Teaching oracy: speaking skills for life
Is it possible to teach speaking skills in contexts which will be meaningful and relevant to students’ ongoing professional and social needs, while at the same time working to develop the skills required in an English for Academic Purposes class? This paper will consider the role of metacognitive knowledge in achieving that outcome, in teaching and learning processes in a Level 5 New Zealand Certificate in English Language (NZCEL) class.
It will examine three dimensions of metacognitive knowledge: person, task and strategy, in the acquisition of speaking skills (Flavel 1979, Wendon 1991 cited in Goh & Burns 2012). It will also reflect on the role of oracy, which includes the ability to engage with learning through the spoken language, in the development of abilities to explore, develop and evaluate ideas and opinions, skills that are important in academic English (Barnes 1988, cited in Goh & Burns 2012).
It will explore tasks designed to develop metacognitive knowledge and awareness of required listening and speaking skills. It will examine teaching processes that provide opportunity for students to develop speaking skills, in groups and individually, and for the tutor to provide feedback to individual students, in areas of pronunciation, intonation and stress, and articulation of ideas. It will focus on a series of Language in Use tasks which systematically integrate development of metacognitive knowledge and awareness while aiming to engage students in inquiry about and practice of producing language which is accurate and appropriate to the context.

Goh, C., & Burns, A. (2012). Teaching speaking; A holistic approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.