Page 117 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind

5.4.3 Intervention
The 11 foreign language teachers participated in a professional development trajectory (PDT) comprising five meetings of three hours each spread over three months, followed by an implementation of the SpeakTeach method in their own teaching for four months. The PDT started with a self-evaluation by the teachers of their existing methods of teaching speaking skills. In the first meeting, the facilitator of the PDT (the author, see chapter 1) showed a visual representation in building blocks of a regular lesson series teaching speaking skills (Figure 1, chapter 2) and checked whether the teachers recognized this kind of teaching by discussing concrete examples of lessons (e.g. speaking activities and preparatory exercises in course books) provided by both participants and the facilitator. After that, the teachers produced a visual representation of their own regular teaching practices using similar building blocks and evaluated advantages and disadvantages. They then compared their teaching practice to the new approach, the SpeakTeach method, which was presented in similar building blocks (Figure 4, chapter 3) by the facilitator of the PDT. The three procedures of the SpeakTeach method and possible different ways in which they can be carried out were discussed, as well as advantages and disadvantages of the method and the procedures. Finally, the teachers indicated in their self-evaluations what they wanted to improve, how, and what kind of support they needed or preferred. Subsequently, depending on the teachers’ goals, learning needs and preferences which had been noted in their self-evaluations and discussed with the facilitator, differentiated activities were provided during the professional development trajectory such as modelling, discussion, exchange, individual work and experimentation. In addition, according to the needs raised, instruction was provided about effective feedback according to research and teachers’ experiences and this was discussed. By using recordings of students’ speaking performances and speaking activities in course books, participants and the facilitator discussed how to formulate feedback, how to design guided or free communicative speaking activities and how to ensure alignment in lesson series. Finally, the teachers designed SpeakTeach lesson series based on the design procedures and in line with their own goals, which they then implemented in their teaching. The intervention was concluded with an evaluation meeting.
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