Teaching Oral Skills Communicatively | Page 48

Section II The aim of this section is to put theory into practice by presenting two lessons which were prepared according to the criteria analyzed in section I. 2.1 Lesson 1 2.1.1. The aims of the Lesson The aims of the lesson were to help students:  develop speaking skills which they can use in ‘real life’ situations  understand the differences between spoken and written language  understand both the transactional and interactional functions of spoken language  integrate all language skills and use them appropriately 2.1.2. The objectives At the end of the lesson it was expected that students would be able to:  relate what they already know about a situation to knew knowledge  listen for general and specific information  transfer information acquired through one mode to another  use spoken language naturally and appropriately in order to solve a problem 2.1.3. General information Lesson 1 (see lesson plan, Appendix IV) is an integrated skills lesson. However, its main focus is on giving students the chance to use spoken language and, therefore, a substantial time of the lesson is devoted to speaking activities. Students are first provided with a listening text (for a transcription of the listening text see Appendix III) which gives them some language input which they will need for the speaking activity. The activities which follow the listening text help students focus on both the transactional and the interactional functions of spoken language (see Appendix V) . The speaking activity (see 2.1.4. below) gives students the chance to use spoken language naturally in order to solve a problem. After the speaking activity is completed, the lesson finishes with a writing task (see appendix V) 48