetition, which may still be too fast). Less able learners tend to
use what communication strategies they do know in a more random, unconnected,
and uncontrolled way (Chamot, 2005).

Many contemporary textbooks give students practice with strategies, and even
provide some steps to follow. They may include activities such as this one on the
Prediction strategy for listening:

Predict what you will hear the speaker talk about.

Take notes as you listen.
Now compare what you heard to your predictions.
Such an activity is intended to give students practice with prediction strategies. It
assumes, however, that learners will appreciate the value of this language strategy
and transfer its use to real-life communication situations outside the classroom.
Research finds, however, that transfer cannot be assumed (Bransford, Brown, and
Cocking, 2000). Without explicit discussion of why the strategy is useful or how and
when to adapt the strategy for use in diverse real situations, application does not
usually go beyond the classroom walls.

Understanding that proper strategy use is contextualized that it will vary by

situation is key to students ability to apply strategies to real life tasks. It is not
enough to simply present a strategy and have students practice it during academic
tasks. Instruction must explore how that strategy will be applied in a variety of
different real-world activities or contexts in order to be sure students can use the
strategy to meet varied communication purposes.

While Andy was specifically addressing the needs of non-native speakers of English
(ESL learners), her points could apply to many of our native-speaking adult learners
as well. Effective listening and speaking communication skills are critical
components of success in both post-secondary and workplace settings. And basing
instruction on real-world situations contexts is an effective approach for any
subject.

Please share with us your thoughts on strategies for listening and speaking its
importance both in and outside the classroom, how you address it, any ah-has
youve had, etc. Below are some questions Andy poses to get you started:

What strategies for listening and/or speaking do you currently teach your adult
learners? How do you teach these strategies (what examples or approaches do you
use)?
Have you ever talked with your students about the strategies they use when they
communicate? If so, what strategies do they describe using? How do these compare
with your own?
Why We Still Need Public Speaking

By: Jordan Catapano

We are glutted with a flood of communication technology. From television, radio,
mp3s, blogs, iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, and all other forms of electronic
communication, we literally have an unceasing connection to the rest of the world.
As good, modern educators, we seek to incorporate many of these mediums into
our classrooms. Plus, we have the traditional communication technology systems as
well: Books, chalk, small groups, and pen and paper. Even if we were to focus on
teaching a few of these kinds of communication mediums, we would run out of time.

But there is one type of communication growing more and more absent from our
curriculums. This particular skill public speaking has been marginalized to the
periphery of many schools curriculums. While oratory was considered one of the
greatest essentials in the Greek and Roman cultures, todays modern era is
bedazzled by the glut of information and communication technology and fails to
recognize the enormous advantages public speaking can provide.

Very few students actually enjoy getting up in front of their classmates, checking if
their flies are zipped, and sharing a speech with them. And very few students see
the skills public speaking can endow them with. After all, isnt that something only
politicians or tour guides need? Isnt public speaking the type of thing we dont
need any more since we have so much technology?

The answer to both questions is an unapologetic No. The truth is that public
speaking is a skill that is different from the other types of communication we teach
in our classes, and it is still highly relevant.

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How Public Speaking is Different

There are seven main categories of verbal communication that we tend to teach:
Written (essays, magazines, etc.), electronic (emails, blogs, etc.), intrapersonal
(thoughts, dreams, etc.), interpersonal (one-on-one communication), small group
communication, entertainment (theatre, music, etc.), and public speaking.

Much of our efforts are put toward written, small group, and interpersonal
communication, with a growing focus on electronic communication. However, if our
goal as educators is to teach the whole student and equip them with experiences
that train them how to communicate well with any given medium, then public
speaking certainly requires attention.

One of the aspects of public communication that makes it such a practical skill to
master is that it combines thoughtful writing with talented social interaction. It is
both a piece of writing and a piece of performance. This demands that students take
a wide array of information under consideration when writing, practicing and
executing their speech.

Speeches, unlike other forms of communication, are live. They are speaking directly,
in person, to their audience. And that audience is large. This additionally creates a
situation where students have enormous opportunity to touch the hearts and lives
of people right in front of them. What an awesome responsibility! Most homework
students do is extremely private, shared only between them and the teacher. They
go home and secretly do their homework, they return to school and submit their
work to the teacher, the teacher goes home and grades the work privately and then
quietly slides it back to the student. Speeches circumvent all of these student-toteacher communications and instead allow students to personally, publically
transmit their messages to one another.

Between the writing, the practice, the performance, and the connection made to
listeners, public speaking demands a careful consideration of these skills. While
students may focus on these skills independently through different types of
instruction throughout the year, public speaking is one of the few areas that can
successfully expose students to all of these simultaneously.

Public Speaking is Still Relevant

I often tell students that I feel bad for them if the first time they give their speech is
in front of their classmates while being graded. Instead, I tell them, they should
practice their speech multiple times at home. This way, when they do perform their
speech at school, they would already be comfortable with giving it from the practice
theyve had.

This perspective applies to real life as well. I feel bad for students who have not had
an opportunity to practice speeches in school. If the first time they give a speech
is in a moment in their adult life when it really counts, then they are at a serious
disadvantage. Speeches in school are, for one thing, a form of practice where
students can grow more comfortable with the task prior to performing it for real as
adults.

However, most students argue that theyre not going to be in careers where they
need to publically speak. And theyre right. I also cant teach them public speaking
on the basis that theyll all be best men/maids of honor in weddings or eulogists at
loved ones funerals. Theres got to be more to public speaking than actually public
speaking.

And there is. If you look at the specific skills that it teaches, public speaking holds a
lot of merit for helping students get acquainted with the essentials of any livecommunication setting. Will students need to stand up in front of mass audiences
often? Probably not. But will they need to speak comfortably and confidently in front
of others? Absolutely.

Public speaking is not just about preparing to speak to the masses. Its about
focusing on the communication essentials that often get overlooked. Eye contact,
tone, volume, speed, inflection, gestures, and nervous tendencies are all part of the
performance package. When students conscientiously practice how to control these
factors of their communication, they will be more prone to leverage these
components to their advantage in the future. And even just giving speeches a few
times throughout a year does wonders for decreasing student nervousness and
anxiety.

With the training and experience they obtain in high school, students will become
more powerful communicators in all aspects of live communication. Whether theyre
in front of a few hundred, a few dozen, or even just one or two people, they can
apply the same set of communication skills to exhibit comfort and confidence.

When you combine the performance aspects of speeches with additional writing and
rehearsal components, you have a powerful confluence of ingredients for instructing
what truly effective communication is. Even though public speaking absolutely takes
away from time spent learning about other important communication fields, it is
absolutely essential that students obtain experience with it.

Do you think teaching public speaking is important? Or is it an outdated skill that

should not hog attention the curriculum? Share your thoughts below in the
comments!

Conversational routines, formulaic language and subjectification

scar Bladas,
Received 11 May 2011, Revised 18 April 2012, Accepted 20 April 2012, Available
online 28 May 2012
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explore some of the so-called conversational routines
(Coulmas, 1981) by taking into consideration the concept of subjectification as
defined by Traugott and Dasher (2002) and Traugott (2010). The analysis of a
number of Catalan conversational routines indicates that these formulaic forms
undergo an increase of subjectification which, in some cases, may lead to a process

of grammaticalization. It is claimed here that such an increase of subjectification

seems to be a key feature which better distinguishes the vaguely defined category
of conversational routines from other formulaic forms, e.g. idiomatic VPs such as
to kick the bucket. These findings also suggest that subjectification may have
broader effects beyond grammaticalization.

Keywords
Formulaic language; Conversational routines; Subjectification; Grammaticalization
Tel.: +34 93 403 56 12; fax: +34 93 403 56 98.
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

scar Bladas is a research fellow at the Universitat de Barcelona, where he has

contributed to the creation of the Corpus de Catal Contemporani de la Universitat
de Barcelona (CCCUB). His research interests include corpus linguistics (particularly
the creation and exploitation of spoken corpora), formulaic language and (second)
language teaching and learning. At present he is a visiting researcher at Queen's
University Belfast.
Speaking Style

Speaking style is another key feature that defines the possible uses of the speech
corpus. For instance a corpus containing spontaneous or non-prompted speech will
not be useful for a dictation task.

Unfortunately many speech corpora contain only one speaking style and are
therefore restricted in their re-use for different applications. This is a pity
considering the fact that the recruitment and recording of speakers is the most
expensive part of a corpus production. Therefore we strongly recommend specifying
at least two different speaking styles for a corpus production. The following list
gives an overview of the main speaking styles with rising complexity.

Please keep in mind that the chosen speaking style will interfere with other
specifications like the recording setup, the speaker profiles etc.

Speaking Style
One thing you are bound to notice at any debate is the different speaking styles
used by the competitors. Speaking style is perhaps one of the most difficult aspects
of debating to attempt to "teach". You will have to develop your own style and
preferably one that comes naturally to you. However there are a couple of things to
be kept in mind.

1. You must speak clearly and loudly enough so that your voice can be heard by
everyone. Remember the adjudicators will sit towards the rear of the hall so at the
very least they must be able to hear what you are saying if you are to have any
chance of winning. However you shouldn't shout as the halls have generally been
designed so that your voice will carry towards the back.

1. You must speak clearly and loudly enough so that your voice can be heard by
everyone. Remember the adjudicators will sit towards the rear of the hall so at the
very least they must be able to hear what you are saying if you are to have any
chance of winning. However you shouldn't shout as the halls have generally been
designed so that your voice will carry towards the back.

2. Try to avoid monotone. If you are making an important point use your voice to
stress it and make it stand out. Try to slowly increase the stress and force behind
your voice as you go through your speech. Build up to a high point and make this
the crucial point of your speech. However don't bring the audience on a
rollercoaster ride. Don't start high, fall down, build-up and fall down again, it looks
as though you are only convinced about the truth of half your speech.

3. Keep eye-contact with the audience and don't stare at the podium. It gets easier
to do this after some experience and once you use fewer notes. Some people like to
pick out individuals in the audience and look at them. Others just speak to the
audience as a whole. However you do it make sure to scan the audience and move
your gaze to different parts of the hall regularly.

4. Use your body language to back up your speech. If you stand rigidly and don't
move then you will find it very difficult to have any real conviction in your voice. Use
your arms and facial expressions to convey your emotions and back up your speech.
However don't go overboard, you want the audience's attention to be focused on

your speech not your arms. Try not to have anything in your hands. Some people
like to carry a pen and end up waving it about like a baton which can distract the
adjudicators. If you really need something use index cards.

5. You don't have to stand strictly behind the podium. Move around a bit and face
different sections of the audience at different times. Apparently studies have shown
that people tend to prefer to be able to see the whole person as this is supposed to
indicate that you aren't hiding anything. However, once again, don't go overboard.
It annoys people (and more importantly adjudicators) if you walk too far from the
podium. Try not to go more than 1-2 meters away from the podium. One way to
ensure this is to leave your notes on the podium, you'll find yourself reluctant to
move too far from them.

6. Don't be too complicated. If your argument is too elaborate people may have
difficulty following it. Don't use 15 syllable Latin words when a 2 syllable English
word will do. Remember you are trying to convince the audience that your argument
is the best and not that you consider your talent wasted on them (even if it is).

7 . Use humour to help win over the audience and make your speech stand out. If
you have a natural talent for comedy or impersonations etc. then use it. If you don't
then don't worry about it, even the most serious of us can be funny at times (often
even without meaning it). You can work out a few put downs and one-liners in
advance but be careful. If a joke sounds too prepared than it may bomb. Try to make
it sound spontaneous and it's more likely to be successful.

The best thing to do is watch other speakers and see how they combine the various
elements. Experiment with different styles and try to find one that you are
comfortable with. However the only real way to develop a good style is to try to
speak on a regular basis and listen to the advice of adjudicators and the more
experienced debaters.