Oral skills refer to the ability to communicate with others, exchanging ideas and information, using proper language structures, pronunciation, vocabulary and register. Practicing oral skills online can be difficult both because of the medium and because there are still relatively few online resources available for this purpose.
Speakapps is a website that offers materials to practice oral skills online in different languages.
For this activity we will use the Open Educational Resources offered in the website.
Technology required:
Computer, internet
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this task students will be able to:
- practice their speaking skills
- demonstrate conversational skills in the target language
- recognise vocabulary related to the specific topic of your lesson
Procedure:
Please refer to the language specific tabs for examples.
- Before the activity:
- Choose an activity from one of the SpeakApps OERs.
- You can filter activities by language and language level.
- Plenary session. Elicit vocabulary about the topic of your lesson from the students (with an image or asking questions, etc).
- Choose an activity from one of the SpeakApps OERs.
- Activity:
- This activity can be performed in class, or using the tailored SpeakApps video conference tool, videochat
- Preview the activity and copy the links for ‘student 1’ and ‘student 2’.
- Post the links on a class blog post so that student have access to the task.
- Students work in pairs, following the instructions provided in the tasks to practice conversation, using the materials provided.
- After the activity:
- Ask students to develop a WordCloud or TagCloud of the vocabulary and language used in the activity.
- Post it on the blog post for the activity.
- Students comment on the blog post to comment on the task, describing the solutions they discussed with their partner and reflect on the oral skills, vocabulary, and language learned.
- Note: refer to the activity Using a blog for language teaching for further information on how to use blogs in the language classroom.
- Ask students to develop a WordCloud or TagCloud of the vocabulary and language used in the activity.
Suggestions for assessment
Review the comments class blog to assess the student discussions and reflections.
Attribution: Digilanguages Author: Valentina Rizzo
You can use the activity Guess where I am?
Before the activity:
-Plenary session:
Elicit vocabulary about places around the world (with an image or talking about the students’ travels).
Activity:
Activity in class or with videochat
– Students work in pairs and go to the link above, click on the task listed in the page and practice the conversation following the instructions.
After the activity:
-Ask students to go to the class blog and write a comment the task describing the solutions that they developed through the conversation.
Final Reflection:
Ask the students what they learnt during this activity both in terms of:
- Oral skills
- Vocabulary/Language
Suggestions for assessment
Assessment of comments in the blog.
Un exemple d’activité SpeakApps en français:
Before the activity:
-Plenary session:
Elicit vocabulary about the house (with an image or talking about the students’ houses – What is your favourite room of the house? Why? etc).
Activity:
Activity in class or with videochat
– Students work in pairs and go to the link above, click on the 4 different tasks listed in the page and practice the 4 conversation tasks following the instructions.
After the activity:
-Ask students to go to the class blog and write a comment for each task describing the solutions that they developed through the conversations.
Final Reflection:
Ask the students what they learnt during this activity both in terms of:
- Oral skills
- Vocabulary/Language
Suggestions for assessment
Assessment of comments in the blog.
Hier ein Speakapps-Link zum Thema Städte in Deutschland
Vor der Übung:
Wiederholung von Vokabeln zum Thema Stadt und Sehenswürdigkeiten
Übung:
Funktioniert im Plenum oder in Partnerarbeit. Ein Schüler oder die Lehrkraft beschreibt eine deutsche Stadt seiner/ihrer Wahl.
Der Partner bzw. die Klasse versucht, diese zu erraten.
Nach der Übung:
Lassen Sie die Schüler eine WordCloud zum erlernten Vokabular entwickeln.
Procedure
An activity in Italian on “La Casa”
Specific Speakapp link: La casa
Before the activity:
-Plenary session:
Elicit vocabulary about the house (with an image or talking about the students’ houses – What is your favourite room of the house? Why? etc).
Activity:
Activity in class or with videochat
– Students work in pairs and go to the link above, click on the 4 different tasks listed in the page and practice the 4 conversation tasks following the instructions.
After the activity:
-Ask students to go to the class blog and write a comment for each task describing the solutions that they developed through the conversations.
Final Reflection:
Ask the students what they learnt during this activity both in terms of:
- Oral skills
- Vocabulary/Language
Suggestions for assessment
Assessment of comments in the blog.
Author: Valentina Rizzo
You can use the activity Adivine el nombre del trabajo.
Before the activity:
-Plenary session:
Elicit vocabulary about jobs (with an image or talking about the students’ jobs or their parents’ jobs).
Activity:
Activity in class or with videochat
– Students work in pairs and go to the link above, click on the task listed in the page and practice the conversation task following the instructions.
After the activity:
-Ask students to go to the class blog and write a comment for the task describing the solutions that they developed through the conversation.
Final Reflection:
Ask the students what they learnt during this activity both in terms of:
- Oral skills
- Vocabulary/Language
Suggestions for assessment
Assessment of comments in the blog.
