first+draft

[|Brainstorming]:
lack of practice, speaking activities, L2, role plays, English language, teachers, students, games, mother tongue appropiate environment, exchange programs, native speakers, advantages, classmates, influence, prepared teachers, techniques.

[|Sentence outline]:
[|Thesis statement]: Because of the lack of practice of the English language inside the classroom, English teachers should use more speaking activities in order to encourage students to produce the L2, help them participating in role plays, and create a language exchange program.

I-Introduction

II.-The use of speaking activities gives students many advantages to develop the TL **//__Notice how role plays (point number II below) is a type of speaking activity. Make sure your reasons/solutions/claims in your thesis statement are not too general (e.g,. one claim as a subcategory of another). Instead, come up with a third type of speaking activity that teachers should implement.__//** a)It helps students to feel more confident while speaking. b)Talking about personal experiences and real life situations. c)Ss concentrate in speaking and make an effort to show up what they want to say.

III.- Another option to promote students to speak is practicing the language by role plays in which they produce the TL.
 * //__Watch your spacing.__//**

a)This allows students more production of the language. b)Ss have fun with these activities. c)To develop students´ thinking.

IV.- The use of language exchange program is an opportunity for students to speak with a native speaker a)To familiarize with a native ascent. b)Better pronunciation, new vocabulary c)Improve the production of the TL

V.-Conclusion

By Cecilia Rodriguez
 * Target language use in the second language classroom**

Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow. (Oliver Wendell Holmes). Learning a second language is a way to communicate with other people from different countries. A person who is studying English needs more than explanations, it is not enough learning through gramatical structures or reading exercises, Obviously, students of the second language need to practice the four different skills (reading, grammar, writing and speaking), but the main point of learning a language is to produce it. **//__Runon sentence. The only punctuation that ends a sentence are periods and question marks. Commas do not end a sentence.__//** Therefore, focusing on speaking, students get many advantages when practicing this skill, it is helpful in the acquisition of the second language. **//__Runon sentence.__//** Because of the lack of practice of the English language inside the classroom, English teachers should use more speaking activities in order to encourage students to produce the L2, help them participating in role plays, and create a language exchange program.

The use of speaking activities gives students many advantages to develop the target language. Bertram (2002), pointed out that "one of the most effective ways to facilitate the learning of oral language skills is to take into account the background and everyday life experiences of the students. **//__See APA on how to cite.__//** O nce students' prior knowledge and facility with oral language is determined, the classroom programme can be planned to develop necessary skills on the developmental continuum". **//__Avoid quoting too much. Paraphrase instead. You also need page numbers when using a direct quote.__//** When the students have a lot of contact with the English language, are less afraid of speaking in front of their classmates or even with other people who also speak English. **//__Sentence fragment.__//** Students who are not obligated to use the second language inside the classroom, feel free to use their mother tongue, do not make an effort to speak in English, and this delays the process of learning of a second language. **//__Sentence fragment.__//** __On the other hand, they prefer__ __to talk about their experiences or topics of real life, because they are familiarized and interested on the topic for example: talking about daily routines they give better results in the production of the language, they talk about what they do everyday; if they go to the school or work, what time they wake up or have breakfast, they tell each other their daily activities. **//Runon sentence.//**__ Besides that, it is easy for them having a conversation about something they remember easily. When students participate in speaking activities, __make__ an extra job, because they are processing what they want to say first and then the final achievement is that they put their ideas into words while producing the language. **//__Runon sentence and sentence fragment.__//**

Another option to promote students to speak is practicing the language by role plays in which they produce the TL. Porter  (1987), states that "incorporating role-play into the classroom adds variety, a change of pace and opportunities for a lot of language production and also a lot of fun! It can be an integral part of the class and not a 'one-off' event. If the teacher believes that the activity will work and the necessary support is provided, it can be very successful". Using role plays students have the opportunity to perform something they like for example the students of a certain group like sports, they have the possibility to perform "an interview with a famous soccer player", one student is the interviewer and another one is the interviewed player, one asks questions related to his life as a player, games, teams, etc., and the supposed player answers those questions. This activity gives students the chance to create a good conversation since they are familiarized with this topic. Moreover, the use of role plays in a classroom is a way to develop students´ thinking, communicative learning strategies and to help them to practice the language.

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The use of language exchange program is an opportunity for students to speak with a native speaker. Peter Dickson (2009) pointed out that "the use of the second language (TL) in the classroom greatly increases the students' exposure to TL. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This is very important, <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> especially in foreign language classrooms where the TL is not heard outside of the classroom context. The goal is to make the context as close to a second language context (where the TL would be heard outside of the classroom) as possible in order to give students maximum exposure to the language". Taking into consideration this aspect in order to increase the speaking skill of the students. The use of English language exchange programs is a tool that helps teacher to motivate students to have a conversation with English native speakers. Taking into consideration that they will have to speak English the whole session and they do not have another option while having a conversation with those people who speak English as a mother tongue and do not speak Spanish. It is better for students to be in contact with these people, because they have the opportunity to check pronunciation, know new words, ask about their culture, customs, traditions, typical food, etc. Therefore, they do not only know the language, they also understand other aspects that complements learning a second language. This is a strategy that helps students to improve the production of the TL in a significant way.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a conclusion learning a second language is funny and also easy, if the teacher uses the appropriate resources to make the process of learning easier through different strategies that simplify students to acquire the language. Teachers have a set of techniques that they put into practice in order to achieve hte objective as English teachers. In other hand, the main objective of learning a second language is to be able to communicate with other people and also to be understood, people who are taking English courses could be good speakers and listeners if they have good and prepared teachers. Their job is to motivate students to use the language either inside or outside the classroom, and to teach them something else than language.


 * References**

<span style="color: #303030; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Bertram, G. (2002 ). The importance of oral language in the school curriculum. Retrieved on August 23, 2012 from

[]

<span style="color: #303030; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Knop, C. (Nd). Increasing use of the target language in classroom interaction. Retrieved on August 24, 2012 from http://www.oomroom.ca/resources/knop_article.PDF

Porter, G. (2004). Role play. //Oxford University Press. (16)//, p. 26.

Sotillo, S. (2005). Corrective Feedback via Instant Messenger Learning Activities in NS-NNS and NNS-NNS Dyads. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;">//CALICO Journal,// 22(3), pp. 469-472.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;">Feedback
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;">Sentence fragment is when you are missing either a subject or predicate; A runon sentence is where you need punctuation or a conjunction to separate clauses or sentences. Also, avoid punctuation after headings. 1347544027