02 How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills

How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills Yolanda R. Campos Matthias Werner E.O.I. de Granada

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills
ADULTS, CHILDREN AND…BABIES!
Billion neurons ready to get connected
3-month old:
Recognises animal faces
Recognises speech sounds of different languages
Children’s reality: simple, no abstract thoughts. Different parts of the brain are activated. Question of survival.
Adults: step by step!
MOTIVATION/NEED is the key

PHONETICS
- Why are English phonemes so hard to pronounce and learn?...

- hit, hoot, het (up), hurt, hat, heat, hut, heart, hot, hate, height
H + 11 different vowel sounds + t !!!
- If I change the stress in written, I say return!
How often do we use the schwa?...
40% of English sounds!

PHONETIC AEROBICS
/æ/ imagine a piece of elastic opening your mouth from both sides
/ʌ/ imagine a piece of elastic opening your mouth pulling from the forehead & chin
Do aerobics with arms to the sides & up trying to represent their mouth position with our arms.
/ɒ/ with two fingers and a thumb in your mouth
Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills START DOING THIS WITH YOUNG STUDENTS! (TPR = total physical response)

/i:/ /I/
JEANE Green Cheese and peas Three JIM Pink Fish Six

GUESSING SOUNDS
In pairs or groups: one says the word, the others guess giving the coordinates.
A B C
1 angry hungry Hungary
2 bed bad bead
3 aunt ant and
4 cat cot caught / court
5 ship sheep cheap
Variety: students mimic the word (with their mouth, without actually saying it)

SWAPPING CARDS
Give each student a card with a phonetic symbol. They have to stand up, teach their symbol to a classmate (they both have to say it) and swap cards.
HANGMAN
… writing the words in their phonetic transcription, using only sounds!

SNAP!
Make cards with any words you’d like them to revise. They put their cards onto a pile and only play with the top card: if it has the same vowel sound as the previous one, they must be the first saying: “Snap!” and the other student gets all the cards. The first player with no cards wins.
bay, beard, bun, shirt, shut, girl, here, boy, gull, bead, bud, tea, air, buy, bee, hurts, burn, toy, cake, thigh…

PHONETIC STORY TIME
Each student has a card with a phoneme. I read them a story and they have to stand and show their card whenever they hear their phonemes.
STRESS – CHANTS
Students in two groups
One says a series of nouns:
owl / pig / duck / hen (In my cousin’s farm…)
The other: a / an
… and then: there’s
It’s very easy to see how the stress falls on the nouns.

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills INTONATION Write a word or sentence on the board (i.e. “No”) and tell the students to say it differently according to different feelings. This type of activity helps our students feel more confident when they have to produce different sounds in a foreign language and improves their intonation.

In pairs, read the following dialogues:
Dialogue number 1
A) She’s here
B) Already?
A) Yes. What do you want me to do?
B) Tell her to come in.

“ I think I know you…”
Students: in pairs
They guess personal information about their partner
They check if they got it right

HALF CROSSWORDS
Students: in pairs. Each has half of a crossword and they must ask questions to their partner to find out their missing words.
TIME PRESSURE : tell them the first three pairs finishing their crosswords are the winners.

COLOURED CARDS
You can use them as a good ice-breaker to begin your lessons
All kinds of questions can be asked
It makes all the students talk, they tell you about their personal experiences, problems, opinions, feelings.
It encourages social bonding in the classroom

How was going back to work last week?

What are your plans for next Thursday? (holiday)

How do you feel about your work-life balance?

What do you think about bilingual schools?

Guessing activities : the weather forecast

THE KEY-WORD DIALOGUE
Give the students the key words to build up a dialogue and ask them to complete it.
Write their different suggestions on the board, correct them, comment on them.
It triggers the students’ creativity and will to communicate.
Good activity for a test too.

Order?
Salad or vegetables?
Vegetables?
Peas and…
Salad
Drink?
Beer?
Soft drinks
Cola
Ice?
No

DICTATED DIALOGUES
Divide students in two groups (A and B). Dictate a dialogue (in the wrong order) saying which line is A or B. Students only write down their lines.
In pairs, they decide the right order of the sentences in the dialogue WITHOUT READING THEIR PARTNER’S LINES
Students practise their spelling, pay more attention to the dialogue and they have to listen carefully to their partner (as they would in a real situation) because they don’t know what (s)he is going to say.

ACTION TAGS

COMICS
Younger students: erase some pictures and let them draw them
Other students:
Erase part of the conversations
Tell your students to complete them (in pairs). Encourage them to use their imagination and be creative.
They act the comic out
3) Intermediate and advanced: let them act it out without any previous preparation

WORDS WITH A STORY
Show cards with a story behind them and the key word for that card. Student’s aren’t allowed to take any notes!
Repeat the names and new vocabulary (9 words)
Then write the words on the board. They’ll be interested in learning the right spelling.
Tell them to read them loud twice.
Erase part of 2 words and tell them to read them all out again.
Erase till there’s only the first letters of each word (and read them out).
Only then are the students allowed to write the new vocabulary on their notebooks.
Give each student a piece of paper with the definition of one of the words. They stand up and swap papers asking, for instance, “I enjoy being with other people. That means that I am…?” and the other student answers, they swap papers and ask other students. If needed, you can create “take a rest” cards.

USING GRIDS
Individually: they draw 2 grids, numbering each square
In pairs: they write 1 new word for each square and leave the other grid blank. One asks “what word do you have in #4?” and the other student gives a definition. The first student writes secretly what (s)he thinks that number is. ONLY AT THE END OF THE ACTIVITY do both students check their answers.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Students: in teams. Draw a grid on the board, numbering each square.
Field: “Normal and extreme adjectives”
Write the normal adjectives in each square and the first letter of the corresponding extreme adjectives. Students raise their hands to give a number and say the normal&extreme adjective.
Endless uses of this activity:
With phrasal verbs, opposites, irregular verbs, phonetic transcriptions, stress patterns…

Students choose a letter of the alphabet (till we fill in a whole grid). Then they have to name a specific field (say, “jobs”) and complete the grill with words starting with each letter:

Draw a big grip and number the squares. Write 2 words (of a specific semantic field) in each square (e.g. spoon, glass in one square; skirt, T-shirt in another). Students are in teams. Choose a number and give the students 3 minutes to write as many words as they can. If they come up with words the other teams don’t include, they get an extra point

USING THE BOARD
Good revision of vocabulary / grammar
Write 3 sentences with missing words:
Many _______(1) were ______(2) _______(3) ______(4) police ________(5) the ________(6) match.
English ________(7) been _______(8) ______(9) this _________(10) _______(11) 1928.
_______(12) __________ (13) not ___________(14) consumed in _____(15) classroom.
Number the blanks. Students need to guess the words (but there could be more than one possibility). If they guess the exact word (according to their teacher’s notes), they score the number of points of the space. If it’s correct but not the right word, nothing will happen.

Key:
Many fans were arrested by the police after the football match. / English has been taught in this college since 1928. / Food should not be consumed in this classroom.
Weaker students learn from stronger students, if a strong student gives a possible answer (but not the correct one) it can help weaker students to guess the right one.
Motivation increases with time.
Variety of this game: with spelling, for lower levels. A flash card with a picture of an apple and “a_(1)p_(2)_(3)_(4)”

DRILLING ACTIVITY
Each student gets 3 different cards of, say, names of shops:
Bookshop
Pet shop
Butcher’s
Chemist’s
Florist’s
Supermarket
Tell them a story: “I had an accident and I’ve had to spend 8 days in hospital. Now I can finally go back home but I need some things…”
Then tell them a shorter story about each thing you need: “It’s my best friend’s birthday and I need to buy a card for him…” Students may not understand the whole sentence but they are waiting for the key word (it’s good for them to listen to some of this “real language” even if they don’t understand all of it).

HOT SEATS
Students: in groups.
One sits on a hot seat: (s)he can’t see the whiteboard. The teacher writes a word or a sentence on the board. The students who can read it try to explain it to the one in the hot seat. The group that gets more correct answers wins.

May I help you?

This summer we’ve had a great time in Mallorca.

English people love fish & chips .

QUESTIONNAIRE: Children and parents
Give points from 1-5 to the following statements (1: Yes, definitely; 2: Yes, perhaps; 3: Well, that depends; 4: No, not really; 5: No, definitely not) Then discuss your answers in groups and remember to give reasons for your opinion:
Children should obey their parents without question
It is an advantage to be an only child
Girls and boys should be brought up in the same way – without definite roles
Most men would prefer to have a son as their first child
Education was better 15 years ago
It is a child’s duty to look after his or her parents when they are old

USEFUL WEBSITES
www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.eslpartyland.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.eslhq.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.teachitworld.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills http://www.teachitprimary.co.uk/

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.puzzlemaker.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.freeprintablesforteachers.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.bogglesworldesl.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.onestopenglish.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.eslgames.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills http://www.esl-galaxy.com/

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.breakingnewsenglish.com

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.slf.rub.de

Yolanda R. Campos and Matthias Werner, How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills www.cgpbooks.co.uk

Comments, suggestions, questions…
[email_address]
[email_address]

02 How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills

by charoreyes on Jan 29, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 3

Statistics

02 How to improve Spanish students’ oral skills — Presentation Transcript