reading to speak

MASTER DEGREE IN TEFLTeaching English as a Foreign

Language

Material created by Marcela Israelsky for educational purposes.

READING TO SPEAK: Integrating Oral Communication Skills

By Prof. Marcela [email protected]


INTRODUCTION

This presentation has been created for educational purposes. It is a reaction paper from an article published by the English Teaching Forum (year 2009, volume 1). The contents of this presentation are based on the reading entitled “Reading to Speak: Integrating Oral Communication Skills” by Yun Zhang from China.


Oral communication skills help students effectively understand, critique and analyze information, communicate clearly and express ideas in the foreign language.

Through oral communication students acquire intellectual and practical skills that will enable them improve their spoken English.


For example:1. The ability to think critically.

2. The ability to communicate effectively.

3. The ability to collaborate and work as a member of a team or group.


By mastering oral communication skills, students become confident and competent speakers.

According to Yun Zhang, there has to be a more integrated approach where speaking is added to reading and writing lessons to ensure that students receive essential practice in oral communication.


Yun Zhang mentions three activities which I personally find very effective and easy to follow with students; these activities let them practice their spoken English which sometimes is difficult since they are living in an English as a foreign language environment and have few chances to speak English outside the classroom.


ACTIVITY # 1READ TO ACT

Students act out a story they read from a textbook. They must read and act out their lines and present it to the class. This kind of activity lets them reach the four skills integration and makes the reading assignment much more interesting as well.


ACTIVITY # 2READ TO DEBATE

Students choose a controversial issue to discuss from a textbook or any other source of information. Through a debate, students learn how to view and orally defend a topic from a different perspective.


ACTIVITY # 3READ TO INTERVIEW

Students get in pairs and read a selected text, then, one takes the place of the interviewer and the other the interviewee. They ask questions related to the text they read previously. This activity gives students the opportunity to orally represent and expose the ideas from the text they have read.


By integrating speaking skills students improve their communicative competence, develop both communication and critical thinking skills and the ability of working as a member of a team.


THANK YOU


reading to speak

Education

educational purposes

marcela israelsky

oral communication students

speaking skills students

oral communication skillsby

practical skills

skills integration

spoken english