Opportunities for Students to Practice Speaking in Class

This class is composed of 30 students in Grade 6 aged from 13 to 14, whose English level is quite deferent. About 20% of them are good at English, and they are active and participant in class, while 40% of them are poor at English, so they often remain quiet In class and sometimes can’t follow the teacher. And the rest of them are of average level. They want to learn English well and are trying as hard as possible, but sometimes they are shy in class and like to be audiences rather than getting involved n class activities themselves.

In this lesson, I want to focus on helping students compare and describe life in different places by using different sentence patterns to express past and present events. In addition, during the whole lesson hope to crate more opportunities for students to practice speaking in class as well as encourage the weak and average students to speak out their Ideas bravely. Sample 1. Context: At the beginning of the class, I showed students two maps of Kitty’s old and new flat and asked them, “Did she live near or far away from school? However, one of the students answered, “Yes, she lived far away from school. Comment: Since this was the second period of a new lesson, I intended to check how much the students had learned about the text in the previous period, so I started it with an alternative question. However, the student didn’t answer it right, which was beyond my expectation. To grade 6 students, the lead-in sentence seemed to be too complicated with alternative question for them to grasp though they were simple. They weren’t able to respond correctly both In content and grammar. Appropriately In engage grading plays a vital role In a language teacher.

Therefore, Instead of Glenn a confusing lead-in instruction, I could have simply elicited a question, ” Did Kitty live near school? Which would be easy for them to answer without feeling nervous after answering it wrong. And I can lead in the new lesson in an more effective way. Sample 2 Context: in the final part of the lesson, I asked students to work in pairs and talk about their deferent school life by using the given sentence patterns and key words. While one pair was doing the practice in front of the whole class, another pair of dents was still talking to each other about the class activity.

In order to keep the class under control, I neglected the two students who were doing the practice and simply said In a loud voice, ” Let’s listen to them carefully and no chatting! ” However, embarrassed. Comment: Although classroom management is a must for an effective lesson, my tone of instruction to keep the class under control was not very friendly. I shouldn’t have interrupted the students because it broke their chain of thought suddenly and they didn’t know what to do in that situation. Instead, I could have monitored the class in an more effective way by walking to them and asking them to stop talking with my body language.

Sample 3 Context: In order to have a smooth transit from Kitty’s life in different places to students’ real life in different schools, I created a situation by saying, ” Tom is a photographer( stress on the first syllable) for our school newspaper, and he has taken many photos about . Please look at his pictures on the PPTP and think about the life in your primary school. Let’s work in pairs and finish the speaking activity together. Comment: Accuracy in word pronunciation when giving a clear instruction is a basic requirement for a language teacher.

Here, I gave an inaccurate stress on the word : photographer. The correct stress should be on the second syllable instead of the first one. Enough attention should be paid next time I speak out the word. Sample 4 Context: In a drill related to the key sentence patterns of the lesson, I showed students two pictures of a swimming pool and the sea and elicit a dialogue for them to practice as follows: T: What did Kitty and Ben do when they lived in the city enter? S: When they lived in the city center, they swim in the swimming pool. T: They swim? S: Oh, they swam in the swimming pool.

T: Now they live in the suburbs. Where do they swim? In the sea. S: Now they swim Comment: In order to make the student aware of his mistake in grammar, I repeat the mistake with rising intonation and stress on the mistaken word so that he can pay attention to it and correct themselves immediately. Here I tried to get students to self-correct with echo correct clearly and effectively and I got instant expected feedback. Sample 5 Context: Two pictures were shown on the PPTP about Kitty and Ben getting up when they lived in the city center and when they live in the suburbs.

There was a clock elicit the following questions: T: Look at the picture. What time did Kitty and Ben get up in the past? S: They got up at seven o’clock in the past. T: Did they get up late? S: Yes, they did. T: Now look at this picture. What time do they get up now? S: Now they get up at half past six. T: Do they get up late now? S: No, they don’t. They get up early. T: Can you finish the sentence now? When they lived in the city center, they Now they live in the suburbs, and they After answering these questions, students can finish the sentence easily and correctly.

Comment: In order to check whether students have understood the target sentence structure “When they lived …. , they got up I elicited several concept checking questions to make sure that they have grasped the meaning of a new sentence structure. I broke down the meaning or concept of the target structure into a number of simple questions for students to have a clear idea of it. Besides, I also showed the employed sentence on the PPTP to make the pattern of the grammar clear so that the students can memorize it better.

Sample 6 Context: Two pictures were shown on the PPTP. One was a TV set and the other was the sky full of bright stars. T: Now let’s look at the two pictures. (Teacher points to the pictures). They are about Ben and Kitty’s life at night. This time let’s do a pair work in two minutes. (Show students the pattern of pair work) Let’s go! SSL: What did Kitty and Ben do at night when they lived in the city center? SO: When they … , they SSL : Now they live in the suburbs. What do they do at night? SO: Now they K, time is up. Let’s come back.

Any volunteers? (Students raised their hands). K, good. Stand up please. Comment: Although it is not always necessary to use Instruction Concept Questions, they can often make sure that the learners know exactly what they are asked to do in class step by step. Here I broke down my instructions into a series of simple chunked statements so that students could understand and respond to them quickly. As a result, they could be more involved and participant in the class activities and contribute more to the class. Candidate Name: Lion Gonzalez