'Developing fluency' presentation slides by Irina Grekova (December 6, 2013, BKC-IH Moscow, Methodology Day for teachers)

1. Developing Fluency
Irina Grekova
CELTA, DELTA, MA in TESOL
BKC International House Moscow

2. Developing Fluency
(Reference: Jo Gakonga, webinar ‘Freer speaking activities’
http://elttraining.mdl2.com/mod/page/view.php?id=128
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What are fluency speaking activities?
Why have fluency tasks?
What makes them successful?
What problems can arise?
6 types of communicative tasks
Resources

3. What kind of person are you?
Are you a tea person or a coffee person?
a morning … or an evening …?
an earth … or a fire …?
a mountain… or a valley…?
a jungle… or a forest…?
an indoor… or an outdoor…?
a garden… or a forest…?
a sound… or a sight…?
a straight line… or a loops and curves…?

4. Developing fluency
Accuracy
(form)
Drill/ gap-fill
Fluency
(meaning)
discussion

5. Developing fluency
Accuracy
no communicative
purpose (?)
focus on form
one language item only
teacher intervention
Fluency
desire to communicate
communicative purpose
focus on meaning
variety of language
no teacher intervention

6. Developing fluency
Accuracy
Gap fill
Matching
Finishing sentences
Opening brackets
Fluency
Role play
Discussion
Debate
Story making
Problem solving
Survey
Interview

7. Developing fluency
Is it just speaking?
Language
input
(PPP approach)
Gr/ Vocab/ FL
Speaking
Language
input
(TBL; error
correction)

8. Example 1
My best friend
• Name
• How I know her
• Why I like her
1.Think about your friend
2. Tell your partner about them
3. Your partner must ask you 2 Qs

9. Developing fluency
Language
input
Speaking
Adjectives of personality
Describing people
Present Perfect
Past Simple
Language
input

10. Example 2

11. Developing fluency
Parents
Teenagers
Is there any chance of borrowing…
I’d like to, but…
I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Would you mind if I borrowed…
I’d be really careful if you let me …
…
If you borrowed it, you’d probably

12. Developing fluency
Language
input
Speaking
Language
input
Error correction

13. Error correction
If you would borrow a car,
you would crash it!
Please, let me to borrow it!
You will accident!

14. What makes the task
successful?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
An interesting topic
Personalization
Setting it up
Providing a model
Time for preparation
Purpose
Structure
Relaxed atmosphere
Even participation

15. How would you set it up?
Problems
• You want to give up smoking
• Your child is being bullied at school
• You have a really bad headache
• You’ve lost your job
• Your boy/girlfriend has left you
• Your life is boring

16. Problems
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ls are unable to express themselves
Ls feel inhibited
Ls have nothing to say
Ls are unclear about what to do
Some Ls are silent
Ls use L1
Ls make a lot of mistake

17. Problems and Solutions
• Ls are unable to express
themselves
• Ls feel inhibited
• Ls have nothing to say
• Ls are unclear about what
to do
• Some Ls are silent
• Ls use L1
• Ls make a lot of mistake
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Keep th level lower
Frame/ set it up
Give preparation time
Give a model
Specific not general
Role cards
Small amount-fine
Not a problem

18. Developing fluency
A communicative task is….

19. Communicative task
‘A communicative task is an activity where
the language is used by the learner for a
communicative purpose (goal) in order to
achieve an outcome.’
‘A Framework for Task Based Learning’ by J. Willis.

20. Aspects of a communicative task
• Goal – oriented
• Language used in a meaningful way
• Emphasis on understanding, conveying
meanings in order to complete the task
• Outcome

21. Types of communicative activities
•
•
•
•
•
•
Listing
Ordering & sorting
Comparing
Problem solving
Sharing personal experience
Creative tasks

22. Types of communicative activities
Information gap
activities
Questions &
answers
discussions
clarification
techniques
Guessing games
Jigsaw tasks
projects
Interviews
problem solving
role-plays
stories