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� Do not criticise him/her for errors;
� Do not try to correct every error in what s/he has said except casually in one or
two places.
The teacher must always take care that the child does not become shy and
discouraged.
Some Classroom Activities for Teaching Speaking Skills
a) Loud Reading
Loud reading is a technique to develop speaking skill. However, it is necessary to
read out the texts loudly with proper stress and intonation to improve speaking skill
where speed, pronunciation and stress are concerned.
b) Answering Wh- questions
In communicative language teaching approach, the primary functions of language is
to allow interaction and communication. There are several functions of language and
descriptive function is one of them. We use language to describe persons, places and
things. For the function like giving and seeking information, question and answer
technique is common. Generally "Wh" questions are used for this purpose. For this,
the teacher should present a picture or a drawing and ask series of "Wh" questions to
elicit answers from the students and make them to describe the picture on their own
way.
c) Describing pictures
Describing pictures helps to improve speaking skills. In this activity, students have to
speak out complete sentences about what they see in the pictures.
d) Drills
Drills are the commonly used technique in language teaching for practising sounds,
stress, words and sentence structures in the classroom. Here is the description of few
types of drills:
i) Repetition drill
The students repeat and utter aloud as soon as they have heard it.
Teacher: Ram is eating a mango.
Students: Ram is eating a mango.
ii) Questions and answer drill:
Teacher Students
Is Sita a nurse? — No, she isn't.
What is she doing? — He is teaching students.
Who is she? — She is a teacher.
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