Review 1: Speaking

Review 1: Speaking

Mid-semester Review

This lesson will review the speaking skills from other lessons.

Objectives

Narrate and describe in the past using simple, progressive, and perfect aspects
Use correct sentence stress
Pause appropriately when speaking
Use a variety of sentences

Narrating in the Past

Narrating in the past is an important language skill. We need to accurately change the tense to show a difference in time. Without doing this, it is very confusing for the listener. Additionally, we use aspect to help the listener understand more information about how that action occurred in the past.

Simple Past: The simple past is used to show a completed action in the past. It started and ended in the past. Many verbs use the -ed ending in the past, but some verbs are irregular.

I watched a movie last night. It had my favorite actor. The story was very interesting, but it confused me a little. The ending surprised me, and it wasn't what I expected.

Past Progressive: We use the progressive aspect to talk about an action that was happening over time. We usually use this to show how one action was interrupted by a second action. It would be very strange to have a story all in progressive. This form uses was/were + verb-ing.

When I was watching a movie last night, my phone rang. My family was watching the movie too, so I left the room to talk. My friend wanted to talk. I was listening to her story, but my brothers were laughing at the movie. I told my friend that my family was watching a movie. I said I would call her later.

Past Perfect: This aspect is used to show that an action was completed before the moment you are explaining in the past. It is the past of the past. This form uses had + past participle.

I had already seen the movie, but my family hadn't. The ending of the movie had been a surprise to me, so I was excited to hear their opinions. My phone rang, but I had talked with my friend earlier in the day, so I didn't answer.

You can review these grammar structures more fully in the following lessons: Narrate & Describe: Simple Past, Narrate & Describe: Past Progressive, and Narrate & Describe: Past Perfect

Exercise 1: Choose a video

Choose one of the videos below to watch. After you watch the video, you will practice giving a summary. You can search for more information on the internet if you want to include more details.

Judge

Here is a video about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Astronaut

Here is a video about Jessica Muir, a NASA astronaut.

Artist

Here is a video about artist Claude Monet.

Computer Scientist

Here is a video about computer scientist Bill Gates.

Prepare a biographical summary:

Make a list of the most important details about this person's life.
Choose 5 details in the past. You should have a combination of simple, progressive, and perfect verbs.
Choose 2 details about the impact this person has on the present.
Practice giving a summary of the information.

Sentence Stress & Pausing

Stress is about emphasis or focus. As a listener, noticing stress in a sentence will help you understand what the speaker thinks is most important. As a speaker, it helps you share your meaning more clearly. Along with the strong stress we add to sentences for meaning, we naturally stress some words in English more than others. The words that we stress are usually nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Grammar words are usually short and soft compared to those content words. This is what gives English its rhythm.

The rhythm of speaking is also impacted by pauses. It is important to pause only at the end of a thought group. You do not have to pause at the end of every thought group, but if you pause in the middle of one, it can be confusing.

You can review this strategy more in the lessons Speaking Strategy: Stress and Speaking Strategy: Pausing.

Exercise 2: Imitation

Here is a transcript for a video. Follow the instructions to practice sentence stress & pausing

Transcript

Read the transcript below. Copy it into a word document. Bold the words that you think can be stressed. Type a dash - between thought groups where it would be appropriate to pause.

Teacher: Can anybody tell me what this word means? Anybody? No? Precepts are rules for really important things.

Student: Like mottos.

Teacher: Like mottos or like famous quotes. Or like, lines from a fortune cookie. Right? Precepts can help motivate us. They can guide us when we have to make decisions about really important things. Ok. So, who wants to read this month's precept? What about you? What's your name?

Student: Summer.

Teacher: Summer. Want to give it a shot?

Student: When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.

Answer Key

Here are all of the possible stressed words and possible pausing places. This does not mean the speakers will stress and pause in all of these places.

Teacher: Can anybody tell me - what this word means? - Anybody? - No? Precepts are rules for really important things. -

Student: Like mottos. -

Teacher: Like mottos - or like famous quotes. Or like, - lines from a fortune cookie. - Right? - Precepts can help motivate us. - They can guide us when we have to make decisions about really important things. - Ok. - So, - who wants to read this month's precept? - What about you? - What's your name? -

Student: Summer. -

Teacher: Summer. - Want to give it a shot?-

Student: When given the choice between being right - or being kind, - choose kind.

Notice that most of the pauses are at the end of sentences. The sentences are mostly very simple sentences (one subject, one verb). There are a few exceptions.

Why do you think the speaker uses short simple sentences?

Video & Transcript

Here is the transcript and the video. Watch the video and read the transcript at the same time. Notice where the speakers stress words and pause.

Teacher: Can anybody tell me what this word means? Anybody? No? Precepts are rules for really important things.

Student: Like mottos.

Student: Summer.

Teacher: Summer. Want to give it a shot?

Student: When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.

Imitation

Watch the video again and try to read along at the same time as the speakers. Follow their speed, pausing, and stress patterns.

Teacher: Can anybody tell me what this word means? Anybody? No? Precepts are rules for really important things.

Student: Like mottos.

Student: Summer.

Teacher: Summer. Want to give it a shot?

Student: When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.

Sentence Variety

When we speak, it can be very boring for the listener if all of our sentences are simple and short. It can also make the listener think our English is not advanced. If all of our sentences are very long, it can be confusing for the listener to understand. Therefore, a mix of different sentence types and lengths can help show how well we speak and keep the listener focused.

Here are two example recordings. The information is the same in both recordings, but the sentence structures are different. Listen and notice which one feels more natural. Sentences are originally from this presentation on varying sentence structure Links to an external site.. You can use those slides to review or look at the information in the lesson Speaking Strategy: Sentence Variety again.

These audio recordings are for practicing listening skills. If you are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, you can be excused from this activity.

Simple Sentences Only

Variety of Sentences

Exercise 3: Sentence variety

Next you will listen to a recording and identify simple, compound, and complex sentences from the recording.

Sentences

Here are some sentences from the recording and the times when the speaker says each of them. Identify if the sentence is simple, compound, or complex.

(1:23) All was not lost.
(4:12) Curie died in 1934 of a bone marrow disease, which many today think was caused by her radiation exposure.
(1:31) Another physicist's work sparked Marie Curie's interest.
(0:07) If you want a glimpse of Marie Curie's manuscripts, you'll have to sign a waiver and put on protective gear to shield yourself from radiation contamination.
(2:38) They also coined the term radioactivity along the way.
(1:25) Back in Paris, the lovelorn Pierre was waiting, and the pair quickly married and became a formidable scientific team.
(0:38) As a woman, she was barred from pursuing higher education, so in an act of defiance, Marie enrolled in the Floating University, a secret institution that provided clandestine education to Polish youth.
(3:36) Her solo work was fruitful.
(2:53) Later that year, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel were nominated for the Nobel Prize in physics, but Marie was overlooked.
(3:01) Pierre took a stand in support of his wife's well-earned recognition.

Answer Key

Exercise 4: Biography

Imagine that someone is making a biography video about your life years in the future.
What details about your life would you want the person to include?
Choose 5 details in the past. You should have a combination of simple, progressive, and perfect verbs.
Choose 2 details about the impact you have on the future world.
Practice giving a summary of the information.
Present your biography presentation to the class.

Exercise 5: Shadowing

You and your partner will choose a short recording (1-2 minutes).
Divide the speaking equally between partners if the recording is not already a conversation.
Listen to the original recording (with a transcript if available) and notice stress and pausing.
Practice repeating the words along with the speaker. You might start by listening, pausing, and then repeating before continuing the video. As you practice, you should be able to match the speaker's pausing, stress, and speed when you play the video and speak at the same time.
Listen to your partner and give advice/corrections if needed.
Present your practiced conversation to the class without the original video.

Exercise 6: Mix it up!

As a group, write a paragraph using only short, simple sentences.
Give the paragraph to another group.
Rewrite your new paragraph using a variety of sentences.
Practice reading the paragraph.
Your teacher will then divide you into partners with someone from another group.
Present your new paragraph with varying sentence types.

Review

One of the biggest markers of an Advanced speaker is the ability to accurately narrate in all time frames. We introduced the past tense early in the semester so you have more time to practice this more challenging tense. Take every opportunity you can find to practice narrating in past tense. Remember to try to use a combination of aspects.

Additionally, this review focused on features of speaking pronunciation. These patterns of pausing, stress, and sentence variety will help you sound more natural in your speech and highlight how much control you have of the language at this point in your learning. It should also challenge you to start reaching for the higher goal of not just being understood, but being able to express yourself fully (and at length) in your second language.

This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

Access it online or download it at https://edtechbooks.org/advanced_low_listening__speaking/speaking.