Developing General Speaking Skills

Briefly, it is very important to do regular speaking activities in class to develop general speaking skills.

Students must be made aware that speaking is as important for their final band as the other skills, and involves skills that can be both practised and improved.

• If your students are reluctant speakers, get them involved in a 5-minute discussion in pairs or groups at the beginning or end of every lesson on a current event or issue. When they are used to doing this, you can slowly introduce other longer and more directed speaking activities and tasks.
  
  
• Most coursebooks have sections on speaking skills which are especially useful if your students don't give due importance to their speaking ability.
  
  
• For pronunciation, coursebooks are also particularly useful – if your students are not very strong in this area, it is worth spending time doing the activities in them, which are usually both fun and useful in raising students' awareness of common difficulties and giving them practice. Accompanying cassettes provide good models for sounds, stress and intonation patterns, which contribute to intelligibility.
  
  
• Be aware yourself of how much and how often your students are speaking to each other in the classroom, especially when this is not a specific 'speaking activity'. Where appropriate, give feedback or pick up on any good or weak aspects you notice. This will help your students to recognise the value of speaking in class. Look at the section on Correction and Giving Feedback for ideas.
  
  
• Remember that students can also practise speaking on their own. Even though there is no response or feedback, simply speaking gives the opportunity to try different ways of saying things, which can help to increase confidence. Describing what you see around you and what is happening in the street when you walk or drive somewhere, predicting the events of the day in the morning and then remembering them at night, even telling yourself what you need, and why, as you walk around the supermarket: all these give additional practice in expressing ideas in English and ‘loosening the tongue’.