Tag Archives: pre-speaking

Quick Win PD for Language Teachers: Boost Interpersonal Speaking Skills

You ask a question in class… and get one-word answers. Or worse, blank stares. You want students to engage in real conversations, but getting them to speak spontaneously can feel like pulling teeth.

Why is this so challenging? Interpersonal speaking isn’t just about practicing vocabulary or rehearsing dialogues. It requires confidence, risk-taking, and meaningful opportunities to interact in real time, something that many classroom tasks don’t naturally support.

Quick Win PD for Language Teachers: Boost Interpersonal Speaking Skills; French, Spanish

This 30-minute PD course, for the small price of $10, gives you the tools to increase spontaneous, confident interpersonal speaking at any proficiency level. You’ll learn how to:

  • Design interpersonal speaking tasks that align with ACTFL Can-Do Statements
  • Scaffold real-time conversation with supports that reduce fear and build proficiency
  • Create classroom conditions that invite authentic, purposeful interaction
  • Use a repeatable planning framework to manage, reflect on, and improve speaking tasks

This is a practical, no-fluff course led by me, Joshua Cabral, host of the World Language Classroom Podcast. I’ll give strategies that work, whether your students are just starting out or working toward building more confidence and honing their interpersonal speaking skills.

By the end of this course, you’ll be equipped to plan and facilitate interpersonal speaking tasks that are engaging, level-appropriate, and rooted in real communication. Your students will begin to speak more confidently because they’ll have the structure and support to do so.

What’s Included in This Quick Win, 30-Minute Course for $10?

  • Audio to Listen to All Material – perfect for on-the-go listening
  • Detailed Note Sheet to follow along and refer back to
  • Reflection Activity to deepen your understanding
  • Examples at the novice, intermediate, and advanced levels
  • Planning Template to design your own interpersonal speaking activities
  • Additional Resources to go further with the topic
  • Personalized Certificate of course completion

If you’re ready to get your students speaking more authentically, spontaneously, and confidently this course is for you.

Click Here to Get Started

191: Pre-Speaking and Writing Routines That Build Confidence


Do you have effective routines that support your students’ language proficiency and communication skills?  We often think of the communication modes, proficiency levels and 90+% target language as the routines that we foster in the classroom. In this episode you’ll hear about another type of routine, student-created graphic organizers.  These are visual tools that offer a unique pathway for students to comprehend and engage with the target language.

Blog post with visuals to see examples of student-created graphic organizers.

Topics in this Episode:

  • effective learning routines
  • student-created graphic organizers (Thinking Maps, Brains Frames)
  • benefits of students creating their own graphic organizers
  • when to use student-created graphic organizers (pre-speaking, pre-writing)
  • 5 useful types of student-created graphic organizers
    • linear details
    • cause and effect
    • brainstorming
    • compare and contrast
    • categorizing

Blog post with visuals to see examples of student-created graphic organizers.

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