2. Pupils enact the pattern dialogue. We may distinguish three kinds of reproduction:
Immediate. Ps reproduce the dialogue in imitation of the speaker or the teacher while listening to it or just after they have heard it. The teacher checks the Ps’ pronunciation, and intonation in particular. The Ps are asked to learn the dialogue by heart for homework.
Delayed. After Ps have learned the dialogue at home, they enact the pattern dialogue in persons. Before calling on Ps it is recommended that they should listen to the pattern dialogue recorded again to remind them of how it “sounds”.
Modified. Ps enact the dialogue with some modifications in its contents. They change some elements in it. The more elements they change in the pattern the better they assimilate the structure of the dialogue:
- Will you help me, sonny?
- What shall I do, Mother?
- Will you bring me a pail of water?
- Certainly I will.
The use of pictures may be helpful. Besides Ps use their own experience while selecting the words for substitutions. The work should not be done mechanically. Ps should speak on the situation. As a result of this work Ps master the structure of the pattern dialogue, they can use it as a model for making up dialogues of their own, that is why pattern dialogues should be carefully selected.
3. Ps make up dialogues of their own. They are given a picture or a verbal situation to talk about. They should use those lead-response units they have learned in connection with the situation suggested for a conversation.
In teaching dialogue use pattern dialogues: make sure that your Ps go through the three stages from receptive through reproductive to creative, supply them with the subject to talk about. To sum up what has been said about teaching speaking we can state that Ps acquire necessary skills through dealing with various patterns related to certain situations. These may be sentence patterns, utterance patterns, speech patterns, lead-response units and pattern-dialogues. Ps should observe them first, then they reproduce, and finally make various changes within these patterns to fit them for new situations which may arouse in the act of communication. To make the act of communication easier for the Ps the teacher helps them with “props”. Ps need props of two kinds: props in content or what to speak about, what to say, and props in form or how to say. Of course speaking with props is only a means and not an aim in itself. In teaching speaking the problem is what form of speech to begin with, and what should be the relationship between monologue and dialogue. This problem may be solved in different ways. Some methodologists give preference to dialogic speech in teaching beginners, and they suggest that Ps learn first how to ask and answer questions which is mostly characteristic of a dialogue, and how to make up a short dialogue following a model. Others prefer monologic speech as a starting point. Ps are taught how to make statements, how to combine several sentences into one utterance in connection with an object or a situation offered.
