Speaking Activity

                                               ONE WORD DIALOGUE

As teachers we have to be aware of the importance of listening from the very first moment but ... what about speaking (and conversation)? The so called 'silent period' gives us an opportunity to relax and to postpone our pupils' oral production. Nevertheless, there are many possibilities to foster our pupils' oral production from the very first moment (as in Artigal's storytelling method). This is an example of the possibilities that roleplays offer to us in order to achieve this aim: One Word Dialogue


We write the dialogue below on the board

1. Ask the students to act it out in pairs. 
2. Then tell them to create their own, one-word dialogues. 
3. You will need to help the students with their intonation. 

Student A:Hello!
Student B:hi!

Student A: Worried?
Student B: No

Student A: Then?
Student B: Tired

Level: 1^st level of primary education.

We have chosen this activity for the 1^st level of primary because it promotes oral production and helps pupils overcome the silent period when learning a foreign language. This activity mostly develops two skills: speaking (productive) and listening (receptive).

Context: This activity is going to be developed in a Public Bilingual School situated in a wealthy neighborhood. Therefore, we assume that pupils should have acquired by then a certain grounding of the English Language.

Competences to be approach:  

·    Communicative and linguist competence. With this activity, learners will have to use the language with a communicative purpose. 

Contents:

Notions: vocabulary related to greetings (hello…) and moods (worried, tired…).

Functions: Presentation and expressing different moods.

Aims:

• Learners will acquire and use vocabulary related to greetings and moods.  
•  Learners will be able to comprehend and repeat the dialogue. 
• Learners will be able to understand and use non verbal language: facial expressions, mime, body movements.

Activities:

• Pre-activity: Introduce the new vocabulary using picture/word cards. The teacher will say out loud the different words that appear in the dialogue and pupils will have to listen and repeat. This first activity is controlled by the teacher and it will help pupils get familiar with the new vocabulary and also increase their confidence.
• While activity: Pupils will have to read and try to memorize the dialogue. The dialogue will be cut into pieces. Then, pupils will have to put it in order the dialogue. With this activity they will develop memory skills.
• Post-activity: Mime Role play in pairs. The teacher will give the pupils a role to act out and will tell to one of them they have lost their voice. The pupils without voice will have to use mime in order to be understood. It is a way of working The Total Physical Response.

Cater for diversity: 

Good classroom management is essential to cater for diversity since the organizing and running of our classroom efficiently and effectively will maximize opportunities for all students to learn.

On the other hand, as teachers we should take into account the theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner. We must be aware of the fact that our pupils learn in different ways. With the pre-activity we can cater for visual spatial and linguistic learners. The while- activity could take into account the logical-mathematical learners, because the dialogue is like a sequence that needs to have a logical order and the intrapersonal learners as the activity is done individually. Finally, with the post-activity we can cater for bodily-kinesthetic and the interpersonal learners.

Classroom Management:

The teacher’s role in the classroom:

Organizer, informer, controller, prompter, guide, corrector and assessor/evaluator.

On the other hand, the teacher should create a supportive learning environment. Students learn best when they feel accepted, enjoy positive relationships with their fellow students and teachers and they are active, visible members of the community.

Distribution of space and time:

• Pre-activity: the whole class will participate in this activity therefore a horseshoe arrangement will be used. Such an arrangement provides for each student equivalent visual access to most other students and the teacher. There is also more participation in classes arranged in this way.
• While-activity: This activity will be done individually using the same arrangement as before.
• Post-activity: This activity will be done using something similar to modular arrangement but in pairs.

All these activities will be done in a session (55’) 

Finally, a learner centered approach will be put into practice. This will require pupils to be active and responsible participants in their own learning.

Assessment for learning:

Different assessment tools will be used during the session. For example, pupils will be provided with some feedback after finishing each activity (pre, while and post).

The session will end using another assessment tool called: “thumbs up”. Pupils show thumbs up, sideways or down to indicate their current level of understanding:

·         Thumbs up: confident they have achieved what was expected.

·         Thumbs sideway: some way there, but some uncertainty.

·         Thumbs down: not achieved, confusion.