1. THEMATIC UNIT: MY INTERESTS

By the end of the unit, students will have used and learned certain learning strategies to improve speaking skills.

 What is speaking?

Speaking can be defined as 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.

The NCLRC clearly states that: “... 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.”

According to Jeremy Harmer, there are three reasons why students should be given speaking tasks:

            1. Rehearsal, this brings the “real world” into the classroom.

            2. Feedback, for both the students and the teacher.

            3. Engagement, motivating activities will provide the framework for students to speak freely.

Teachers must deal with fluency, accuracy, intonation, pronunciation and learners’ autonomy while teaching speaking strategies. Moreover, teachers must deal with students’ affective filters, as well. 

H. Douglas Brown states that there are six types of classroom speaking performance.

            1. Imitative

            2. Intensive

            3. Responsive

            4. Transactional (dialogue)

            5. Interpersonal (dialogue)

            6. Extensive (monologue)

Types of speaking activities:

• Role-play
• Conversations (scripted and unscripted)
• Information gap activities
• Presentations
• Debates
• Group discussions

Teaching goal: In order to help students become better speakers we need to  teach them the following strategies explicitly:

1. Ways of opening a conversation
2. Checking the someone understood what was said
3. Using prior knowledge / making connections.
4. Using selective attention
5. Using nonverbal cues for meaning
6. Identifying purpose of communication
7. Interacting and responding
8. Asking for clarification
9. Asking for repetition
10. Using fillers
11. Getting someone’s attention
12. Predicting
13. Visualizing/Using imagery
14. Summarizing
15. Getting critical
16. Retelling/paraphrasing
17. Recognizing patterns of pronunciation & intonation
18. Guessing meaning from context

The most common Communicative Language Functions in class are:

Communicative Language Function	Students use Language to:	Examples
1. Greetings/ Leave-takings	meet and greet others: say good-bye	uses common expressions, such as How do you do? and Nice to meet you.
2. Requesting Information/ Assistance	ask for information or help	can formulate questions using courtesy formulas as in: Excuse me, could you please tell me what it is?
3. Giving information/ assistance	provide information or assistance in response to a request	Comprehends requests and responds appropriately, as in: Sure, it´s a noun, it´s a vehicle.
4. Describing	tell about a place, thing or idea	Uses descriptive language to convey an image, as in: Well, it´s a blue line bus, for public transportation in the cities.
5. Expressing Feelings	relate what s/he feels or thinks	Describes emotions, as in: Well, I feel a little uncomfortable and tired when on a bus.

Adapted from O´Malley & Chamot, 1996.

 Learning strategies in a nutshell

“Learning strategies are techniques that facilitate the process of understanding, retaining and applying knowledge.” Jodi Reiss

There are different ways to classify learning strategies. The most popular one classifies them in metacognitive, cognitive and social.

Metacognitive strategies are usually referred to as “thinking about learning”.

Metacognitive strategies that need to be taught:

• Using a diary or calendar to organize tasks, assignments, study periods and tests.
• Using a notebook to keep track of work, questions to ask and ideas.
• Splitting projects and assignments in smaller units of work.
• Finding one’s weaknesses
• Self-evaluation

Cognitive strategies are the ones that lead to both the understanding of the object of study and the application of the new knowledge in different situations.

Cognitive strategies to be taught:  

• Comparing L1 and L2
• Identifying key words and concepts
• Creating graphic organizers, maps, charts, diagrams
• Categorizing and classifying
• Using background knowledge to build learning
• Paraphrasing
• Guessing from context

Social strategies are strategies that allow learners to work and learn from peers or the environment. 

Social strategies which need to be taught

            Working in pairs or groups to solve problems, do tasks.

            Respecting class rules

            Taking and respecting roles

            Asking for clarification

            Asking for repetition

How can learning strategies help students listen?

“Learning strategies are the thoughts and/or actions that students use to complete learning tasks… the tools that students themselves can employ independently to complete a language task”  Retrieved from  www.nclrc.org

In order to fully understand what students actually do and to help them complete a speaking task, we need to know the types of learning strategies students can use in reference to the purpose of what they are speaking.

 

SPEAKING  STRATEGIES

Speaking strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the production of spoken language. Speaking strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the aural input (Top-down and bottom up). These strategies are  mutually dependent. 

Top-down strategies are based on the learner’s background knowledge of the topic, the sociocultural knowledge, the situation or context, and the language.  It is about inferring meaning from contextual clues and previous knowledge. 

Bottom-up strategies are strategies which use the knowledge of the language to comprehend meaning;  that is, the combination of sounds, words, and phrases.

 

Methodological Recommendations:

Speaking is a skill in which learners are most dependant on their own skills and strategies. While the teacher can guide while-reading or writing, in the very moment that the learner is speaking they are on their own.

 

What teachers should do to help students learn speaking strategies:

• Teachers should speak English as much as possible.
• Teachers should use recordings and songs to expose students to authentic models.
• Teachers should use certain teaching techniques to facilitate the development of speaking strategies.
• Students practice speaking strategies in class, and have enough time for discussing speaking strategies with teacher and peers.
• Students should be encouraged to talk about strategies: mention the ones that can be used and those that they actually use.

 

Pre-speaking activities :

• Planning before speaking
• Using graphic organizers
• Using prior knowledge
• Discussing what type of strategies are necessary (top-down/overall meaning or bottom up/specific words or phrases)
• Explaining cultural differences when necessary

 

While speaking activities:

• Imitating native speaker´s language
• Monitoring output
• Self-correcting mistakes
• Debating/discussing 

 

After speaking activities:

• Reacting to what was said
• Asking for repetition
• Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
• Modify strategies if necessary

How can we help students improve speaking?

Expose students to speaking material regularly: in addition to teacher´s talk, use audio and video files in class, movies with English subtitles.But, the way to improve speaking is through speaking.  

Choose appropriate topics: find materials that were specifically prepared for teaching speaking comprehension or create your own taking into consideration students´background knowledge, speaking strategies, activities sequence and difficulty levels.

Choose topics that students will enjoy: students speak about what they are interested in. Their attention will be greater and they will probably understand more if the material is motivating for them. Students usually enjoy talking about themselves and the things they like and have.

 What makes speaking difficult?

Clustering	Colloquial language
Redundancy	Rate of delivery
Reduced forms	stress, rhythm and intonation
Performance variables	Interaction