Page 14 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind
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Chapter 1. General introduction
who the teacher sees for only two or three lessons a week. Because of the transient nature of speech, opportunities for feedback pass by all too quickly. Uptake by the learners depends in a large part on their capacity to remember what has been said, and on having the opportunity to correct themselves and to practise a similar speaking act. Furthermore, the learning goal is not only to learn to self-regulate their own speaking skills, but also to cover all the content of the language curriculum. Besides these learning goals, the teacher must realise other goals at the same time, such as keeping order, creating and maintaining an optimal classroom climate, motivating students, managing time and resources, etc. (Kennedy, 2005; 2016b; Janssen, Westbroek & Doyle, 2015).
No wonder secondary school teachers in modern foreign languages in the Netherlands report that classes are too big and that this, along with lack of time and student dependency, impedes their training of speaking skills (Fasoglio, 2015). They tend to experience difficulties in providing adaptive feedback on speaking skills (Corda, Koenraad & Visser, 2012). According to Kwakernaak (2009: 243), providing feedback on speaking skills appears to be one of the most serious problems in foreign language teaching in the Netherlands. According to Lyster et al. (2013: 30), teachers should have a very wide repertoire of feedback types and strategies in order to make choices that meet their students’ needs and that fit the instructional context. Descriptive studies have shown, however, that teachers have a limited feedback repertoire that does not always meet the learning needs of individual students (Gass & Mackey, 2012; Lyster et al., 2013; Yoshida, 2008). Furthermore, the opportunity for students to improve their speaking performance is often lacking. In secondary education a particular speaking task is often offered only once in a lesson series without additional instruction or practice and with limited opportunity for reflection after interaction (Goh, 2017; Goh & Burns, 2012; chapter 2 of Van Batenburg, 2018).
In conclusion, an adaptive approach is needed to support students in learning to self- regulate their learning process in speaking skills. However, a new teaching approach will only be implemented in the classroom if it is not only of benefit to students’ learning but is also practical for teachers (Janssen et al., 2015). Practical for teachers means that the adaptive teaching approach provides concrete principles to realize adaptation to their students’ needs in regular classes of 25-30 students, in the limited time available and in congruence with other goals teachers must achieve at the same time.
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