This document provides guidance on teaching productive speaking and writing skills. It discusses using communicative activities in lessons and identifies important elements to consider. Specifically, it outlines a warm-up activity where students talk to classmates to find things they have in common. It then asks questions about implementing this activity and provides different speaking activities to discuss, focusing on whether they are practical, purposeful, productive, predictable, and adaptable. Finally, it instructs choosing a speaking activity to set up and provide instructions for in the classroom.

1. Week 9-10 Teaching Productive
Skills
Dr. Russell Rodrigo

2. Learning Objectives
1. Identify important elements in teaching speaking and writing skills
2. Identify and use communicative activities in lessons

3. Developing
speaking
Skills

4. Warm-
up
•Walk around the room and talk to as many different
people as possible. Ask questions to find three
people that you have at least three things in
common with. You can only count things that you
do not already know.
•For example, We are both female is not valid for this
activity.

5. Answer
the
questions.
1. What assumptions does this activity make
about language level and learners?
2. What skills does this activity practise?
3. What is the teacher's role here?
4. Would this activity be appropriate for the
learners that you are teaching?
5. If you used this activity, how would you
round it off?
This unit focuses on fluency-based speaking
activities. More controlled, or restricted,
activities are dealt with

6. Different speaking activities
• Communicative language teaching is based on the premise that people use language in order to
communicate. As we communicate by speaking, listening, reading and writing, then it follows that it
is useful to give direct practice in these skills - rather than using these skills only as a means of
practising particular language points.
• Discuss the questions for the speaking activities 1-5
1. Is it practical? Consider how easy the activity is to set up and manage. For example, does it
need any materials? Do the learners need time to prepare?
2. Is it purposeful? Do the learners have a purpose for doing the activity? Is there an outcome?
3. Is it productive? How much speaking will it generate?
4. Is it predictable? How easy is it to predict the language that the learners will need in order to
do the activity? For example, what vocabulary and grammar are they likely to need?
5. Is it adaptable? How versatile is the activity type? For example,'could you adapt it for a
higher or lower level?

11. Pair
Work
•Choose one of the exercises from activity.
Decide how you would set it up in class. Write
down the instructions you would use.

12. Challenges

15. Matching
Task