Методическая разработка семинара-тренинга Developing Speaking Skills
методическая разработка по английскому языку на тему

Training plan form

• Target teacher group: experienced school teachers of the first qualification with 10-30 years of experience.
• Topic: “Developing speaking skills”

• Aim: to introduce some new techniques and activities for developing speaking skills.
• Learning Outcomes: by the end of this workshop participants will be able to:

- describe tools and techniques of developing speaking skills;

- design engaging activities using these new techniques and tools.

• Materials & References: a computer, an overhead projector, sheets of paper, felt pens/markers, worksheets, handouts, post-it notes.
• Audio-visual aids: video(cartoon), Power Point presentation,  pictures, handouts, an accesses to the Internet

Appendix 1

Activity “Two Truths and a Lie “

http://www.ehow.com/how_2217198_play-two-truths-lie-game.html 

It is a fun way of breaking the ice at camp, in class, at a party or even in a business setting. The game goes quicker with small groups of up to 10 people and can be played by kids over the age of around 7 years and adults.

Appendix 2

Handout 1

Read through the list of ways to develop speaking skills. Rate them according to those most and least important to you. Work in groups of four. Compare your ratings and say what the most/least ways to develop speaking in your group are. https://www.speakalley.com/blog/how-can-i-improve-english-speaking-skills/       

A good way to develop speaking is…  

1. In class under the professional English teacher’s guidance.

2. In a café with a native speaker of English (not necessarily a teacher)

3. Living in a country where people speak English

     4. Watching YouTube videos you like, films and TV in English.

6. Repeating what the teacher says in class.

7. Keeping a notebook of new words.

8. Doing some English homework (writing or reading) very often.

9. Having lots of tests in class to help us remember.

10. Using a bilingual dictionary all the time.

11. Reading in English.

12. Speaking English with other students in the class.

13. Listening to podcasts*or radio programmes.

14. Speaking Online

      15. Recording on audio (using a smartphone) yourself speaking and then listening back to see how your English sounds to other people

Appendix 3

Activity  ”Preposition basketball”

Choose a spot in the classroom (a corner, the teacher's desk...) and place there several different objects (pens, rubbers, books etc) at random and a small box or a bag that represents the basket. Decide with your students how many points you will score if they send the ball (you can make a very simple ball with a piece of paper) into the basket (you could give 3 or 5 points, depending on how difficult it is).

       What is fun is that each student, even if he doesn't succeed in throwing the ball into the basket, will score one point for every correct description of the final location of the ball that he/she can say: "The ball is behind the red pen", "It is under the teacher's desk", etc. In such a way, it often happens that a student scores more points when the ball doesn't go into the basket, depending on the student's ability to use the correct prepositions.

      You can choose if you prefer to divide the class into teams or make an individual competition. Students have a lot of fun in practising this activity that is suitable for children and teenagers as well.

Appendix 4

You can use a paper toy to develop speaking on different topics e.g. “Your family”, “Seasons” etc.

How to make the paper toy http://www.zonar.info/  (игрушка-шутка)

  Appendix 5

Activity “Identity pizza”

Equipment: a blank sheet of paper for each person (at least A4 size); pens and pencils for drawing and colouring.

• Make sure that each person has a piece of paper and something to draw with. Ask each person to draw the outline of a pizza (a big circle) on their piece of paper. It does not matter if it is not a perfect circle – pizzas are not perfectly circular. The outlines should take up as much of the paper as possible.
• Ask each person to think of one thing that defines them as a person, an experience they have had or a skill they possess. They should try to come up with between five and seven things.
• Ask them to divide their pizza into slices and to draw a picture for each of the things they thought of. Each picture should fill one slice.
• They should come up with something like this. So should you – because the teacher or facilitator of the group is as involved in this activity as the learners.

What’s good about this is that it is an open-ended activity. There are no expected language exponents, and there are no right or wrong answers. It’s based on the lives and interests of the people in the room, so it doesn’t require people to spend unnecessary mental power trying to talk about something they have little or no experience of or interest in. It creates a natural information gap – no one knows what the other person is going to draw, so there will always be something to talk about.

Appendix 6

Activity “The One-Minute Talk Game”

This game has two teams of individuals who try to compete against one another by having one member from one side speak for one full minute (measured by a stopwatch) talking on an impromptu topic given by the other side, for which the speaker has had no chance to prepare beforehand.

The members of the opposing side must listen carefully and stop and disqualify the speaker the moment there is any fault or error or hesitation, etc. Then, the person who has caught the error stands up and is given a different topic that he/she has never heard before, upon which he/she than must speak for one minute absolutely free of any error. Any speaker who succeeds in talking fluently for one minute scores one point for his/her side. Some appropriate topics for your game might be. It would probably be more fun to create topics that are suitable to the particular groups. The team that  listens the most carefully for mistakes has the best chance of winning, as it is a good strategy to disqualify the opposing challengers as quickly as possible in order to gain more time for the members of your group to get more points.

 Appendix 7

Activity “Can You Guess Who I Am?”

This is a game where a person pretends to be someone or something that he/she is not, and the others have to guess who he/she is impersonating. First, the teacher gives one person a piece of paper with the name of a very famous personality (like Superman) on it and puts that person at the front of the room for questioning. The class members are given only one hint to guide their questioning, such as for example, “This is a famous Hollywood comic strip movie figure.” Then, the other students have to start asking questions to find out who is being impersonated. Only yes/no answers may be given:

1. Do you travel in outer space?

Appendix 8

Activity “Whisper in my Ear”

There are  several tasks that can use whispering something in someone’s ear as a curious starting point. In the first one, for example, put about fifteen SDS in a circle and whisper a full sentence into the ear of the first SD who will whisper it to the next SD and so on all the way around the circle until we get to the last SD at the end of the round who must repeat what he/she heard. A sample sentence might be, e.g. My telephone number is 02 4625389 etc.

Appendix 9

Activity “Board game” http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/crafts/board-game-template 

A board game template, which you can use to make your own game to play.

Appendix 10

Feedback “A reflective target” http://www.vashpsixolog.ru/work-with-teaching-staff-school-psychologist/57-training-with-teachers/797-training-for-teachers-technology-teacher-interac 

References

1. Holmes David.  Speaking activities for the classroom. Copyright 2004 http://www.noblepath.info/speaking/apeaking_activities.pdf
2. Watcyn-Jones. P.  Vocabulary games and activities for teachers. Penguin Books Ltd 1993
3. http://britishenglishcoach.com/33-ways-to-speak-better-eng…/