practical technique teaching speaking

practical technique

This section focuses mainly on activities developing fluency whereas accuracy-focused activities can be found more easily. This is especially so because the classroom setting itself is adverse to real and genuine interaction. The best fluency practice is therefore such that emerges from the situation, e.g. when learners pose a question and a debate arises. Teachers should always exploit these situations fully because they are likely to be one of the best examples of meaningful and natural conversation occurring in class.

One of the problems that teachers face with activities developing fluency is that genuine speaking activities can hardly be planned. Bannink (2002) states that “genuine conversational interactions cannot be the outcome of preplanned lesson agendas, they have to emerge – and so, by definition, cannot be planned” (2002: 271). The best fluency practice is therefore such that emerges from the situation, e.g. when learners pose a question and a debate arises. Teachers should always exploit these situations fully because they are likely to be one of the best examples of meaningful and natural conversation occurring in class.