Speaking

• Materials
• Needs Analysis
• Planning
• Strategies
• Testing
• Further Planning

Materials

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Speaking Materials

• Seminar Skills - a list of books in CILL
• Presentation Planner - a program which helps you to write presentations by asking you for all the necessary sections of a presentation. It then produces printable notecards and a script. It also reads your presentation to you to help with your pronunciation.
• Oral Presentations - a list of CILL books on presentations.

English in the Workplace (EIW) Speaking Materials

• Spoken Business Communication - a list of books in CILL
• Instructions - a list of books in CILL
• Job Interview Panel Discussion - example phrases and an ordering activity
• Job Interview Quiz on the content and grammar of interview answers
• Job Interviews (Early-intermediate and Intermediate) - list of useful CILL materials

English for Professional Purposes (EPP) Speaking Materials

• Job Application Procedures - a list of books in CILL
• Meetings:
  • Meetings Scenario - in a cartoon of a business meeting choose what your character will say.
  • Materials Lists of CILL Materials
  • Meetings - list of useful CILL materials
  • Meetings and Negotiations - list of CILL materials
• Writing and Presenting Final Year Projects - a list of books in CILL

Pronunciation

• Pronunciation page
• Pronunciation Program - 'Sounds'

Speaking Materials in Books

• There are lots of speaking materials in CILL, please visit us. Here is a list of speaking materials we have, for example on presentations.

Needs Analysis

There are four stages in needs analysis: what you need to know about a language, your present problems, your future needs, your needs for your course.

Click here for a Needs Analysis / Planning / Studying / Assessment Form that you can print out and fill in.

Problems

Make a list of the problems that you have when you are speaking, and the situations where you have these problems. For example:

Example Problem 1: I'm nervous when I am speaking English.
I am worried that I will make a mistake and other people will laugh at me. (Click here for advice.)

Example Problem 2: It's showing off to speak good English. (Click here for advice.)

Example Problem 3: I can't remember all the grammar and vocabulary I need, so I speak very slowly and I sound stupid. (Click here for advice.)

Future Needs

Think about what English you will need in future, for example for your job. Here are some examples:

Example Future Need 1: I will need to speak in meetings.

Example Future Need 2: I will need to give presentations.

Example Future Need 3: I want to work for an international company, so my English, especially my speaking, must be very good.

Needs for Your Course

If you are a student you probably need to study English to help you with your course work; eg. for writing assignments. Some example needs are:

Example Course Need 1: I need to speak in seminars and lessons.

Example Course Need 2: I need to do a presentation on my final year thesis.

(Click here to see the English courses that most full-time HKPU students do.)

Planning

You need to decide:

• what materials and resources you want to use
• whether you want to work alone or with other people
• when you want or need to finish studying; eg. in time for an assignment deadline
• how much improvement is necessary

Materials and Resources
Materials can be books, handouts, videos and computer programs on speaking
Resources can be teachers, classmates, computers, learner pathways, etc.

Working Alone or With Other People
Reasons for working with other people on speaking are:
- You can't learn speaking alone, you need to talk to someone
- People can suggest improvements
- They can tell you if you make a mistake
- They can encourage you to do better
- You can share your thoughts and feelings

Reasons for working alone are:
- You can't find anyone to speak to
- You don't want to pick up mistakes from other learners

Materials

Click here to go back to the list of speaking materials on the Internet at the top of this page.

Speaking Strategies

- Questions for Clarification: This means talking to English-speakers and asking for them to repeat, paraphrase (summarise in different words), explain or give examples. You can say:

• Repeat: "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that, can you say that again?"
• Paraphrase: "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Can you tell me again?"
• Explain: "Could you explain that for me?"
• Examples: "Could you give me an example?"

- Recording yourself: record yourself speaking, either on your own, or with other people. Later you can review the recording, listen for problems such as saying "Um" too much, and research anything that you didn't know how to say.

- Form a group of people to practise speaking English: In CILL you can join the SAP to do this with a teacher. The English Club also runs the Big Mouth Corner for speaking practice.

- Sing: You can sing English songs that you like, either alone, or with friends; e.g. karaoke.

- Act: you can join a drama club or group that puts on English plays. The ELC has a Drama Club.

- Imagine: Imaging that you are in a situation where you need to speak English; e.g. as a character you like in a movie. Try to imagine what you would say. Do you know what to say? If you are not sure, you can research it later.

Click here to go to the Speaking page.

Testing

You can test your speaking skills yourself, with classmates, with a CILL tutor or with a teacher.

Testing Yourself
Record yourself speaking some of the common phrases you can find in the CILL speaking materials; eg. "Excuse me, is there anyone sitting here?" Then check in the materials to see if you are correct.

Testing with Classmates
Practice your speaking with your classmates; e.g. practice giving part of a presentation. Discuss your mistakes with your classmates. If you are not sure if something is right, check in a dictionary or grammar reference. To test yourself, you can video yourself, and then watch the video, looking for mistakes in the things you have learned.

Testing with a CILL Tutor
Give a tape or video of your speaking to a CILL tutor. It is very important to tell the tutor what you have been learning so that they can assess that. If you would like suggestions for other things to improve, please ask. CILL tutors do not believe that it is good to correct everything because we know you are not studying everything about speaking, that would take a long time. We believe it is better for you to work on one small area of speaking at a time.

Testing with a Teacher
Your English teacher will probably give you assignments such as a presentation or a interview, and give you feedback on the assignments. Read the feedback carefully, and use it to improve next time.

Further Planning

When you have finished your plan you need to test or assess yourself to see if you have fulfilled your need. Can you do what your Needs Analysis and your plan aimed for?
- If you can, then you can plan to learn another point from your Needs Analysis, or you can change it because of some new thing that you want to learn. Don't forget to come back and revise later.
- If you can't, you need to study more, so change your plan. You could, for example, do some of the Alternative Materials or Extra Materials if you are following a learner pathway. If you are bored you can do something else and come back later.

For more details on how you can test yourself, click here. The learner pathways also have details on how you can test yourself. Click here for an example.