Brainstorming in speaking teaching

And we would like to make a list of the solitions of this problems:

• The teacher should choose activities which appeal to the students
• The teacher may set some classroom rules with the students
• The teacher should try to keep the students as busy as possible and should not let them to be interested in different things
• The teacher should attend personal development courses
• The teacher may want one of her collegues to help her
• The teacher should take the attendance regularly to solve the problems about  attending the class
• The teacher should talk with the students and decide what to do with the late comers
• The teacher may ask for one of her collegue’s help in the exams in order to prevent cheating
• The teacher may talk to some students individually, if it is necessary
• The teacher should work cooperatively with the ministry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. THE USAGE OF BRAINSTORMING  IN TEACHING

2.1 Complex of exercises using brainstorming for the development of speaking skills

Brainstorming is a tool that uses a relaxed, informal atmosphere combined with lateral thinking to solve problems. In spite of its importance in the generation of new ideas, many students do not have enough training to use it. This activity will teach students to brainstorm effectively. It can be carried out in a one-period session. 

• Elicit from students different ways to generate new ideas.

• Tell the students that they are going to try an activity called brainstorming to generate ideas.

• Divide the class into two groups.

• Assign one student in each group to be a leader. Give the group leaders the following tips:

• First group leader: 
  

Encourage other students to contribute ideas on how to improve this English class. But, you do not want to waste any time. If a student states an idea which seems useless, tell the student “That’s no good” or “Bad idea”, then move on to another student.

• Second group leader: 
  

Encourage the other students to contribute ideas on how to improve this English class. Ask one student in the group to write down all ideas. Praise students’ contributions and don’t criticize any of the ideas. Make sure all ideas are accepted and written down.

• Give students ten minutes to do the brainstorming activity.

• Get feedback from students about the brainstorming. Ask which group produced more ideas and which group enjoyed the activity more.

• Group leaders read out their slips of paper.

• Students guess which group was brainstorming the right way.

• Write these rules of successful brainstorming on the board:

• All ideas are accepted and written down.

• Generate as many ideas as possible.

• Unusual, even seemingly irrelevant ideas are welcome

• You may use other students’ idea and expand on it

• Criticism is banned at this stage.

• Using these rules students brainstorm other topics.

• When they finish, groups choose their three best ideas and write them up on the board.

Brainstorming is an ideal warm-up activity because it takes little time. Also, it can be explained easily and be used with any chosen topic. There was only one type of brainstorming used in this study. However, some others are listed below with brief examples and many other types can be imagined.

1. Simple word list

1. Tell us words to describe people's appearance.

2. Itemize all the items you need for a party.

3. Make a list of house furniture.

2. Lists based on a principle 

1. Give an example of food that begins with each letter of the alphabet.

2. Make a list on you mind of animals starting with the smallest animal and getting bigger.

3. Finding alternatives in a sentence

1. The man got off his ____________ and walked away. (answers could include : horse/bicycle)

2. Peter lived in a ____________ (answers could include : caravan/house/fantasy world/apartment)

3. I don't like her because she is ______________ (answers could include: too talkative /boring)

4. Brainstorming on a picture

Pictures are a rich source of inspiration for brainstorming. Strange events evoke the biggest variety of responses. Most students will let their imagination roam if the pictures are strange enough. Use pictures from the textbook, magazines or other sources.

1. What are these people doing?

2. List the objects in the picture.

3. What is this man thinking about?

4. Tell four words to describe this person.

5. Brainstorming using a song

Songs are wonderful for reducing nervousness. They seem to be particularly effective in whole-class brainstorming when the teacher is writing the ideas on the board. Play a song for the class and ask questions like the following.

1. How does the singer feel?

2. What do you think the singer looks like?

3. Suggest titles for this song.

4. When do you think that this song was written?

6. Changing one word in a sentence each time

Each word must be changed, but each sentence must have a meaning. This can be useful to show the students the role of each word in a sentence prior to a substitution drill or other activities.

Example :

1. Peter played flute in the orchestra.

2. Peter played flute in the park.

3. John played flute in the park.

4. John played soccer in the park.

5. John watched soccer in the park.

6. John watched soccer near the park.

7. John watched soccer near a park.

Variations: add one word, take away one word.

7. Listing different ways of expressing a particular language function

Example : Ask Someone to Move his Car.

1. Please move your car.

2. I'd appreciate if you could move your car.

3. Get your car out of my way.

8. Prediction

Guess what the speaker will say next. This can be used in conjunction with dialogues in textbooks. It is a powerful technique to encourage students to take a risk. If the dialogue is recorded, stop the tape and ask the students to predict what the speaker will say.

9. Free association

This is best done orally and can be a lot of fun. One student gives a word in your chosen topic and asks another student to say the first word that she thinks of. The second student continues to make associations. The first student simply repeats the word in each case. After making about 10 associations, the first student should try to work backwards from the last association to the original word.

Example :

1. A : apple

2. B : red

3. A : red

4. B : rose

5. and so on.

Variation : Free association in pairs or in groups. Students make the associations from the previous student's word.

10. Group storytelling

Students work in groups and take turns adding to a story, either spoken or written. It is usually better to give the first line of the story.

Example :

John was late for school because

1. Student A : he missed the train

2. Student B : and there wasn't another for 20 minutes

3. Student C : so he went to a game center

4. Student D : but he lost his wallet

 

These techniques can help you in specific brainstorming situations:

Reverse Brainstorming   – This is used to improve a product or service. Reverse brainstorming helps you solve problems by combining brainstorming   and reversal  techniques. By combining these, you can extend your use of brainstorming to draw out even more creative ideas.

To use this technique, you start with one of two "reverse" questions:

Instead of asking, "How do I solve or prevent this problem?" ask, "How could I possibly cause the problem?" Instead of asking "How do I achieve these results?" ask, "How could I possibly achieve the opposite effect?"

Starbursting   – Starbursting helps you develop questions that you need to ask to evaluate a proposal. Starbursting is a form of brainstorming that focuses on generating questions rather than answers. It can be used iteratively, with further layers of questioning about the answers to the initial set of questions. For example, a colleague suggests a new design of ice skating boot. One question you ask might be “Who is the customer?” Answer: "Skaters". But you need to go further than this to ensure that you target your promotions accurately: “What kind of skaters?” Answer: "Those who do a lot of jumping, who need extra support", and so on. This would help focus the marketing, for example to competition ice dancers and figure skaters, rather than ice rinks that buy boots to hire out to the general public.

Charette Procedure   – This helps you brainstorm with large groups of people. (Conventional brainstorming becomes increasingly ineffective when more than 10 or 12 people are involved.)  It involves organizing people into several small groups, each of which brainstorms ideas one-after-the-other until everyone involved has had a chance to contribute fully. Derived from the French word for wagon, it come from the practice of architecture students in the early 1800s, who used carts to rush their drawings from one place to another to get final approvals. In much the same way, when you use the Charette Procedure, you take the ideas generated by a group, and cart them over to the next group, for them to be built upon, refined, and finally prioritized.

Round-Robin Brainstorming   – You can use this approach to get people to contribute ideas without being influenced by others. This method allows team members to generate ideas without being influenced by any one person. You can then take these ideas into the next stages of the problem-solving process.

Rolestorming   – This technique encourages group members to take on other people's identities while brainstorming, thereby reducing their inhibitions. This simple brainstorming technique encourages group members to take on other people's identities while brainstorming. This reduces the inhibitions that many people feel when sharing their ideas with a group, and it helps people come up with ideas that they may not have otherwise considered.

 

 

 

 

2.2 Development of the lesson with the brainstorming use

The theme: "Animals in Danger"

Skill focus: Speaking

Target students: Pre Intermediate

Aims

1. Education:

• development of students' vocabulary skills;

• skill development exploratory reading;
• students' understanding of the dialogic and monologic speech.
2. Developing:
• development of logical thinking;
• formation of students' cognitive interest to scientists;
• development of students' academic skills work (work at a given pace);
3. Educative:
• comprehension by students of environmental issues (respect for animals);
• formation of tolerant thinking of students.

Objectives:

• teach students to express their point of view and argue it;
• form the ability to ask questions of different types;
• the ability to form a clearly defined area know and unknowing;
• develop the skills of communicative competence.

Technology: development of critical thinking through reading and writing.

Receptions: "Brainstorm", "Keywords", "Marginal notes",  "Cluster"

Expected results:

• learn to formulate the topic;
• isolate and identify the main causes of the disappearance of the animals;
• learn how to list species of rare animals;
• learn to allocate the main information in the text;
• learn to express their point of view, to argue;
• ask questions of different types;
• learn to translate information from one format to another (make clusters);
• understand the meaning of what he saw and heard;
• learn how to establish communication, to take a position on the question under discussion;
• recognize the right to dissent;
• tolerate the opinions of others.

Forms of work:

• individual;
• front;
• work in pairs;
• group work.

Materials used in class: computer presentations, magnetic board.

Lesson Plan

1. Organizational issues.
2. Targeting (receptions, "Brainstorm", "Keywords")
3. Activating vocabulary topic.
4. The development of lexical skills.
5. Exploratory reading (receiving "notes in the margins," drawing table know / new to me / I want to know).
6. Gym time.
7. Question-answer work-based information text.
8. Creating the cluster "Code protection of animals" (reception of "clusters").
9. Make conclusions.
10. Home work.