Missing ones

✅ Polished Full Lecture Transcript

🎵 [Intro Music]

Lecturer: Good evening.
Students: Good evening, ma’am.
Lecturer: We’ll wait about three more minutes — it's 5:55 now and we have around 17 participants. We'll start the lecture shortly.

Okay, we’ll begin now. There are 18 of you currently online — I'm not sure how many have registered. Can you all hear me clearly?

Students: Yes, ma’am.

I’m using an external mic and wasn’t sure if it’s working.

Now, the course unit we are going to focus on is Material Development.

Let me ask you this:
🔹 What do you hope to learn from this course?
🔹 Please note, I want this to be interactive. Teaching is a two-way process, so I expect active participation — just like your seniors and your juniors currently do in their lectures.

You’re encouraged to ask questions or seek clarification at any time.

Let me ask again:
🔹 When you hear “Material Development,” what comes to your mind?
🔹 What do you think you will learn in this course?

Student: Teaching and learning materials… visual aids…

Lecturer: Yes, and?

Student: Books, madam?

Lecturer: Yes, books too. But what’s the relevance of books to this course unit?

🔹 What will you be able to do by the end of this course?

Student: Use appropriate materials for teaching?

Lecturer: Good. But it’s not only about using materials — you should learn to design them. That is one of the main outcomes.

You will learn to design effective course materials. Course materials include:

Pupil’s textbooks
Workbooks
Teacher’s guides
Audio for listening lessons
Other supplementary materials

You will also learn how to evaluate current course materials — that means you will analyze units from existing course books and even evaluate full books. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of published materials, you’ll develop the skills to design better ones.

Another key focus is how to:

Use course books effectively in the classroom
Adapt course books (since no course book is perfect)
Add supplementary materials where needed
Follow guidelines for designing English language teaching materials

So our first topic is: Designing Effective Course Materials.

👥 Group Activity:

Now I will divide you into four groups. Your task is to discuss:

📌 What factors should be considered when preparing a pupil’s textbook?
Think about your experiences with current books and their shortcomings. What qualities would make a course book effective?

You’ll have 15 minutes for this.

📢 Group Reports:

Room 1 – Tone & Budhika

Activities should cover all four language skills: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking.
Comprehension lessons should include pictures for better understanding.
Vocabulary sections at the end of each unit will help learners grasp word meanings and usage.

Room 2 – Shali, Sind, Danika, Danushka

Books must be age-appropriate.
There should be a logical flow across grades (e.g., Grade 4, 5, and 6).
The appearance of the book matters — it should look appealing to attract learners.

Room 3 – Amina, Azra, Reno

Content must be detailed and clear.
Lessons should be relevant to the learners’ age and competency levels.
Materials should be creative, realistic, and include interesting topics.
Include interactive elements like discussions, multimedia, quizzes, and real-world examples.

Room 4 – Hini & Group

Texts must match the learner’s age group.
Add tools for progress tracking like self-assessments, tests, and quizzes.
Provide supplementary resources such as audio, extra practice sheets, and online activities.
Include cultural content to broaden learners’ global understanding.

🎯 Why This Group Task?

Why did I ask you to do this before the lecture?

Student: To brainstorm and activate our schema?

Lecturer: Exactly. It:

Activates your thinking
Helps you absorb the content better when I teach
Lets you connect with others’ perspectives
You should use similar methods with your own students. It enhances understanding and develops thinking skills — something often neglected in our education system.

📘 Competency-Based Course Materials

Now let’s look at Competency-Based Education (CBE).

In Sri Lankan government schools, English course materials are based on:

8 Competencies listed by the NIE (National Institute of Education)
87 Competency Levels

📝 According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary:
Competence is “the ability to do something well; a skill needed for a particular job or task.”

We will now begin evaluating lesson units from different course books. This is essential for your learning and will be part of the exam as a compulsory question.

So write this down quickly — use abbreviations and shorthand if necessary — and let me know when you’re done.

📚 Short Notes for Exam Preparation

🔑 Key Concepts from the Lecture:

1. Course Objectives:

Understand and design teaching-learning materials
Evaluate existing course materials
Use course books effectively in class
Adapt materials to suit learners
Integrate supplementary resources

2. What Are Course Materials?

Pupil’s textbooks
Workbooks
Teacher’s Guides
Listening audio
Flashcards, visuals, digital tools

3. Evaluating Course Books:

Identify strengths and weaknesses
Assess alignment with age, competencies, and learning goals

4. Designing Pupil Texts: Factors to Consider

Covers all 4 skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening
Age and grade-appropriate content
Clear instructions and layout
Visual appeal (images, colors, format)
Vocabulary support and definitions
Progress tracking (self-assessment, quizzes)
Supplementary materials (online, audio, print)
Cultural relevance and real-world themes
Logical flow between grades
Interactive and engaging elements

5. Competency-Based Approach:

Based on NIE’s 8 Competencies and 87 Competency Levels
Focuses on building skills and knowledge step-by-step
Course books should align with national curriculum goals

6. Pedagogical Practice:

Use pre-tasks like group brainstorming to activate thinking
Encourage student participation
Adapt materials to suit context and learner needs

✅ Polished Lecture Transcript (Part 2)

Lecturer:
Madam, I guess most of you are taking screenshots. That’s fine, but I would recommend that you write things down — it’ll help you understand and remember the material better. I’ll ask you to take screenshots for some examples or slides that are too lengthy to write down.

Also, please feel free to ask questions if you need clarification.

Student: Okay, ma'am — finished writing.

🎵 [Music]

📘 Competency-Based Course Materials

Lecturer:
Competencies describe a learner’s ability to apply language and other skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, in everyday real-life situations.

That’s why it is essential to include authentic materials and tasks in course books.

For example:

Reading an advertisement
Listening to a song
Doing a bank transaction
Bargaining in a shop

These are real-world tasks. The idea is not just to teach about language, but to focus on what students can do with it.

✅ In Competency-Based Teaching, the goal is not just knowledge of grammar or vocabulary, but the ability to use language for communication.

📋 NIE’s 8 Competencies

Take a screenshot of the following — I will also send this to you and upload it on LMS. These are the 8 competencies identified by the National Institute of Education (NIE):

Listening & Pronunciation – Identify the sounds of English.
Writing Mechanics – Use correct letter formation, punctuation, etc.
Active Listening & Responding – Understand and respond to speech.
Vocabulary Development – Use vocabulary precisely and appropriately.
Reading Comprehension – Extract relevant information from texts.
Grammar Usage – Use grammar accurately and effectively.
Creative Written Communication – Use English innovatively in writing.
Speaking Fluency – Communicate clearly, confidently, concisely.

You can take a screenshot now.

📌 About Curriculum Reform

Next year, Sri Lanka plans to introduce a new English curriculum, aligned with 21st-century skills. It’s modular — each term will have 2 modules (6 modules per year). A literature component will be included.

It will start with Grades 6 and 10, and is currently being piloted in selected schools. The implementation may be affected by elections or policy changes.

🗂️ Course Book Content Essentials

A good course book should cover:

4 Language Skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing
Language Areas:

Grammar
Vocabulary
Language Functions (e.g. greeting, apologizing, requesting info)

🔸 Pronunciation is part of speaking skill.

🔗 Integration of Skills

Effective materials should integrate skills in authentic, connected sequences.

Example:

Students read a job advertisement → discuss job pros and cons → write a CV or fill out an application form.
➤ This combines reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

🚫 Simply reading and answering comprehension questions is not integration.

🤝 Interaction & Communication

Materials should promote student interaction, simulating real-life communication.

To make communication authentic, learners should:

Have something to say
Have someone to say it to
Care about the outcome

🧠 Learning to Learn

Modern education focuses on “learning how to learn.”

Materials should teach students strategies like:

Inferring meaning of words from context
Identifying the main idea
Making inferences while reading or listening

I’ve prepared strategy resources for reading and listening. I’ll share those with you — useful for both you and your students.

📖 Authentic Materials

Use real-life examples:

Reading/listening: notices, news, instructions
Speaking/writing: conversations, messages, notes

These mirror actual language use.

🔄 Structure, Coherence & Progression

Units should be logically sequenced.
Lessons should reinforce prior learning (recycling grammar and vocabulary).
Course books across grades (e.g., Grade 5, 6, 7) should connect logically.

Each unit should clearly state objectives at the beginning — what learners are expected to do by the end (i.e., intended learning outcomes).

📝 Summary Notes for Exam Revision

🎯 Course Focus:

Design, adapt, evaluate and use ELT course materials.
Emphasis on authentic, interactive, and skill-integrated tasks.
Align with competency-based education (CBE) framework.

📚 NIE’s 8 Competencies:

Listening & pronunciation
Writing mechanics
Active listening and response
Vocabulary use
Reading comprehension
Grammar in communication
Creative written expression
Fluent and clear speaking

🔑 Key Features of Effective ELT Materials:

Age-appropriate
Competency-aligned
Authentic (real-life tasks)
Integrates 4 skills
Covers grammar, vocabulary, and functions
Culturally relevant
Promotes interaction and communication
Develops learning strategies
Encourages learner independence
Structured progression across units and grades
Includes tools for assessment and tracking

🧠 Learning Strategies:

Inferring word meaning
Identifying the topic
Recognizing main ideas
Making inferences from text/audio

🧩 Integration of Skills Example:

Topic: Jobs

Read job ads (Reading)
Discuss roles (Speaking + Listening)
Write application (Writing)

✅ Polished Full Transcript – Lecture on ELT Material Design (Part 3)

🎵 [Music]

Lecturer:
Okay. English Language Teaching (ELT) materials should be attractive. One of you already mentioned that the physical appearance of the materials matters. They should be user-friendly and durable. The quality of the paper should be good — it shouldn’t tear easily when turning the pages.

Additionally, the material must have clear instructions for both learners and teachers. Instructions should be written in a language that is appropriate for the learners’ age and proficiency levels. When we examine some course books later, you’ll notice that:

Some sections lack instructions altogether,
Others have confusing or incorrect instructions.

So, clarity and appropriateness of language are key.

📘 Flexibility in ELT Materials

ELT materials should be flexible. They should allow teachers and learners to make choices — for example, presenting alternative tasks for learners to select based on interest or level. Unfortunately, our current materials often lack this flexibility.

😄 Including Humor

It’s very important to include humor in your teaching materials. Why?

Students: To break the monotony or boring parts of the lesson?

Lecturer: Exactly. Humor:

Breaks monotony
Reduces anxiety (i.e., lowers the affective filter)
Creates a relaxed, friendly environment
Strengthens the teacher-student bond
Improves motivation

Jokes can also help develop inferencing skills, as the punch line often involves implied meaning.

Example: A student hears, “This is All India Radio.” He thinks the radio was made in India. The humor lies in misunderstanding the literal vs. implied meaning — this is inference.

📚 Teachable & Enjoyable Materials

Materials should be teachable — teachers should be able to handle them without difficulty. Good ELT materials should also be:

Interesting
Enjoyable
Motivating
They should encourage students to attend regularly and participate actively.

🤝 Learner Autonomy & Employability Skills

Good ELT materials should promote learner autonomy and develop employability skills, such as:

Teamwork
Decision-making
Critical thinking

Many employers say the issue isn’t unemployment, but lack of employability. Even first-class graduates may lack essential soft skills. Language classes can address this through group work, discussions, and tasks that mirror workplace situations.

When you evaluate a course book, note whether it includes any features that promote employability.

I’ll do a short presentation on employability skills in ELT later.

🧠 Conditions for Language Learning

There are three conditions essential for language learning. ELT materials should ensure these are present:

Exposure to the language (via listening and reading)
Opportunities to use the language meaningfully (interactive speaking and writing)
Motivation to participate and learn

For this to happen, content must be interesting, enjoyable, and learner-friendly.

✅ General Guidelines Recap

We’ve now completed the general guidelines for preparing effective course materials. Next, we’ll focus on how to design materials that help develop each of the 8 competencies defined by the National Institute of Education (NIE).

🎧 Developing Competencies 1 & 3: Listening Skills

These two competencies are:

Identifying sounds of English (pronunciation)
Engaging in active listening and responding appropriately

Let’s discuss selecting listening texts:

Lecturer:
When designing a course book, what factors must we consider when choosing listening texts?

Students:

Texts should be appropriate for age and proficiency level
Topics should be familiar and interesting
Texts should be authentic (e.g., announcements, songs, ads, news)

Yes — all correct! We must use real-world listening texts where possible.

🎯 Listening Activities

What listening tasks can be included?

Students:

Gap-fill (fill in the blanks)
Matching
Designing titles for listened texts
Listening comprehension questions (MCQs, Wh- questions)
Dictation
True/False
Binary choice

These tasks target various micro-skills of listening. We will discuss this more next time.

🛑 Closing

We’re out of time, so I’ll cover selecting listening texts in more detail in our next session.

Lecturer:
Any questions?

Students:
No, ma’am.

Lecturer:
Okay. Are you all teachers?

Students:
Some of us are teachers, others are not.

Lecturer:
Alright. Thank you and good night. God bless you!

Students:
Good night, madam!

📚 Detailed Long Study Note – Material Development (Part 3)

📌 Key Qualities of Effective ELT Materials

Feature	Why It’s Important
Attractive appearance	Engages learners visually; improves motivation
Durable & user-friendly	Materials should be strong and easy to handle
Clear instructions	Helps learners and teachers use material confidently
Written in simple English	Appropriate to learners’ age and proficiency

🔁 Flexibility

Offer alternative tasks
Allow student choice
Adjust to learner needs

😂 Importance of Humor

Benefit	Explanation
Reduces anxiety	Lowers the affective filter in the classroom
Creates bond	Shared laughter connects teachers and students
Develops inference skills	Learners understand implied meaning in jokes
Improves motivation	Learners are more likely to enjoy learning

✅ Teachable Materials

Easy to deliver for teachers
Include engaging tasks
Support autonomous learning
Encourage regular attendance

🧠 Promoting Employability

Include activities that build:

Teamwork
Decision-making
Critical thinking
Problem-solving

Check if the course book integrates these skills.

🔑 Conditions for Language Learning

Exposure – to real, contextual English
Meaningful Use – via speaking/writing tasks
Motivation – from engaging, relevant content

🎧 Designing Listening Sections

Competency Focus:

Pronunciation
Active listening & response

Selection Criteria:

Level-appropriate (age + proficiency)
Relevant topics
Interesting content
Authentic sources (ads, radio, songs, announcements)

Activities:

Gap-fill
Matching
Designing titles
Listening comprehension
Dictation
True/False
Binary choice
Multiple-choice questions (MCQ)

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3 August

✅ Polished Full Transcript

🎵 [Music]

Lecturer: Good evening. Can you hear me? Good evening, Madam. Great. We’ll start now—there are about 13 of us, and it’s 5:15. Last week, we began developing listening skills in the course book. Today’s topic: Selecting Listening Texts.

Previously, we discussed the micro-skills of listening. Today, we focus on the criteria for selecting listening texts.

🎧 1. Language Level

Texts should offer comprehensible input (Krashen, 1977): mostly familiar language, with some new vocabulary and structures to aid acquisition. Ensure learners understand most, but not all, of it.

⏱ 2. Length

Avoid texts that are too long or too short:

Too long → learners lose concentration.
Too short → not enough time to adapt or catch the message.
Match length with the activity’s complexity (e.g., multiple‑choice vs. binary-choice tasks).

🧠 3. Content

Select interesting, varied, and age-appropriate texts—dialogues, interviews, songs, announcements, ads, narratives. Prefer authentic materials: real-life examples plus visuals to support unfamiliar topics.

🗣 4. Features of Spontaneous Speech

Include features found in natural speech:

Fillers: “you know,” “I mean”
Hesitations, false starts, repetitions, contracted forms (I’m)
Redundancy
All enhance authenticity.

👂 5. Micro-skills Development

Listening texts should train learners to:

Discriminate English sounds
Relate different parts of text and predict upcoming content
Infer word meaning from context

They should also be able to:

Identify main ideas
Recall and use language from input (e.g., notes, messages)
Listen and respond appropriately

✅ 6. Principles of Listening Tasks

Tasks should:

Develop listening skills
Build listening strategies
Be engaging and achievable
Provide success experiences
Focus on comprehension and language learning (vocabulary, grammar)

🎯 7. Listening Activities

Learners were divided into groups to brainstorm. Sample activities included:

Listening to a paragraph and answering comprehension questions
Draw what you hear (guided drawing)
Summarizing the passage in own words
Reordering steps (e.g., making a salad)
Listening to a dialogue and answering questions
Dictation, fill-in-the-blanks, true/false, MCQs
Reconstructing text from key words
Mapping tasks, ordering sentences

⏳ 8. Lesson Stages

Listening lessons should follow:

Pre-listening (activate schema, visuals, question prompts)
While-listening (core tasks: discrimination, comprehension, note-taking)
Post-listening (discussion, summaries, role‑play, writing)

📌 Pre-listening Tasks

Examples:

Show visuals and guess topic (e.g., tsunami images)
Brainstorm existing knowledge
Provide an opening sentence for students to generate questions
Guess answers after first listen-through

📚 While-listening Activities

Minimal pairs for pronunciation
Filling charts, grids, forms
Answering varied comprehension questions
Dictation & note-taking for identifying key content
Oral cloze: listening to fill in missing words in a spoken text
Jigsaw listening: small-group puzzle activity, reconstructing segments
Dictocomp: listening twice, summarizing, then comparing with model

🗣️ Post-listening Activities

Group discussion or debating issues from the text
Performing role-plays or dialogues
Writing compositions related to theme
These are rarely found in typical coursebooks but important for comprehensive skill development.

🔊 9. Developing Speaking Skills (Competencies 1 & 8)

Micro-skills to target:

Pronunciation (especially challenging sounds for Sri Lankan learners—e.g., /p/ vs. /f/, /s/ vs. /ʃ/)
Coherence & cohesion in speaking
Fluency: intelligible, accurate, minimal hesitation
Appropriateness: choosing language fitting context and participant roles
Turn-taking, conversation management, asking for clarification

🗣️ Speaking Activities

Examples for inclusion in a coursebook:

Role-play and dialogue building
Impromptu speeches, debates, discussions
Picture description tasks
Problem-solving group tasks
Interactive pair/group activities

🎯 Aims of Teaching Speaking

Develop oral fluency and expressiveness by:

Guiding learners to use varied language functions (e.g., requesting, greeting, offering, apologizing)
Promoting interactive communication over rehearsal of isolated sentences
Encouraging authentic use of language (information-gap activities, real dialogue)

📌 Principles of Speaking Activities

Create purposeful need to communicate (with information-gap tasks)
Use interaction-based tasks: composed speech (monologue) isn’t enough
Encourage feedback, responses, and authentic speech flows
Spiral activities from controlled to free conversation

⏰ Closing

We are out of time. We’ll continue with speaking activities next time.
Good night and God bless!

📚 Detailed Study Notes

🎶 1. Selecting Listening Texts

Language level: Comprehensible input (familiar + some novel language)
Length: Moderate – not too long or short; match task type
Content: Interesting, age-appropriate, real‑life dialogues, ads, announcements
Speech realism: Include fills, hesitations, contractions
Micro-skills: Sound discrimination, inference, prediction

📋 2. Task Design Principles

Focus on skill development + language learning
Tasks should be engaging, scaffolded, and confidence-building
Include pre-, while-, post- listening phases

🛠 Pre-Listening Tips

Use visuals, brainstorming, guiding questions
Provide prompts to stir interest/inquiry

🎧 While-Listening Strategies

Use minimal pair drills (bet/pet etc.)
Chart/fill‑form activities, comprehension Qs, dictation
Activities like note-taking, oral cloze, jigsaw, dictocomp

💬 Post-Listening Tasks

Discussion, debate, role-play, writing tasks
Ideal for reinforcing content and encouraging active usage

🔊 3. Speaking Skills Development

Focus on pronunciation, especially L1 interference sound distinctions
Encourage coherent, cohesive, fluent, and appropriate speech
Use interactive speaking activities: role-plays, debates, impromptu talks
Aim to develop real communication, not just rehearsed sentences

🎯 Speaking Activity Principles

Use information-gap tasks to create communicative need
Promote real drop-in conversation, feedback exchange
Develop fluency through extended chunks (beyond single phrases)

🔑 Summary: Lesson Stages & Key Objectives

Pre-listening

Activate schema, introduce topic
Set purpose and expectations

While-listening

Monitor comprehension
Practice micro-skills: sound discrimination, note-taking

Post-listening

Encourage learners to use and respond to content
Extend learning through speech and writing

📝 Tips for the Exam

Be clear on how to select listening texts and apply task design principles
Be able to design an entire listening lesson: pre‑, while‑, post
Be able to explain and justify speaking activities with reference to micro-skills and interaction principles
Link all activities to purposeful communication, authenticity, learner engagement, and skill development

[Music]

Lecturer: Good evening. Can you hear me?

Participants: Good evening, Madam.

Lecturer: Alright, we can start now. It’s 5:15 and we have about 13 participants. Last week, we started looking at how to develop the listening skill in the course books we write. Today’s topic is: Selecting Listening Texts.

Previously, we discussed which micro-skills of listening we want to develop. Today, we’re going to focus on what type of listening texts we should select and the criteria we must consider.

1. Language Level

The text should be of the right level for the learners. Listening is a valuable source of comprehensible input (Krashen, 1977). That means language should contain elements that are already known to the learners, plus some that are unfamiliar—language just slightly above the learners’ current proficiency.

2. Length of Text

Text length should be appropriate—not too long or too short.

If it’s too long, learners may find it difficult to concentrate.
If it’s too short, learners won’t have time to tune into the voice or topic before it ends.
The length should also depend on the activity. For instance, multiple-choice activities need longer texts, while binary-choice tasks can use shorter texts.

3. Content

The content should be interesting and varied. Include a variety of texts: dialogues, conversations, interviews, songs, announcements, advertisements, and narratives.

As far as possible, use authentic texts—the kind of listening material learners encounter in real life. Also, use visual support when topics are unfamiliar. For example, a picture related to the topic can help learners understand the context more easily.

4. Features of Spontaneous Speech

Provide listening texts that include natural speech features:

Fillers: “you know,” “I mean”
Hesitations: “uh,” “um”
False starts: beginning one way, then changing direction
Repetition and redundancy
Contracted forms like “I’m,” “can’t”

These enhance authenticity.

5. Authenticity

Use texts learners are likely to hear in real life: announcements, ads, songs, short talks, discussions.

6. Micro-Skills of Listening

Listening materials should help develop:

Discrimination of English sounds
Ability to relate one part of a text to another
Prediction of upcoming content
Inference of unfamiliar word meanings using contextual clues
Identification of the general idea
Selection of important information
Memory and usage of the information (e.g., note-taking or message-passing)
Appropriate response to different text types

7. Principles of Listening Tasks

Tasks should:

Develop listening skills
Build listening strategies
Be engaging and promote a sense of success
Focus on both comprehension and language learning (vocabulary, grammar, etc.)

8. Sample Listening Activities (From Group Work)

Group 1: Listening comprehension — listen to a paragraph and answer questions.

Group 2: Guided drawing — teacher describes an object or scene, students draw accordingly.

Group 3: Summarization — students listen and summarize in their own words.

Group 4: Reordering steps — listen to instructions, rearrange steps (e.g., making a salad).

Additional suggestions:

Dictation
Fill-in-the-blanks
Multiple choice
True/false
Reconstructing jumbled sentences
Mapping activities
Completing grids or layouts

9. Stages of a Listening Lesson

Pre-listening: Activate background knowledge, set the scene.
While-listening: Engage in comprehension activities.
Post-listening: Discuss, write, role-play, or reflect on the content.

Pre-listening Tasks Examples:

Show visuals and predict the topic.
Brainstorm what learners already know.
Give the first sentence and have students generate questions.

10. While-Listening Tasks

Minimal pair practice (e.g., "bit" vs. "bet")
Completing grids/charts/forms
Answering WH and MCQ questions
Dictation
Lecturette: take notes, then answer questions
Oral cloze: listen and fill in missing words
Jig-saw listening: each group listens to one part and reconstructs the story
Dictocomp: listen twice, take notes, reconstruct the text collaboratively

11. Post-Listening Tasks

Class discussions
Debates
Writing dialogues or acting them out
Compositions on the topic

Speaking Skills: Competencies 1 & 8

Micro-skills of Speaking:

Pronunciation (especially problem sounds for Sri Lankan learners)
Coherence and cohesion
Fluency (clear, accurate, and reasonably paced speech)
Accuracy
Turn-taking and conversation management

Sample Speaking Activities:

Dialogues
Impromptu speeches
Debates and discussions
Picture descriptions
Problem-solving tasks

Aims of Teaching Speaking:

To gain fluency and accuracy
To help learners express themselves clearly and confidently
To use appropriate language functions (e.g., apologizing, greeting, requesting)

Principles of Teaching Speaking:

Create the need to communicate
Base activities on information gap principles
Use interaction-based activities
Promote extended chunks of language
Encourage feedback and authentic exchanges

Lecturer: That’s all for today. We’ll continue with speaking activities next time.

Participants: Good night, Madam.

Lecturer: Good night. God bless you all!

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 August

📝 POLISHED TAPESCRIPT

[Music]

Lecturer:
Okay, we’ll start the lecture now. There are about 14 of you, so let’s begin.

Last week, we began discussing how to develop the speaking skill through coursebook activities. Today, we will explore specific speaking activities that can be used to develop learners' speaking skills.

🔶 1. Simulation

Lecturer:
Have you heard of this activity—simulation?

A simulation is a classroom replication of real-life events. Students assume roles with specific functions, and the event has an unknown outcome. It's a team activity that encourages decision-making and problem-solving. The outcome is open-ended, which makes it unpredictable and realistic.

It’s an authentic activity based on real-life communication.

🧑‍🏫 Sample Simulation:

Situation: A trial.
Characters: Police officer (stern tone), a child (e.g., 7-year-old character), etc.
Each student must play their role realistically—even adults must sound like a child if assigned such a character.

📸 Take a screenshot of the sample slide if available.

✅ Benefits of Simulation:

Builds students’ confidence
Encourages communication in groups
Develops employability skills: teamwork, decision-making, problem-solving
Enhances social interaction
Encourages use of extended chunks of discourse
Promotes use of context-appropriate language

🔶 2. Role Play

Lecturer:
Next, we have Role Play—a widely used speaking activity.

Students take on different roles in a given situation and use language suitable for the context. Context includes:

Physical setting
Relationship between participants
Linguistic context

🧑‍🏫 Sample Role Play Situations:

You give a bus conductor a Rs. 100 note. When you get down, he denies receiving it and refuses to give the correct balance.
You order tea in a hotel. The waiter brings a cup with ants floating in it.

📸 Take a screenshot.

✅ Benefits of Role Play:

Encourages creativity
Enhances speaking fluency
Practices language functions: apologizing, suggesting, complaining, advising, etc.
Provides exposure to real-life scenarios
Encourages student interaction and collaboration

🔶 3. Role Adoption

A student adopts a new identity—it can be a public figure, a professional like a lawyer, or a character from a reading text.

Other students ask questions and try to guess the role.

✅ Benefits:

Practice in interrogative structures
Promotes interaction
Encourages guessing as a learning strategy

🔶 4. Shared Information Activity

Students work in pairs. Each student is given a card with partial information and must interact with their partner to complete the information gap.

🧑‍🏫 Sample Activity:

Mr. Jones is visiting Sri Lanka.

Card A has: Name and nationality
Card B has: Hotel and purpose of visit
Each student must ask and answer questions to fill the blanks.

📸 Take screenshots of both cards.

✅ Benefits:

Encourages information gap interaction
Develops interrogative forms
Promotes asking and giving information
Enhances social and moral values (sharing, helping)
Mirrors natural conversation

🔶 5. Discussion

Students are given a topic or a picture and asked to express their views.

The picture should allow multiple interpretations to provoke thought and exchange of ideas.

✅ Benefits:

Develops speaking fluency
Enhances critical thinking
Builds tolerance and empathy
Encourages turn-taking strategies
(e.g., interrupting politely, agreeing/disagreeing respectfully)

🔶 6. Communicative Activities

These are tasks where a communication gap exists. The aim is to transfer information to close the gap.

✅ Key Features:

Based on the information gap principle
Promotes authentic communication
Should be interesting and interactive

🧑‍🏫 Examples:

Problem-solving
Story completion
Decision-making tasks

🔶 7. Ambiguous Dialogue

Students listen to or read a dialogue that can be interpreted in multiple ways.

Task: In groups, students answer:

Who is speaking?
What is their relationship?
Where are they?
Who are they talking about?
What will happen next?

📸 Take a screenshot of the ambiguous dialogue.

🔶 8. Topic Talk

Students are divided into groups. Each group selects a topic and prepares a short talk over a week.

On the presentation day:

Members speak briefly
Other students ask questions

✅ Benefits:

Encourages teamwork
Enhances presentation skills
Prepares students for the workplace
Improves confidence

🔶 9. Guided Dialogues

The teacher provides a dialogue outline (talk card) to help pairs of students build a conversation.

🧑‍🏫 Sample:

At a hotel
A: Ask if there are any rooms available
B: Ask what kind of room is needed
A: Explain the need for two rooms, etc.

📸 Take a screenshot of the full talk card.

✅ Benefits:

Helps students structure conversation
Provides practice in language functions
Mimics real-life interaction

🔶 10. Reading Aloud

Although not natural speaking, reading aloud can still develop speaking pronunciation, intonation, and fluency.

Examples of real-life reading aloud:

Announcements
News reports
Stories to children or elderly
Speeches

✅ Benefits:

Reinforces correct pronunciation
Improves reading comprehension
Can be used as a speaking test item

📚 Selecting Reading Texts – Key Criteria

After speaking activities, the lecture touched on selecting reading materials for developing reading skills.

🔷 Criteria for Selecting Reading Texts:

1. Length

Include both short and long texts suitable for various stages of learning.

2. Language Level

Text should be slightly above the learners’ level to introduce new grammar and vocabulary without overwhelming them.

3. Content

Should be interesting, relevant, and varied
Should not be biased or offensive

4. Interest

According to Nuttall (1982), a text is interesting if:

It teaches students new things
Makes them think differently
Encourages them to read more independently

5. Exploitability

Can the text be used to:

Teach micro-skills (skimming, scanning, inference)?
Create pre-, while-, and post-reading activities?

6. Readability

Depends on:

Lexical difficulty (word level)
Background knowledge
Sentence complexity (syntax)

Too many unfamiliar words or long complex sentences reduce readability.

7. Cultural Suitability

Avoid content that violates local cultural values (e.g., gay marriage, taboo topics).
Avoid texts biased against race, religion, or community.

📌 Key Takeaways

Use a variety of speaking tasks: simulation, role play, discussion, guided dialogues, etc.
Speaking activities should be interactive, context-based, and authentic.
When selecting reading texts, ensure they are readable, exploitable, and culturally appropriate.
Always encourage student participation and real-life application of language skills.