Remedial Instruction in SPEAKING

A. What makes speaking difficult (Brown, 2001)

1. Clustering

2. Redundancy

3. Reduced forms

4. Performance variables

5. Colloquial language

6. Rate of delivery

7. Stress, rhythm, and intonation

8. Interaction

B. Teaching Pronunciation

Below are techniques and practice, materials (as cited in Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin,

1996) in teaching pronunciation which have been used traditionally and continues to be

utilized in speaking classes.

1. Listen and imitate. Learners listen to a model provided by the teacher and then

repeat or imitate it.

2. Phonetic training. Articulatory descriptions, articulatory diagrams, and a phonetic

alphabet are used.

3. Minimal Pair drills. These provide practice on problematic sounds in the target

language through listening discrimination and spoken practice. Drills begin with

word-level then move to sentence-level.

4. Contextualized minimal pairs. The teacher established the setting or context then

key vocabulary is presented. Students provide meaningful response to sentence

stem.

5. Visual aids. These materials are used to cue production of focus sounds.

6. Tongue twisters

7. Developmental approximation drills. Second language speakers take after the

steps that English-speaking children follow in acquiring certain sounds.

8. Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation

Vowel shift: mime (long i) mimic (short i)

Sentence context: Street mimes often mimic the gestures of passersby.

Stress shift: PHOtograph phoTOGraphy

Sentence context: I can tell from these photographs that you are very good at

photography.

9.Reading aloud/recitation. Passages and scripts are used for students to practice

and then read aloud focusing on stress, timing, and intonation.

10. Recording of learners’ production. Playback allows for giving of feedback and

self-evaluation.

C. The Use of Accuracy-based Activities

Accuracy precedes fluency. Form-focused activities prepare students for communicative

tasks. These activities have a high degree of control and focuses on specific language

components. To strike a balance, Hedge (2000) describes how to make accuracy-based

activities meaningful.

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1. Contextualized practice. This aims to establish the link between form and

function. The activity should highlight the situation where the form is commonly

used.

2. Personalizing language. Personalized practice encourages learners to express

their ideas, feelings, and opinions. These activities help learners to use language

in interpersonal interactions. A variety of gambits or useful expressions should be

provided.

3. Building awareness of the social use of language. This involves understanding

social conventions in interaction. Communication strategies are directly taught

and practiced through contextualized activities.

4. Building confidence. The key is to create a positive climate in classroom where

learners are encouraged to take risks and engage in activities.

D. Talking to Second Language Learners in the beginning level

Cary (1997) suggests that teachers need to make speech modifications as a form of

instructional support when teaching with second language learners.

1. Speak at standard speed. This means providing more and slightly longer pauses

to give students more time to make sense of the utterances.

2. Use more gestures, movement, and facial expressions. These provide emphasis

on words and give learners extra clues as they search for meaning.

3. Be careful with fused forms. Language compressions or reduces forms can be

difficult for learners. Use these forms without overusing or eliminating them

altogether.

4. Use shorter, simpler, sentences.

5. Use specific names instead of pronouns.