principles for teaching speaking

Principles for teaching speaking1. Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy

2. Provide opportunities for students to interact by using pair work and group work and limiting teacher talk

3. Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning (e.g. clarification, repetition, explanation, etc.)

4. Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in transactional speech (communicating to get something done) and interactional speech (communicating for social purposes)

5. Help students talk around gaps in their knowledge in a range of different contexts

Beginning learners1. Provide something for learners to talk about –

something they are interested in (i.e. identify a communicative need; a genuine purpose for interaction)

2. Create opportunities for students to interact by using pair work or group work (to reduce anxiety and reticence + to help improve learners’ motivation and promote choice, independence, creativity, and realism)

3. Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice (e.g. inside-outside circle, cocktail party, etc.)

Intermediate learners1. Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for

meaning (i.e. as learners work to make themselves understood, they must attend to accuracy – right vocabulary, correct grammar, clear pronunciation, etc. > helps them “notice the gap”)

2. Design transactional and interpersonal speaking activities (predictable and unpredictable conversation practice)

3. Personalize the content of speaking activities whenever possible (i.e. match the learners’ own circumstances, interests, and goals)

Advanced learners1. Help learners to combine fluency and accuracy (to

speak creatively and spontaneously at a normal conversation rate and, at the same time, use the rules of language correctly)

2. Encourage learners to take reasonable risks in English (i.e. move beyond a proficiency level they’re comfortable with by, for example, getting them to speak more in class, talking to a stranger in English, attending a party where English is spoken, etc.)

3. Provide opportunities to notice the gap (between their current level of proficiency and native speaker proficiency, allowing learners to make necessary adjustments in their developing competence)