Speaking Effectively in English Teachers

8/12/2019 Speaking Effectively in English Teachers

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Speaking Effectively in

EnglishAngela Wu


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Brainstorm in groups

When do you communicate in English?

When are you required to speak in English?

Have you ever been asked to introduceyourself in your native language and inEnglish?

What components do you include when youintroduce yourself?


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Agenda Today

Making a self-introduction in Englisheffectively

Answer more elaborated opinion questionsin English (e.g. Discussion)


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1. Self-introduction

Introduce yourself for one minute

Were the self-introductions effective?

Discuss in groups What criteria do you use to judge the

effectiveness of a speech?


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Guidelines for self-introduction

Focus on one aspect of your life.

This aspect should tell who you are andwhat you are about.

Know your audience. Why is thisimportant?


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Possible outline

Grab your audience attention: bring in yourcentral idea right away

Give some background information: e.g. Tell

why this aspect or your central idea is important Workout your topic in a few sentences

Give an example to illustrate your central idea

Conclude by offering a memorable answer onthe question the listener may have when theylisten to your self-introduction


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Some guiding questions

What activity has played or plays an important part inyour life?

What is your main personal goal? What do you like very much? How does that influence

your life and who you are as a person? What do you hate or dislike? Do you have a special skill? What does that tell about

you? What is your lifestyle like? What does that tell about

you? What is a turning point or milestone in your life? Where do you come from? Do your roots reveal

something about who you are as a person? What distinguishes you from other individuals?


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In groups

Take 2 minutes to brainstorm your self-introduction.

Take turns introducing yourself.

Choose one person to represent yourgroup to introduce yourself.


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2. Opinion-choice questions

Do you think it is better to study in groupsor by yourself?

Is it better for your to ride a bicycle or drive

to school? This type of question will require you to

make a choice and explain why you select

the choice. You will need to demonstrate your ability

to elaborate on an issue.


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Effective structure in answering

Topic sentence: main idea of the message

Explain: provide at least 2 reasons for topicsentence or further clarify the topic sentence

Example: provide a specific example for eachof the reason

Supporting with examples: important


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Example

Which do you prefer, riding a bicycle ordriving a car?

Topic sentence: I prefer riding a bicycle.

Explain: I like it because riding a bicycle ishealthier for our body.

Example: For example, according to clinical

research, riding a bicycle for at least an hourdaily will strengthen our heart muscletremendously.


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The following is an example of utterances. Doesthe example demonstrate the effectivenessprinciple discussed above?

A proverb goes, Action speaks louder than words.This is a saying that everybody knows, but I think it isquite bizarre. We learn it from books, we still cannotfigure out what its real meaning is. For example, ourlast president has graduated from the best universityin Taiwan. He is certainly knowledgeable. But,knowledge and wisdom are not the same.


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Another example:

I believe that the great aim of education is notknowledge but action. I think there are still many

things that knowledge cannot replace and onlyaction can make us understand clearly. Forexample, we may learn about famine in East

Africa and that many of the children die from

starvation. However, we cannot reallyunderstand the feeling of hunger until we try tostarve ourselves.


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Try this one

Knowledge is important, but in my opinion,action is more important than knowledge.

Education should put emphasis on action.Action means putting what we learn into practice,but besides this basic meaning, the word action

here has a deeper meaning to me. It means the

ability to take action, which is even moreessential to a persons success.


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Supporting your ideas

Effective support can clarify your ideas: The suspension bridge has a

roadway suspended by vertical cables attached totwo or more cables. The main cables are hung ontwo towers and have their ends anchored in concreteor bedrock. (Is this clear?)

Two well-known suspension bridges are the GoldenGate Bridge in San Francisco and the BrooklynBridge in New York.

reinforce your ideas: Personal examples are great forthis. E.g. I love the outdoors. When I was young, Ilived in the country side which gave me a lot ofopportunity to do outdoor activities. One time,

Make your audience interested


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Methods of support: (1) examples

Brief example

Extended example: a story, narrative, oranecdote developed at length to illustratea point

Hypothetical example: Be cautious whenusing this. Using unreal situation to createa realistic situation.


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More method: (2) statistics

Using statistics: using numerical dataAre the statistics representative?

Are statistical measures used correctly?

(mean: average, median: the middle figure,and mode: the most frequent number in agroup of numbers) e.g. mean salary of$72,000 a year for TV news anchorperson vs

$ 59,500 median salary of local news anchorAre the statistics from a reliable source?

Encyclopedia vs yahoo chat room


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More method: (3) testimony

Expert testimony: testimony from people whoare recognized expert in their fields Important when the topic is more controversial or

when the audience may be skeptical about your view

e.g. your stem-cell research result vs quoting Harvardmedical professor Stuart Orkin, Magdalena Gotz fromGermanys Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology.

Peer testimony: testimony from ordinary peoplewith firsthand experience or insight on a topic

Appeal to personal feelings, genuine experience E.g. Barriers faced by person with physical disability,

ok to use medical research but more effective to referto someone commonly known, e.g. Rick Hanson.


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Reflection

Discuss in groups and write down onething you remember from each section.

Set a goal for your self in improving oneaspect of your speaking ability in English.

Discuss how you may want to improve it.

Share your idea in one minute.

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Speaking Effectively in English Teachers