Development of Senior Students’ Speaking Skills in English

This seminar took place on the 14th of October 2008 at Lyceum 1525. English teachers of our school and teachers from schools of India and Germany participated in it. The seminar was about English as it is an international language and is spoken all over the world.

In Russia, English is taught from the 1st or the 2nd grade up to the 11th grade and senior students should have a good command of English in order to communicate with foreigners in Russia and people abroad.

We had a very interesting discussion about methods of teaching speaking skills through monologues and dialogues.

Tatiana Makarova has worked out talks for students from the 8th up to the 11th grade. In the 8th grade students describe an object which is dear to them. They also make up a chain story to learn new words (about ten of them). For example: to bully, to bruise, to nag, a fight, casualty, to taunt. One student starts the story and another one continues it. The task is creative, it develops attention and makes students listen to each other.

Students of the 9th, 10th, 11th grades prepare topics in a very original way. The teacher involves students into a role play.

One person goes to the blackboard. He plays the part of a president and pupils ask him questions about education, environmental protection, health, culture, etc. It is a lively discussion.

For the 10th grade students, T. Makarova conducts a combined lesson with a teacher of World Culture in English. These classes are devoted to famous English painters. Students listen to a lecture about a famous painter and are asked to describe their works and to answer different questions.

Mrs. Kumar, from an Indian school, described her methods of teaching speaking skills for senior students. They are taught according to the project “Speak you must”. The students are given tasks:

1) to explain a wise thought for the day which they have found and brought to the class;
2) to discuss the most interesting news from newspapers;
3) to dramatize a text in dialogues (a fairy tale);
4) to narrate story events at school in monologues;
5) to interview friends, teachers, and the principal of their school.

Mrs. Kumar thinks that importance should be placed on fluency rather than on accuracy of speech. That can encourage students to speak English.

Maria Goumennik described her work with authentic text. It is the story by W.S.Maugham “The Happy Man”. At first students read the story and after that discuss it using active words.

For example: students are asked to describe the appearance of the main character Stephens (a thick-set and stout man with a round red face and small black eyes). Then students talk about happiness. They answer the teacher’s question: “What is a happy man?” Their answers are: a married man who has an interesting and well-paid job.

Students discuss Stephens and his idea of happiness (to work in Spain as an English doctor, to enjoy sunshine, to earn money only enough to keep body and soul together). At the end, students comment on the phrase of Stephens: “Poor I have been and poor I shall always be, but by heaven I’ve enjoyed myself. I wouldn’t exchange the life I’ve had with that of any king in the world”.

All teachers considered the seminar fruitful. It was sure to help them in teaching senior students English speech.