MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Final thesis Brno 2006 Zuzana Salajová MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Development of speaking skills at English lessons Final thesis Brno 2006 Supervisor: Written by: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Zuzana Salajová Declaration: I declare that I worked on my thesis on my own and that I have used only the literature listed. Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková for her kind help and valuable advice which she provided me throughout my thesis as my supervisor. Contents Introduction………………………………………………….1 1. Forms of speaking…………………………………….....2 2. Development of speaking as a skill in theories…………..4 3. Relationship among speaking and other skills…………...5 4. The role of a task…………………………………………8 4.1 Types of tasks………………………………………...9 5. Practical part…………………………………………….13 5.1 Coursebook’s analysis……………………………....13 5.2 A short characteristic of coursebooks……………….13 5.2.1 A coursebook Project English 1……………..15 5.2.2 A coursebook Project English 2……………..21 5.2.3 A coursebook Project English 3……………..29 5.3 Evaluation…………………………………………...36 6. Conclusion……………………………………………....38 Bibliography…………………………………………………39 Appendix…………………………………………………….41 Introduction Being able to communicate in a foreign language means to take a new place in society. It allows us to overcome cultural bounders as well as to obtain new feelings such are friendship or fellowship among nations. For this reason educational system lays stress on teaching foreign languages. While a few years ago the aim of teaching was focused on grammar, memorizing or translating, nowadays, the process moves in a different way. The main goal in teaching a language is to allow students to obtain communicative competence, which means to spread students´ skills to communicate on different topics, to express their thoughts as well as receive new information but also be able to pass information. To be able communicate in a foreign language means to use all skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. However, results of research show that not all these skills are developed properly. The biggest stress lies on developing speaking. The aim of this work is to discover, after analyzing all tasks and exercises included in textbooks Project English 1, 2, 3 used at primary schools, whether the skill – speaking- in these textbooks is systematically developed and to what extent is communicative skill developed for students in these textbooks. 1. Forms of language Language plays a very important part in our lives. It gives us an opportunity to express ourselves and also shows our social background. Communication has a great variety of effects. It allows individuals to benefit from the perceptions and inferences of others and so increase their knowledge much more that they could acquire on their own. Authors of Common European Framework define communication as:” an integral part of tasks where participants engage in interaction, production, reception or mediation, or a combination of two or more of these.” (Common European Framework of Reference for Language: Learning, teaching, assessment, 1990, p.157) Learning to use a language involves not only a great deal of acquiring grammar and vocabulary but also a big deal of a competence to interpret and suit a language to the situation. From this point of view there are two forms of language: a) spoken b) written Speech is transmitted by sounds. Spoken language is spontaneous and varied and can be used in a great variety of ways. It is typically used to maintain social contact in face-to-face interaction between a speaker and a listener. The participants rely on their knowledge and receive information from what they see (for example body language or immediate environment) as well as from the situational context. In spoken communication the participants can use non-linguistic noises, facial expressions and gestures to support their verbal contribution. However spoken language has a lot in common with written language and can be found in the speech of public speakers such are politicians, lawyers and so on. Written language is considered to be secondary and permanent and comes after the spoken form. Written language has many different functions: from literary function, academic function through informative function (news) to recoding function (lecture note). In each function, the language is used for different purpose and therefore it has a different form and there are appropriate styles for different functions. Written language typically occurs in the situations which can be characterised by a certain degree of formality. The main feature of written form is that it is planned, fluent, well organised and tend to be more explicit than spoken language. Other forms of speaking are: a) verbal b) non - verbal In Wikipedia is non-verbal communication defined as: “the process of sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gestures, body language or posture, facial expression and eye gaze, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture.” (Wikipedia, free encyclopaedia, 2006) This communication:” can occur through any sensory channel – sight, sound, smell, touch or taste. Nonverbal communication is also distinguished from unconscious communication, which may be verbal or non-verbal.” (Wikipedia, free encyclopaedia, 2006) Verbal language is organized in hierarchical levels: sounds or letters make words, words make sentences, sentences make text and texts make discourses. Another feature of verbal language is that its context is very peculiar. People do not have to be physically present at the same place but they have an opportunity to interact. The hearer can become a speaker, and vice versa. In non verbal communication, as much as 90% of the social meaning is carried by the nonverbal message. An American psychologist Mehrabian came with a very interesting theory. He claims that: - 55% of the communication consists of body language - 38% is expressed through tone of voice - 7% is expressed through words Here we can see that 93% of our feelings are expressd by non-verbal language. (Van Marvik, 1997) 2. Development of speaking as a skill in teaching theories There are many theories that deal with speaking. Some of them are not used any more, some are used only in a certain part of the world but many of them are still widely used in preset time. Jeremy Harmer in his book The Practice of English Language Teaching says: “certain theories have, however, had a profound effect upon the practice of language teaching (and continue to do so) despite the fact that they have often originated in studies of how people learn their first language. It is only comparatively recently that the study of second language acquisition has achieved the importance that it has now.” (Harmer, 1991, p. 31) In this part of my work I would like to mention some methods and approaches and their attitude to the development of speaking skills. The Grammar-Translation Approach It is one of the oldest methods. The main aim of this method is translation and therefore exercises are focused on translating sentences form the target language into mother language, and vice versa. Speaking as a skill is not very much developed in this method. The Direct Approach In contrast to grammar-translation method there is no translation but the attention is paid to speaking. This method uses dialogues as much as possible. The goal of this method is to prepare a learner for active usage of speaking. Speaking and listening are preferred skills and are also supported by phonetics. The Audio-lingual Method This method pays a great attention to speaking. The aim of this method is development of speaking as a skill. The method is focused on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning. Great importance is given to precise native-like pronunciation. Use of the mother tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged among and by the students. Task-based learning It is another method that is focus on speaking skills. This method deals with problem solving element. “In solving the problems the students naturally came into contact with language, but this contact happened because the students were actively involved in reaching solutions to tasks.” (Harmer, 1991, p.35) Humanistic approaches: 1. Community Language Learning This method gives students only the language they need. Students say what they want to say in their mother language and the knower translates it. The method also uses a type recorder so the students can say what they want to into a recorder. In this way students acquire the language they want to acquire. This method concentrates on the student’s state of mind and relaxation. 2. Total Physical Response – TPR This method is interesting because it gives an idea of new way how to develop speaking through TPR. The Total Physical Response (TPR) method combines information and skills through the use of the kinaesthetic sensory system. The student is not forced to speak, but is allowed to spontaneously begin to speak when the student feels comfortable and confident in understanding and producing the utterances. Students follow instructions given by the teacher and “they learn language through actions, through a physical response rather than through drills.” (Harmer, 1991, p. 36) 3. Relationship among speaking and other skills All senses must be involved in the process of teaching a language. There are for instance some people who belong to visual types and other people are more audio types. The picture below demonstrates that teaching a foreign language cannot be developed in one way. Speaking and writing involve language production and are therefore called productive skills. On the other hand, listening and reading involve receiving message and are classified as receptive skills. Picture: We learn: (E. Klementisova: in Begegnungen 1/95) 10% by listening 2% by touch 1% by taste 4% by smell 83% by sight Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language and the most important skill they can acquire. These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write. Speaking involves three areas of knowledge: 1. Mechanics – pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary- using the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation 2. Functions – transaction and interaction - knowing when clarity of message is essential and when precise understanding is not required 3. Social and cultural rules and norms - turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants, understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason. (Common European Framework of Reference for Language: Learning, teaching, assessment, 1990, p. 88) “To speak the learner must be able to: - plan and organize a message (cognitive skills) - formulate a linguistic utterance (linguistic skills) - articulate the utterance (phonetic skills)” (Common European Framework of Reference for Language: Learning, teaching, assessment, 1990, p. 80) Inseparable part of development speaking is listening. It helps to develop a phonetic side of language and therefore listening is very closely connected with speaking. By listening a learner of a foreign language obtains and works with spoken information which comes from one or more speakers, so for a listener is very important to identify the message, understand the message and be able to interpret the message. However, in order to develop communicative efficiency in pronunciation the students need to understand how sounds are made. “It is impossible to expect a student to produce a sound which does not exist in his mother tongue or a natural sentence using the stress, rhythms and intonation of a native speaker of the foreign language without first of all providing him with a model of the form he is to produce. It is not possible to produce satisfactorily what one has not heard. If we want to achieve oral fluency or accuracy we should consider the learner’s ability to listen.” (Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, Pincas, 1993, p.65) Reading is a process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension - that means to encode meaning. A good reader should read for purpose, integrate information in the text with existing knowledge and relies on different skills. Reading spreads our vocabulary and helps us to improve our speech. A good reader must be able not only to identify and understand the message but also interpret the message. The last skill that is connected with speaking is writing. A logical structure is very important for a good writing. That means to well organise and formulate the message. Finally we can state that speaking, reading, listening and writing cannot be developed separately. The more senses we use with learning, the more permanent is our knowledge. Speaking, reading, writing and listening are very closely connected and supplement each other. And therefore everybody who wants to speak a foreign language must be able to use all four skills. Very often there are combinations listening and speaking (a dialogue) or reading comprehension and writing (a correspondence). 4. The role of tasks Tasks play an essential role in language pedagogy, either for educational or linguistic reasons. Tasks are extremely varied and involve language activities to a big extent. There are many types of tasks for example: creative – story writing, skills based – repairing something, problem solving – crosswords, routine transactions, interpreting a role in a play etc. Each task is different. It can be simple or complex, it may involve few or a big number of steps. Jane Willis describes tasks as: “activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome.” She also claims that tasks should:” motivate learners, engage their, attention, present a suitable degree of intellectual and linguistic challenge and promote their language development as efficiently as possible.” (Willis, A Framework for Task-based Learning, 1996, p.23) Teaching foreign language requires activities which are designed to direct learners´ attention. These activities lead to review, add, reorganise or exercise a language. From this point of view Bygate defined tasks as: "pedagogic activities in which language is used to achieve non-linguistic outcomes but with the overall purpose of improving learners' language proficiency“. (Bygate, Task-Based Learning, 2002) We know that language is a complex communication system which involves not only grammatical abilities but a wide range of dimensions such are broad discourse structures or the ability to adjust discourse patterns to the social context. Therefore it is not possible for activities to concentrate only on one dimension of language but very important is the relationship between task design and language learning. However these different dimensions can cause some difficulties. Teachers have to realize that there may be some problems with tasks in the classrooms and they should take into account the specific competence of a learner and modify the tasks according to the needs and abilities to the learner. (Bygate, 2002) 4.1 Types of tasks In this part of my work I would like to present some interesting typologies. Many theorists and teachers deal with tasks. They try to create many useful methods and tasks that will help other teachers in their teaching. Gillian Brown and George Yule claim that “the practical requirement which is met by a task- -based approach to assessment of spoken production is that there should be some constancy of elicitation input.” The task-based approach is not so strict on details as for example traditional test of grammar and vocabulary. In expressing opinion there are different sets of relationships between one part of what is being talked about and the next (for example in the story-telling task the relationship is dynamic). According to them “the tasks are used to elicit spoken account of: a) Statistic relationships: - describing an object or photograph - instructing someone to draw a diagram - instructing someone how to assemble a piece of equipment - describing/instructing how a number of objects are to be arranged - giving route directions b) Dynamic relationships: - story-telling - giving an eye-witness account c) Abstract relationships - opinion-expressing - justifying a course of action” (Brown, Yule, 1991, p. 108) Another typology I would like to present is a typology that was presented by The Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessments (MLPA). This typology tries to help create speaking and writing skills. “Students tend to perform best when they are motivated by real reasons to use language that would be plausible in their lives outside of the classroom.These considerations suggest a need for performance-based assessment. This type of assessment focuses on simulated real-life situations in which learners must have minimal functional competence in using the target language in order for real communication (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) to take place. The approach is student-centred, and hence, the learner’s context serves as one of the organizing elements in the development process.” (MLPA The Minnesota Language Proficiency Asssessment, 2003) The Minnesota Articulation Project members defined performance-based tasks: a) Contextualized: Tasks are organized around one theme. Each task is designed so that the next task logically follows and it allows students to build a target language on the information they have already been given. b) Authentic: Tasks are designed to present students with a real communicative purpose for a real audience. c) Task-Based: Students must carry out a well-defined task designed to elicit specific use of the target language d) Learner centred: Tasks are realistic for students learning the foreign language, according to their cultural background, level or age. “Performance-based assessment helps students to understand the development of their communicative competence. It is easy for them to see how they progress in their ability to use language effectively. Performance-based assessment has enough flexibility built into it so that one instrument can be truly appropriate for every student in a classroom, by allowing each student to create personal meaning.” (MLPA The Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessment 2003) As we can see there are many ways how to divide tasks, but all of them try to help and make easier for teachers to teach a foreign language. In this part I mentioned some types of tasks which I found interesting but for my practical part I have chosen a typology from Jeremy Harmer .On the base of this typology I will associate tasks from textbooks into these three stages: 1. introducing a new language 2. practice 3. communicative activities 1. Introducing new language This stage can be also called presentation. It is very important and helps students to assimilate facts about a new language as well as enable them to produce the new language for the first time. In this stage or by using such tasks students will become aware about the context that means students will understand the context as well as meaning and use of the new language. (Harmer, 1991, p 50) 2. Practice In this stage the students will practice specific items of a foreign language and focus on their accuracy. This second stage involves activities such are information gap activities (these are the tasks where students practise and drill a specific items of language), games, oral drills, personalization and localisation (the tasks where students use language they have learnt to talk abut themselves and their lives) and oral activities (build up a narrative and focus on a variety of language items for example verb tenses). (Harmer, 1991, p. 92) 3. Communicative activities In the last stage the tasks are built to provoke spoken communication between students. The types of tasks are discussion, problem solving, simulation and role play, talking about yourself, reaching a consensus (tasks are focused on free and spontaneous language), communication games ( students are pun into a situation in which they have to use all the language the know) and relaying instructions. (Harmer, 1994, p. 122) J. Harmer says: “communicative activities mean getting students to actually do things with language, and it is the doing that should form the main focus of such session.” (J. Harmer, 1991, p. 151) 5. Practical part 5.1 Coursebook´s analysis In this part of my work I will deal with the analysis of textbooks. Nowadays there are many textbooks that are used for teaching English language. All textbooks have the same aim to introduce English as a foreign language and help learners to obtain fluency and accuracy in foreign language as much as possible. One of these textbooks is Project English I, II, and III written by Tom Hutchinson, which I am going to analyse in this part of my work. As I have mentioned in the previous chapter I will analyse textbooks according to Jeremy Harmer’s typology. I will classify tasks and exercises, which are focused on speaking skills, into three categories: 1. introducing new language – these activities are for example: pronunciation exercises -say these numbers- 10, 11.., complete she/he into sentences, use the correct article a – a book, an – an apple, match column A (questions) with column B (answers), see appendix Project English 1: Project 1 exercises 4, 12, 16 2. practice – there are: games, quizzes, ask your friends questions according to an example, see appendix Project English 1: Project 2 exercise 6, Project English 2: Issue 2 exercises 5 3. communicative activities – role-play, picture stories or act an interview, see appendix Project English 1: Project 6 – your project Millie’s story, Project English 2: Issue 2– your magazine Rescue, Project English 3: Unit 7 exercise 5 5.2 A short characteristic of cousebooks A coursebook Project English consists of three parts: · Project English 1 · Project English 2 · Project English 3 The whole course takes learners from beginner to intermediate level and offers a variety of activities (individual work, pair work), a variety of text types (letters, dialogues, maps) as well as many different topics and exercises. Each part of the coursebooks also contains the complete Student’s book, Workbook, Grammar and Practice book set of two cassettes and Teacher’s book. Teacher’s book provides detailed lesson plans and it is a guide that includes the language that teacher may use in a class during activities. Other parts of the teacher’s books are: a key to exercises of student’s workbook and revision tests. Project English 1. It is a coursebook for young learners age 11-12. This coursebook is divided into eight projects which deal with different topics. Each project is divided into a number of sub-topics related to the main theme. In the project English-speaking children introduce their interests and daily lives. Learners build up similar projects of their own lives and interests. These projects give an opportunity to talk and write about things that are important for young learners. Activities are carefully graded, so that the learners have enough language they need for the tasks. Project English 2. This coursebook is for learners age 12-13. Texts are organized into eight projects which are called issues. Project English 2 has a concept of a magazine – Hot Dog. The magazine is produced and presented by four teenagers. Each issue contains stories on a particular subject. Attention is given especially to the development of language skills. Exercises and tasks help students to learn vocabulary, grammar and also train them to listen and read efficiently. Project English 3 Project English 3 is suitable for young learners age 14-15. It is based on the idea of Canterbury Tales. A group of young travellers tell each other stories about their lives, experiences, travels and interests. In the textbook are eight units with several sub-topics which are on a particular theme. Each unit is presented by a young teenager from Canada, Australia, Singapore and Britain. A great weight is given to the functional side of language which provides an opportunity to revise grammar. 5.2.1 Coursebook Project English 1 Project 1 is called Communication and is divided into six sub-topics which present pupils basic grammar structures. The aim of the first project is to teach pupils verb to be, possessive adjectives, articles and numbers. All tasks and exercises are carefully graded. This project contains 36 tasks and exercises altogether. 25 exercises deal with speaking: According to the chosen typology 9 exercises belong to first stage - introducing new language, 16 exercises belong to second stage – practice and 11 exercises belong to others. See the graph: Project 2 This project is called My Word and contains six sub-topics. Here pupils learn how to introduce people, describe their house and use a verb have got. In this project are 45 tasks and exercises. 34 exercises deal with speaking: 9 exercises are introducing new language activities, 24 are practising activities, 1 exercise belongs to communicative activity and 11 exercises belong to others. See the graph: Project 3 In Project 3 which is called Our Town children learn how to ask and answer about ability by using can/ cannot or describe geographical location and use prepositions of place. This chapter contains 30 tasks and exercises altogether. 20 exercises are focus on speaking: 6 exercises represent introducing new language activities, 14 exercises belong to practice activities and 10 exercises are others. See the graph: Project 4 Time is the name of Project 4. Children are taught how to tell the time, describe daily routines and study the present simple tense. Activities are made to force pupils speak about people at work and what people like or want. In this part of a coursebook I found 34 exercises and tasks. 22 exercises focus on speaking: 5 exercises represent first stage – introducing new language, 15 exercises second stage – practice, 2 exercises belong to third stage – communicative activities and 12 exercises develop other skills (writing or reading). The results see on the graph: Project 5 Project 5 is called People and teaches pupils new adjectives, colours and singular and plural items of clothing. For the first time present continuous tense is presented. As in previous projects tasks are carefully graded. In this project 35 tasks and exercises are developing all skills; however, 20 exercises deal with speaking: 2 exercises are introducing new language, 17 exercises are practice activities and 1 exercise is a communicative activity. 15 exercises develop other skills. See the graph: Project 6 Animal - project offers mostly revising activities. Children revise verb have got, present simple, adjectives of dimension and make a story of an animal they are interested in. This project consists of 30 tasks and exercises altogether. 24 exercises deal with speaking out of these 2 exercises correspond with first stage – introducing new language, 14 exercises belong to second stage – practice and 7 exercises are communicative activities. 6 tasks and exercises develop other skills (writing and reading activities). See the graph: Project 7 This part of the textbook is called Doctor, Doctor and introduces past simple tense. Pupils learn the difference between regular and irregular verbs and sentence structure. After that they compare what happens at the doctor’s now with what happened few hundred years ago. Here I found 28 exercises and tasks altogether. 18 exercises focus on speaking: 4 exercises are introducing new language activities, 12 exercises are practice activities and 2 exercises are communicative activities. 10 tasks and exercises develop other skills (listening, writing and reading). The results see on the graph: Project 8 The last project of this coursebook is called Space. Children are familiar with future tense, dates and ordinal numbers. At the end of the project pupils describe what life will be on the Moon in the future. This project contains 29 tasks and exercises. 22 exercises are focus on speaking: 3 exercises correspond with introducing new language, 14 exercises are practice activities and 4 exercises belong to communicative activities. Only 7 exercises deal with other skills. See the graph: Comments: Project English 1 offers a variety of activities that develop speaking skills. As we can see on the graphs first half of the textbook is mostly focused on two categories from the chosen typology – 1. introducing new language and 2. practice. It means that pupils are well acquainted with new language and afterwards they have a good opportunity to practise what they have learnt. In the second half of the book we can find tasks that correspond with the 3^rd stage – communicative activities (see appendix Project English 1: Project 6 – your project Animals). Here learners have a chance to produce as much language as possible on their own. There are usually tasks as role-plays or descriptions of pictures. All the tasks are clearly instructed for instance: find a picture of an animal and describe it, make a questionnaire and ask your friends the questions and so on. Grammar explained in this coursebook contains majority of the items needed for appropriate level. The main aim of this coursebook is to teach learners 4 basic tenses: the present simple tense, the present continuous tense, the past simple tense and the future tense – will. Students also learn some basic prepositions of time and place, adjectives and adverbs. Each project deals with one grammar structure and all tasks and exercises are carefully graded and can be revised as well. The new language is presented through texts, especially dialogues which are well prepared, interesting and close to learners (for example: My town, Animals or Space). I really appreciate that this textbook offers many pronunciation exercises, so that students can listen how words are pronounced properly before they start speaking. Very often speaking is connected with other skills for example speaking and listening, speaking and writing or speaking and reading. Finally we can state that Project English 1 is suitable for young learners who want to study English as a foreign language. It offers a wide range of basic grammar structures which are well explained and easy to become familiar with, as well as interesting topics that are close to young learners. I also like many games and quizzes which are included in this project. They make the textbook more interesting and funny. In the whole coursebook Project English 1 are: - 40 exercises that belong to 1^st category – introducing new language (22%) - 126 exercises that belong to 2^nd category – practice (69%) - 17 exercises that belong to 3^rd category – communicative activities (9%) See the graph: I really appreciate that this coursebook is based on speaking activities (183 out of 266 tasks and exercises deal with speaking and really help to develop speaking skill). 5.2.2 Coursebook Project English 2 Issue 1 is called Who Are You and is divided into 6 sub-topics. In this issue pupils revise present simple tense, modals can/cannot, colours and genitives. Issue 1 contains 24 tasks and exercises. 16 exercises are focused on speaking activities: 4 exercises belong to introducing new language, 9 exercises belong to practice, 3 exercises are communicative activities and 8 tasks and exercises belong to others. See the graph: Issue 2 The second issue is called Accident Will Happen. Here children learn new tense - past simple continuous, imperatives, prepositions of time and describing the weather. The main story of this project is a story about a famous ship Mary Rose. At the end of the issue pupils write a newspaper story about a disaster at sea. The issue contains 28 exercises and tasks altogether. 16 exercises are deal with speaking: 10 exercises represent the second stage – practice, 7 exercises represent the third stage – communicative activities and 11 exercises are others. In this issue are not any exercises that belong to the first stage – introducing new language. See the graph: Issue 3 This part of the textbook is called Do You Know. It is divided into 6 sub-topics which deal with numbers 100-999 and adjectives. Pupils learn how to use comparatives and superlatives and do a classroom survey on subject preferences. In this issue I found 23 exercises and tasks altogether. 15 exercises and tasks are focused on speaking: 3 exercises belong to introducing new language, 9 exercises – practice, 3 exercises are communicative activities and 8 exercises belong to others. See the graph: Issue 4 The name of issue 4 is Eating. It contains 5 sub-topics and is focused on expressing quantity by using some/any and how much is/ are. Pupils learn how and where they get a meal or write instructions for favourite recipe. In the fourth issues are 29 tasks and exercises. 22 exercises deal with speaking: 5 exercises represent the first stage – introducing new language, 10 exercises represent the second stage – practice, 7 exercises represent the third stage – communicative activities and 7 exercises belong to others. See the graph: Issue 5 is called Progress And Change. Pupils become familiar with new tense – present perfect, but they also learn the contrast between past simple tense and present perfect tense. At the end of the issue children make a collage of things to show how times have changed and make a class survey on what people have done this week. In issue 5 are 26 tasks and exercises. 20 of them are focused on speaking: 4 exercises belong to introducing new language, 10 exercises belong to practice and 6 exercises represent communicative activities. 6 tasks and exercises deal with other skills. See the graph: Issue 6 Issue 6 is called London. The main aim of this issue is to introduce prepositions of place, prepositions of movement: towards, along, over etc, and revise simple past tense and modal verb can. In this project 29 tasks and exercises are developing all skills. 20 exercises and tasks develop speaking skills: 6 exercises correspond with introducing new language, 9 exercises correspond with practice, 5 exercises correspond with communicative activities and 9 tasks and exercises develop other skills. See the graph: Issue 7 is called Reader’s Issue. It contains 5 sub-topics and deals with modals – must, needn’t, mustn’t, could, couldn’t, have to and be able to. Issue also presents new future tense – going to, decimal numbers and large numbers. Issue 7 contains 29 tasks and exercises altogether. 22 exercises deal with speaking skills: 9 exercises belong to the first stage – introducing new language, 10 exercises belong to the second stage – practice and 3 exercises belong to the third stage – communicative activities. 7 tasks and exercises help to develop other skills. See the graph: Issue 8 The last issue in this textbook is called Newspaper. It introduces passive voice and contrast between passive voice and active voice. Passive voice is introduced in all tenses – present simple, past simple, future and present perfect tense. In this issue are 27 exercises and task altogether. 20 tasks and exercises develop speaking skills: 5 exercises are introducing new language, 10 exercises are practice activities and 5 exercises belong to communicative activities. 7 tasks and exercises develop other skills. See the graph: Comments: Project English 2 also contains many activities focused on speaking. As we can see on the graph, in the textbook I found all three categories: 1 – introducing new language, 2. practice and 3. communicative activities (see the graph). Comparing to Project English 1, in Project English 2 is almost the same amount of activities that belong to the first stage. It means that this coursebook pays a lot of attention to exercises which help students to introduce new language. However in Project English 2 is less number of tasks and exercises that correspond with the second stage – practice (51%). It is because the third stage – communicative activities take much more place in the textbook – 26%. Project English 2 confirms my expectations. It develops speaking skills on a higher level than it was in Project English 1 and forces learners to speak as much as possible on their own and work with the language that students have. The tasks and exercises are graded and interesting for young learners. Grammar items are divided into small units. Grammar structures deal with tenses: past simple and present perfect simple, expressing quantity, modals and passive voice. However, first issue is focused on revision. Through the whole coursebook learners have an opportunity not only gain new language, practise it but also revise what they know. I quite miss pronunciation activities in this book. I found only few exercises dealing with pronunciation. On the other hand, analyzing the whole textbook I found more tasks and exercises that develop listening, reading and writing skills than it was in Project English 1. 5.2.3 Coursebook Project English 3 Introduction The main aim of Introduction is to teach learners reflexive pronouns, express a wish by using phrases I would like to, I want to and express an interest by using good at, interested in. After the chapter learners are able to write a letter of application. Introduction involves 9 exercises and tasks altogether. 6 exercises deal with speaking: 2 exercises belong to the first stage – introducing new language, 3 exercises are practice exercises and 1 exercise is a communicative activity. There are 3 exercises and tasks that develop other skills. See the graph: Unit 1 is called Sue. It is divided into 4 sub- topics and the main theme of this unit is travelling. Pupils learn to express an ambition by using would/wouldn’t like to, describe personalities and plan a route. The first unit contains 27 tasks and exercises altogether. 17 tasks and exercises deal with speaking: 7 exercises correspond with introducing new language, 7 exercises correspond with practice and 3 exercises are communicative activities. 10 tasks and exercises belong to others. See the graph: Unit 2 The second unit is called Bruce and is divided into 5 sub-topics. This unit deals with challenge. Pupils learn how to suggest things, warn somebody by using conditions, and describe activities and abilities. Children also revise present simple tense. In this unit I found 25 exercises and tasks. 23 exercises and tasks are focused on speaking skills: 6 exercises are introducing new language, 13 exercises belong to the second stage – practice and 4 exercises are communicative activities. Only 2 exercises develop other skills. See the graph: Unit 3 This unit is called Nina and the main theme is language. In this unit children learn relative pronouns, relative clauses and revise past tense, present perfect tense and passive. At the end of the unit pupils learn about the origin of their mother language as well as other languages spoken in the world. This unit contains 27 tasks and exercises. 17 exercises and tasks deal with speaking: 4 exercises represent introducing new language, 11 exercises are practice activities and 2 exercises belong to the third stage – communicative activities. 10 exercises and tasks develop other skills. See the graph: Unit 4 is named Cleo. The main theme of this unit is work and leisure time. Unit 4 teaches how to express regret and feelings, describe types of television programmes and describe family relationships. For the first time past perfect is introduced. The unit also offers and interesting historical narrative about Mary, Queen of Scots. The fourth unit contains 32 exercises and tasks. 26 tasks and exercises develop speaking skills: 5 exercises are introducing new language, 9 exercises belong to practice and 12 exercises belong to communicative activities. Only 6 tasks and exercises deal with other skills. See the graph: Unit 5 This unit is called Patrick and it deals with the law. Pupils are taught indirect speech and stating rules. They also revise gerunds. In unit 5 are 32 tasks and exercises altogether. 30 exercises deal with speaking: 5 exercises belong to the first stage – introducing new language, 7 exercises belong to the second stage – practice and 18 exercises belong to communicative activities. 2 tasks and exercises develop other skills. See the graph: Unit 6 The theme of the unit 6 is survival and it is called Andy. It is divided into 5 sub-topics. Pupils learn to express doubt and regret by using ought to, shouldn’t, should have, modals in all tenses, passive voice and prepositions and prepositional phrases. Unit 6 contains 34 tasks and exercises. 27 tasks and exercises are focused on speaking skills: 11 exercises are introducing new language, 10 exercises belong to practice and 6 exercises belong to communicative activities. 7 tasks and exercises belong to others. See the graph: Unit 7 is named Matt. This unit is focused on danger. Children are taught superlatives, comparatives, numbers and percentages. Further, they learn to express need, chance/risk and also use adverbs of time. In this unit are 34 tasks and exercises. 26 tasks and exercises deal with speaking: 4 exercises correspond with introducing new language, 14 exercises are practice activities and 8 exercises correspond with the third stage – communicative activities. 8 exercises and tasks develop other skills. See the graph: Unit 8 The last unit of Project English 3 is called Cindy and is focused on time. It is mostly revising unit. Here pupils revise prepositions of place, ordinal numbers, question tags, dates, time prepositions, adverbs and adjectives as well as present simple and present continuous tenses. However, children also learn new arithmetical terms. Unit 8 contains 36 tasks and exercises. 33 exercises and tasks deal with speaking: 7 exercises are introducing new language, 12 exercises belong to practice and 14 exercises belong to communicative activities. Only 3 exercises develop other skills. See the graph: Comments Project English 3 is the last textbook that I analysed. While the main aim of Project English 1 and Project English 2 is to teach and drill grammar structures, Project English 3 mostly deals with functions of language for example: express a wish, describe activities by using gerund or describe abilities by using can/can’t and must/have to. In Project English 3 students have an opportunity to build their language on what they have learnt in previous coursebooks and improve their English. Only one new tense – past perfect tense is introduced in this textbook. The rest of the book is focused on revision. In Project English 3 is the large amount of activities focused on speaking skills. As we can see on the graph there are 25% of tasks and exercises that belong to the first stage – introducing new language. A lot of them are pronunciation exercises (see appendix Project English 3: Unit 3 exercises 11, 12). Up to 42% of tasks and exercises belong to the second stage – practise; however there is a rising number of the third stage – communicative activities up to 33 %. See the graph: All the activities are on a higher level than it was in Project English 2. The new language is presented through texts which are very interesting for young teenagers for example: first aid, jobs, risk or biorhythms. All tasks are clearly instructed. Speaking is often connected with other skills: speaking and listening (see appendix Project English 3: Unit 4 exercise 7), speaking and writing (see appendix Project English 3: Unit 5 exercise 7) and speaking and reading (see appendix Project English 3: Introduction exercise 4 a, b). Project English 3 also offers many games and quizzes to make the learning funnier (see appendix Project English 3: Unit 7 – Canada, Unit 8 – The Survival Game) Project English 3 is suitable for intermediate learners for its structure, variety of tasks, games, quizzes and texts that are interesting for young learners. I really appreciate many pronunciation exercises where learners have a chance to listen how the words are pronounce properly and improve their own pronunciation while they are speaking. 5.3 Evaluation I have analysed three coursebooks Project English 1, 2, and 3 in the practical part of my thesis. For the analysis I chose a typology by Jeremy Harmer and the aim was to find out whether the speaking skill is developed systematically and to what extent. I chose Project English because I have been teaching English for 5 years and as a teacher I have taught from several textbooks and I think that Project English is one of the best. Project English is well organized and provides enough language for learners to communicate from the very beginning. All tasks and exercises are carefully graded according to level. The topics and texts which are included in the coursebooks seem to be realistic, authentic, modern and interesting. I like games and quizzes that occur in all three textbooks. They make the learning funnier and maybe a bit easier for young learners. I really appreciate many pronunciation activities which help to improve speaking. Most of them present British accent but in Project English 3 students become familiar with Scottish, Canadian and American accent too. Project English 1 and Project English 2 are focused on grammar structures and forms of a language. They teach basic tenses which are important for communication and provide enough vocabulary too. On the other hand Project English 3 deals with functions of language and helps learners to improve their English and revise all the grammar they have learnt. According to the chosen typology I found in: Project English 1 – 183 exercises – 69% Project English 2 – 152 exercises – 71% Project English 3 – 205 exercises – 80%. See the graph: According to my experience students like this set of coursebooks very much, too. The only thing I miss in these textbooks are idioms, phrases and everyday English which would make the coursebooks even more attractive. 6. Conclusion Being a teacher I know how difficult it is to find a good coursebook. Nowadays there are many books which are available for teachers and students but only using them show us whether they are really suitable for teaching. Speaking is one of the most important elements in learning language. From this point of view I decided to analyse the chosen coursebooks. Therefore I chose a typology by Jeremy Harmer which is described in details in the theoretical part. I used Harmer’s typology in my practical part and analysed three coursebooks: Project English 1, Project English 2 and Project English 3. It is necessary to point out that the evaluation of these coursebook is a subjective matter and depends on teacher’s expectations. Bibliography BROUGHTON, G., BRUMFIT, Ch., FLAVELL, R., HILL, P., PINCAS, A., Teaching English as a Foreign Language. London, Routledge 1980. ISBN 0415058821 BROWN, G., YULE, G., Teaching the Spoken Language: an approach based on the analyses of conversational English. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1983. ISBN 0521273846 BRUMFIT, C.J., JOHNSON, K., The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. Oxford, Oxford University Press 1979. ISBN 019437078X Common European Framework of Reference for Language: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge University Press 1990. ISBN 0521005310 HARMER, J., The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman, Longman Group UK Limited 1991. ISBN 0582046564 KLEMENTISOVA, E., Begengnungen. German magazine for teachers 1/95. LITTLEWOOD, W., Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1981. ISBN 0521281547 HUTCHINSON, T., Project English 1. Teacher’s book. Oxford, Oxford University Press 1985. ISBN 0194354334 HUTCHINSON, T., Project English 2. Teacher’s book. Oxford, Oxford University Press 1986. ISBN 0194354377 HUTCHINSON, T., Project English 3. Teacher’s book. Oxford, Oxford University Press 1987, ISBN 0194354415 LITTLEWOOD, W., Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1981. ISBN 0521281547 WILLIS, J., A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Longman, Longman Handbooks for Language Teaching 1996. ISBN 0582259738 Internet sources: BYGATE, M., Task-Based Learning. Subject Centre for Languages: Linguistics and Area Studies a Subject Centre of The Higher Education Academy, 2002. cit. 10.5.2006. Available from www: http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/goodpractice.aspx?resourceid=412 MLPA THE MINNESOTA LANGUGAE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT, Developing Speaking and Writing Tasks for Second Language Assessment. A MLPA Miniquide for Assessment Development. The University of Minnesota: The Regents of the University of Minnesota 2003. cit. 10.5.2006. Available from www: http://www.carla.umn.edu/asssessment/MLPA/pdfs/miniguide.pdf VAN MARVIK, F., c.1997-2006. The Language everybody speaks. Bodycom Lichaamscommunicatie, The Netherladns. 1997 cit. 10.5.2006. Available from www: http://www.lichaamstaal.com/english/bodylanguage.html?body.html WIKIPEDIA, Free encyclopedia, Nonverbal communication. Wikipedia: GNU Free Documentation Licence 2006. cit. 20.7.2006 Available from www: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-verbal_communication Appendix Resumé: Úlohou tejto práce bolo nájst takú typológiu úloh, ktorá by umožnila detailnú analýzu troch učebníc používaných na základných školách. Hlavným cieľom bolo zistiť, či sa zručnosť rozprávanie podľa danej typológie systematicky rozvíja a v akej miere je táto komunikačná zručnosť rozvíjaná pre študentov v jednotlivých učebniciach. The task of this work was to find such a typology which is suitable for detailed analysis three coursebook which are used at primary schools. The main aim was to find, whether the skill – speaking is systematically developed and to what extent is communicative skill developed for students in chosen coursebooks. Anotácia Salajová, Zuzana: Development of speaking skills at English lessons, bakalárska práca, MU 2006, s. 41 Úlohou tejto práce je zistiť podľa vybranej typológie, či sa zručnosť rozprávanie rozvíja systematicky na hodinách anglického jazyka. Kľúčové slová: Didaktika Učebnice Hodnotenie učebníc Rozvíjanie zručnosti rozprávanie The aim of this thesis is to find according to chosen typology, whether the skill – speaking is developed systematically at English lessons. Key words: didactics Coursebooks Evaluation of coursebooks Development of speaking skils