Tips to overcome nervousness:

Know your speech : Prepare yourself physically : Picture yourself giving a great speech : Remember that you are the expert : Do not admit nervousness to the audience : Slow down.

1. Preparation. Show the learners a picture of two people conversing in a familiar casual setting. (The setting will be determined by a prior needs assessment.) Ask them to brainstorm what the people might be discussing (i.e., what topics, vocabulary, typical phrases).

2. Presentation. Present several video clips of small talk in casual situations. Have learners complete a worksheet in which they describe or list the topics discussed, the context in which the speech is occurring, and any phrases that seem to typify small talk. Follow up with a discussion of the kinds of topics that are appropriate for small talk, the factors in the specific situations that affect topic selection (e.g., relationships of participants, physical setting), and typical phrases used in small talk. Chart this information.

3. Practice. Give learners specific information about the participants and the setting of a scenario where small talk will take place. In pairs, have them list topics that might be discussed by the participants and simple phrases they might use. Learners then engage in improvised dialogues based on these simple phrases.

4. Evaluation. Give pairs a teacher-prepared dialogue based on their scenario from š. Ask them to compare their improvised dialogues with the prepared dialogue, analyzing the similarities, differences, and reasons for both.

5. Extension. Have learners go individually or in small groups into various contexts in the community (work, school, church, bus stop) and record the conversations they hear. Ask them to report their findings back to the class, and then have the class discuss these findings.

Effective Conversations Follow the Cooperative Principles

The cooperative principle states that conversations will be satisfying when the contributions made by the conversationalists are in the line of the purpose of the conversation (Grice,1975,pp.44-46). Based on this principle, H.Paul Grice describes the following four conversational maxims (requirements):

Quality maxim-requirement to provide information which is truthful Quantity maxim- requirement of the sufficient amount of necessary information, not too much and not too less. Relevancy maxim-requirement to provide information that is relevant to the topic being discussed, Manner Maxim-requirement to be specific and organized when communicating thoughts, Morality maxim- requirement to speak in ways that meet ethical/moral guidelines, Politeness maxim- requirement to be courteous to other participants.

Presentations “Almost anyone can become an excellent speaker”

For a success at speaking, following “3Ps” is must: Prepare carefully : Practice often : Perform with enthusiasm: Guidelines for Preparation and Delivery: Know your listeners, Prepare three stages of presentation: beginning, middle, and end, Stick to a few main points, Put your outlines on cards, paper, or overhead, Practice, practice, practice, Speak vigorously and deliberately, Avoid filler words, Use rhetorical questions, Maintain eye contact, Use appropriate gestures and postures, Guidelines for Presenting Graphics, Discover listeners preference, Think about graphics early, Keep the message simple, Many any wording brief and visible, Use colors carefully, Leave graphics up long enough, Avoid handouts, Maintain eye contact while using graphics Include all graphics in your practice session.

Good Listeners

Attending: Attend to important information |Ready themselves mentally and physically |Listen objectively regardless of emotional involvement|Listen differently depending on situations |Understanding |Assigned appropriate meaning to what is said |Seek out apparent purpose, main points and supporting information |Ask mental questions to anticipate information Silently paraphrase to solidify understanding |Seek out subtle meanings based on non-verbal cues |Remembering |Retain information |Repeat key information |Take notes |Evaluating |Listen critically |Evaluate inferences | Responding empathically | Provide supportive comforting statements.

Bad Listeners : May not hear what a person is saying, Fidget in chairs, look out the windows, and let their minds wander, Visibly react to emotional language, Listen the same way regardless of the type of material, Hear what is said but are unable to understand or assign different meaning to the type of words, Ignore the way information is organized, Fail to anticipate coming information, Seldom or never mentally review the information, Ignore non-verbal cues, Interpret message accurately but forget it, Assume they will remember, Rely on memory alone, Understand but unable to weigh or consider it, Accept information at face value, Pass of joy or hurt, change the subject.

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.

Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence).

Difference between Listening and Hearing

Hearing is a natural ability to detect sound : Listening is a skill, which is developed to understand, interpret the message accurately. It does not require much of an effort to hear, whereas Listening to be effective, takes much of an effort and time on the part of a listener.

Steps involve in Effective Listening:

Hearing. Hearing just means detecting sound without have complete awareness of what has been said.
Understanding. The next part of listening is when you comprehend what is being said. Judging. After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? Your own interpretation of the message and then see how accurate the understanding is.

Concepts Related to Listening Ability
1.Concentration 2.Questioning 3.Objectivity 4.Note Taking 5.Feedback

1.Concentration : Motivation and Demotivation : Anticipate what the speaker will say next :Focus on the message :Avoid interruption, let the speaker finish first.

2.Questioning Use of questioning is an effective listening strategy. It serves two purposes:
message gets clarified, Speaker gets a positive feedback that a listener is involved.

3. Objectivity : I. Minimize the impact of emotion-laden words : II. Judge content, not delivery III. React fairly and sensibly IV. Overcome distraction; internal as well as external

4. Note Taking
The usefulness of note taking depends on the situation.

5. Feedback
Feed is important in the listening process to that a speaker knows that his/her message is understood.

General Barriers

Faking attention : Avoid difficult listening & dismissing the topic as uninteresting : Listening only for facts
Criticizing physical appearance and delivery : Yielding easily to distractions.

Listening ability vary according to: Interest in topic , the delivery of the message, importance of the info, length of the message, complexity of the message, the delivery of the message, personal problems, external distraction.

Creating Ability to speak English:-

We learn to speak our mother tongue by imitating those who speak around us, in a similar manner a foreign language is learned by imitation and reproduction. In the earlier stages, parrot-like repetition is more important than understanding the various parts of a sentence, or formulating ideas in a desired pattern. It is just like learning some skills as driving as knitting. The rule followed is,

Practice makes a man perfect!

When certain forms of languages have become automatic with learner, he will be able to reproduce them at his will. The teacher should therefore, give drill and ample practice in the basic patterns of language so that they become automatic with the pupils. The questions and answers also help in developing the power of expression.

In order to acquire the ability to speak English the students must possess:

Sufficient vocabulary;
A reasonable command of English idiom;
Reasonably correct pronunciation and intonation;
A proper sense of sentence structure;

The skillful use of language requires endless repetition and practice. It is due to the absence of this mode of learning a skill that most of students can hardly speak a sentence of English even after graduation which means at least nine years of study of the English language. So the must possess the following qualities and follow these suggestions to speak good English. Pronunciation, Practice, Correction of mistakes and learning by games.