A.

INTRODUCING

Microteaching is a unique model of practice teaching. It is a viable instrument for the desired change in the teaching behavior or the behavior potential which, in specified types of real classroom situations, tends to facilitate the achievement of specified types of objectives. The purpose of these materials is to enhance the practical expertise of teachers so that they become increasingly able to expend more energy enthusiastically engaging students with the curriculum, rather than wasting energy on the futile endeavor of trying to make students do what they don't want to do. The teacher or material designer using the microteaching instrument are expected to have a greater range of technical teaching skills to choose from for overcoming day to day classroom teaching problems. Understanding about micro-skills is an important knowledge for him/her since it will give lights to what particular skills are to be taught. The micro-skills are practical; classrooms tested, and have been designed to help teachers model respectful, task-oriented behavior. According to G.A. Brown (1978), microteaching may be described as a scaled down teaching situation in which a teacher teaches a brief lesson to small group of pupils or fellow trainees. The lesson may last from three or four minutes to twenty minutes. In most cases about 10 minutes is preferred. The small group may consist of three or four pupils or peers, or up to fifteen pupils or peers. The lessons are usually video recorded and then viewed, discussed and analyzed by the student teacher, his supervisor and perhaps, his fellow students. The student teacher may then be given an opportunity to teach another lesson to different group of pupils and view, discuss and analyze this lesson. In in-service courses it is customary to use peer group microteaching in which each member of the group teaches the other members. After video recording the set of teaching episodes they are analyzed and discussed by the group who should, preferably, use checklists and other observation instruments to analyze the process and structure of the teaching episode. B. MICROTEACHING SPEAKING There are no fixed definition of microteaching has yet been given. The microteaching approach facilitates the shaping of a teacher who is insensitive to his teaching behavior.

According to Allen and Ryan, microteaching is an idea with five essential propositions. Microteaching is a real teaching. Firstly, microteaching lessens the complexities of normalclassroom teaching so that class size, scope of content and time are all reduced. Secondly, focuses on training for accomplishment of specific tasks such as practice of instructional skills,

demonstration of teaching method, practice of techniques of teaching, and others. Thirdly, microteaching allows for the increased control of practice. The rituals of time, students, supervision, and many other factors can be manipulated and greatly expands the feedback dimensions in teaching. Immediately after teaching a brief micro-lesson, the trainee engages in a critique of his classroom performance. SPEAKING When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write. These are called the four "language skills". These four language skills are sometimes called the "macro-skills". This is in contrast to the "micro-skills", which are things like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling. Speaking is the second of the four language skills. 1. Teaching Speaking A speaking lesson is a kind of bridge for learners between the classroom and the world outside.

learning new language in the classroom

using language to communicate in real life

In order to build this bridge, speaking activities must have three features. They must give the learners practice opportunities for purposeful communication in meaningful situations. 2. Stages of simple speaking activities: a) Setting up This introduces the learners to the topic.

Explain clearly: Break instructions into small steps. Demonstrate: It is especially important in speaking activities, when learners are often working in pairs or small groups, that they know exactly what to do.

Double check that everyone knows what to do. Practice the language with the whole class. Practice pronunciation. Give them support with speech bubbles

b) Speaking practice This is the main part of the activity. The learners communicate with each other in pairs or groups. Give clear signals to start and stop Circulate and listen: go round while learners are speaking and listen Dont interrupt but carry a piece of paper with you and note down mistakes and problems Control the activity: Make sure its not too noisy Make sure English is spoken c) Feedback The learners come back as a whole class. A few of them may report to the rest of the class on things they have talked about in their pairs or groups. The teacher gives feedback on the language practiced, and deals with any problems. Bring the class back together Ask a few learners to report back Give feedback on the language practised = correct mistakes take notes during practice-do not interrupt the activity write mistakes on the board learners try to correct them explain again if necessary focus on pronunciation if necessary

3. Classroom organization use pairs or groups

Introduce pairwork or group work gradually Tell the learners who to work with-divide them yourself Give clear instructions-clear signals to show when you want learners to begin and when to stop an activity

a) Introducing pair work If your class are new to pair and group work, you will need to introduce these ways of working carefully: Begin by using very short activities at the ends of lessons Make sure the learners are confident with the language and dont have to think too hard what to say while they are getting used to a new way of working--one new thing at a time is enough! So: Begin by getting them to read very short dialogues in pairs When they are happy doing this, go on to the half-dialogue technique with pairwork posters When they are confident with this, go on to an ask and answer type exercise, but practise the language well first and put the question and answer in speech bubbles on the board so they know what to say Then go on to the more demanding information gap exercises

C. SPEAKING MICRO-SKILLS It is probably true to say that when developing the speaking skills of lower level students (beginners to intermediates) teachers should spend most of the time getting students to practice the following: 1. Being able to use the language in real time (fluency). 2. Being able to pronounce the language sufficiently correctly to enable communication to take place. 3. Being able to use a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures (in the early stages, the range of grammatical structures students will use will be relatively small). 4. Talking about a range of common topics (eg family, school, hobbies, etc) 5. Expressing a wide range of functions. 6. Using different exponents to express the same function.

7. Selecting the appropriate exponent depending on the situation, their social status with regard to the person they are speaking to, the degree of formality/informality required, etc. 8. Knowing a range of basic scripts (how to start and finish a conversation, how to buy things in a shop or order in a restaurant, etc). 9. Being able to cope with insufficient language resources, by paraphrasing, simplifying, inventing a word, using the L1 as a resource, miming, using hesitation devices, etc. 10. Being able to cope with communication breakdowns, eg when they simply don't understand (by asking for repetitions, etc). 11. Using intonation to convey meaning.

According to Brown (2004: 187-188), he devided micro of reading as stated below: 1. Discriminate among distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of English. 2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short term memory. 3. Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose. 4. Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance. 5. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verb etc.) systems (e.g. tense, agreement, pluralisation), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms. 6. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms. 7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the relationship between and among clauses.

SAMPLE MINI-LESSON

D. CONCLUSSION Microteachings has several advantages. It focuses on sharpening and developing specificteaching skills and eliminating errors. It enables understanding of behaviors impor tant inclassroom teaching. It increases the confidence of the learner teacher. It is a vehicle of continuous training applicable at all stages not only to teachers at the beginning of their career but also for more senior teachers. It enables projection of model instructional

skills. It provides expert supervision and a constructive feedback and above all if provides for repeated practice without adverse consequences to the teacher or his students