“Let’s make noise!”
Mahananda Pathak
Speaking is a complex skill and when you are learning to speak a new language it becomes all the more complex. In case of English language learning and teaching, in most primary schools, the entire focus is on teaching how to write and read English. But, being able to speak the language well is equally important. This skill is very often neglected and taken for granted. Speaking or talking is in fact labelled as ‘noise’ in schools, thus ignoring a very rich classroom resource. In fact, we need to develop children’s speaking skills by creating opportunities for it in the classroom.
In the early stages of learning, children will benefit from activities which call for repetition. This will help them remember vocabulary and ‘chunks’ of language and learn pronunciation naturally. Most of the language produced by children at this stage will be single words or short formulaic utterances. For example, How are you?, Thank you, You’re welcome. Young children tend to mix languages (with mother tongue or with other languages) when speaking, at times producing incomprehensible speech. Instead of explicitly correcting children and forcing them to speak just one language, teachers should remodel or recast what the children said keeping the meaning intact.
For children who are unwilling to speak or are not ready to participate in the speaking activities, it is extremely important to give them time to listen to and absorb the sounds of English. Forceful participation may backfire. Instead provide these children with plenty of opportunities to speak in the form of choral repetition of action rhymes or choral counting games. Introduce simple classroom routines in English like greeting one another, saying goodbye, asking for permission to go to the toilet or get crayons, etc. Through this daily routine make them aware of simple expressions such as I don’t understand./Can you repeat, please?; and formulaic expressions such as I think…, Maybe…, I don’t know.
Through exposure to English in the form of classroom language, classroom instructions, games, stories, dialogues, rhymes, riddles, and songs, children will develop a familiarity with the various aspects of English language: sound patterns, rhythm, and intonation patterns. Overtime these aspects will become part of their speech. At this stage, it is very important to speak clearly and pronounce words properly. Unless children learn proper pronunciations at this age it becomes difficult later to change it. However, insistence on correct pronunciation with very young children is likely to be counter-productive.
In the following section of the article, a few suggestions have been given on how to introduce speaking in English at the early stage of schooling. It also offers some speaking activities to be built into a primary level English language curriculum. The core
objective of such activities is to inculcate intellectual and life skills such as analytical and reasoning skills, accurate observation skills, logic of categorization, and exploring relationships among objects through speaking.
Speaking activities
Toys day
In this activity, the teacher can ask children to bring their favourite toy(s) to class and classify them into different categories. This can be done in groups of two or three. The teacher can ask the groups to talk about the logic behind their classification (e.g. colour, size) to the class. This can be followed by individual descriptions of the toys and the reasons for these being favourites. The main aim of this activity is to develop the skill of classification, description, and reasoning.
Questions ladder
The teacher can ask one of the children to go out of the classroom and watch what is happening outside. The child then has to come back and tell his/her classmates what he/she saw. Once the child finishes narrating, the rest of the class can ask ‘wh-questions’ or ‘yes-no questions’. In this process of generating questions and answers, children create an opportunity to talk. The core objective of this activity is to develop the skill of asking questions and responding in the form of conversation.
Connecting pictures
Pictures have the potential to become a great classroom resource. The teacher can build a collection of pictures available in the children’s immediate environment and use them in the form of different activities at various levels. These may include talking about a picture, finding things/happenings in the picture, relating pictures with their lives, etc. For example, the teacher can bring a picture of a tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, a dentist examining a child’s teeth, and an angry mother. She may ask the children to talk about the pictures and ask them to come up with a description or story. This way they will develop observation skills and learn to explore relationships among pictures through talks.
Children’s day out
Taking children outdoors can provide material for extensive exploration and discussion. Such exploration can be done in the form of visiting a railway station, petrol pump, shopping mall, or the weekly market. Teachers can ask the children to share these experiences in the classroom. It can also be carried out in groups in the form of role plays. Such activities can be a lot of fun in the classroom fostering non-threatening experiences for learning with ease.
Story development
Like pictures, stories can also be explored for developing speaking skills. Listening to stories and then talking about them in the class are some such initial explorations. Gradually, children can be provided with only pictures and asked to create stories in groups. This can be followed by a dramatization of the story.
Story drama
Drama is an essential part of children’s lives; most of the time they are mimicking, exaggerating or pretending. This interest can be furthered quite successfully in the English language classroom by getting children to act stories they developed or read.
These half a dozen speaking activities can be carried out by any teacher in any ordinary classroom. These activities are fun while at the same time teach children important skills. In today’s work world you are only too aware of how important it is for people to be able to speak well. So go ahead and speak your hearts out!
The author teaches English at GITAM University, Hyderabad. He can be reached at mahanandap@gmail.com.
