From Clarity to Chaos: A Toolkit for Making Sense of Spontaneous Speech in the Classroom

This exclusive one-off workshop with Felicio Dias and Lucy Cole dives deep into one of the biggest challenges in language teaching — helping learners make sense of real, unscripted English. Together, we’ll unpack what spontaneous speech actually sounds like, explore why it causes so much confusion for even high-level learners, and share practical classroom tools to bridge the gap between textbook clarity and real-world chaos. Expect reflection, experimentation, and plenty of ready-to-use ideas for your lessons.

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Key Issues We’ll Tackle

✅ What happens to sounds in spontaneous speech — reduction, elision, assimilation, intrusion, catenation, and syllable compression.

✅ Applying Cauldwell’s Greenhouse → Garden → Jungle model and the Blur Gap to select, stage, and justify authentic listening work.

✅ Listening for sound vs listening for meaning — and how decoding bridges the two to build real-world comprehension.

✅ Designing decoding-focused tasks (prediction → ear training → reflection) that scale across proficiency levels.

✅ Using authentic clips, transcripts, and digital tools (YouGlish, AudioNotetaker, Audacity) to make real speech teachable and accessible.

✅ Managing frustration and uncertainty through graded exposure, partial-comprehension goals, and scaffolded post-listening support.

✅ From clarity to chaos — and back again: reframing how we approach spontaneous speech so teachers and learners alike feel equipped, not overwhelmed.

Date: 29/11/2025
Time: 14:00 – 17:00 (BR)