Techniques and Technologies of Teaching Speaking: Dealing with Backwash Effect in Russia

This paper considers the problem of teaching school students spoken language, arising from the backwash effect of language tests on the classroom teaching agenda. The author presents the results of action research with a group of Russia's school leavers to explore how the efficiency of innovative technologies of teaching speaking would influence their oral performance. The first action research cycle was focused on developing teaching material for implementing the three organizational and pedagogical technologies “cognitive dissonance”, “information gap” and “logical impasse”. The publication presents organizational and pedagogical technologies such as “cognitive dissonance”, “information gap” and “logical impasse”.