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.

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).