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Learning Diary - Nov 2008: Timed Speaking Activity By Valéria Souza (AV2Tues, Course 2008-09)

17th November, 2008

Today it has been an unusual Monday afternoon for me. A different way of starting the week. That's because I went to class in a group that wasn't mine – I mean, the one that I'm not enrolled in. I did it just because I missed my class last Thursday. So, as I'm an open-minded person, I'm sure that changes are sometimes a good idea.

When I arrived I felt a bit out of place, but soon I got used to the group and the atmosphere was good. We started by finishing the listening activity that we had already worked on. Actually, it was homework but believe it or not, nobody had done it, including me. I have to say that it felt ashamed because I should have done and I didn't.

Before doing the activity itself the teacher explained some listening strategies and gave us some tips to improve our performance in our listening exercises. She told us that she had created a strategy called "Skeleton of the Meaning" and said that it could be useful in situations of a lot of stress. First of all, she asked us to write as much information as possible while we were listening. It was better to use natural speech materials, such as interviews, podcasts were people talked without reading, and other useful material we can find at the e-learning platform. To help us not to feel nervous while listening she said we should pay attention and take notes of the most stressed words, the repeated and semantic-related words and the very clearly pronounced words. She also emphasized that it is important to take into account the tone and the emotion expressed by the speakers.

So, then we did the follow-up activity of the Full Moon listening exercise. First we listened to take notes about beliefs and scientific evidence. Then we shared our results in groups of three or four. I have to say that I felt a bit shy at the beginning. However, my classmates were nice and I had no problems talking to them. To help us sort out the issue of beliefs and evidence, one interesting tip the teacher gave us was that we should pay attention to the interviewer's questions because they were very helpful to understand the conversation. And it really was! So we listened to it once more and realised that there was nothing concluding. I mean they mentioned various beliefs and some scientic research on the topic but they didn't conclude anything. Of course, she told us to listen to it again at home to be sure that we had understood all the important information we had been mentioning.

The second activity was the Timed Speaking Activity. Each student had a paper with some instructions. It was interesting because we were being trained for our Speaking Exam at the end of the course and at the same time practicing real speaking. The activity consisted in organizing a surprise party for a friend. We had to use some Useful Language we had practiced (for fluency and accurateness) and pay attention to the Textual Structure (turn-taking, beginning and ending). I worked with a girl and a boy. I don't know their names, what I know is that they were really nice to work with. Each of us had different points to mention and we didn't know what our classmates' points were. I don't know if this is clear. What I want to say is that in our turn we had to cover the instructions that she gave us at the beginnning of the activity.

As I was student A I started by remembering my friends that we had to organize our friend a surprise party and telling then that I had thought that it could be an outdoor party at the countryside. My friend B said that maybe it was not a good idea because of the weather. She offered her house to do a more private party. Student C didn't agree with her or with me because he wanted a party at a disco. Then student B and I disagreed with him because of the money we would spend if we had the party at a disco. So, student C said we could collect some money to pay for the disco but we realised that it would be unnecessary because we already had student's B house.

Another point to talk about was the food and drink. I suggested that each guest brought something to drink and eat. At this point student B had an idea. She pointed out that we had not bought a present for Jonh - our friend -  and that instead of buying it we could use the money to buy some food. Then I had an idea – the party could be our present. We agreed that each guest should bring a drink. However, first we had to ask people what they were going to bring to coordinate that well.

Then, we also agreed about meeting on Friday to buy and prepare the necessary food and that the day after the party at any time – not too early – we could go to student's B house to clean and tidy up everything.

Both student C and I had a problem – a friend to stay over at the weekend. Luckily, at student B's house there was a guest room with two beds, so then both friends could sleep there.

I think our activity was quite well done because we three talked a lot, each person had a turn to talk (turn-taking was balanced), we have dealt with and agreed to all points.

However, there were some points we needed to improve. We had used few modal verbs and few sentences to make proposals. Then I don' know why we didn't end the conversation. Maybe it happened because time was over before it was over. So then next time we have to take into account the time given.

To finish the lesson the teacher asked a group to do the same activity for everybody to listen to it. Only a group wanted to talk. It was great because we were able to see how difficult it was. Maybe this happens because we feel nervous or shy when we have to speak for everybody to listen to. They had to talk for eight minutes and they only talked for five. I felt like... Oh Dear! too much time wasted. But anyway we are going to learn how to do it better.

For me it has been a great Monday afternoon because I learned a lot.