Developing General Speaking Skills
Speaking, especially in public or in a more formal situation, is an art which many people fail to master. Knowing what is expected of your students and explaining to them how they can maximise their opportunities when they are candidates in a speaking test will increase their chances of doing well.
It is essential that speaking features regularly and has a high profile in your classes. Only by taking part in the kind of activities which appear in the ILEC Test of Speaking will your students be adequately prepared for this part of the examination.
Most course books contain a variety of speaking activities but it may be necessary to supplement these with activities of your own.
Activities which help improve speaking skills include:
- Role play
- Debates
- Giving mini-presentations
- Arguing for or against
- Training students to project their voices
- Practising adopting the correct posture when speaking, e.g. sitting up straight and taking a deep breath before beginning to speak
- Putting students ‘on the spot’ and asking their opinions on topics they may never have thought of
- Exposing students to audio or video recordings of native English speakers
- Spending a few minutes of every lesson concentrating on the pronunciation of words your students find difficult and on prosodic features, e.g. stress, rhythm and intonation.