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Abstract: Fluency-Based speaking activities can benefit students in promoting their communicative competence. This article tends to discuss the design and implementation of fluency-based speaking activities by making a case study of two sample spoken English course designs excerpted from two teaching materials. While describing each design, some discussions on how to apply the activities which it includes will also be presented. It’s found that both designs have advantages and disadvantages in help students develop communicative ability. Therefore, teachers should adopt them with critical attitudes and play a proper role in activities.
Key words: fluency-based speaking activities; spoken English teaching; design; implementation
1.Introduction
In spoken English class, to improve the fluency of students' language production, chances must be given to students to speak. In this case, fluency-based speaking activities are in need, as they can create the opportunities for students to practice speaking in certain context. Harmer (2002) claims that fluency-based speaking activities can benefit students as they can help students communicate in foreign language and obtain feedback from the teachers to know what they need to improve. Therefore, it's meaningful to think of how to design fluency-based activities well.
A variety of discussions have been made upon the fluency-based activities (Ur, 2008; Hedge, 2002; Harmer, 2002). However, the discussions are always conducted from a macro perspective. In this case, this paper tends to discuss the design and implementation of fluency-based speaking activities from a micro perspective by making a case study of two course designs quoted from two spoken English teaching materials. It's hoped that this study can contribute something to the studies of speaking activities.
The paper consists of four parts. In the first part, a literature review is given to describe the fluency-based speaking activities and the theoretical background behind them. The second part presents a case study of two sample spoken English course designs excerpted from two teaching materials. In the third part, some teaching implications of implementing the activities are listed. And the last part will draw a conclusion of the study.
2. A Case Study: Two Sample Spoken English Course Designs
2.1 Sample Design 1
Unit 11 Festivals (outline)
Intonation
Brainstorming
Conversations
Tips for Learning
●Tip 1 and Apply Tip1
●Tip 2 and Apply Tip2
Creative Activities
Extension
●Questionnaire
●Discussion
●Read the following Story and Practice Retelling
Evaluation
(WangWenjie,2004)
Except intonation practice which focuses on the accuracy of pronunciation and the last evaluation part, the rest activities all deal with the issue of fluency. The part of Brainstorming and Conversations can be seen as the practice at warming-up stage, while the part of Tips for learning tends to introduce new expressions and help students try out new language use. Creative Activities and Extension requires students to use the language more flexibly to communicate or express themselves.
As for two warming-up activities, Brainstorming includes three questions, which try to remind students of their acquired knowledge of festivals in daily life. The questions are simple and easy to answer. The third question is illustrated with some cartoon pictures. This visual attraction may arouse students' interest in the topic.
Following Brainstorming here comes Conversations. In this part, students are required to answer the questions about how to describe Moon Festival and Halloween respectively. This design has two advantages: first, while students are listening to the conversations, they can learn the pronunciation of some unfamiliar words or expressions, which may build up their confidence in expressing themselves in the question-answer part; Second, students can imitate the way of describing festivals suggested by the conversations. However, disadvantages can also be discovered. The second conversation is about Halloween, which may be unfamiliar to most Chinese students.
Tips for Learning contains two activities. Tip1 and Apply Tip 1 is a "gap" activity. Tip2 and Apply Tip 2 is discussion based on several pictures about festivals. Tip 1 and Tip 2 actually present some useful expressions or some guiding questions to help students express or elaborate their points. This is a very considerate design, which tries to keep the difficulty of the task at a proper level.
Creation is designed in the form of role-play. Scrivener (2002) and Ur (2008) speak highly of this activity. They believe that role-play improvises a range of real-life and it is very liberating personally and linguistically. If carried out properly, role-play can be very effective to facilitate students to talk. The setting of this role- play is a dinner party. Six roles are involved and instructions of each role are given respectively in the text. To make the role-play successful, teachers should help students empathize with the role and try to be creative during the practice (Scivener, 2002).
2.2 Sample Design 2
Unit 12Festivals and Holidays (outline)
Activity 1
A. Pair work
B. Listen
C. Group work
Activity 2
A：Listen
B：Complete the Chart
C：Join another pair
(Jone,2005)
This course design consists of two sections: Activity 1 and Activity 2. In Activity 1, here are three tasks. Pair work and Listen don't have much to do with the fluency-based practice, yet they can be seen as good warming-up activities prepared for the fluency-based task Group work.
In Group Work, here are two questions for discussion. The first one can help students identify the similarities between some traditional Chinese festivals with some western ones, and the second one guides students to talk about their favorite national holidays. The questions, actually, are very closed to students' daily life. Students are supposed to have much to talk about. However, here is one problem which may arise. Students are likely to be familiar with a variety of Chinese festivals or holidays, however, they may fail to express the cultural items "元宵节"、"中秋节" in target language, which may further arouse their anxiety and inhibition.
Activity 2 begins with a listening task. Another three western festivals or holidays, which are not so well-known but involved within distinct cultural flavor, are introduced in this part. Still some colorful pictures are presented, which turn to be very appealing. Students are required to tick the statements below the pictures according to the listening material.
2.3 A Comparison of Two Designs
Both course designs contain a variety of fluency-based speaking activities. Probing into each design, However, we can make a comparison between the two judging from four aspects mentioned above, that is, the amount of talking, participation, motivation and learners' language level.
2.3.1 Amount of Talking: Can Students Talk a Lot?
The topic itself, festivals and holidays, is familiar to students. Most students are unlikely to feel nothing to say. However, Sample 2 may give students more inspiration in talking, as students can talk about the similarities and differences between eastern and western festivals. Besides, students are supposed to be very active when they talk about their personal experience about festivals. Yet Sample 1, though with a variety of activities, turns to be not as informative as Sample 2. Moreover, students' imagination or creation may be limited while they're benefiting from the detailed guidance from the activities.
2.3.2 Participation: Even or not?
In fluency-based activities, the class shouldn't be dominated by a small group of students, rather, everyone should be given a chance to speak (Ur, 2008; Zhang Qingzong, 2004). If the class is small, even participation is not difficult to be realized. However, in China, usually the class is big. In this case, how to ensure even participation has become a question. One of the good solutions may rely on making speaking activities more varied and using more group work or even role-play, which can involve all the students' talking at the same time. Teachers should be ready to assist while students are practicing. In this case, Sample 1 is than Sample 2, as the activities in Sample design 1 are more varied compared to those in Sample design 2. In Sample 1, there're gap activities, discussion and role play, while the activities in Sample 2 are in the form of group or pair discussions. Therefore, Sample 1 endows students with more chances to practice in different forms of activities.
2.3.3 Motivation: High or not?
If students are interested in the topic and eager to communicate with others in target language, they can benefit a lot from the activities (Ur, 2008; Zhang Qingzong, 2004). Therefore, motivation also plays an important role in a successful fluency-based activity. As for this point, Sample 2 turns to be more active in triggering students' motivation. A variety of colorful pictures turn to be attractive, and the cultural flavors embedded within each western festivals can arouse students' curiosity effectively, which in turn motivates them to know and talk more. However, the pictures in Sample 1 look rather dull, and also, cultural elements seem to be ignored.
2.3.4 Language Level: Acceptable or not?
Both designs have taken students' language level into consideration. Tasks and questions are illustrated with simple languages. However, students may be confronted with the problem of how to express their ideas in target language as they are freshmen without good communicative ability. Therefore, to assure maximum students' talking, proper language support counts a lot. The activities should be designed to help students talk effectively. On this point, Sample 1 is better, if without the last part Extension. Generally speaking, it provides some useful expressions in Tip 1 and some guiding ideas in Tip 2. Students can make use of these language points in practice to increase the fluency of output.
As for Sample 2, there is rare language support from the textbook, which may cause students to be over-anxious and in turn hinder students from expressing themselves.
3. Conclusion
From the study, it's found that one design focuses on the practical use of language while the other is adroit in motivating students to talk more under the curiosity towards different cultures. Both designs have their merits and demerits. Teachers should adopt the designs flexibly to help students reap the benefit of the fluency-based activities.
Bibliography：
[1]Cook, V. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002.
[2]Ellis, R. The Study of Second Language Acquisition [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1999.
[3]Haley, M. & Austin, T. Content-Based Second Language Teaching and Learning--An Interactive Approach [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.
[4]Harmer, J. How to Teach English [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.
[5]Jone, L. Let's Talk 1 [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2005.
[6]Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. Second Language Learning Theories [M]. London: Oxford University Press, 1998.
[7]Scrivener, J. Learning Teaching: A guide book for English Language Teachers [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2002.
[8]Ur, P. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2008.
[9]李争鸣. 为英语口语活动设计小组讨论话题[J]. 《外语界》，2003年第5期.
[10] 曾路. 语言输出假说与大学英语课堂口语活动设计[J].《电子科技大学报社科版》，2005年第7期.
[11]王文捷. 英语口语教程I[M]. 重庆：重庆大学出版社，2004.
[12]张庆宗. 外语教育心理学[M]. 武汉：湖北教育出版社，2008.
[13]张庆宗. 英语教学法[M]. 长沙：湖南人民出版社，2004.
Key words: fluency-based speaking activities; spoken English teaching; design; implementation
1.Introduction
In spoken English class, to improve the fluency of students' language production, chances must be given to students to speak. In this case, fluency-based speaking activities are in need, as they can create the opportunities for students to practice speaking in certain context. Harmer (2002) claims that fluency-based speaking activities can benefit students as they can help students communicate in foreign language and obtain feedback from the teachers to know what they need to improve. Therefore, it's meaningful to think of how to design fluency-based activities well.
A variety of discussions have been made upon the fluency-based activities (Ur, 2008; Hedge, 2002; Harmer, 2002). However, the discussions are always conducted from a macro perspective. In this case, this paper tends to discuss the design and implementation of fluency-based speaking activities from a micro perspective by making a case study of two course designs quoted from two spoken English teaching materials. It's hoped that this study can contribute something to the studies of speaking activities.
The paper consists of four parts. In the first part, a literature review is given to describe the fluency-based speaking activities and the theoretical background behind them. The second part presents a case study of two sample spoken English course designs excerpted from two teaching materials. In the third part, some teaching implications of implementing the activities are listed. And the last part will draw a conclusion of the study.
2. A Case Study: Two Sample Spoken English Course Designs
2.1 Sample Design 1
Unit 11 Festivals (outline)
Intonation
Brainstorming
Conversations
Tips for Learning
●Tip 1 and Apply Tip1
●Tip 2 and Apply Tip2
Creative Activities
Extension
●Questionnaire
●Discussion
●Read the following Story and Practice Retelling
Evaluation
(WangWenjie,2004)
Except intonation practice which focuses on the accuracy of pronunciation and the last evaluation part, the rest activities all deal with the issue of fluency. The part of Brainstorming and Conversations can be seen as the practice at warming-up stage, while the part of Tips for learning tends to introduce new expressions and help students try out new language use. Creative Activities and Extension requires students to use the language more flexibly to communicate or express themselves.
As for two warming-up activities, Brainstorming includes three questions, which try to remind students of their acquired knowledge of festivals in daily life. The questions are simple and easy to answer. The third question is illustrated with some cartoon pictures. This visual attraction may arouse students' interest in the topic.
Following Brainstorming here comes Conversations. In this part, students are required to answer the questions about how to describe Moon Festival and Halloween respectively. This design has two advantages: first, while students are listening to the conversations, they can learn the pronunciation of some unfamiliar words or expressions, which may build up their confidence in expressing themselves in the question-answer part; Second, students can imitate the way of describing festivals suggested by the conversations. However, disadvantages can also be discovered. The second conversation is about Halloween, which may be unfamiliar to most Chinese students.
Tips for Learning contains two activities. Tip1 and Apply Tip 1 is a "gap" activity. Tip2 and Apply Tip 2 is discussion based on several pictures about festivals. Tip 1 and Tip 2 actually present some useful expressions or some guiding questions to help students express or elaborate their points. This is a very considerate design, which tries to keep the difficulty of the task at a proper level.
Creation is designed in the form of role-play. Scrivener (2002) and Ur (2008) speak highly of this activity. They believe that role-play improvises a range of real-life and it is very liberating personally and linguistically. If carried out properly, role-play can be very effective to facilitate students to talk. The setting of this role- play is a dinner party. Six roles are involved and instructions of each role are given respectively in the text. To make the role-play successful, teachers should help students empathize with the role and try to be creative during the practice (Scivener, 2002).
2.2 Sample Design 2
Unit 12Festivals and Holidays (outline)
Activity 1
A. Pair work
B. Listen
C. Group work
Activity 2
A：Listen
B：Complete the Chart
C：Join another pair
(Jone,2005)
This course design consists of two sections: Activity 1 and Activity 2. In Activity 1, here are three tasks. Pair work and Listen don't have much to do with the fluency-based practice, yet they can be seen as good warming-up activities prepared for the fluency-based task Group work.
In Group Work, here are two questions for discussion. The first one can help students identify the similarities between some traditional Chinese festivals with some western ones, and the second one guides students to talk about their favorite national holidays. The questions, actually, are very closed to students' daily life. Students are supposed to have much to talk about. However, here is one problem which may arise. Students are likely to be familiar with a variety of Chinese festivals or holidays, however, they may fail to express the cultural items "元宵节"、"中秋节" in target language, which may further arouse their anxiety and inhibition.
Activity 2 begins with a listening task. Another three western festivals or holidays, which are not so well-known but involved within distinct cultural flavor, are introduced in this part. Still some colorful pictures are presented, which turn to be very appealing. Students are required to tick the statements below the pictures according to the listening material.
2.3 A Comparison of Two Designs
Both course designs contain a variety of fluency-based speaking activities. Probing into each design, However, we can make a comparison between the two judging from four aspects mentioned above, that is, the amount of talking, participation, motivation and learners' language level.
2.3.1 Amount of Talking: Can Students Talk a Lot?
The topic itself, festivals and holidays, is familiar to students. Most students are unlikely to feel nothing to say. However, Sample 2 may give students more inspiration in talking, as students can talk about the similarities and differences between eastern and western festivals. Besides, students are supposed to be very active when they talk about their personal experience about festivals. Yet Sample 1, though with a variety of activities, turns to be not as informative as Sample 2. Moreover, students' imagination or creation may be limited while they're benefiting from the detailed guidance from the activities.
2.3.2 Participation: Even or not?
In fluency-based activities, the class shouldn't be dominated by a small group of students, rather, everyone should be given a chance to speak (Ur, 2008; Zhang Qingzong, 2004). If the class is small, even participation is not difficult to be realized. However, in China, usually the class is big. In this case, how to ensure even participation has become a question. One of the good solutions may rely on making speaking activities more varied and using more group work or even role-play, which can involve all the students' talking at the same time. Teachers should be ready to assist while students are practicing. In this case, Sample 1 is than Sample 2, as the activities in Sample design 1 are more varied compared to those in Sample design 2. In Sample 1, there're gap activities, discussion and role play, while the activities in Sample 2 are in the form of group or pair discussions. Therefore, Sample 1 endows students with more chances to practice in different forms of activities.
2.3.3 Motivation: High or not?
If students are interested in the topic and eager to communicate with others in target language, they can benefit a lot from the activities (Ur, 2008; Zhang Qingzong, 2004). Therefore, motivation also plays an important role in a successful fluency-based activity. As for this point, Sample 2 turns to be more active in triggering students' motivation. A variety of colorful pictures turn to be attractive, and the cultural flavors embedded within each western festivals can arouse students' curiosity effectively, which in turn motivates them to know and talk more. However, the pictures in Sample 1 look rather dull, and also, cultural elements seem to be ignored.
2.3.4 Language Level: Acceptable or not?
Both designs have taken students' language level into consideration. Tasks and questions are illustrated with simple languages. However, students may be confronted with the problem of how to express their ideas in target language as they are freshmen without good communicative ability. Therefore, to assure maximum students' talking, proper language support counts a lot. The activities should be designed to help students talk effectively. On this point, Sample 1 is better, if without the last part Extension. Generally speaking, it provides some useful expressions in Tip 1 and some guiding ideas in Tip 2. Students can make use of these language points in practice to increase the fluency of output.
As for Sample 2, there is rare language support from the textbook, which may cause students to be over-anxious and in turn hinder students from expressing themselves.
3. Conclusion
From the study, it's found that one design focuses on the practical use of language while the other is adroit in motivating students to talk more under the curiosity towards different cultures. Both designs have their merits and demerits. Teachers should adopt the designs flexibly to help students reap the benefit of the fluency-based activities.
Bibliography：
[1]Cook, V. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002.
[2]Ellis, R. The Study of Second Language Acquisition [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1999.
[3]Haley, M. & Austin, T. Content-Based Second Language Teaching and Learning--An Interactive Approach [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.
[4]Harmer, J. How to Teach English [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.
[5]Jone, L. Let's Talk 1 [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2005.
[6]Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. Second Language Learning Theories [M]. London: Oxford University Press, 1998.
[7]Scrivener, J. Learning Teaching: A guide book for English Language Teachers [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2002.
[8]Ur, P. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2008.
[9]李争鸣. 为英语口语活动设计小组讨论话题[J]. 《外语界》，2003年第5期.
[10] 曾路. 语言输出假说与大学英语课堂口语活动设计[J].《电子科技大学报社科版》，2005年第7期.
[11]王文捷. 英语口语教程I[M]. 重庆：重庆大学出版社，2004.
[12]张庆宗. 外语教育心理学[M]. 武汉：湖北教育出版社，2008.
[13]张庆宗. 英语教学法[M]. 长沙：湖南人民出版社，2004.