4. SPEAKING

SPEAKING

Speaking

By David Malatesta Illinois, United States

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving. Anatole France

Of all the four modes of communication, teaching speaking tends to be the most complicating. Why is this so? For starters, reading is a solitary activity — you can read a book, a magazine, or an internet article on the train or before you fall asleep at night. Listening can be practiced alone through a variety of internet sites or radio broadcasts or television shows. Writing can be practiced through journaling, writing emails, or the now less frequent letter writing, where the response comes two weeks later. As an educator, I often marvel at my students’ ability to practice on their own and guide their own learning. You can practice these three modes just about anywhere, anytime, in any manner.

Practicing speaking is inherently different.

When it comes to learning another language, if you practice speaking alone, people will consider you eccentric or, worse yet, absolutely insane. Imagine the looks you would get while traveling home from work on the bus while practicing a dialogue or rehearsing some grammatical feature! On a good day, a fellow language learner might join in with you and help you practice and improve your oral proficiency! You might even make a new friend or even find your soul mate. Imagine the stories you would have to tell your grandchildren! A more nefarious outcome could be that you spend the evening in your local mental institution. The more likely scenario would be that you would have to negotiate a few awkward stares, and possibly deal with some minor social isolation.

So what are we left with as teachers? We have to help our students practice speaking in the context of the classroom. In other words, WE model, THEY speak, WE listen. Since we teachers are a group of tremendous talkers, listening while our students speak can be a challenge for some of us. Ahem, am I talking about myself here? Do pardon any introspection and self-examination on my part.

Imagine for a moment a violin teacher who shows a student how to play scales but doesn’t pass the instrument to the student and allow him or her to try. Imagine a tennis coach who demonstrates proper serve technique but never allows his or her pupil to try it out. Imagine for a moment an English teacher who stands in front of the classroom lecturing for 50 minutes without ever listening to the students negotiate meaning amongst themselves.

We hope the speaking activities included in this volume help you be a more effective speaking teacher; feel free to use them and adapt them as you see fit for your particular situation. I’ll conclude with a simple question. If the English language classroom is filled more with your voice than that of your students’, how crazy is that?