Developing Speaking competency

Developing Speaking competency

Introduction

Speaking is undoubtedly one of the most important skills to be enhanced and developed as means of effective communication. For a child to learn and enhance speaking skills, it is important to bring the child in practice since a very young age. Increasing speaking competence among primary students was, and still is one of the most challenging jobs for the teachers. One of the different methods used for enhancing the skill, is to use to drama activities in the classrooms for students to interact, and take interest in the discussions. In order to assist students in developing their English speaking competencies by drama activities, several factors need to be taken into consideration.

Discussion

Considering the themes 'Me and My Family', and 'Me and the World Around' several activities could be designed for each topic in order for students to develop their speaking competencies.

Me and My Family

My day

For the win

An activity designed for this, relates with the aspect of winning for the students. The students would be asked to sit in a circle, with their backs facing each other. They will be asked to put hands on their eyes, and the teacher will ask any one of the student one by one to take name of any of his classmates. The one, whose name will be called, will have to recognize the voice of the one calling his/her name, and will have to shout out who is that person. Whoever gets his/her voice recognized will have to sing an English poem of own choice. This whole activity will make the students sharper, and singing the poem will help them improve their speaking.

5 minutes to guess

The students would be divided in two groups. One student from a group would go and stand in front of the whole class, and the teacher would tell a WORD in his/her ear. That student will have to make that word guess from his group, using indirect hints and sentences. The difficulty level would be set according to the grade, and the kid would be given 5 minutes to complete the task. For example, to make a word like Taxi guess from the group, the student may take help of words like yellow, used for travelling, on the road etc. This would enhance the speaking competency, and would also increase their vocabulary to a great extent. On the other hand, the students listening to the one explaining would become more sharp and reflective at the same time. The group which manages to make the most guesses will win the game.

Jobs

Swapping slides

Students could be shown different pictures of people having different occupations. A remote could be used as a prop in this scenario. The teacher then may ask the students to name the profession of every person in the picture. It would help the students in retaining interest in the activity, and would also add to their knowledge while enhancing their speaking competency. The person in the picture should be clearly depicting ...