4 suggested activities for improving students’ talking time in class
According to Penny Ur (1996), a speaking lesson is considered as successful
if students talk a lot. This means teachers should facilitate as much time as
possible for students to speak. When the students have chances to talk a lot,
their speaking skills will be improved. However, there is a fact that most of
the time in speaking lessons is still taken up with teachers’ talk. Therefore,
in order to make use of the time for student talk, the teachers should have
some activities like eliciting ideas from students rather than giving them the
answer or giving appropriate speaking activities to fill out the pausing period
to get students talk a lot. With the scope of the study, the researcher only
would like to suggest some activities that she thinks could solve some problems
from students’ sides. The author also believes that these activities could
increase the amount and quality of students’ participation in classroom
communication.
1. Pair work and group work
Pair work and group work is essential, not just to give students more
opportunities to talk but also to provide opportunities for different kinds of
activities
According to Penny Ur (1991), working in pairs and groups can be
considered an effective solution for teachers to increase STT in large-size
class. Students will step by step get used to the types of activities and can
enjoy the benefits which pair work and group work bring about for them. It is
extremely useful for students who are shy of saying something in front of the
whole class or to the teacher will be easier to express themselves in front of
a small group of their peers.
Besides, this kind of activity gives students an opportunity to rehearse
their responses in small groups or pairs before being asked to speak in front
of the whole class. That benefits reluctant speakers a lot as they feel more
confident.
Another advantage of pair work or group work is that it frees the
teachers from their roles of instructors, correctors, and controllers. The
teachers have more time to wander around
the class and give help where needed, assessing the performance of individual
students, noting language mistakes for future work, spending more time to
slower students. The teachers also play an important role in leading and
encouraging discussion.
Finally, pair work or group work is helpful for peer-teaching. In the
course of pair or group discussion, students will learn from each other. They
may correct each other’s mistakes, help out with a needed word and they will
teach each other some non-linguistic through the content of the discussion as
well.
In summary, to apply this activity effectively and properly, teachers
should prepare carefully for the lesson, especially design various tasks
appropriate to each lesson. Teachers must be good organizers and instructors to
minimize disadvantages of this method.
2. Role-play
Role- play is very important in CLT because with this activity students
have an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and
different social roles. In class, students are not only learners but also can
be shopkeepers or spies; grandparents or children; authority figures or
subordinates. In each situation, students can be bold or frightened; irritated
or amused; disapproving or affectionate; they can be in Australia or America
In addition, role-play exercises are usually based on real-life
situations so that it can hence the speech they require and provides useful
practice in this kind of language. Students can eventually apply similar
situations outside the classroom.
Besides, many students find type of practice easier and more attractive
than other activities because this kind of speech is concrete and personal, the
issues relevant to actual life so it is relatively easy to think or to say.
To this kind of activity, some students may feel reluctant to
participate, therefore teachers are supposed to move around the class to
observe and encourage reluctant speakers by giving them suggestions.
Basing on teaching experiences of the researcher, some suggestions below
can create an exciting atmosphere for all students in class and help shy
students to participate in.
Firstly, teachers choose an interesting situation.
Secondly, teachers give the situation to learners and order them to take
the roles of the subjects in the conversation. Students can choose the role
suitable with them and practice with their partner.
Thirdly, teachers ask learners to change subjects and create new
conversations.
Lastly, teachers ask students to remember their roles in the
conversation and act creatively with other partners in class.
3. Topic discussion
With this type of activity, small discussion groups are the most
suitable because of the following reasons: first, students feel more confident
and willing to speak among themselves in a small group than with the teacher in
a large group, which benefits reluctant speakers. (Rooks: 1981). Second, when
students work in small groups, they have more chances to express and share
opinions and practice speaking English. Last, this activity pushed shy learners
more.
Some suggested topics for discussion for students at Hoang Van Thu high
school:
- Importance
of foreign languages in modern society
- Your
favorite movie
- Talking
about your last holiday
- Advantages
and disadvantages of internet
- The
thing children are interested in most
- Which
job do you like best? Why?
As for teachers, almost all the students at Hoang Van Thu high school
have low English proficiency so teachers should choose suitable topics and mix
the good students with the less able, the talkative with the quiet so that they
can help and learn from one another. For the difficult topics, it is advisable
for teachers to give reading-text based topics and suggested questions so that
students have more words, vocabularies and ideas of the topics.
According to the researcher’s experience, to carry out this activity
successfully, teachers should follow some procedures:
- Introduce
an interesting and suitable topic.
- Divide
students into suitable groups.
- Provide
students with words, structures, some main ideas relating to the topic.
- Move
around the classroom to observe students and remind them to work.
- Encourage
each group member to speak out his/her ideas.
4. Oral presentation
This kind of activity is thought to be very interesting and attractive.
The researcher has experimented and applied this activity to students at Hoang
Van Thu high school and found out that the result seems to be very encouraging.
Almost all the students show their great interest in this activity because it
can motivate both active students and reluctant ones to participate in speaking
lessons. With this type of activity, teachers only take the role as guides and
give help when necessary. Teachers do not need to give students situations or
topics because they can choose favorite topics suitable with their abilities.
The most important thing for the teachers is that they have to divide students
into small groups and arrange time for them. These groups will take turn to
present orally in front of other members in class so it helps students to work
creatively and learn from each other.
The followings are some suggested steps for teachers
Step 1: teachers should divide
students into each group of four or five and give them some time to choose the
topic that they are interested in most.
Step 2: teachers ask students to get particular work
for each member in their group. Teachers should be close to students to give
help.
Step 3: teachers ask each group to orally present in
front of other members in class. After finishing the presentation, each group
has to answer questions made by other students relating to the topic.
Step 4: teachers give remarks
and draw experiences for all groups to help them have better presentation for
the next time of oral presentation.
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