1. Teaching speaking better Hugh Dellar Lexical Lab / National Geographic Learning

2. Turning down a book offer! Speaking doesn’t exist in isolation – despite the fact that there are things we can do to make ANY speaking activity go better. All too often, speaking exists in class either as controlled practice of grammar or as more freeform fluency practice.

3. There is another way! Backwards planning: starting by thinking about outcomes What is the Tour de France? – and other failures to consider outcomes

4. CEFR Outcomes The business of everyday life Communicating everyday ideas, thoughts, feelings and opinions Deepening understandings of culture

5. Conversational outcomes Take any common topic and stop to consider what you actually talk about connected to this topic in your own language. Let’s take CRIME for example.

6. Crime and conversation Did I tell you about what happened to... the other day / last week? Did you see that thing on the news / in the papers about... ? Be careful if you... because...

7. Backwards planning: working from models 1.Choose / write a realistic model 2.Analyse model text for language 3.Be concrete about the language (not just a lexical set & not just a grammar title)! 4.Notice chunks, collocations, listenership and text structure 5.Make exercises to teach language (aims) 6.Build back up to final task (outcome)

8. Remember that spoken language is different -It’s interactional, co-constructed -It happens in real time -It relies more on pre-fabricated items -It also relies more on fixed routines -It’s verb driven -It’s I-centric and personal Input in class should reflect this.

9. And some other core principles... Stop thinking of grammar and vocabulary as separate Never think single words Give examples and use your students to elicit more Use the board to record chunks Show / use more dialogues and typical exchanges Think When? Why? Who? Gap fill texts / dialogues Encourage memorization / performance

10. Task 1: Identifying purpose A Complete the sentences with the correct form of the phrasal verbs. grow up eat out fall out get on look forward to 1 Where did you ………? 2 Have you ever ….. with anyone in your family? Why? 3 How do you …………….. with the rest of your family? 4 What are you most ……… doing at the moment? Why? 5 How often do you ………? Where do you most often go? Work in pairs. Give your own answers to the five questions above. B Work in pairs. Have a conversation that starts like this: Did you do anything at the weekend? > Yeah, I went shopping. Oh, OK. Did you buy anything nice? Continue the conversation for as long as you can.

11. Task 1: Identifying purpose C Work with a partner. One of you is moving into a new house. The other sees lots of potential problems. Use these ideas to help you have conversations. What will you do if you don’t get on with your new housemates? > I’ll move out and find somewhere else. - the neighbours are horrible - your housemates are messy and never tidy up - the landlord puts the rent up - the landlord refuses to fix things that are broken - you get broken into - your housemates are always in the bathroom when you need it - you lose your job and can’t pay the rent D You are going to read an article about life in India’s biggest cities. Before you read, discuss these questions. What do you think the population of Mumbai is? How old do you think the city is? What kind of places do you think most people live in? What do you think the three biggest problems in the city might be?

12. Task 2: Predicting language A Complete the sentences with the correct form of the phrasal verbs. grow up eat out fall out get on look forward to 1 Where did you ………? 2 Have you ever ….. with anyone in your family? Why? 3 How do you …………….. with the rest of your family? 4 What are you most ……… doing at the moment? Why? 5 How often do you ………? Where do you most often go? Work in pairs. Give your own answers to the five questions above. D You are going to read an article about life in India’s biggest cities. Before you read, discuss these questions. What do you think the population of Mumbai is? How old do you think the city is? What kind of places do you think most people live in? What do you think the three biggest problems in the city might be?

13. Tasks 3 and 4: Write and record dialogues Work on your own. Write a short two-person dialogue using this starter: Did you do anything at the weekend? > Yeah, I went shopping. Oh, OK. Did you buy anything nice? Compare your ideas with a partner. What’s the same and what’s different? Now try and record / have a conversation. Listen back and note down useful language.

14. Task 5: Turn your models into input (a)Provide oral models for students before they try tasks (b)Use your own recordings before or after students’ attempts (c)Gap your recordings – or just gap the script. (d)Write key phrases on the board and let students choose five to use (e)Translate it into Russian and then get students to translate – and compare!