Unit 3: Helping Your Students To Speak English
Unit 3: Helping Your Students To Speak English
Unit 3:
Helping your students to speak English
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
Learning outcomes .......................................................................................... 3
1 Give your students something to talk about .................................................. 4
2 Give your students the language they need ................................................ 10
3 Dont correct your students all of the time ................................................... 16
4 Summary .................................................................................................... 22
What next? .......................................................................................................... 22
5 Resources ................................................................................................... 23
Resource 1: Traditional stories ............................................................................ 23
Resource 2: Excerpt from textbook...................................................................... 23
Resource 3: Develop your own English ............................................................... 25
Resource 4: Further reading ................................................................................ 26
References .................................................................................................... 27
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ 28
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, the content of this unit is
made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Introduction
Many teachers find that their students can read and write quite well in English,
but that they have problems when they need to speak in English. Being able
to speak English well is a skill that will benefit students in life outside and
beyond school. It may help them to:
use English to ask general questions about a lesson such as: What
does this word mean?
repeat words and dialogue after a teacher as a whole class (choral
repetition)
work in pairs and dictate some sentences from the textbook to each
other.
Describing a picture.
Role plays; for example, one student plays the role of a client looking for
accommodation; another plays the role of an accommodation agent.
Giving a presentation.
Some of the speaking activities above are easier for students in the
classroom; for example, practising formulaic phrases and expressions, or any
activity where the student is reading text aloud or repeating it. They may have
problems pronouncing the words, but the language is provided. They dont
have to think about the words they need to use, or the grammar.
Some activities are more difficult in the classroom, such as telling stories or
having discussions. In these kinds of activities, much of the language is not
provided for students. They have to think about what they are going to say,
the words and the grammar that they are going to use, and what the correct
pronunciation is. It can be very difficult to think about all of this, and many
students find it difficult to speak in English. They lack confidence.
Despite this, it is important for teachers to include all kinds of speaking
activities in their classes. This includes activities where language is provided,
such as reading aloud and repetition, and also activities where students have
to think of the language themselves, such as telling stories and discussions.
They can only develop their speaking skills if they have the opportunities to
practise and it is up to teachers to provide these.
Teachers can help their students to develop confidence when speaking
English and make speaking English easier for them by:
If you use these techniques in your classroom, your students will be able to
speak English more confidently, and this may benefit them in both their school
studies and professional lives.
Learning outcomes
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
Monsoons
Faith
Prejudice
Quarrels
Beauty
Fears
Success and
hard work
Boring or household
chores
Flying
Traditional
stories
Flying kites
Childhood
Climbing Everest
Historical events
Vanity
Hobbies
Wedding
ceremonies
Tsunami
Courage
Diaries
Different places in
India
Homes
Work and jobs
Disability
Homework
You and your colleagues may disagree about your choices, but it is likely that
some topics appeal more to secondary students than others.
In this part of the unit you will read a case study about a teacher who wants to
get his students speaking as much English as possible. He decides to make
the topic that he has to teach from the textbook easier for them to talk about.
The case study is followed by an activity that you can try in the classroom,
and a further activity related to groupwork.
Description
This illustration shows two teachers talking to each other. From the first, there
is a speech bubble which says Why do you think my students didn't speak in
English? The other teacher replies, I suppose there are many reasons. But
these questions are not very interesting. Maybe the students are not very
interested in talking about this topic.
End of description.
I decided to make the questions more interesting for the next chapter. This
chapter has a passage called The Summit Within (NCERT, 2006). The
passage is about Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia who was a member of the first
successful Indian expedition to Mount Everest in 1965. The text describes the
climbers feelings about reaching the summit of Everest. I know that my
students do not know much about H.P.S. Ahluwalia or mountain climbing, and
that the event happened a long time ago. But I know that my students are
interested in sport, and enjoy talking about it.
I tried a different activity with my class. I asked them to say the names of their
favourite sporting heroes. Then I wrote some sentences on the board and I
asked them to complete them:
Description
3. If the topic is more difficult for them to talk about, then you need to think
more about the sentences. For example, if the topic is about a hero that
your students dont know, then you could write some statements such as:
My hero is
I like this person because
This persons greatest achievement is
4. In class, write the statements on the board, and ask your students to
complete them. Give them a time limit of three or four minutes for this.
5. Organise your class into groups of four or five, and tell them to compare
their sentences. Allow five minutes for this task.
6. As they share their sentences, walk around the room and give help
students who need it. Encourage everyone to use English where possible,
but remember that this activity is to make students feel more confident.
Why not ask your students which topics they would like to talk about? You
could show them the list of topics you read earlier, and ask them to vote for
the topics that interest them.
Activity 2: Groupwork
Read what one teacher thinks about the activity in Case Study 1:
Description
Description
This is an illustration of four speech bubbles, which read Make sure students
understand what they need to do before they start working in groups. You
must give clear instructions., Set up the groups quickly for example, the
students in one row can turn around to face the students behind them to make
a group of four or five. If you do this regularly, students will get used to it, and
they will make groups very efficiently. Or maybe they could work outside?, All
the students in the group need to be close enough to hear the other members
when they speak and see what they have written, if necessary. and Walk
around the room when students are working in groups, and help where
necessary. You wont be able to listen to every group, so try to listen to
different groups each time.
End of description.
End of discussion.
Tell everyone about a day when you were scared. You could prepare
the story in advance. Keep the account short, and tell the story slowly.
Use grammar and vocabulary that students might use in their accounts.
Write some useful phrases and sentences on the board, for example:
One day, I was , I heard/saw , It was a , I felt very
scared/afraid/frightened and so on. You can prepare these words
and phrases before the class. Lower level students could just complete
the sentences, as in Case Study 1.
Ask a few students to give some examples of when they were scared
they could do this in their home language if necessary. You could write
some of the key words on the board in English as they talk.
Remind them that they need to use the past tense, and quickly revise
some common past tenses.
Remind them of words and phrases that are useful when telling a story
such as sequencers (first, next, then).
Give your class some time to think about and note down the words and
phrases they will need. Note that it is useful to give students time to
think about the event too they may need some time to think of a time
when they were scared.
In this part of the unit, you will read about a group of students who are
practising telling a story in English. As you read Case Study 2, think about
how the teacher supports them, and helps them with language. This is
followed by an analysis, and then an activity that you can try in the classroom.
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Description
This is an illustration of a cartoon snake, crow and fox.
End of description.
I drew a tree on the board and stuck the picture of the crow at the top of the
tree, and stuck the snake at the bottom of the tree. Then I told the simple
story, asking questions along the way. Here is an example:
Me
Student
Me
Students
Me
Student
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Me
Student
Me
Students
Me
In this simple way, by asking lots of questions and using the pictures, I told
the story to the group. Once the story was finished, I invited my students to
tell me the story again in English: one told the first line, another told the
second and so on. As they told the story, I wrote key words on the board
(crows, nest, at the top, snake, at the bottom, upset) and I also wrote
some key verbs in the past (lived, liked, wanted to eat, climbed). I
reminded everyone that we use the past tense to tell stories.
Then I put students into groups of four or five. They are used to working in
groups, as we often do this, so they got into groups quickly. Then I told
everyone to start telling the story to each other. I told them that one student
would start the story, the next would continue and so on. The groups started
to tell the story, and as they spoke, I walked around the room listening to
make sure that they understood the task and to see how they were performing
the task.
When most groups had finished telling the story, I told everyone to stop, and
asked:
Description
This is an illustration of a speech bubble, which reads Do you feel that you
could have told the story better?
End of description.
Most students agreed that they could, so I asked them to tell the story again.
This time, I asked them to choose different parts of the story, so that the
person who began the previous time would not begin this time.
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Groups began telling the story again and as they spoke, I moved around the
room once more, listening to two or three groups. I noticed that they were
better this time. There was an improvement in the use of language, and
students could speak more quickly and confidently. They were more fluent.
They made some mistakes, of course, but I didnt interrupt them I just
listened.
When most groups were ready to finish, I told students to stop the activity,
and I told them that they were better the second time they told the story. My
students were pleased that they could tell a story together.
The teacher used pictures in the case study. How can pictures be
useful?
It is very difficult for most students to tell a story in English without any
support. How did the teacher help her students?
They told the story to each other in groups. What is the benefit of
working in groups for this activity?
Groups told the story again. Why?
Discussion
Pictures can be a really good way to get students speaking. You can
show a picture and ask them to guess what is happening, or you can
use them to help students understand a story. In the case study, the
pictures also acted as prompts when the class was ready to tell the
story.
In the case study, the teacher and students constructed the story
together, and they listened to the teacher telling the story. The teacher
wrote key words and phrases on the board. When students told the
story in groups, less confident ones were able to use the support on
the board, and more confident members of the class were able to use
different words and phrases if they wanted.
If we ask one or two individuals from a class to tell a story, then only
those individuals get to practise speaking. If students work in groups to
tell a story, then everybody gets a chance to speak. It is important for
all students to practise speaking as much as possible. It is only by
speaking English as much and as often as possible that students can
improve.
It can be very useful for students to do a speaking activity twice
sometimes. The first time is a kind of rehearsal and allows them to
practise what they are going to say; on the second time, it will be easier
for them to use new language, and they will be more fluent and
confident.
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End of discussion.
2. Before the class, find some pictures that relate to the story. This could be
a picture from a story book or the textbook; a picture from a magazine or
newspaper; or a photo of an event, such as a wedding or picnic. If it is not
possible, you could draw a picture on the board, or ask a student to draw
the picture.
3. If students dont know the story already, tell them the story simply and
slowly. You can practise telling the story before the class. Remember to
ask questions as you tell the story. If they already know the story, ask lots
more questions so that you and the students tell the story together.
4. Write useful words and phrases on the board. You can adjust the amount
that you write on the board depending on the level and ability of your
students. Students who are not used to speaking English may need more
support with language. If the story is A day at a picnic, you might write the
following phrases:
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Description
This is an illustration of a board with several words and phrases on, which
read Last ...I went on a picnic., It was a ... day, I went with ..., We ate ...,
We drank ..., I felt ... because ..., week, Saturday ..., sunny, rainy ...,
friends, mother, sister, grandparents ..., rice, fish, mangoes ..., milk ... and
happy ...
End of description
5. Put students into groups and ask them to take it in turns to tell their stories.
Remember that groups are speaking at the same time.
6. Move around the room as students tell the stories. Listen to some groups.
Make sure that you listen to different students each time you do a
speaking activity, and listen to ones from the back of the room as well as
the front.
7. When most groups have finished telling their stories, end the activity.
8. If you have time, students could tell their stories again.
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Description
This is an illustration of a speech bubble, which reads They made some
mistakes of course, but I didn't interrupt them, I just listened.
End of description
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part of the language learning process. In any case, it is not possible to correct
every mistake when students are doing speaking activities in groups.
If students are to become fluent, confident speakers of English, then they
need to practise English and make mistakes. Classes need to include some
activities in which they can speak without being interrupted.
Description
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This is an illustration on a board on which five phrases are written, which read
Which is the best tea?, I find it difficult to sleep. Do you have any tea that
can help me?, Do you have anything that goes with this tea?, How much is
...? and That's very expensive! Have you got any cheaper tea?
End of description
Then I organised my students into pairs and told them to imagine that they
owned a tea shop. I told them to imagine what they sold in the shop and to
write a menu with prices. I gave them around five minutes to do this. I then
asked them what phrases they might use to sell their items and wrote them on
the board.
Description
This is an illustration on a board on which five phrases are written, which read
Which tea would you like?, How much money do you have?, I would like to
recommend this tea. It is very good for the health. It is from the second flush.,
Would you like anything else? and These cakes would go very nicely with
this tea.
End of description
Finally, I put two pairs together to make groups of four. I gave them these
instructions:
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Description
This is an illustration of a speech bubble, which reads One pair in the group
owns a tea shop, and the other two are customers. The tea shop owners must
show their menu to the customers. The customers have 100 rupees to spend
they must spend all of the money. Customers buy as much as you can for
the best price! Shop owners sell as much as you can for the best price!
End of description
I told the groups to begin, and they began playing the roles of shop owners
and customers.
Description
This is a photograph of a teacher listening to her students carry out a role play
as a group.
End of description
It wasnt possible for me to listen to all of the groups in that time, so I
concentrated on three groups. I always make sure that I focus on different
groups of students each time we do a speaking activity in class. As they
spoke, I listened and made a note of mistakes that they were making. I didnt
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note down every mistake, of course, but I noted down mistakes that were
common. I also noted down some good phrases that students were using.
After four minutes or so, I told everyone to swap roles that is, the shop
owners were now customers and vice versa. This time they were really getting
into the roles and were making some good bargains!
When they had finished, I looked at my notes, and told the class things that
they had done well, and gave some examples of good language use. Then I
copied ten of the sentences with mistakes on the board. I chose mistakes
which many of the students made, and I was careful not to say who made the
mistakes, as that could be humiliating. Here are some examples of the
sentences with mistakes:
Description
This is an illustration of a board, which reads That is much expensive! I don't
have money! and But this tea is so good for you health.
End of description.
I then said:
Description
This is an illustration of a speech bubble, which reads Here are some of the
sentences I heard. These sentences have mistakes. Can you write down the
sentences correctly?
End of description
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I gave everyone five minutes to write the sentences correctly, and then I
asked them for the correct versions. As they read out the correct versions, I
corrected the sentences on the board. I believe that this is a useful activity to
do because it helps students think about their mistakes and grammar, and it
also helps them to see that we are correcting their mistakes when they do
speaking activities.
The notes I make when students are speaking are also useful for me in
keeping records for CCE (see TDU 13, Assessment for learning and TDU 14,
Assessment 2). After speaking activities, I make notes about the students I
listen to, and it helps me to see their progress and assess them.
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Description
CCE logo.
End of description
This technique is useful for focusing on mistakes and grammar. Your notes
are also useful for CCE. You can use them as records about students
performance in speaking. Make notes about different students each time they
do a speaking activity. Remember that students respond to positive feedback
too.
Reward them for using English in the classroom. You could create a chart that
lists all your students names. Each time one of your students speaks some
English in class, you could add a star next to their name.
4 Summary
Learning to speak in another language is difficult and it requires confidence. In
this unit, you have considered three ways that you can make it easier for
students: by giving them interesting topics to talk about (that relate to their
lives); by giving them the language they need for speaking activities; and by
using an alternative way to correct students mistakes when speaking in
English.
What three key things have you learnt in this unit?
You have had the opportunity to try some techniques out in the classroom:
What next?
If you would like to develop your own speaking skills, see Resource 3. See
Resource 4 for links to further reading.
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5 Resources
Resource 1: Traditional stories
The Snake and the Crows
There were two crows that had a nest at the top of a Banyan tree. A snake
lived at the bottom of the tree. The crows had four eggs in the nest, and didnt
want to leave the nest. They were afraid that the snake would eat the eggs.
Eventually, they were hungry and flew from the nest to find food.
While they were away, the snake climbed the tree and ate the eggs. The
crows were very sad.
A few weeks later, they had four more eggs in their nest. They were afraid to
leave the nest so they stayed there as long as they could. Eventually, they
needed to leave to look for food. One again, the snake climbed the tree and
ate the eggs. The crows were very upset.
They talked to a fox who gave them a cunning plan. The crows flew to the
Kings castle and stole the princesss favourite necklace. They flew past the
guards, showing the necklace. The guards chased the crows towards the tree.
The crows dropped the necklace onto the snake. The guards killed the snake
and got the necklace. Now the snake was dead the crows could have some
babies.
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On both sides of the gravel-road were acre upon acre of tea bushes, all neatly
pruned to the same height. Groups of tea-pluckers, with bamboo baskets on
their backs, wearing plastic aprons, were plucking the newly sprouted leaves.
Pranjols father slowed down to allow a tractor, pulling a trailer-load of tea
leaves, to pass.
This is the second-flush or sprouting period, isnt it, Mr Barua? Rajvir asked.
It lasts from May to July and yields the best tea.
You seem to have done your homework before coming, Pranjols father said
in surprise.
Yes, Mr Barua, Rajvir admitted. But I hope to learn much more while Im
here.
Telling a story
Would you like to hear a story?
One day, many years ago, there was a
What do you think happened next?
Can you guess?
How did he/she feel? What do you think?
Now its your turn.
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Listen to as much English as you can, for example on the radio or the
Internet.
Watch movies or TV programmes in English if you can.
Read English texts aloud to yourself. If you can, record yourself and
listen to it. Then do it again!
Practise speaking with your colleagues or anyone else who speaks English.
Perhaps you could start a local English club where you chat in English for one
hour a week?
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References
BBC Learning English (undated) Talk about English: better speaking
(online). Available from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/tae_betterspeakin
g_archive.shtml (accessed 29 January 2014).
Jianing, X. (2007) Storytelling in the EFL speaking classroom (online), The
Internet TESL Journal, vol. XIII, no. 11, November. Available from:
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Jianing-Storytelling.html (accessed 29 January
2014).
Jingukid (undated) Animation stories (online). Available from:
http://jingukid.com/flash/animation-topics#.UqrX_vRdXdc (accessed 29
January 2014).
Mocomi (undated) Stories for kids (online). Available from:
http://mocomi.com/fun/stories/ (accessed 29 January 2014).
Mumford, S. and Darn, S. (2005) Classroom management: speaking
correction techniques (online), onestopenglish. Available from:
http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/classroommanagement/classroom-management-speaking-correctiontechniques/146455.article (accessed 29 January 2014).
National Council of Educational Research and Training (2006a) Honeydew:
Textbook in English for Class VIII, National Council of Educational Research
and Training. Available from:
http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm (accessed 27 January
2014).
National Council of Educational Research and Training (2006b) First Flight:
Textbook in English for Class X, National Council of Educational Research
and Training. Available from:
http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm (accessed 27 January
2014).
Story Arts (undated) Storytelling in the classroom (online). Available from:
http://www.storyarts.org/classroom/ (accessed 29 January 2014).
TeachingEnglish, http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ (accessed 29 January
2014).
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Acknowledgements
The content of this teacher development unit was developed collaboratively
and incrementally by the following educators and academics from India and
The Open University (UK) who discussed various drafts, including the
feedback from Indian and UK critical readers: Kim Ashmore and Ramanujam
Meganathan.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, the content of this unit is
made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
The material acknowledged below is Proprietary, used under licence and not
subject to any Creative Commons licensing.
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