Micro-teaching

Work out a three-phase framework for a discussion activity by using the suggested material. The point of discussion is “Who should be blamed for school truancy?” The main “while-speaking” phase is given to you below. These are the opinions of the British people on the problem of truancy (the poll was conducted by the BBC Radio). The opinions are shown on the grid The learners are to make their way through the grid by choosing the opinions that they agree with and by giving comments to support their choice. When they come to one of the “exits” they will find out whether their position is in the “majority” or “minority” among the U.K. public.

Children may have a problem as school	Lessons are perhaps boring	Teachers must be rude and not co-operating	School is to blame
Children are all lazy these days	Children do not think of studies	Children a mischievous	Bring the birch back to class!
Parents must keep an eye on children	Parents must talk to their children	Morals should be taught at home	Parents should pay the fine

(After you have done the task, see the “tip” in the “answer keys”)

Framework for the description of the activity:

Phase	Procedure
	Teacher	Learners
Pre- activity While-activity Post-activity

Integrated task (to be done in the classroom or with the peers)

• Clarify your goal of teaching

• Describe your teaching situation

• Give details of the activity to teach speaking

• Provide transcripts of how the activity went on

• Comment on the teaching procedure

• Suggest ways to improve the teaching process

• Draw conclusions

Answer keys

SAQ 2.1

1E 2C 3B 4A 5D

Exploratory task 1.5

1 place 2 man 3 house 4 honest 5 letter 6 money 7 to book

Exploratory task 1.6

1 B 2A 3A 4C 5A

Exploratory task 1.8

1B 2b 3A 4A 5A

Exploratory task 1.10

1 discourse marker 2 fronting 3 ellipsis 4 hedges 5 vague language 6 sound imitation 7 understatement

Exploratory task 1.11

A – English, B – Russian

Exploratory task 1.13

1D 2A 3B 4C 5E 6F 7J 8K 9L 10G 11H 12I

Exploratory task 2.10

1E 2B 3F 4J 5A 6C 7G 8H 9I 10D

Exploratory task 2.11

A3 BD C1 D1 E1 F2 G2 H2

Micro-teaching

Those who think that parents are to pay fine for their children playing truant make up the majority in the UK

Glossary

Argument is a genre of a group dialogue, in which speakers attempt to seek a solution by pursuing their own points of view

Communicative competence is the knowledge of how to achieve a goal by using the means of oral communication

Communicative function is an oral language activity to request or give information, to perform rituals or to manipulate each others’ behavior

Communicative strategies are language devices used by participants in a conversation to achieve the goal (achievement strategies) or to give up a goal and save the face (reduction strategies)

Communicative techniques are the ways to organize teaching activities for the purpose of instruction including non-reality techniques (preparation for the language), simulation techniques (role-play, problem-solving or group discussion, communicative games etc) and reality techniques (socialization in the real world with the native speakers)

Conversation analysis is the study into how humans talk to each other and interact with each other

Conversational discourse is a stretch of spoken language featuring ellipsis (omission of sentence elements), discourse markers (Well …) etc.

Debate is a genre of a group dialogue, in which speakers attempt to seek a solution through overcoming differences

Description is a genre of a monologue, in which a speaker gives an account of an object or a process

Dialogue is a genre of conversation between two or more people with an exchange of relatively short turns

Discourse (oral discourse) is a continuous stretch of spoken language in the dialogue or monologue mode featuring communicative message, cohesion, coherence and contextual reference

Discussion is a genre of a group dialogue, in which speakers attempt to seek a solution by looking at various aspects of the problem from various angles