Susan Spezzini

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47133/tegc_ch40  

ABSTRACT

Language learners learn to speak a new language by speaking this language in authentic interactions, especially with peers. Such authentic interactions can be facilitated by frequent opportunities in class for learners to speak with each other. We can create such opportunities by implementing pair and group activities like the Interactive Peer-to-Peer Oral Techniques (IPOTs). In paired IPOT activities, half of the learners are speaking with a partner while their partner is actively listening. Then, within each pair, partners reverse the roles of speaker and listener. Hence, at any given time, all learners are either speaking or listening. In this chapter, you will explore how the use of IPOTs can maximize opportunities for English learners to speak. You will learn how, by participating regularly in IPOTs, learners of all ages and language levels can improve their speaking skills. You will also learn how to implement five different IPOTS as strategies to teach speaking. 

Keywords: speaking skills, opportunities to talk, Interactive Peer-to-Peer Oral Techniques, peer interaction, oral strategies, English learners

Spezzini, S. (2023). Strategies to Teach Speaking. In V. Canese & S. Spezzini (Eds.), Teaching English in Global Contexts, Language, Learners and Learning (pp. 477-494). Editorial Facultad de Filosofía, UNA. https://doi.org/10.47133/tegc_ch40

INTRODUCTION

Speaking is the act of communicating orally with others who are listening and interacting. Children learn to speak their first language (L1) naturally over several years by interacting with family members and other people in their immediate environment. Learners of a second language (L2) also learn to speak an L2 by interacting with others over several years. However, during this L2 learning process, many learners feel inhibited about speaking the new language. Nonetheless, to learn to speak this language, L2 learners must speak it.

To develop their L2 speaking skills, learners must speak this new language many times each day in meaningful interactions (Brown & Lee, 2015). For this to happen, L2 learners must be willing to speak in class activities without feeling overly inhibited or anxious. As teachers, we can guide learners in wanting to speak by creating supportive, welcoming environments where they feel comfortable and can build confidence as L2 users (Echevarria et al., 2023). Such emotionally safe places serve to reduce learners’ inhibitions about speaking and decrease their anxiety. This, in turn, lowers their affective filter—thereby minimizing an invisible barrier to speaking. In these welcoming environments, most L2 learners become empowered to take the risks associated with using new sounds, words, and sentences. Thus, by participating in authentic oral interactions, L2 learners can gradually build their speaking skills and make progress toward becoming effective L2 speakers.

Classroom interactions are considered authentic when learners engage with each other in interesting conversations about compelling topics (Hill & Miller, 2013). In these authentic interactions, learners use new language structures to share personal interests (e.g., pets, hobbies), explore content areas (e.g., artwork, ecology), analyze current events (e.g., destructive storms), and offer opinions (e.g., favorite movies). These authentic interactions are best achieved through engaging interactive techniques, which, in turn, serve as strategies to teach speaking.  

BACKGROUND

Early approaches to English language teaching (ELT) did not prioritize speaking. Before the 1950s, ELT approaches focused mainly on reading and writing. In such approaches, students might have read sentences aloud, perhaps once or twice during a class period. This approach to using oral language did not lead to the development of speaking skills. 

During the 1950s and 1960s, language learners repeated phrases but often without understanding the meaning of what they were saying (Richards & Rodgers, 2014). In the 1970s, new theories and methods began to focus on oral interaction. In the 1980s, the communicative language teaching approach emphasized the role of speaking to establish meaningful communication. With this approach, L2 learners participated in speaking activities for social, everyday communication but still had limited opportunities to use oral language for other purposes. 

In the 1990s, researchers began examining the importance of speaking skills for academic and professional interactions (Franks et al., 2018). Because opportunities for oral communication were usually limited to social interactions in local contexts (e.g., classrooms or country-based settings), L2 learners often experienced difficulties understanding and using spoken English during academic interactions in other contexts (Jordan, 1997). For example, when pursuing a university degree in another county, L2 users were especially concerned about their ability to manage speaking tasks that required academic English rather than social English. As international students, they were challenged at using academic vocabulary and structures. Similarly, numerous studies in the early 21st century examined the teaching and learning of oral English in worldwide settings, especially for international communication (Wang et al., 2022). 

To increase opportunities for L2 learners to engage in meaningful oral interactions, teachers need to know how to teach speaking, which includes knowing how to implement numerous speaking strategies (Bleistein et al., 2020; Folse, 2006; Vorholt, 2018). Guided by this goal, I have always tried to help teachers (pre-service and in-service) with implementing oral interactive techniques in their classrooms. However, when I began working in a different context and observed interns teaching at diverse K-12 grade levels, I was surprised that these interns were providing few opportunities (if any at all) for their learners to interact orally with each other. During post-observation conferences, I asked interns why their lessons did not include ample speaking opportunities such as we had discussed during the internship seminars. My interns’ responses were often as follows: 

• I did that (oral interaction) yesterday.

• Tomorrow is when I plan on having students talk.

• I teach high school, and the examples in our seminar were mainly for elementary school.

• I have so much content to cover that there’s no time for students to talk to each other.

• I have an unruly class, and oral activities will get them even more off task.

• My principal likes quiet classrooms.

Initially, I initially viewed such responses as related to just this specific group of interns. For my next group of interns, I placed more emphasis on explaining oral interactive techniques during the internship seminars and prominently displayed oral techniques in the lesson plan template. With these adjustments, I anticipated that future interns would meet my expectations regarding the use of oral techniques. After observing subsequent groups of interns and continuing to notice limited oral interaction in their classrooms, I made additional adjustments. 

One of my adjustments in preparing interns to use oral techniques was coining the phrase Interactive Peer-to-Peer Oral Technique (IPOT; Spezzini, 2009). This IPOT acronym resembled another term, iPod, a digital device that had just come onto the market. The similarity between IPOT and iPod seemed to make my IPOT acronym (and its concept) easier for interns to remember. As I gained experience with preparing interns to use IPOTs, my future intern groups became more cognizant about the importance of prioritizing speaking interactions (Seay et al., 2013). They incorporated IPOTs in their daily lessons and, by doing so, created opportunities for their learners to talk.

MAJOR DIMENSIONS

For decades, ELT researchers and educators have shared nuggets of wisdom such as “If students aren’t talking, they aren’t learning” (Seay et al., 2013, p. 121). Yet, teacher talk continues to overshadow student talk in many language classrooms (Brown & Lee, 2015). For students to improve their L2 speaking skills, the interaction between and among students in the target language must be meaningful and authentic (Echevarria et al., 2023). IPOTs “provide a vehicle for that interaction” (Seay et al., 2013, p. 128). Students enjoy opportunities to speak with their peers even when doing so in the target language. This also leads to receiving feedback from peers, which can be more meaningful for learners than feedback from a teacher. Finally, as students gain confidence for using an L2 to engage in authentic interactions inside the classroom, they build confidence for using this L2 to engage in conversations outside the classroom.

IPOTs and other such techniques foster oral interaction among learners who are at similar language levels and, also, with others at different language levels. To support such interactions, the teacher prepares to implement an IPOT by forming pairs or groups with students at varying language levels. Within each pair, the more proficient language user starts by assuming the primary role of speaking, and the less proficient language user assumes the role of listening and giving short responses. Upon completing this first interaction, these students reverse roles with the less proficient peer using the spoken phrases already modeled by the more proficient peer.

Classroom teachers can use IPOTs to support L2 learners across the curriculum and at any grade level. IPOTs help students develop their speaking skills during content lessons of all subjects. For example, consider using IPOTs during a series of science lessons about metamorphosis. Before starting this IPOT, introduce your class to the vocabulary and language structures needed for learning about metamorphosis. Start by explaining targeted language structures (e.g., How do caterpillars become butterflies?), demonstrating sentences (e.g., The caterpillar forms a chrysalis), and pronouncing new vocabulary (e.g., metamorphosis, butterfly, caterpillar, chrysalis). As part of this introduction, have students practice pronouncing new words and phrases by repeating chorally, which is when all students say these words at the same time. Adapt a hand gesture (like a conductor’s gesture) for signaling to students for all to repeat chorally. Consider having students chorally say new words several times, depending on the targeted words and their respective pronunciation issues. 

After introducing new vocabulary and structures, implement an IPOT with students participating in authentic-like conversations about the content (e.g., metamorphosis) by engaging in pairs or small groups. When participating in this IPOT, all students in the classroom are simultaneously engaged in oral interactions with a partner—half the class is talking, and the other half is listening. After students know how a certain IPOT functions and, also, by knowing the name for this IPOT (e.g., Hot Onion), they are usually able to do this same IPOT for learning other content in subsequent lessons, but with little or no teacher intervention. In other words, when students know an IPOT, you simply need to give them the name of the IPOT and a quick review of what they need to do. In this way, IPOTs are student-centered, and your role as the teacher is mainly to provide guidance and oversight.

IPOTs are informative, interactive, and engaging. They provide L2 learners with comprehensible input and, by doing so, enhance language and content learning. IPOTs are like many other oral techniques and their adaptations that have been around for decades, often with various names. Yet, based on my experience, the unique IPOT term resonates with teachers, thus helping them remember to incorporate interactive student talk throughout their lessons. In addition to using IPOTs based on existing oral techniques, consider creating several of your own IPOTs. To do so, think about everyday life interactions that have compelling content and repeated structures. For example, when participating in an ice breaker at a partnership training event, I experienced this activity as an engaging way to repeat meaningfully grammatical structures. The next day, I used this ice breaker as an IPOT in my ELT classroom.

Because IPOTs promote student interaction, they are excellent strategies to teach speaking. From among dozens of existing and potential IPOTs, I am sharing my favorite five IPOTs in this chapter. These IPOTs are Turn-and-Tell (for verbalizing newly acquired knowledge through periodic partner summaries), Hot Onion (for reviewing content information), Parallel Lines (for sharing discipline-specific information with classmates), Roaming Reporters (for acting as reporters to collect information), and Gap-Filling Tango (for completing information gaps).

PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATIONS

IPOTs are oral activities for students to speak with each other in pairs or groups. An example of a pair IPOT is Turn-and-Tell, and an example of a group IPOT is Hot Onion. Instructions on how to implement these two IPOTs are provided below. Instructions for three additional IPOTs are provided in the Appendix.

Turn-and-Tell

The Turn-and-Tell IPOT (Spezzini, 2009) is an easy-to-implement speaking opportunity for ELT classrooms with learners of any age and language level. The goal is for learners to use targeted words, structures, and content when speaking to a peer in the safe environment of pair interaction where no one else can hear. The informality of Turn-and-Tell and its intimate one-on-one format (with students usually sitting in their own seats) can serve to minimize stress. This private setting can also reduce inhibitions about speaking that often occur when L2 learners are asked to speak within a group and, even more so, in a class setting.

For effectively implementing Turn-and-Tell, display the needed words on the board and, depending on the language goal, provide sentence starters. Begin by modeling what you want students to do. Then, have each student turn to a classmate (usually seated side by side) and form a pair (e.g., Student A and Student B). In each pair, Student A asks a question of Student B. The goal is for half the class to be speaking simultaneously while the other half is listening attentively to their partner and then responding. After Student A asks a question and Student B answers, these roles are reversed with Student B asking a question and Student A answering. 

Turn-and-Tell can be used for a wide range of topics—both social and academic. Table 1 provides examples of Turn-and-Tell for students at lower levels of English.

Table 1

Turn-and-Tell: Examples of Interactions at Lower Levels of English.

This Turn-and-Tell IPOT works exceptionally well during content lessons in any subject (e.g., mathematics, science, social studies). Table 2 provides examples of Turn-and-Tell in classes with students who have reached a communicative level of English.

Table 2

Turn-and-Tell: Examples of Interactions During Content Lessons

During content lessons such as those in Table 2, use this Turn-and-Tell IPOT about every 10 minutes and, by doing so, provide students with several opportunities to speak even if just responding with a single word or short phrase. With Turn-and-Tell, all students are engaged simultaneously by speaking to a partner or listening intensively to their partner. 

Turn-and-Tell can also be used in many other ways. Following are three examples:

• Favorites. Have students write three numbers (a one-digit number, a two-digit number, and a four-digit number) that are important to them. Student A asks Student B, “Why did you choose these numbers?” After answering, Student B asks the same question of Student A. Instead of numbers, students can write their favorite item(s) from a category such as colors, animals, songs, or movies. By first thinking about the chosen category and writing one or more words (e.g., yellow), students feel more empowered to speak than when directly asked answer a question (e.g., What is your favorite color?).

• Imaginary Photos. Have students quickly sketch three geometric shapes (e.g., circle, triangle, square) on a tablet or piece of paper but without drawing anything inside the shapes. Based on my experience, when students start to draw images (e.g., people, things, events), many do not want to stop drawing and start talking. Therefore, in this activity, students should not draw anything except for three shapes. Each geometric shape represents an imaginary photo. These imaginary photos can be from past events, present events, or imagined future events (depending on whether your lesson objective is for students to practice using verbs in the past tense, present tense, or future tense). Student A says to Student B, “Please tell me about your photos.” Student B responds and then uses the same prompt to elicit information from Student A.

• Puppets. Have students use something that can serve as a puppet. For example, students can pull a sock over their hand or simply make their hand look like a mouth. They can also use a wooden clothespin—with or without a face drawn on it. They can even hold up a pen and move it like a puppet. Student A’s puppet and Student B’s puppet interact with each other by asking and answering Turn-and-Tell prompts such as those mentioned above. When giving their puppet the responsibility to speak, which implies attributing any potential L2 errors to this puppet, many students feel less inhibited about speaking. Hence, through this activity, they can begin to build their confidence as users of English.

Hot Onion

The Hot Onion IPOT (Seay et al., 2013) is an excellent opportunity for students to talk while also checking for understanding of newly learned vocabulary and concepts. A hot onion usually consists of nine strips of paper, with a different prompt or question on each strip. It usually works best if each strip is one third of a sheet of standard printer paper such as A4 size or letter size (8½ x 11 inches). 

Figure 1

Creating a Hot Onion: From One Crumpled Strip to Nine Crumpled Strips

Continue pressing additional strips around this growing wad—strip by strip. The third image in Figure 1 shows the result of crumpling six strips together—one at a time. The fourth image shows what happens after pressing together all nine strips. Each strip adds another outer layer like the layers of an onion. Because of these layers, I call this an onion rather than a potato (such as in a hot potato activity).

The Hot Onion IPOT works best when the student holding the hot onion and reading a prompt is helped, as needed, by other students in the circle. Such collaborative support avoids long pauses, such as when waiting indefinitely for a student in the hot spot to respond. Although short thinking pauses have an important role in this Hot Onion activity, long pauses can be counterproductive for student engagement. After receiving help (if needed), this student responds to the prompt, and then tosses the hot onion to a student on the other side of the circle. This continues until students have unwrapped all layers (one at a time), shared the prompts aloud, and responded (often collaboratively) to all prompts in the hot onion.

Among the many IPOTs that I have used to provide my L2 learners with speaking opportunities, the Hot Onion is usually everyone’s favorite. In fact, students often refer to it as a game because of their intrigue when unwrapping each strip and the fun associated with tossing the hot onion to each other. However, for me, the Hot Onion IPOT is a learning activity that provides an inviting opportunity for students to speak. It also allows me to determine whether additional instruction is needed about the topics on the strips in the hot onion.

In this chapter, you explored how students learn to speak new languages by speaking with peers. You learned about using IPOTs in your lessons to create opportunities for L2 learners to speak with each other. As such, you learned that IPOTS are effective strategies to teach speaking.

Here are key concepts about strategies to teach speaking:

• Language learners need multiple speaking opportunities in ELT classrooms.

• By speaking during these opportunities, learners develop the skill of speaking.

• IPOTs is a catchy term for oral interactive techniques in pairs and groups. 

• IPOTs are used in content lessons to provide opportunities for students to speak about what they are learning. 

• Always use the same name for a given IPOT so that students recognize it when used in subsequent lessons. 

• If an IPOT does not work well on the first attempt, adjust your instructions, and try again. 

Regarding strategies to teach speaking, answer these questions:

1. Why is it important to provide as many opportunities as possible for language learners to use oral English in ELT classrooms? 

2. During an IPOT, half of your students are speaking simultaneously while the other half are listening. How do these interactions help your students improve their speaking skills given that you, the teacher, are not correcting their language output?

3. Why should students know the name of an IPOT that you plan to use regularly?

Apply what you have learned about strategies to teach speaking:

1. Practice modeling an IPOT at home before modeling it for your students.

2. Introduce just one IPOT at a time in any given class. Be creative at adjusting it as needed. After students have mastered one IPOT, introduce another one in a subsequent lesson.

3. Demonstrate an IPOT at a faculty meeting (grade level or department).

4. Read online articles about oral interactive techniques and attend related sessions at professional conferences.

To learn more about strategies to teach speaking, visit these websites:

• Colorin-Colorado. https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/6-strategies-help-ells-succeed-peer-learning-and-collaboration 

• Games for L2 speaking. https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/12-fun-speaking-games-language-learners  

• Information gap activities. https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/teachers-corner-speaking-information-gap-activities  

• Language activities for communicative classrooms: Trinity College London. https://cbseacademic.nic.in//web_material/ASL/2013/23.%20Teaching%20Activities%20for%20the%20Communicative%20Classroom.pdf  

• Lowering the affective filter. https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/lowering-affective-filter-facilitates-language-acq/  

• Speaking activities. https://www.teachingexpertise.com/classroom-ideas/esl-speaking-activity/  

• Student engagement. https://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/research_and_rationale/330/The-Essential-5-A-Starting-Point-for-Kagan-Cooperative-Learning 

Aspects related to speaking are also addressed in the following chapters of this book: 

Chapter 13 Designing Learner-Centered Classrooms to Promote Active Learning by H. Kaiser

Chapter 16 Incorporating Interjections to Facilitate Conversational Flow by A. Rodomanchenko

Chapter 17 Providing Feedback on Learners’ Language Output by C. Cristóful

Chapter 22 Strengthening Communication through Classroom Discourse by K. Buckley-Ess

Chapter 29 Using Theater to Teach English by C. Ortiz and M. Vaky

Chapter 39 Strategies to Teach Listening by E. Nuñez

Chapter 43 Strategies to Teach Integrated Skills by L. Fuller

Chapter 44 Strategies to Teach Pronunciation by S. Spezzini 

Bleistein, T. M., Lewis, M., & Smith, M. K. (2020). Teaching speaking (2nd ed.). TESOL Press.

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed.). Pearson.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., Short, D. J., & Toppel, K. (2023). Making content comprehensible for multilingual learners: The SIOP Model (6th ed.). Pearson. 

Folse, K. S. (2006). The art of teaching speaking: Research and pedagogy for the ESL/EFL classroom (4th ed.). University of Michigan Press.

Franks, S., Spezzini, S., & Prado, J. (2018). The role of speaking in academic language. In M. Christison & C. Broady (Eds.), Teaching speaking and pronunciation, Vol. 3 (pp. 1789-1794), in J. I. Liontas (Editor in Chief), The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching. John Wiley & Sons.

Hill, J. D., & Miller, K. B. (2013). Classroom instruction that works with English language learners (2nd ed.). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 

Jordan, R. R. (1997). English for academic purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Seay, S., Spezzini, S., & Austin, J. (2013). Enhancing languages for specific purposes through interactive peer-to-peer oral techniques. In L. Sanchez-Lopez (Ed.), Scholarship and Teaching of Languages for Specific Purposes, (pp. 121-128). ISBN 978-0-9860107-0-5.

Spezzini, S. (2009). Fostering language in English language learners through grammaring and IPOTs. Focus on Teacher Education, 9(3), 5-6.

Vorholt, J. (2018). New ways in teaching speaking (2nd ed.). TESOL Press.

Wang, J., Abdullah, R., & Leong, L.-M. (2022, July 6). Studies of teaching and learning English-speaking: Review and bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in Education, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.880990 

Susan Spezzini earned a bachelor’s degree in linguistics (University of California San Diego, USA), a master’s in language teaching (University of California Berkeley), and doctorate in ESL curriculum (University of Alabama). Susan started her career in Paraguay—working initially with Peace Corps and then at the Higher Institute of Languages (National University of Asuncion) and other ELT entities. She also served in leadership roles of the TESOL International Association’s affiliate in Paraguay (known as PARATESOL). Susan is professor and program director of ESL teacher education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a Fulbright Scholar, she returned to Paraguay to help create this book.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6296-9365 

Email for corresponding regarding this chapter: spezzini@uab.edu

Cover Photo by saeed karimi on Unsplash