Teaching a foreign Language can be quite a process! And this is understandable; after all the students aren’t Native Speakers of the language. Take the English Language for instance- most Nigerian students are Second Level speakers. Therefore, teaching it to them can be arduous. For this we appreciate the efforts of every English Language teacher. That said, this post is intended to assist your teaching of Oral English. I hope you find it helpful.
The foremost thing to do when teaching Oral Skills to students is to give students the opportunity to practice speaking! Speaking a foreign language is a rather complex process – you not only need to put your ideas into the sounds, words, and structures of some other language, but need to craft them so they will make sense and communicate effectively in the mental world of a foreign culture. The only way students will ever learn to do this comfortably and fluently is through lots of practice.
The second thing is to provide ample listening practice! It does students little good to be able to speak English if they can’t understand it! In fact, students who understand fairly well but speak poorly are arguably more functional in real communication situations than those whose speaking skills exceed their listening comprehension. Thus, in any oral skills course, listening practice should play a major part. The most valuable kind of listening practice is that pitched at a level where it stretches students’ skills, making them guess and even struggle a bit, is not so far over their heads that they become totally lost and give up. Teaching listening comprehension is thus in part a process of gradually upping the ante – providing students with practice opportunities that gradually increase in difficulty. This can be done by speaking a little more quickly and naturally, using a wider range of vocabulary, and so forth as students’ listening skills improve.
Also, create opportunities for real life communication! Both students and teachers will find oral skills classes more meaningful and interesting if conversation practices involve “real” and actual communication. In other words, as often as possible, conversation should involve an “information gap.” In other words, student A should tell student B something student B doesn’t already know. Interest in conversation dwindles quickly when student B has to listen to student A struggle to say something student B already knows. The cultural difference between foreign Western teachers and Nigerian students provides a wonderful natural information gap, and this should be drawn on as much as possible in oral skills classes. Students should be given opportunity to express their own ideas; opportunity to talk about topics they are interested in.
Ensure to expand the range of topics students can use to practice talking! The development of speaking skills can be viewed as an expanding of a circle with the student at the center. In the beginning, the easiest kinds of topics for students to talk about are those which are relatively concrete, conceptually simple, and close and familiar to the student. Often these are the topics of daily life. Then, as students’ skills advance, they should be encouraged to practice talking about topics a little further out in their circle — topics concerning other people, times, and places. At the outer ranges of the circle are topics that are relatively abstract, conceptually complex, and unfamiliar to the student. The teacher’s task is thus to push students gradually to move further out into the circle of topics, learning not only to discuss new topics but also how to cope with discussion of topics with which they are not yet entirely familiar. Students who are afraid of the unknown tend to stay within a small circle of familiar topics. This, in turn, tends to slow or halt their speaking skills development. In contrast, students who become comfortable discussing new topics, even if they do not yet have all the requisite vocabulary, are more likely to keep pushing their skills forward.
Lastly, this is for the learners. Endeavour to build discussion skills! Speaking and listening is not something one usually does solo; rather [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][it] involve interacting with other people. Therefore, one important aspect of building oral skills is learning how to interact effectively Some specific sub-skills involved in this are explaining what you mean (when others might not understand you), persuading others when they might not agree with you, assessing what others know or believe, clarifying what mean, clarifying what others mean and politely disagreeing…
I hope you have all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let’s all speak better English Language, please!
*This post has been partly adapted…
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