Extended speaking activities (and the importance of planning)

• Session D

This session, which will be useful for anyone who uses, designs or writes speaking activities, considers the importance of a pre-task planning stage in classroom speaking activities and looks at research evidence, including that of the speaker, of how this can result in significantly increased fluency, complexity and grammatical accuracy. We will look at how, based on the principles discussed, a simple planning stage can, and perhaps should, be integrated into just about any classroom speaking activity. Along the way we will listen to and briefly assess students undertaking a classroom speaking task.