(1) Give Ss practice with both accuracy and fluency. Accuracy is the extent to which Ss’ speech matches what people actually say when they use the target language. Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc. Please balance accuracy-based with fluency-based practices.
(2) Provide opportunities for Ss to talk by group/pair work. Don’t take up all the time the Ss could be talking. Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons.
(3) Personalize the content of speaking activities whenever possible. Personalization is the process of making activities match the learners’ own circumstances, interests and goals.
(4) Build up confidence. Teachers must provide students with fluency-building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new language.
(5) Maximize meaningful interactions. By asking for clarification, repetition, or explanations during conversations, learners get the people they are speaking with to address them with language at a level they can learn from and understand.
(1) Paraphrase
- Approximation: e.g. pipe for waterpipe
- Word coinage: e. g. airball for balloon
- Circumlocution: e.g. She is, uh, smoking something. I don’t know what’s its name.
(2) Borrowing
- Literal translation: e.g. “He invites him to drink.” for “They toast one another.”
- Language switch: e.g. tirtil for caterpillar
(3) Appeal for assistance; learner asks for the correct term
(4) Mime: the learner uses nonverbal strategies in place of a lexical item of action;
(5) Avoidance
- Topic avoidance: the learner simply tries not to talk about concepts for which the target language item or structure is not known;
- Message abandonment: the learner begins to talk about a concept but is unable to continue and stops in mid-utterance.
(1) Prompter: When the Ss lost in saying, the teacher can help them by offering discrete suggestions;
(2) Participant: Teachers should be good animators when asking Ss to produce language. However, they have to be careful that they do not participate too much, thus dominating the speaking and drawing all the attention to themselves;
(3) Feedback provider: helpful and gentle correction may get students out of difficult misunderstandings and hesitations. But when Ss are in the middle of a speaking activity, over-correction may inhibit them and take the communicativeness out of the activity.
