2 Methods of Teaching Speech
2 Methods of Teaching Speech
2 Methods of Teaching Speech
Contents
Introduction
Chapter I. Theoretical foundations of teaching speaking pupils of junior form
1.1 The most common difficulties in auding and speaking
1.2 Psychological characteristics of speech
1.3 Linguistic characteristics of speech
1.4 Prepared and unprepared speech
1.5. Mistakes and how to correct them
Chapter II. Speaking in teaching practice
2.1 Speech and oral exercises
2.2 Techniques the teacher uses to develop hearing .
2.3 Techniques the teacher uses for teaching speaking
Conclusion
List of literature
Vocabulary
Introduction
Our work is devoted to the method of teaching the speech. But for the beginning
let’s examine what is speech.
Language came into life as a means of communication. It exists and is alive
only through speech. When we speak about teaching a foreign language, we first of
all have in mind teaching it as a means of communication.
In teaching speech the teacher has to cope with two tasks.
They are: to teach his pupils to understand the foreign language and to teach
them to speak the language.
So, speech is a bilateral process. It includes hearing, on the one hand, and
speaking, on the other. When we say "hearing" we mean auding or listening and
comprehension.
This is possible on condition that he will take into consideration the following
three main factors which can ensure success in developing pupils' skills in auding:
(2) the content of the material suggested for listening and comprehension;
. Comprehension of the text by the ear can be ensured when the teacher uses the
material which has already been assimilated by pupils. However this does not
completely eliminate the difficulties in auding. Pupils need practice in listening
and comprehension in the target language to be able to overcome three kinds of
difficulties: phonetic, lexical, and grammatical.[4]
Phonetic difficulties appear because the phonic system of English and
Ukrainian differ greatly. The hearer often interprets the sounds of a foreign
language as if they were of his own language which usually results in
misunderstanding. The following opposites present much trouble to beginners in
learning English:
И — s tr — t A — o s — z a: — o
И — f dr — dg d — z t — t o: — :
w — v d — v n — rj ae — e
Pupils also find it difficult to discriminate such opposites as: o: — o, a — A, i:
— i, u: — u.
They can hardly differentiate the following words by ear: worked — walked; first
— fast — forced; lion — line; tired — tide; bought — boat — board.
The difference in intonation often prevents pupils from comprehending a
communication.
For example, Good morning (when meeting); Good morning (at parting).
The teacher, therefore, should develop his pupils' ear for English sounds and
intonation.
Lexical difficulties are closely connected with the phonetic ones. Pupils
often misunderstand words because they hear them wrong.
The most difficult words for auding are the verbs with postpositions, such
as: put on, put off, put down, take off, see off, go in for, etc.
Grammatical difficulties are mostly connected with the analytic structure of
the English language, and with the extensive use of infinitive and participle
constructions. Besides, English is rich in grammatical homonyms, for example: to
work — work; to answer — answer; -ed as the suffix of the Past Indefinite and the
Past Participle.
This is difficult for pupils when they aud.
In case the pupils cannot grasp most of the information, practice proves that
manifold repetitions when hearing do not help much. It is necessary to help
pupils in comprehension by using a "feed back" established through a dialogue
between the teacher and the class 1 which takes as much time as it is required
for the repetitive presentation of the material.[2]
The presence or the absence of the speaker. The most favorable
condition is when pupils can see the speaker as is the case when the teacher
speaks to them in a foreign language. The most unfavorable condition for
auding is listening and comprehending a dialogue, when pupils cannot see the
speakers and do not take part in the conversation.
Visual "props" which may be of two kinds, objects and motions. Pupils find it
difficult to aud without visual props. The eye should help the ear to grasp a text
when dealing with beginners.
The voice of the speaker also influences pupils' comprehension. Pupils
who get used to the teacher's voice can easily understand him, but they cannot
understand other people speaking the same language.
Consequently, in teaching listening comprehension the teacher should bear
in mind all the difficulties pupils encounter when auding in a foreign language.
the pupil needs words, phrases, sentence patterns, and grammatical forms and
structures stored up in his memory ready to be used for expressing any thought he
wants to. In teaching speaking, therefore, the teacher should stimulate his pupils'
speech by supplying them with the subject and by teaching them the words and
grammar they need to speak about the suggested topic or situation. The teacher
should lead his pupils to unprepared speaking through prepared speaking.[5]
For example: The boy has a long blue pencil in his left hand. The child may
use four sentences instead of one: The boy has a pencil. Its in his left hand. The
pencil is long. It is blue.
Pupils should be acquainted with some peculiarities of the spoken language,
otherwise they will not understand it when hearing and their own speech will be
artificial. This mainly concerns dialogues. Linguistic peculiarities of dialogue are
as follows:
1. The use of incomplete sentences (ellipses) in responses:
— How many books have you?
— One.
— Do you go to school on Sunday?
— No, - I don't.
— Who has done it?
— Nick has.
It does not mean, of course, we should not teach pupils complete forms of
response. But their use should be justified.
— Have you seen the film?
— Yes, I have seen this film, and I am sorry I've wasted two hours.
— Did you like the book?
— Yes, I liked it very much.
2. The use of contracted forms: doesn't, won't, can't, isn't, etc.
3. The use of some abbreviations: lab (laboratory), mike (microphone), maths
(mathematics), p. m. (post meridiem), and others.
4. The use of conversational tags. These are the words a speaker uses when he
wishes to speak without saying anything. Here is both a definition of
conversational tags and an example of their usage in conversation (they are in
italics),
"Well, they are those things, you know, which don't actually mean very much,
of course, yet they are in fact necessary in English conversation as behavior."
Besides, to carry on a conversation pupils need words, phrases to start a
conversation, to join it, to confirm, to comment, etc.
For example, well, look here, I say ..., I’d like to tell you (for starting a
talk); you see, you mean, do you mean to say that ..., and what about (for joining a
conversation); / believe so, I hope, yes, right, quite right, to be sure (for confirming
what one says); / think, as far as I know, as far as I can see, the fact is, to tell the
truth, I mean to say (for commenting), etc.
There is a great variety of dialogue structures. Here are the principal four:
1. Question — response.
— Hello. What's your name?
— Ann. What's yours?
— My name is Williams
2. Question — question.
— Will you help me, sonny?
— What shall I do, mother?
— Will you polish the floor today?
— Is it my turn?
— Yes, it is. Your brother did it last time.
— Have an interview with "a foreigner". For example, pupils are studying the
topic "London". The teacher may arrange an interview. One of the pupils is "a
Londoner". The classmates ask him various questions and express their opinions
on the subjects under discussion.
— Help a "foreigner", for example, to find the way to the main street or square of
the town; or instruct him as to the places of interest in the town. This may be done
directly or with the help of "an interpreter".
There are, of course, other techniques for stimulating pupils' unprepared
speech. The teacher chooses the techniques most suitable for his pupils since he
knows their aptitudes, their progress in the language, the time he has at his disposal
for developing speaking skills, the concrete material at which pupils are working.
In conclusion it should be said that prepared and unprepared speech must be
developed simultaneously from the very beginning. The relationship between
prepared and unprepared speech should vary depending on the stage of learning the
language. In the junior stage prepared speech takes the lead, while in the senior
stage unprepared speech should prevail.[6]
The teacher's main aim is to prevent pupils' errors. There is a good rule:
"Correct mistakes before they occur." In other words, careful teaching results in
correct English, i. e., pupils make very few mistakes. However, they make them,
and the problem is how to correct pupils’ errors.
If a pupil misunderstands something when auding the teacher should do
his best to ensure comprehension. He suggests that the pupil should either listen to
the sentence again; if he does not understand it properly the teacher or the
classmates help him to paraphrase the sentence or translate" it, or see it written.
The latter often helps if pupils do not get used to hearing, if they are eye-learners.
As far as speaking is concerned it is the teacher who corrects pupils' mistakes.
2. If a pupil makes a mistake in something which he has not learned yet the
teacher corrects his mistakes after he has finished speaking.
Pupil: She first visited us in 1960.
She is a good friend of ours since.
The teacher gives the correct sentence: She has been a good friend of ours since.
If many pupils make the same mistakes, for instance, in prepositions (go in instead
of go to), articles (the Moscow instead of Moscow, or Volga instead of the Volga),
in tense forms (the Present Continuous instead of the Present Indefinite) the
teacher makes note of them and gets the pupils to perform drill exercises after
answering questions.[5]
The teacher should not emphasize incorrect forms in any way or they will be
memorized along with the correct ones, for instance: Books is. Do you say "books
is"? You shouldn't say "books is". What should you say?
Chapter II. Speaking in teaching practice
For example,
(1) a pupil tells the class a story about something which once happened to
him;
(2) the teacher asks questions on the story read by the pupils at home and
starts a discussion;
(3) pupils speak on the pictures suggested by the teacher, each tries to say
what others have not mentioned;
(4) pupils listen to the story and get some new information from the text;
(5) they see a sound film and learn about something new from it, etc.
Oral exercises are used for the pupils to assimilate phonetics, grammar, and
vocabulary. They are mostly drill exercises and the teacher turns to them whenever
he works at enriching pupils' knowledge in vocabulary and grammar, at improving
pupils' pronunciation, etc.
— Listen to the sentences and repeat them in the same sequence. (The teacher
says: In the evening we have tea. I like it very much. The teacher may increase the
number of sentences for pupils to memorize.)
(b) exercises which are designed for developing pupils' attention:
— Listen to the following text: I have a sister. Her name is Ann. Mike has no
sister. He has a brother.
Now say what is the name of Mike's sister.
— Listen to the text. (The text follows.) Now say which sentence was omitted
(added) when you listened to it a second time.
(c) exercises which develop pupils' visual imagination:
— Listen to the following definition and give it a name: We write with it on the
blackboard. We take it when it rains.
— Listen and say which season it is: It is cold. It often snows. Children can skate
and ski.
(d) exercises which help the teacher to develop his pupils' logical thinking:
— Listen to the sentences and say whether they are logically arranged: Her name is
Mary. This is a girl.
Drill exercises are quite indispensable to developing pupils' skills in listening
comprehension.
Speech exercises are designed for developing pupils' skills in auding. Several
groups of exercises may be suggested:
1. Exercises which teach pupils to understand texts different in content, form, and
type. Pupils are asked to listen to a description or a narration; the text may be a
dialogue, it may deal with the life of people whose language the pupils study, or
with the pupils' environment.
— Listen to the story. Your task is to define its main idea. You should choose one
among those suggested by the teacher.
— Listen to the story. Your task is to grasp as much information as you can. While
auding try to put down key words and sentences; they will help you to convey the
context of the story.
2. Exercises which develop pupils' skills to understand a text under different
conditions. Sound producing aids should be extensively used for developing
pupils' auding, as pupils are supposed to understand not only their teacher's speech,
but other people speaking the target language, including native speakers. Besides,
sound producing aids allow the teacher to supply pupils with recorded speech
different in speed and voice.
Before pupils are invited to listen to the text the teacher should ensure that all the
words and grammar are familiar to the pupils otherwise language difficulties will
prevent them from understanding the story. Thus, if there are some unfamiliar
words, the teacher introduces them beforehand; he either puts them down on the
blackboard with the mother tongue equivalents in the sequence they appear in the
text, or he asks pupils to pronounce the words written on the blackboard if he plans
a talk on the text afterwards, and pupils are to use these words in their speech.[5]
Then the teacher should direct his pupils' attention to what they are going to listen
to. This is of great importance for experiments prove that if your aim is that your
pupils should keep on talking on the text they have heard it stimulates their
thinking and facilitates their comprehension of the text.
The following tasks may be suggested to draw pupils’ attention to what they are
auding:
— Listen and try to grasp the main idea of the story. You will be asked questions
later on.
— Listen and try to grasp the details. You will have to name them.
— Listen and make a plan of the story.
— Listen to the story and try to finish it (think of the end of the story).
— Listen to the story. You will ask questions on it afterwards.
— Listen to the text. You will retell it afterwards.
— Listen to the story. We shall have a discussion on it. Etc.
When pupils are ready to listen, the text can be read to them. If it is the
teacher who reads or tells the story, he can help pupils to comprehend the text with
gestures. If the text is recorded, a picture or pictures can facilitate comprehension.
The pupils listen to the text once as is usually the case in real communication.
Then the teacher checks their comprehension. If they have not understood it, they
are told to listen to the text again. The teacher can use a dialogue to help pupils to
understand the text after they have listened to the story for the first time, i. e., he
may ask questions, make statements on the text for pupils to agree or reject them.
Checking pupils' comprehension may be done in many ways depending on the
stage of instruction, pupils' progress in the language, and other factors. In any case,
however, it is necessary to proceed in order of complexity from mere recognition
to reproduction. The procedure may be:
general questions
special questions
wrong statements
The teacher checks his pupils’ comprehension only.
First they are to follow a model, and then they do it without any help.
Teacher: Say a few words about it. (He points to an object.)
Pupil: This is a pencil.
The pencil is green.
It is on the table. I like the pencil.
Or Teacher points to a boy.
Pupil: This is a boy. His name is Sasha. He lives in Gagarin Street.
Get information and sum up what you have learnt from your classmates.
Teacher: She cut her finger.
Pupil: Who cut her finger?
Class: Ann.
— When did she cut it?
— Yesterday.
— What did she cut it with?
— With a knife.
— Why did she cut her finger?
— Because the knife was sharp.
Pupil: Yesterday Ann cut her finger. She cut it with a knife. The knife was sharp.
This exercise is useful both for developing dialogic and monologic speech.
Therefore the pupil's utterance involves-2—4 sentences which logically
follow one another. At this stage pupils learn to express their thoughts, their
attitude to what they say using various sentence patterns. Thus they learn how to
put several sentences together in one utterance about a subject, an object, etc.
3. After pupils have learned how to say a few sentences in connection with a
situation they are prepared for speaking at discourse level.
Free speech is possible provided pupils have acquired habits and skills in
making statements and in combining them in a logical sequence. At this level
pupils are asked to speak on a picture, a set of pictures, a film-strip, a film,
comment on a text they have read or heard, make up a story of their own; of
course, this being done within the language material (grammar and vocabulary)
pupils have assimilated. To help pupils to speak the teacher supplies them with
"what to speak about". The devices used for the purpose are: visual aids which can
stimulate the pupil's speaking through visual perception of the subject to be spoken
about, including a text read; audio aids which can stimulate the pupil's speaking
through auditory perception of a stimulus; audio-visual aids when pupils can see
and hear what to speak about.[8]
(1) receptive;
(2) reproductive;
They listen to the dialogue recorded or reproduced by the teacher. The teacher
helps pupils in comprehension of the dialogue using a picture or pictures to
illustrate its contents.
They listen to the dialogue a second time and then read it silently for better
understanding, paying attention to the intonation. They may listen to the dialogue
and read it again, if necessary.
2. Pupils enact the pattern dialogue. We may distinguish three kinds of
reproduction:
Immediate. Pupils reproduce the dialogue in imitation of the speaker or the
teacher while listening to it or just after they have heard it. The teacher checks the
pupils' pronunciation and intonation in particular. The pupils are asked to learn the
dialogue by heart for homework.
Delayed. After pupils have learned the dialogue at home, they enact the pattern
dialogue in persons. Before calling on pupils it is recommended that they should
listen to the pattern dialogue recorded again to remind them of how it "sounds".
Modified. Pupils enact the dialogue with some modifications in its contents. They
change some elements in it. The more elements (main words and phrases) they
change in the pattern the better they assimilate the structure of the dialogue:
— Will you help me, sonny?
— What shall I do, Mother?
— Will you bring me a pail of water?
— Certainly I will.
The use of pictures may be helpful. Besides pupils use their own experience while
selecting the words for substitutions.
The work should not be done mechanically. Pupils should speak on the situation.
As a result of this work pupils master the structure of the pattern dialogue (not only
the contents), i. e., they can use it as a model for making up dialogues of their own,
that is why pattern dialogues should be carefully selected.
The first two stages aim at storing up patterns in pupils' memory for
expressing themselves in different situations, of course within the topics and
linguistic material the syllabus sets for each form.
3. Pupils make up dialogues of their own. They are given a picture or a verbal
situation to talk about. This is possible provided pupils have a stock of patterns, a
certain number of phrases for starting a conversation, joining in, etc. They should
use those lead-response units they have learned in connection with the situation
suggested for a conversation.
At the third stage the choice of stimuli is of great importance, as very often
pupils cannot think what to say, though they know how to say this or that.
Therefore audio-visual aids should be extensively utilized.
Rule for the teacher: In teaching dialogue use pattern dialogues; make sure
that your pupils go through the three stages from receptive through reproductive to
creative, supply them with the subject to talk about.
In teaching speaking the problem is what form of speech to begin with, and what
should be the relationship between monologue and dialogue. This problem may be
solved in different ways. Some methodologists give preference to dialogic speech
in teaching beginners, and they suggest that pupils learn first how to ask and
answer questions which is mostly characteristic of a dialogue, and how to make up
a short dialogue following a model. Others prefer monologic speech as a starting
point. Pupils are taught how to make statements, how to combine several sentences
into one utterance in connection with an object or a situation offered.[7]
These approaches to the problem are reflected in school textbooks now in use. A.
D .Starkov and R. R. Dixon in their textbooks prefer to begin with dialogic speech.
They start by teaching pupils how to ask various types of questions. For example:
The book is on the desk.
The book isn't under the desk.
Is the book on the desk? Yes, it is. (No, it isn't.)
Is the book on the desk or under it? It's on the desk.
Where’s the book? It’s on the desk. (Fifth Form English. Teacher's Book.)
S. K. Folomkina and E. I. Kaar give preference to developing pupils' monologic
speech. For example:
I see a pen.
I see a desk.
Pete sees a desk and a pen.
As to the relationship between monologue and dialogue, it should vary from stage
to stage in teaching speaking in schools.
In the junior stage (5—6 forms) dialogic speech, the time which allows the
teacher to introduce new material and consolidate it in conversation, must prevail.
Conclusion
Having made our work we come to conclusion, that auding or listening and
comprehension are difficult for learners because they should discriminate speech
sounds quickly, retain them while hearing a word, a phrase, or a sentence and
recognize this as a sense unit. Pupils can easily and naturally do this in their own
language and they cannot do this in a foreign language when they start learning the
language. Pupils are very slow in grasping what they hear because they are
conscious of the linguistic forms they perceive by the ear. This results in
misunderstanding or a complete failure of understanding.
When auding a foreign language pupils should be very attentive and think hard.
They should strain their memory and will power to keep the sequence of sounds
they hear and to decode it. Not all the pupils can cope with the difficulties entailed.
The teacher should help them by making this work easier and more interesting.
Speech is a process of communication by means of language. Oral exercises are
quite indispensable to developing speech. However, they only prepare pupils for
speaking and cannot be considered to be “speech” as some teachers are apt to think
and who are often satisfied with oral exercises which pupils perform following the
model; they seldom use stimuli for developing pupils' auding and speaking in the
target language.
In conclusion it should be said that prepared and unprepared speech must be
developed simultaneously from the very beginning. The relationship between
prepared and unprepared speech should very depending on the stage of learning the
language. In the junior stage prepared speech takes the lead, while in the senior
stage unprepared speech should prevail.
List of literature
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