STRATEGY 2 “From oral comprehension to oral production”

Using an audio or audiovisual document on non-linguistic content related to a theme already seen in class, the students, in groups of 3 or 4, make a summary/analysis using the L2 as a vehicular language of the activity. In addition, thanks to the retrieval of the content, through some phases, they’re given the starting point to speak: ask, clarify, complete information and  make oral presentations both in group and in front of the class. Each student is speaker and listener and, for this reason, he or she acquires linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge thanks to the exposure to their peers’ performance.

The use of this strategy avoids two of the difficulties in oral production:

• Having nothing to say.

• The lack of vocabulary (which is dealt with before, during, and after the listening/viewing)

• To promote oral expression in L2
• To develop the capacity of synthesis of the contents to be exposed
• To develop the student’s technique for taking notes
• To reuse linguistic contents which have already been acquired in a non-linguistic context
• To use the L2 to transmit knowledge instead of exclusively using the communicative approach
• Encourage listening and paying attention to their peers’ performances.

• • Explanation of the final task and its different phases to students.
  • Several listenings/viewings of the document we’re going to work with
  • Identification of the main and secondary ideas as well as their sequencing
  • Preparation of a summary/analysis in small groups
  • Exposition of the aforementioned summary/analysis to the rest of the class

Steps to follow

For the teacher (activity preparation)

• • • Select an audio/video document to be explained/summarized by the students: it should be expository and have a duration of 2 or 3 minutes
    • Preparation of a list of key and secondary ideas in the document
    • Preparation of the list of unknown expressions that may hinder the understanding of the document
    • Preparation of templates to take notes (doc 1 and doc2) crear enlaces
    • Preparation of brainstorming ideas for the lexicon of the document (Activity prior to the OC) and recognition of some words in the audio using, for example, the following sites: https://nuagedemots.fr or http://www.wordle.net

Development of the activity in the classroom:

• • • Brainstorming the lexicon previously acquires and that appears in the document. (Using the following sites: https://nuagedemots.fr or http://www.wordle.net)

Introduction of difficult expressions that will appear in the document

• • • 1st listening: Identification of key ideas, individual note taking (doc 1)  and sharing these ideas. The teacher writes them on the board (using nominal or infinitive phrases)
    • 2nd listening: Individual identification of secondary ideas and details (doc 1). Afterwards, these ideas will be shared with the class.
    • 3rd Listening: Organization of ideas in big groups (doc 2).
• • Oral Activity 1: In groups of 3 or 4 students: Development of an oral summary of the document using document 2 as a template. The teacher will supervise and remind them that a summary occupies more or less 1/3 of the original document and they need to use their own words (they can’t copy and paste)

    The teacher will move from one group to the next to listen to their oral production and  correct them in a constructive and positive way (“Very Good”, “Excellent”, “Be careful…”, “Do you remember…?”, etc…)

  • Oral Activity 2: Each group presents their summary to the class. The teacher decides on the speaking turn of each group member. That way each of the 3 or 4 students needs to know the summary of the document  well and to be able to explain any part of it. The aim is to avoid that students focus on just one part of the activity. The other groups can enrich their own presentation taking into account the linguistic and non-linguistic elements used by the previous groups. (In later sessions with this same type of activities, it will be necessary to ensure that the order of interventions is not the same, so that not always the same students begin the round of exhibitions).

Assessment

We have decided to rule out making summative assessment to avoid the stressful situation that this type of evaluation creates in students. The main objective of this activity is to boost the student’s oral communicative competence, so for his/her training assessment we will mainly promote formative assessment implementing self-assessment templates which will take into account expectations and results, both for the student and the teacher. The templates will be used at the beginning and at the end of this cycle of activities.