Recommendations
Teach Fours Skills: Writing, Reading, Listening and Speaking
Instructors may consider integrating four skills into the lesson and curriculum rather than relying solely on activities designed to develope oral proficiency. For example, begin the class with vocabulary building focusing on pertinent phrases, expressions, and terms of the lesson. Provide students with handouts, or allow student to write down the key vocabulary and definitions, meanings, and associative terms in both L1 and L2. Writing requires more attention than passive listening; it breaks down complex ideas, and reinforces the new information, which increases retention. The point is that you want the students to understand and remember the vocabulary therefore simply presenting new vocabulary without adequate explanation and clarification fails to provide students with the necessary time, thought and reflection to process, digest and retain the new words. Similarly, drawing on four skills; reading, writing, listening, and speaking provides students with the opportunity to work independently to evaluate their progress in understanding, replicating, and reproducing the language forms taught. The teacher may also choose to vary the type of activity from task based, to content based or process based. When using task based activities, the tasks should be assigned with different objectives (focusing on fluency, accuracy, content, reading comprehension, writing, grammar, listening, problem solving, discussion strategies).
Combine Instructor Lead and Student Centered Approaches
While communicative competence is often measured by the ability to engage in natural conversation, for lower level learners the notion of participating in a one hour group discussion in the L2 may be unrealistic, inappropriate and ineffective for language development. This type of lesson requires advanced vocabulary, sufficient knowledge of grammar structures and motivation to express ideas in the L2. For lower level learners, combing instructor lead and student centered approaches can be achieved by shifting from teacher presentation to pair work, group work and individual work. Incorporating, pair, group and class work also allows students to engage with others, sharing information, and practicing the communicative skills of listening and speaking.
Don’t Abandon Grammar and Individual Work
For students accustomed to a structured learning environment, the ability to self assess progress through independent tasks fosters a sense of self-proficiency, self-regulation and likewise informs the students of the learning goals he/she has achieved through the lesson. Reading comprehension tasks, grammar, vocabulary, written tasks and listening tasks with closed answers incorporates traditional learning strategies which students are accustomed to and well versed in performing, yet can also reinforce the themes, vocabulary and grammar structures taught in the lesson.
Monitor Pair and Group Work
Monitor the students during pair and group speaking activities. Circulating around the classroom creates the sense that the students are being watched. The notion of surveillance will reduce L1 use and direct students to the assignment at hand. But don’t just walk around; stop and observe each pair or group. Listen and provide clarification/feedback/error correction. Again, making students aware of your presence reinforces the purpose and objective of the assignment. Furthermore, ensure the activities don’t go on too long by setting time limits at the commencement of the activities. To wrap up, call on students to demonstrate what they have practiced to the class. This is most effective when students are informed at the outset that they will have to present their practice to their peers. Students may appreciate the mild social pressure to perform competently motivating learners to concentrate on the assigned activity and put forward their best performance.