1. Untie your tongue
Speaking Skills in the FL classroom
Elena Moreno Fuentes and Luisa María Palacios Maroto
TESOL-Spain 35th Annual Convention • Bilbao • Saturday, 10th March 2012
Elena Moreno Fuentes • emoreno@fundacionsafa.es
Luisa María Palacios Maroto • luisapalacios@myenglishcorner.net
1
3. Biodata
Elena Moreno Fuentes Luisa M. Palacios Maroto
Elena Moreno Fuentes, associate
P r o f e s s o r a t t h e E s c u e l a
Universitaria de Magisterio “Sagrada
Familia” and at the University of
Jaén. She has participated in
courses on using ICT in the L2
classroom and published papers on
the issue of ICT in teaching.
Moreover, she is finishing her
postgraduate studies and doing
research on the implementation of
ICT in the development of L2
Writing.
Luisa Palacios Maroto, experienced
teacher and researcher. She has
taken active part in different L2
teaching courses and talks on using
ICT in the L2 classroom . Active
teacher and great motivator
develops her job on Cambridge
exams preparation. Moreover, she is
finishing her postgraduate studies at
the University of Jaén on cinema and
literature.
Abstract
Whenever we try to get our students to participate in the classroom, no
excited faces are found around us. We will offer activities to enhance students
to use English as a means of communication. A dynamic approach is proposed
for acquiring basic speaking skills since we believe that using dynamic
exercises is an effective motivator to create “appropriate pieces of
communication”.
Elena Moreno Fuentes • emoreno@fundacionsafa.es
Luisa María Palacios Maroto • luisapalacios@myenglishcorner.net
2
4. Introduction
“You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you only know one language, you
live only once.” (Czech proverb)
Many English students complain that they understand English, but don't feel
confident enough to join a conversation and follow it fluently. In this sense,
teachers try to create artificial scenarios for the practice of oral skills in the ESL
classroom; however, speaking activities usually fail due to some common
problems faced by every single teacher all around the world.
Speaking activities require a student to have all eyes on him and
exposure to an audience can often give students stage fright. They may also be
worried about making mistakes, being criticized or losing face in front of the rest
of the class, they think that they lack the strategies necessary to overcome the
problems they face when speaking and they can use in L1. As well, teachers
sometimes face problems in making adequate pairing due to the difference of
age between students and the necessity to create as many opportunities as
possible to expose them to the language, which sometimes is stressful and
counterproductive.
Our presentation will be mainly divided into three parts. Basically, we will
start by introducing the theoretical and pedagogical framework, which shapes
the use of speaking activities in the ESL classroom. Secondly, we will roughly
analyze some common problems faced in our classrooms, which have become
the basis for the design of the activities we intend to show. In this sense, and
taking those problems as starting point, we will interact with the audience in the
development of the activities. These activities are fluency oriented, but also
focused on grammar, vocabulary and accuracy. Moreover, we will also focus on
small talk, which makes conversation more effective and natural. As noticed
with all the previously stated, we make our students bust the frontier of
speaking and going beyond.
3
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Atay, D. 2005. Reflections on the
Cultural Dimension of Language
Teaching. Language and Intercultural
Communication 5, 3, 222-236.
Barrington, E. 2004. Teaching to student
diversity in higher education: how
Multiple Intelligence Theory can help.
Teaching in Higher Education 9:4,
421-434.
Brown, H. D. 1994. Principles of
Language Teaching and Learning.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
Regents.
Bruton, A. 2005. Task-based language
teaching: For the state secondary FL
classroom? Language Learning
Journal 31, 1, 55-68.
Bueno González, A. 2008. “TEFL food
for thought: Some teaching principles
revisited”, in A. Linde López, J.
Santana Lario, C. M. Wallhead
Salway (coords.) in Studies in honour
of Neil Mclaren: a man for all
seasons, 1-16.
Bygate, M. 1987. Speaking. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Craft, A. 2001. Neuro-linguistic
Programming and learning theory.
The Curriculum Journal 12, 1,
125-136.
Davis, P., B. Garside and M. Rinvolucri.
1998. Ways of Doing. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Frank, C. and M. Rinvolucri. 1991.
Grammar in Action Again: Awareness
Activities for Language Learning.
Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques
and principles in language teaching.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Littlewood, W. (1981). Language
teaching. An introduction. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Littlewood, W. 1992. Teaching Oral
Communication: A Methodological
Framework. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lozanov, G. 1999. Methodologies in
Foreign Language Teaching. A brief
historical overview. Available in http://
www.linguatics.com/methods.htm
(02/01/12)
Lynch, T. 1996. Communication in the
Language Classroom. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Puchta, H. and M. Schratz. 1993.
Teaching Teenagers. Canterbury and
Harlow: Pilgrims Longman.
Richards, J.C. & T.S. Rodgers 2001.
A p p r o a c h e s a n d M e t h o d s i n
Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Rinvolucri, M. 1984. Grammar Games.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Savignon, S., & Berns, M. S. (Eds.).
(1984). Initiatives in communicative
language teaching. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
Stern, H.H. 1983. Fundamental
Concepts of Language Teaching.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tejada Molina, G., Mª L. Pérez Cañado
& G. Luque Agulló 2005. “Current
approaches and teaching methods”,
in N. McLaren, D. Madrid & A. Bueno
(eds.) TEFL in Secondary Education.
Granada: Editorial Universidad de
Granada, 156-209.
6
