Page 81 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind

fluency (Bygate, 1996; 2001). This is why Goh (2012; 2017) pleads for repetition of the speaking task as an activity for improvement. She also emphasizes the importance of pre-task planning (2012; 2017). Following Skehan (1998) and Segalowitz (2010), she recommends giving learners time to plan before a task, to think of what to say and how to say it. That helps to free up attentional space during speaking for articulation of ideas, speech monitoring and self-repair (Goh, 2017: 252). Another improvement activity can be learning chunks, fixed phrases, which will lead to more fluent speech, and learning compensating strategies such as asking for repetition, paraphrasing, describing and asking for help, to keep the conversation going (e.g. De Jong, 2020; Goh, 2017).
Secondly, learners can indicate in their plans whether they need help, about what and from whom (teacher or peer) and formulate a request for help (Clark, 2012; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). This activity stimulates awareness of the learning process.
Thirdly, teachers can provide feedback on the improvement plans. The process of self- assessing and making plans generates internal feedback at a variety of levels (i.e. cognitive, motivational and behavioural) (Butler & Winne, 1995; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Sadler, 1989). Although this internal feedback is invisible, learners’ assessment provides information about how they are progressing and how they are regulating this process (Nicol & Macfarlane- Dick, 2006). The output in the form of a learner’s plan for improvement with any request for help, and the congruence or lack of congruence of this plan with the assessment of the speaking performance provides information about the degree and kind of support the learner needs in this process. Teachers can use this information to help students self-assess and improve their own performance (Cauley & McMillan, 2010) and also to provide feedback on the self-regulation process itself which can enhance learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).
After executing the plan, after activities for improvement and feedback, it is important to offer students the opportunity to do the speaking task again and to have them check whether their speaking performance has indeed improved (Bygate, 2001; Nicol & Macfarlane- Dick, 2006). The improved speaking performance can serve as input for a new feedback-loop, resulting in an iterative learning process which promotes learning. Little (2013: 8) states that “[...] by monitoring our performance we gradually reinforce and/or modify our competences.” By replaying and analysing their own production, learners strengthen associations in memory (the ‘generation effect’, Clark, 1995). Moreover, learners remember information better when they take an active part, rather than having it provided by an external source (deWinstanley
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