Preparing ESL Students for Speaking Activities

Contrary to popular beliefs , ESL students actually love communication activities. They love delivering impromptu speeches, they enjoy speaking using simple prompts, they love debates, they love story telling and they love show and tell activities.

So, why do some teachers feel as if their students are not interested in communication activities or speaking activities or oral activities as they are often called?

I have asked some of my students about factors that discouraged them from taking parts in speaking activities and I concluded that among these factors are:

1. The purpose of the activity is not defined clearly for them. The types of speaking activity 

( individual speech, short response, explanation and etc.) are not explained properly to the students. The students need to know whether they need to deliver a speech or to role play a dialogue or to explain solutions to something before they begin preparing for their tasks.

2. The audience is not clearly set out too. Teachers often involve the whole class in the speaking activity and the students are not sure about who will listen to them when they finally get to speak as there are too many students for the teachers to pay attention too and times are also always limited. Teachers can actually divide a large group of students  into two and these two groups will take turns to be the presenters and the listeners while the teachers can act as prompter or facilitator.Teachers also may use  a video cam or  a voice recorder to record presentations from some groups if there are too many groups to monitor at the same time. The students can be asked to choose either to carry out their tasks with the teacher sitting with them, or to videotape or record their activities for the teacher to evaluate at a later time.

3. The teachers do not pay attention to the students when they present and sometimes they fail to provide constructive comments to build up the students' confidence and motivation. Many teachers are influenced by the "correct on the spot" dogma and always correct their struggling students in mid sentences causing students to lose their trail of ideas which lead to communication breakdown. So to overcome this teachers should let the students finish his/her speeches or explanation offer minor correction along the way but correct major mistakes only once the speech is over. 

Here is a sample speaking situation from my own speaking lesson  that you can use with your students.

 

Task A

Situation

You and your friends are talking about the factors to consider when choosing a good life partner. In your opinion, what is the most important factor to consider when choosing a good life partner?

Candidate A: You think that family background is important factor when choosing a life partner. Explain.

Candidate B: You think that education background is an important factor when choosing a life partner. Explain.

Candidate C: You think that possess good personal qualities is  an important factor when choosing a life partner. Explain.

Candidate D: You think that financial background is an important factor when choosing a life partner. Explain.

Task B

Situation

You and your friends are talking about the factors to consider when choosing a good life partner. In your opinion, what is the most important factor to consider when choosing a good life partner?

i.                    Family background (rich, poor, nice people or mean people, town people or village people).

ii.                  Education background ( low education or high education)

iii.                Good personal qualities ( kind, honest, hardworking, responsible or lazy, mean, abusive, bad tempered)

iv.                 Financial background ( frugal, financially independent, no debt or has a lot of debt, lazy, can’t support self or others).