How to Improve Students’ Writing and Speaking Skills

[Pages:37]How to Improve Students' Writing and Speaking Skills

Fredrik Elftorp

Examensarbete i Engelska (15 hp) Engelska 61-90 po?ng SP-ENG H?sten 2007

Handledare: Patricia Jonasson Examinator: Mari-Ann Berg

H?GSKOLAN F?R L?RANDE OCH KOMMUNIKATION (HLK) H?gskolan i J?nk?ping

Examensarbete 15 po?ng Engelska 61-90 H?stterminen 2007

ABSTRACT

Fredrik Elftorp

How to improve students' writing and speaking skills

Autumn 2007

Number of pages: 31

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English is one of three core subjects in upper secondary school and it is essential that students

receive a good education in this subject. Since writing and speaking are such prominent parts

of the English language, the teacher is obliged to possess knowledge of how to improve

students' proficiencies in an efficient way. The question is how to use this knowledge when

the teacher is supposed to compose different methods for lessons, evaluate the exercises and

give proper feedback to the students.

This investigation is based on various literary sources, interviews with teachers and questionnaires with students and the background information is the basis for the interview questions and the questionnaire.

There are endless possibilities for appropriate exercises to improve writing and speaking and it

is impossible to investigate every single one there is in a relatively short essay. I have,

however, found a fair number of methods, which will be described in this paper. In order to

evaluate exercises, the teacher needs to be prepared and know what to focus on in the exercise

as it is in progress, but also listen to the students' opinions since they know if they have

learned anything or not. Correction of spoken errors should be handled cautiously by the

teacher but the students should be made aware of the written mistakes they make.

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Search words: English teaching, writing, speaking, feedback, evaluation

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551 11 J?nk?ping

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction.......................................................................... 4

1.1 Aim.................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Methods.............................................................................................. 6

2 Background.......................................................................... 8

2.1 Methods for writing................................................................................ 8 2.2 Methods for speaking............................................................................. 9 2.3 Feedback............................................................................................ 11 2.4 Evaluation........................................................................................... 13

3 Analysis................................................................................ 15

3.1.1 The participating school and the participating teachers..................................................... 15

3.2 Interviews............................................................................................ 16

3.2.1. When you are choosing writing tasks, do you involve the students in the choice of topics? If so, how do you decide?.......................................................................................................................... 16

3.2.2. How do you evaluate the writing tasks you are doing?...................................................................... 16 3.2.3. Many students have problems getting started to write. How do you work on that issue?.................. 17 3.2.4. Do you have any particular methods to create a specific atmosphere for writing sessions?............. 17 3.2.5 What do you think is an appropriate group size for discussions?...................................................... 18 3.2.6. Do you speak only English in class?.................................................................................................. 18 3.2.7 How do you manage to get the students to speak only English?....................................................... 18 3.2.8. Role play is said to be a good way of improving students' speaking abilities. Do you ever use this

method?............................................................................................................................................... 19 3.2.9. How do you correct written errors and spoken errors?.......................................................................20 3.2.10. How do you evaluate whether a students' speaking skills have developed or not?......................... 20 3.2.11. How do you make sure that everybody gets to speak as much as possible?.................................. 21

3.3 Result of Questionnaire...........................................................................22

3.3.1 I want the teacher to correct every error that I say/write...................................................... 23 3.3.2 We get to decide writing topics together with the teacher...................................................... 24 3.3.3 Everyone gets to speak when we have group discussions................................................... 25 3.3.4 I speak only English during English class......................................................................... 26 3.3.5 The teacher speaks only English during English class......................................................... 27 3.3.6 I believe that writing is difficult to get started with................................................................ 28 3.3.7 I write better when I listen to music................................................................................. 29 3.3.8 I write better when there is a particular atmosphere in the classroom..................................... 30 3.3.9 Sometimes we do drama and I think that develops my speaking abilities................................ 31

4 Conclusion............................................................................32 5 References............................................................................ 34 6 Appendix ? Questionnaire....................................................... 36

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1 Introduction

Writing and speaking are two essential aspects of any language, including English. Since English is said to be the lingua franca1 of the world, it is essential that Swedish students possess knowledge of the English language. Otherwise it would complicate their ability to interact beyond Swedish borders. Thus, they need to be aware of the importance of knowing this language.

To simplify the process of learning, variation is a key word in this case. If a teacher uses the same writing and speaking exercises over and over again the students are less likely to learn than if the lessons are varied. Concerning students' speaking development, Susan Brindley has a good example where a student promotes student participation by explaining that students learn a lot more by interacting with others rather than just listening to a teacher (S. Brindley 55).

There is a large number of goals that the pupils should aim for in upper secondary school. I have listed some goals which I found on Skolverket's website where students should:

desire, have the confidence and be able without preparation to take part in discussions on familiar subjects and exchange information, personal views and experiences (EN1201 ? English A)

have the ability to present contents in writing in a clear and well-structured way as well as be able to express themselves in a varied and personal manner with respect to the audience and situation (EN1202 ? English B)

be able to compile and produce a written report and demonstrate a critical attitude to using and examining different sources (EN1203 ? English C)

1 Lingua franca ? Common means of communication. If two persons from for example Sweden and Japan meet, they would probably speak English to each other. By doing so, English becomes a lingua franca, since it is native to none of the involved persons.

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The most likely guarantee for students to develop their writing and speaking skills is that the English language is used frequently during class. The more the students get used to the English language, the more natural it seems for them to think in English and transform those thoughts into spoken and written English. There are various reasons why I have chosen this topic. Together with speaking, writing is the most important way of expressing oneself and I believe that this quote strengthens this opinion:

Students and their teachers are finding that writing can be a powerful means of making sense of experience and constructing meaning. Whether first graders or engineering majors in college, students can be shown how to use writing to think, understand, and learn (R. Indrisano, J.R. Squire 14). The purpose of everything you do in English classes is to help students to develop their writing and speaking skills, regardless of whether it is grammar, drama or national tests. I want my future students to have the will to develop their vocabulary and be able to express themselves in both speech and text.

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1.1 Aim

The purpose of this essay is, as I have briefly mentioned above, that I with the help of studying want to gain the required knowledge to be the kind of English teacher that could help the pupils to develop their writing and speaking skills. This paper is aimed at pupils in Upper Secondary School, which means that the main purpose is not to teach the pupils to write or speak, but to help them write and speak better than they used to, to improve their abilities. There are some questions I must ask myself and by investigating these areas I aim to be able to answer them as well as possible. - What kind of different exercises of writing and speaking should be used in class? - How should these methods be evaluated? - In what ways can a teacher correct students' mistakes without decreasing their confidence?

1.2 Method

The information described in the background is based on various literary sources which concern writing and speaking. By reading this literature I received necessary knowledge to be able to create the framework of my questions for my interviews with two teachers and the questionnaire with three classes. I thought that I could not have only information about the specific topic. To be able to receive as valuable information as possible from the interview and questionnaire, I formulated my questions for the interview by using The Helping Interview as a source. There I learned the importance of letting the interviewee be a significant part of the conversation instead of making the interview a monologue. If the interviewer says everything the interviewee might be irritated about not getting to speak at all (A. Benjamin 14). I also thought that it would be best if I used mostly open questions since I believe that closed questions more or less would give yes- or no-answers. By using open questions, the answers could be much more informative (P. 83).

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The information in the interview questions is based on the background but the questions are structured according to Benjamin's tips. When I composed the questionnaire I thought that I should link it up with the interview questions, since it could be valuable to know if the teachers and the students would agree or disagree and to what extent. It should be mentioned that one of the two teachers are responsible for two of the three classes and the other teacher is responsible for the third class. I chose to not use questions in my questionnaire, but to use statements instead.

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2 Background

Studying writing and speaking is essential for students to develop their language skills. Some say that writing is more important than speaking and vice versa. While some people have the opinion that written language is a reflection of spoken language, others claim that written language is worth more than spoken language since it is a more proper form (S. Cushing 15).

To be able to conduct good interviews, to make a good analysis and to come to a sensible conclusion, I need to have knowledge of these two specific items. I will in this background present information required in order to achieve my goal which is to find out how a teacher can develop students' writing and speaking abilities.

2.1 Methods for writing

Several methods can be used to improve students' writing. I will not bring up every single method there is since that would take too long. Instead I will focus on a few methods that I think will be useful in a classroom, but of course all the methods will be taken from certain sources that I have chosen.

In many cases, the hardest thing for a student concerning writing is to get started with the entire writing process. According to Cowley, there are different reasons why students have trouble with this. One reason could be that the students are afraid of failing and that they are under pressure to perform. The teacher must calm them down and persuade them that if they do make mistakes, it is not a disaster. They will just have to correct them afterwards. There could also be other methods. Cowley mentions warm-up exercises, rewards and challenges for the students to increase their motivation (S. Cowley 3-5).

What to write about is a quite common problem. The process of collecting information and coming up with ideas is not easy for everyone. Making mind maps is a recommended option. If you have the topic Christmas, the teacher tells the students

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