Page 81 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Developing Speaking

that children pick up chunks easily because unlike adults they do not tend to
analyse the different elements of language.
Developingspeakingskillsbyrepeatingmeaningfulchunkscan effectively
be done through a variety of songs and games. A classic example is a guess-
ing game in which pupils have to guess something by asking yes/no ques-
tions. For instance, the teacher chooses one of the animals which the pupil
can name in English and asks them to guess which animal it is, encouraging
questions, such as ‘Is it a bear?’, ‘Is it a monkey?’ This activity can be adapted
for higher-level learners by encouraging them to ask more demanding ques-
tions: ‘Is it big or small?’, ‘Has it got four legs?’, ‘Is it dangerous?’ (Cameron,
2001). Although they are based on a drilling pattern, guessing games are very
popular with children and can be done in a variety of ways, using mime, hid-
ing objects, etc.

Speaking Activities
In order to develop YLs’ speaking skills
successfully, we should include a vari-
ety of activities with ‘a good balance be-
tween control and creativity, repetition
and real use’ (Brewster et al., 2002, p.
106). In planning activities with YLs, we
also need to keep in mind the right bal-
ance between fluency, i.e. the ability to
use the language to communicate ef-
fectively, and accuracy, which refers to
the production of grammatically correct
spoken or written language, as both are
equally important.
While it is hard to imagine YLs engag-
ing in extensive spontaneous conversa-
tions in English, by exposing them to a
range of repetitive interaction patterns,
we canprovide agood basisand plenty
of opportunities for free and commu- Figure 4.3 Poster of a Monster Created
by YLs
nicative language use. Becker and Roos
(2016) give a good example of how a tra-
ditional YLs’ activity can be modified into a more communicative and cre-
ative task. Both activities require the learners to describe a monster: in the
first activity, learners look at a picture of a monster and describe it using the

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