Unit Ii B

Unit II B Language Skills

Introduction “speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills” (Bailey and Savage 1994)

Sp eaking is an “ activ ity requir ing the integr ation of many subs ys tem…..all thes e fa ctors combines t o make speaking a second or f or eign language a f ormidable tas k f or language learner s….ye t f or many people, speaking is seen as the centr al skill”

Even in a productionbased approach such as the Silent Way, student speech is carefully controlled for structure and content .

A second implication is that multiple skills should be taught whenever possible . In fact Murphy ( 1991 ) believes that oral skill teachers should always connect speaking , listening , and pronunciation teaching although the focus in any one class or activity may highlight one or another

Today we understand that students learn from teachers , from classmates and from the world outside the classroom, and the more the learner seeks these opportunity , the more likely he or she will learn to use the language .

In the oral skills classroom , students should be allowed and encouraged to initiate communication when possible, to determine the content of their responses or contributions ,and to evaluate their own production and learning

The Oral Skills Classes.

One basic consideration is the level of the students and their perceived needs . Level may be determined by the placement test administered by the institution or by the diagnostic test given by the teacher.

Nowadays, oral skill classes at all levels are often structured around functional uses of language. Teacher may , or may not, be given text-books or materials for teaching the oral skills class.

Teachers need to become critical consumers of publisher materials by asking question such as: Is the text appropriate for the level ? What sort of content/topics are used ? Is the focus on authentic communication ? Does the text integrate speaking, listening, and pronunciation ? So Teachers will decide to pick and choose the activities from a variety of source and create some of their own materials as well.

Activities

Discussion • Discussions are the most commonly used activities in the oral skills class. • Students are introduced to a topic via a reading, a listening passage, or a videotape and are then asked to get into pairs or groups to discuss a related topic in order to come up with a solution, a response , or the like. • Teacher must take care in planning and setting up a discussion activities.

Activities

• Speeches

• Prepared speech . Topic for speeches will vary depending on the level of the student and the focus of the class, but in any case , students should be given some leeway in determining the content of their talks. • Speeches can be frightening for the speaker and , after a while , boring for the listeners , so it is a good idea to assign the listeners some responsibilities during the speeches.

Activities

• Role Plays. • A third major activities ,particularly

suitable for practicing the sociocultural variations in speech acts, such as complimenting , complaining and the like. • A model dialogue, presented aurally and/ or in writing , serves as language input , after which the class is encourages to evaluate the situation s as to understand the

Activities • Conversations

• Assign students to find a native

speaker and arrange to taperecord a 20-30 minutes interaction with this person. • Students transcribe a portion of their interaction. • Once the transcript is produced ,there are various activities that can be pursued.

Activities

Audiotaped Oral Dialogue Journals. Oral dialogue journals are one format where practice with fluency and attention to accuracy can be accomplished at the same time. The student gives an audiocassette tape to the teacher, who starts the oral journal . Teachers give some directions for the assignment and perhaps suggesting a topic .

Activities

• Other Accuracy –based Activities Brown (1994)recommends that if drills are to be used, they should be short , simple, and snappy ,they should lead to more authentic communication Wong (1994) recommends an activities called “Two-Minutes Conversations” For example : If I were (a/an)………….I would…….(a/an)…….because………………..

Teaching Oral Skills in an EFL Context • When teaching speaking skills , EFL

teachers need to be particularly adept at organizing class activities that are authentic , motivating, and varied should be in-class or out-class learning activities. • Students can be encouraged or assigned to go to English speaking business or embassies/consulates to find native speakers to observe or interact with.

Assessmen t•

Two kinds of oral assessment

• The first ,evaluation of classroom

performance. • A second assessment situation with which the oral skills teachers may be confronted is preparing students to take –interpreting results from-large scale oral examinations, successful performance on which has become increasingly common as a requirement for admission to university, as a minimum standard for teaching assistantship ,and as a qualification for