Encouraging fluent, spontaneous talk

 As we get closer to the publication day for the second edition of The Language Teacher Toolkit, here is another short extract, this one on developing spontaneity. In this much revised chapter, we have combined information and research on two connected areas. First, fluency (not just spoken fluency, but 'cognitive fluency' - broadly speaking the ability to quickly retrieve and use language) and second, spontaneity (being able to produce language creatively, 'on the hoof'). We have taken the research and made suggestions about practice.  

In addition, in this second edition we have delineated more clearly the research sections from the classroom practice sections, signalling them at the beginning of each chapter. The extract below is from the classroom practice half of the chapter.

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Spontaneous talk is when a student takes part in a conversation while ‘thinking on their feet’, without any pre-planning and without relying on any sort of support (e.g. vocabulary lists, talking mats, dictionaries, etc.). In other words, spontaneity means unplanned speech production.

Students vary enormously in their ability to speak spontaneously, depending on a range of factors, notably their natural aptitude, their knowledge and their desire or need to communicate. After three years of teaching some students are already capable of using a narrow repertoire of language creatively with little or no help. We hear them playing with the language with their friends and they come out with unexpected utterances in class and in their books. Other students, the majority, with the same teacher and input, encounter great difficulty speaking spontaneously, even after five years of study.

There is no doubt that, while we must have high aspirations for all, in reality despite our best efforts some will struggle to achieve the spontaneity we would love to see. That said, if we optimised our approach to build greater motivation and to maximise input and practice, it is likely that more students than today would achieve some degree of proficiency and that the most able would be even more fluent. It also helps if we have in mind precisely what we expect nearly all our students to be able to achieve after, say, five years and do everything we can to help them reach this goal.

We have seen that spoken fluency is about the automatisation of speech production; the speed at which words are retrieved from long-term memory. This can only be achieved through practice in retrieving language from under time pressure. So encouraging oral interaction as much as possible is vital, both between students and between the student and the teacher. This needs to develop from simple, structured exchanges of the type we have described in earlier chapters (question-answer, drills, information gaps and so on) towards greater autonomy. But spontaneity can be encouraged from the earliest stages, even with our weakest students through everyday classroom interactions – greeting students at the door, chatting with them in the corridor or the playground. 

Obviously, the process of acquiring spontaneity in L2 speech production needs to be supported by the teaching of large amounts of L2 vocabulary (not just nouns but a wide range of verbs, too), of discourse markers (words like but, and, I mean, well, because) and by plenty of exposure to comprehensible listening input. Writing using social networks can also play a useful role, as it allows students to converse through the written medium at a speed high enough to practice fast L2 processing, but slow enough to allow for self-monitoring.

Below are some suggestions for activities which encourage the development of spontaneity and spoken fluency.

 

1.       ‘Just a Minute’ in pairs. This involves speaking about a topic to a time limit without repeating yourself excessively, coming to a stop or going off topic. If you do any of these things the partner buzzes in and continues talking until the minute is up. With intermediate students you could ask them to talk about what they did yesterday, their holiday plans or their school. With near beginners you could get them to try talking about their family or town.

 

2.       Pair work guessing games. For example, ask partners to jot down five things they did last weekend. Each person has to use yes-no questioning to guess what their partner did. The first to work out all five is the winner. Put a time limit of the task.

 

3.       Scaffolded situational dialogues, i.e. gapped dialogues with options to choose from, but with the instruction to students that they should add more of their own. Alternatively, provide ungapped dialogues, but with some words and chunks underlined. These should be changed by the students.

 

4.       Interactional writing tasks within time limits. Students could engage in social network-style communication with their devices or mimic it in their exercise books at home. The sequences of speech bubble trails now available on smartphones facilitate this:  templates reproducing these would be a useful model to follow. This encourages students to develop quick reactions and lessen their fear of making mistakes.

5.       ‘Sales pitch.’ In this game students are divided into buyers and sellers. The sellers are briefed about what they will sell, and each is given time to prepare their sales pitch. Meanwhile, buyers are given receptive practice in the sort of vocabulary they are likely to hear from the sellers.

Example: Selling holiday accommodation, such as a hotel, campsite or holiday park.

 

The sellers prepare their information about the accommodation, facilities, activities available, excursions and nightlife. They are given a ‘stall’ (desk). The buyers go from stall to stall, listening to the sales pitch, taking notes. The buyers can then compare notes in pairs and feed back to the teacher on their choice.

6.       ‘Messengers.’ Students are placed in teams of 5 or 6. Each team has a describer, two or three messengers and two makers.

q  The describers have a diagram, map or picture to describe.

q  The messengers listen to the describers and relay what they hear to the makers.

q  The makers reproduce the diagram, map or picture based on the description they hear from the messengers.

Because of the complexity of this task, the messengers will need to return to the describers more than once to recall all the information they need. Good sources would be simple town maps, a diagram of a school, a picture of a family, beach scene or house.