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This unit helps teachers understand the importance of teaching productive skills such as speaking and writing. There are two main reasons people communicate with each other; to communicate a need or a desire.
Two main focuses when it comes to speaking is accuracy and fluency. Accuracy focuses on the correct usage of grammar whereas fluency focuses on the ability to speak without stopping to think. Accuracy is usually addressed in the study phase of the ESA method whereas fluency is usually addressed in the activate phase of the ESA method. Accuracy and fluency have equal importance. There are three types of speaking activities that address either accuracy, fluency or both. Controlled activities such as drilling and prompting which addresses accuracy and typically used in the study phase. Guided activities such as model dialogues and guided role-play which addresses accuracy and fluency to a certain extent and typically used in both the study and activate phase. Creative communication activities such as free role-play, discussions, debates and simulation which addresses fluency and are typically used in the activate phase.
It is important for a teacher to create a need or desire for the students, make sure they have the language knowledge and use pair work for activities to allow interaction and reduce stress for students. These three aspects need to be in place before a teacher can expect the students to start any of the activities in class. Furthermore, techniques to encourage interaction from students include pair-work or group work, plenty of controlled and guided practice before fluency activities, careful planning and allowing students time to think about what they are going to say.
Teaching writing skills involves teaching handwriting, spelling, layout, punctuation, situational and creative writing. Handwriting tends to be personal. Spelling can create confusion and problems for students when the words are similar sounding. Layout and punctuation are different for various languages, for example, some languages do not have punctuation and as such a student learning English will find it challenging to learn all the punctuations. postcards, formal letters and emails are examples of situational writing whereas stories, dialogues and poetry are examples of creative writing.
Using games in the classroom is an effective way to provide controlled practice and free practice material. A game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun and usually has a teaching point. Games can either be of a competitive nature of co-operative nature and can be further categorized as communicative or linguistic.
Both speaking and writing are crucial to the process of learning and producing a new language.
