6.7 Summary

Speaking skills can be exercised in a variety of classes, from dedicated oral classes, to literature seminars; speaking should be integrated with other skills, and the aim should be to achieve natural dialogue that approximates what the student will be asked to do with the spoken language in other contexts. Pronunciation should, ideally, receive some attention in class time, little and often. Students are often not motivated to participate in oral classes, either through personal inhibitions, or because the 'task' does not give them a reason to do so. Tutors can maximize the potential for participation by reducing communicative stress, by extending pauses, by having reasonable expectations of the students' oral performance, by correcting errors sensitively and by introducing learner strategies so that students become more independent. Video, audio, written and picture stimuli can be employed as a basis for speaking tasks and discussion at a variety of levels. Strategies can be employed to cope with groups containing students at different levels of competence. Students encounter obstacles when trying to practise speaking independently: they are sometimes at a loss as to how to practise, how to meet native speakers, how to assess their progress. Tutors can take steps to encourage links with native speakers and explain other methods of practising. Factors need to be taken into account in designing assessment tasks, such as whether the task fits the learner outcomes, and what the criteria should be. Mark schemes play an important role in ensuring parity of treatment and in reducing subjectivity. Learning programmes should incorporate progression criteria into assessment tasks.