GIVING helpful feedback on students' work is an essential commitment in any teaching-learning situation. This issue becomes more complex when it entails assessing the spoken skills of non-native students of English as most students have added dimensions of fear, insecurity and anxiety when it involves speaking in front of their peers. This article highlights the strategies that teachers can use in evaluating a public speaking course.
First, prepare a detailed course outline, which can be handed out in the first introductory lecture. This handout must include the following details: course aims, course requirement, course schedule, assessment structure, references and other necessary details.
Second, make your classes lively. In teaching theoretical and practical aspects of speechmaking, teachers need to be aware that much of the enthusiasm they display in their teaching is carried through to their students. The vibrant personality of the teacher can help students have a more positive learning experience.
Third, guide students well in the speechmaking process. It is necessary to make students aware that public speaking is a learned activity and that they can improve their own speaking ability by using useful strategies that can help and guide them in becoming better speakers.
Fourth, design an effective evaluation sheet. There are many sample evaluation worksheets in the literature of student assessment, in appendices of prepared textbooks as well as Internet sites. The teacher needs to adapt characteristics from these worksheets and the descriptors that are selected can then be explained to their students.
Teaching speech: encouraging good learning practices
SPEECH, used in this context, refers to public speaking and presentation; it is not merely a synonym for speaking, talking, conversation or debate. The area of speech has its own distinct vocabulary and terminology, and is concerned with public speaking and specifically identified types of speech and presentation.
What should an introductory speech course include?
A proposed speech course should include these topics:
* The vocabulary of speech terminology.
* How to prepare a speech outline.
* The key points of presentation, including the importance of eye contact, body movement and the voice.
* The roles of both the speaker and the audience.
* Identifying and categorizing different types of speech.
* How to judge and evaluate a speech.
Understanding the roles of both the speaker and the audience is one of the key elements of studying speech. Audience participation is about being able to identify and assess the style of speech, evaluating the content, judging the weak and strong points of delivery, and being capable of offering quality feedback to the speaker in the form of valid criticism.
Why is peer evaluation important?
The value of peer evaluation lies not simply in the obvious practical advantage that students are constantly engaged in the teaching and learning process. It is a valuable means of giving students direct feedback. It also helps to create a learning environment where the teacher does not assume all the responsibility, but facilitates and guides. The more intrinsic motivation to do well in front of peers is often in sharp contrast to the purely extrinsic motivation of "getting a good mark."
THE communicative approach to language learning stresses the need for meaningful communication, emphasizing that if students have a genuine reason or motivation to talk, then they will learn to use the language more effectively. This article looks at how the notion of a gap between speakers can be used to provide a reason for communication. Finding ways to create gaps between students, gaps which need closing, creates speaking opportunities and prompts the creation of new activities.
The information gap
This is the classic gap exploited by the communicative approach. Student A has some information, perhaps concerning the prices of food. Student B needs to know these prices, and so asks A questions to find the information.
The experience gap
All students in classes have had different experiences in their lives， so this is immediately a gap. For example, a multi-lingual adult class in the UK provides great difference between the backgrounds of the students. A mono-lingual primary class will obviously show less difference.
The opinion gap
Most people have different opinions, feelings and reactions to situations, events and propositions. Finding out about someone's feelings and opinions is all about closing the gap between people.
The knowledge gap
Students know different things about the world. This gap can be exploited in brainstorms and general knowledge style quizzes.
These gaps are the most powerful for the classroom. Teachers should try to increase the amount of speaking which serves a purpose, to close a gap.
MANY students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language. Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning.
Then what should teachers do when students won't talk or say anything？
One way to tackle this problem is to find the root of the problem and start from there. If the problem is cultural, that is in your culture it is unusual for students to talk out loud in class, or if students feel really shy about talking in front of other students， then one way to go about breaking this cultural barrier is to create and establish your own classroom culture where speaking out loud in English is the norm.
A completely different reason for student silence may simply be that the class activities are boring or are pitched at the wrong level. Very often our interesting communicative speaking activities are not quite as interesting or as communicative as we think they are and all the students are really required to do is answer "yes" or "no". So maybe you need to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities you are using and see if they really capture students' interest and create a real need for communication.
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