DELTA SPEAKING SESSION
Ruth Hamilton

 

Task 1
Share your accuracy and fluency based activities from the pre-session task.
Double check your terminology.

ACCURACY-BASED ACTIVITIES
FLUENCY-BASED ACTIVITIES

Aim:
'accurate', i.e. clear, articulate, grammatically and phonologically correct language

Aim:
'fluent', i.e. flowing, natural language

Activities:
drills:
repetition drills
question-answer drills
substitution drills
transformation/conversion drills
chain drills
imposed/drilled dialogues
elicited dialogues
cued dialogues
split dialogues
information gap activities - e.g. find someone who*
games - e.g. guessing games, anyone who ..
pronunciation games - etc.
personalized activities - e.g. sentence completion
questionnaires / surveys*
role play *

 

Activities:
role play*
discussions / pyramid discussion
debates - e.g. balloon debate
negotiations / meetings
storytelling / anecdotes / jokes
simulations
project work
problem-solving activities
ranking activities
sentence modification
interviews
presentations
information gap activities - e.g. picture dictation*
games - e.g. scruples, 'talk for a minute'
personalized activities - e.g. sentence completion, questionnaires and surveys*

 

Task 2

"What really counts in the development of second-language skills is the process of engaging learners in interesting and meaningful classroom experience."
(Nunan, D., Syllabus Design, 1988:45)

Accuracy-based activities:
How can we make them meaningful ?

* Contextualised - situation in which structure is commonly used
* Personalised - enables sts to express their own ideas, feelings, preferences and opinions
- personalized practice makes language more memorable and can be more motivating
* Awareness of social use of language - and social conventions
* Building confidence - so sts are able to produce language quickly and automatically

Accuracy = Language focus
Fluency = Skills development
Include both from beginning - achieving balance

Brumfit : "Fluency activities will give students the opportunity to produce and understand items which they have gradually acquired during activities focused on linguistic form, i.e. 'accuracy work'."

H. Douglas Brown - distinguishes between techniques which are 'language- orientated' (i.e. usage) and 'message- orientated' (i.e. use)

"Current approaches to language teaching lean strongly toward message orientation with language usage offering a supporting role."

Task 3
Communicative activities:
language should be a means to an end, i.e. focus should be on the meaning and not on the form - task achievement / language.
Do you agree?

FREER SPEAKING ACTIVITIES … checklist
* Sts' needs - do they need freer practice / enough controlled practice?
* Is material / activity appropriate to aims - will sts use the target language?
* Do sts have the language needed to perform the task?
* Is the topic interesting / relevant?
* Is the activity / task 'meaningful' / 'realistic'?
* Do sts have some background knowledge of topic / sthg to say?
* Do sts have all the info needed to speak?
* Are sts prepared to speak - prep/thinking time?
* Are instructions clear and staged - is a demo necessary? ( are written instructions / role cards necessary?)
* Is there a purpose to the communication?
* Is there a need to communicate - information/opinion gap?
* Is there an element of unpredictability?
* Is it motivating - will sts want to speak?
* Affective factors - anxiety-free/NTLE?
* Is pairing / grouping appropriate - weak/strong/dominant sts?
* Do listeners have a reason to listen / task?
* What's the follow-up? (feedback/correction slot/skills work)
* When and how is correction dealt with?