ORAL SKILL

Nathalia

Rodriguez

Maria Fda.

Lenis C.

Teaching language skills

The use of language is taken from four skills:

writing, reading, speaking and listening.

However, teachers tend to explain these skills

separately which is wrong. In real life we use

two, three or the four skills, we never use just

one. That’s why teachers should look for

different ways to implement the four skills in

their activities or tasks.

Speaking and preparation

stimulus

● Texts as preparation stimulus

● Language skills and language

construction

Top down and Bottom up

Types of skills

Language issue

● Pre-teaching vocabulary

● Extensive vs Intensive tasks

● Authenticity

● Comprehension tasks

● Appropriate challenge

Learning the Spoken Language:

Discourse and discourse events

Meaning First

Why teachers need to check that

meaning is accessible

Meaning in speaking and listening

Conversation and extended talk

Development of conversational skills in childhood

Developing children’s discourse repertoires:

● Narratives

● Description

Effective support for children’s foreign language

discourse skills

Support through task structure

Support at discourse level

Learning to Speak in English

• Children expectations: similar mother tongue

• The initial stages: colours, numbers, simple greetings, etc.

• Formulaic language: routines

Dealing with Difficulty

Students can:

• Improvise

• Discard

• Foreignize

• Paraphrase

Teachers can:

• Supply key language

• Plan activities in advance

Structuring Discourse

Discourse is chaotic--> discourse should be understood

• To take turns

• To use discourse markers

• To use formulaic phrases

• To know sociocultural rules

• Interacting with an audience

Activities to teach to speak

Features:

• Activity type: controlled or free

• Fun: games, songs, rhymes, etc.

• Interaction patterns: teacher <->pupil, pupil/pupil

• Response: one word, one sentence, dialogues

• Confidence building: ability

• Accuracy/Fluency: different activities

• Amount of talking time: work in pairs or in groups

Comprehension Based Activities

• Conversation with games

• Speaking slowly

• Coupling language

• Dramatic intonation

• Short sentences

• Repeated routines

• Combining language

and movements

• TPR songs and Games

• Gestures approach

Total Physical Response Approach

Guided activities

Dialogues and Role plays

● Pupils speak in the first and second person

● Pupils learn to ask as well as answer

● They learn to use short complete bits of

language and to respond appropriately

● They don’t just use words, but also tone of

voice, stress, intonations, facial expression

Free activities Storytelling

● They focus attention on the message/content and not on

the language

● They are one step nearer real life and they let us know that

we can communicate in the foreign language

● They will really show that pupils can or cannot use the

language

● They concentrate on meaning more than on correctness.

Fluency is more important that accuracy at this stage.

● The atmosphere should be informal and non competitive

● Teacher control is minimal.

Teaching Emergent SLS

• Creating a friendly environment

• Encouraging peer bounding

• Creating a teacher/student bond

• Silent Period

Oral Work

Limitations

• To express emotions

• Little opportunities to speak in English

Correction

• In controlled activities

• In free activities