Effective strategies to boost speaking ability

1. Effective strategies to boost speaking ability Robin Noudali, MA French

2. Strategies • Backward design performance assessments • Teacher speaks 100% target language • Speaking in the target language is the focus of each day • Classroom routine to facilitate speaking • Vocabulary building activities • Speaking activities • Word lists/word wall • Assessments

3. Backward Designed Perfomance Assessments – why? • What do you want students to be able to do? • Be able to talk about your self and family. • Ask a new acquaintance questions about him/herself. • Talk about weekend plans with a friend. • Talk with your partner about what you did last weekend.

4. Backward design for performance assessment • Design activities that will enable students to do well on the performance assessment. • The desired outcome shifts from doing well on a lesson quiz and unit test to be able to carry a conversation with a friend, understand an authentic text in the target language and be able to write a short note and present information.

5. Change function of quizzes and tests from summative to formative • Free up class time by reducing number of lesson quizzes and unit tests • One quiz per week; one unit test per month x 8 months = 30 quiz days 8 test days per year. • Textbook quizzes may contain vocabulary that doesn’t match your priorities – now you’re teaching something because it’s on a textbook test. • Eliminate “Test and Forget” • Change classroom routine from . . . • Notes • Practice • Quiz • Repeat

6. Change routine to . . . • Notes (students take notes for homework?) • Vocabulary building activities • Practice: speaking activities, writing, reading, listening • Quizzes used as formative assessments • Lessons that flow together with no official stopping point. • Lessons longer than one week blending and recycling new and old vocabulary and grammar. • Quizzes are an official stopping point and signal an end.

7. What is the purpose of assessments? • The goal of classroom instruction and homework should be should be to enable students to speak, read, write and understand the language. • The goal should not be so that students get an A on a vocabulary quiz, lesson quiz or unit test.

8. Backward Designed Performance Assessments – how? • Create performance assessments at longer intervals/less frequency than quizzes/tests • Decide what students need to know in order to do well on the performance assessment • Provide “I can statements” so students know the end game • Create a variety of tasks that will enable students to do well on the performance assessment • Have shorter assessments often to raise the level of concern • You can still have some quizzes/vocab. tests but the focus of each lesson shouldn’t be the quiz at the end. (quiz in the middle of a lesson)

9. Teacher uses 100% target language • Use • Gestures • Cognates • Exaggeration • White board in English for important information

10. Make speaking focus of the classroom • This requires effort on the teacher’s part! • Require students to use language they already know • Post common questions on wall • Give students lists of useful expressions they can refer to • Build speaking into each day’s activities • Quick share with partner • Question cards • Information gap • Surveys • Target-language only dedicated two-three times per week • Class vs class competition • Set unit goal as speaking assessment

11. Classroom Routine • Seating arrangement to facilitate speaking activities • Place desks in groups of four • Makes it easier to partner up • Makes it easier to identify who does not have a partner • If talking is a problem, change student’s seat immediately.

12. Daily Warm-up to facilitate speaking activities • La Sonnerie • Have a warm up to review previous material or to activate prior knowledge for the day’s lesson • Ask students questions from la Sonnerie • Ask students general questions • Speaking activity • Students ask each other the questions from la Sonnerie • Project the same questions teacher was asking students. Students ask their partner (start with French, later lessons, prompts are in English = Qu’est-ce que tu as envie de faire cesoir? Ask your partner what he feels like doing tonight)

13. Lesson • Teach lesson • Practice • Incorporate authentic writing/reading/listening activities • Exit card • (on back of worksheet)

14. Vocabulary building • Students need a lot of vocabulary to have something to say (personal vocab. Terrill) • Review vocab. in daily warm up • Flash cards (student created) • Quizlet • Eiffel tower game • Dice game • Category game • Readings that use the same vocabulary (inauthentic and authentic) • Power points with vocabulary – reuse often

15. Helpful words and expressions • Words and expressions that help the conversation: • Really? • Are you sure? • That’s crazy! • That’s true • That’s good • Words of encouragement • Word wall • Adjective list, thematic vocabulary

16. Speaking Activities • Question Cards • Using ‘Tasks’ • Surveys • Information gap activities • Write three questions you can ask your partner. • Role play – present task, five minutes to prepare, do in front of the class. Each student must interact and cannot answer in one word answers. • Role play/conversation not in front of the class. Free form/performance assessment. Give students specific guidelines of requirements. Tell students you are listening and will randomly grade groups of students and participation points. • Dedicated target language-only speaking time

17. Dedicated Speaking Time • Dedicate five minutes per day where students speak only in the target language. • Make it a competition between classes to see which class can talk the longest without anyone speaking English. • Hand out Ne parle pas anglais cards (Don’t speak English) to anyone you hear speaking English. • Students can get rid of card if they catch someone else speaking English. • At the end of the five minutes, everyone with a Ne parle pas anglais card must come up in front of the class and speak French on any topic for 30 seconds

18. Question Cards

19. Tasks • Students work in groups of three • Each student is given a different ‘task’ • Students can rotate tasks after each ‘round’ • All answers must be in complete sentences. • Examples: • Student 1 asks a yes or no question • Student 2 answers positively • Student 3 answers netatively • Do you like pizza?

20. Tasks • Have you seen Divergence? • Do you study after you eat dinner? • Other examples: • Opinions – student 1 states an opinion. Student 2 agrees, 3 disagrees • Frequency – student 1 says something he or someone else does. Student 2 always does it, 3 never does it. • Today, yesterday, tomorrow – student 1 says something he/she is doing now. Student 2 did it yesterday, 3 is going to do it.

21. Choose an answer

22. Other activities • Circumlocution • Give vocab cards to students. • They must explain the word – other students guess • Start with day’s warm up • Practice as a class with teacher • Go over several descritipns • Students work with group • Recycle words often • Draw pictures – retell story, etc. • Rejoinders • Don’t just answer ‘yes’, but add rejoinder: yes, of course, all the time, I’d love to, that sounds great! That’s true! You’re kidding! • Battleship – to form sentences in a structured manner • Card games

23. Other activities • French chat club • Padlet • Padlet I • Padlet 2 • Padlet 3

24. Weekly formative/summative assessments (20 seconds long) • Give students the prompt • Students call Google Voice or the classroom desk phone and leave a message. • Can be done in the classroom or for homework. • Students respond to the prompt and ask a question.

25. Google Voice • Thinking about the two poems by Verlaine (Il pleuredansmoncoeurand Les sanglots longs des violons) and le Dormeur du val by Rimbaud, tell me which one you prefer and why. Ask me a question (remember, lequel means which one) • Les motsutiles (use your adjective list): • Plus – more la fin – the ending le ton – the tone • Moins – less le son –the sound

26. Click the grid of dots in the upper right corner of Google page. Click more. Click even more.

27. Grading Rubrics • You must have clear grading rubrics • Can student be understood by a sympathetic native speaker? • Does pronunciation or other mistakes impede understanding? • Are there some errors that really bug you? • Rubrics should enable students with exceptional speaking ability to receive higher than an A. • If students meet the requirements = 90% • If students exceed = 100%

28. Sample Rubric

29. Grading Rubric example

30. How to grade for interpersonal performance • Grade periodically while students speaking with a partner • Over one-week period, as students are doing various speaking activities, circulate and grade three groups of students (six students per day x five days = 30 students – spread over longer days if nec.) • Have several speaking activities for students that will take up 30 minutes. Spread speaking assessments over two days one week apart. • Advantages: • the room isn’t quiet • Other students are occupied • Disadvantages: • Some students won’t do the speaking activities because you’re not watching them.

31. Sample performance assessment • There is a new TV show in France about the lives of American teenagers. A talent scout has asked you to do a biographical recording about yourself. He will listen to it to see if you would make an interesting character on the show. You really want this gig, but you think your real life is too boring. Make an outlandish recording about yourself to help you get the job.

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34. Resources Langenscheidt Sue Fenton