3.1 The analysis of the platform TED Talks based on the secondary analysis and data collected from online questionnaires

A non-profit media organization TED Talks, launched in 1984 as an annual conference integrating the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (hence the name), has become extremely popular in recent decades. To illustrate, according to the latest statistics released on the TED website (www.ted.com) in 2018 there have been approximately 11 billion views and listens a year of TED content on TED.com and on other channels.

Initially the topics covered by TED were mainly focused on technology, entertainment, and design. Nowadays, however, it has expanded to cover any topics which the public is interested in. Even though more than 3000 talks are already at public disposal, this amount is constantly growing as long as new TED Talks are updated in real time. Besides, preferable TED Talks can be easily searched according to the tags (the total number which is more than 400), the ranks of newest releases or popularity (e.g., most viewed) and by moods of speech (e.g., courageous, persuasive). There also exists TED-Ed video library (www.ed.ted.com) which is elaborated by talented educators and animators and the content of which is presented in the form of educational cartoons on diverse topics.

Not only are the lectures available to the general public, but they also have been used largely by educators since going online in 2007. TED is regarded as an authentic material or the one ''that has been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community'' (Peacock, 1997, p. 2), because it keeps people informed about up-to-date trends that occur in different spheres and introduces the learners to the target language and culture.

Having conducted self-completion questionnaires composed of 7 questions per student and 7 questions per teacher and aimed at learning more about their experience with TED, we could now present the analysis of quantitative data collected from our respondents, namely 80 students and 15 teachers (see Appendix). According to the secondary analysis and the analysis of our questionnaires TED is mostly regarded as a beneficial educational platform for the second language learning and teaching. To illustrate, the following advantages of TED could be outlined:

1.Accessibility. TED videos are easy to use with the help of social networking service. Even if there is no Internet connection in the classroom, a teacher can download a TED video from the website in advance and use it in the classroom without any problems. Furthermore, in case there is a class website or a group mail, a teacher can share the link for TED Talk with students directly and outside the classroom. To illustrate, a Chinese scholar Cha (2006) claims that ''such a ubiquitous learning provides learners with unlimited access to the data as it can be derived from mobile or computer devices anytime and anywhere'' .Thus, TED can be used as materials for in-class activities, group projects, or homework assignments by sharing with all participants inside and outside the classroom.

In addition, according to our questionnaires, roughly 60 student respondents watch TED Talks inside the classroom as well as outside at least once or twice a month. With this in mind, there are more chances for learners to get aural and audiovisual input in integration, which is useful for their language practice, in particular, the development of discourse competence.

2.Motivation. The conducted questionnaires revealed that 92, 9 % of teacher respondents find their students motivated when TED platform is employed during the lessons. According to our student respondents, they are primarily in awe of the speakers who are not afraid of speaking up and who by that inspire them to be courageous in speaking. In addition, what appeals to learners about TED Talks is that scientific data is transferred in a quite understandable way so that they can easily comprehend sophisticated phenomena. Some respondents also mentioned that they prefer to watch TED as it can be used as a springboard to exchanging their opinions with their groupmates. It is also important to add that certain learners have shared their personal experience with us. To be more precise, one of the TED Talks has motivated a student to continue learning English ( and even studying) when s/he was about to give up, meanwhile the other respondent admitted that s/he is so inspired by TED platform that one day s/he would like to deliver a speech on this platform.

On the contrary, from the point of view of students who are not motivated to watch TED, some talks are not very well- researched and are opinion-based. Beyond that, approximately a third of students (27,3 %) is also discouraged by a long duration that some TED talks have as it makes them bored and tired.

3. Topic Selection. It has been mentioned that TED offers a wide range of topics (e.g. diversity, consumerism, personal growth, NASA, AIDS, etc.). Doubtless, such great deal of choice, on the one hand, enables students to choose topics of their interest and, on the other hand, facilitates teacher's work as they could be aware of students' preferences and choose the most relevant talk.

According to the results our questionnaires there are top 8 topics of TED Talks that students find interesting and thought-provoking. To clarify, the majority of respondents (28,7%) regard psychology the most preferable topic to watch. Besides, roughly 14 % of students give preferences to education, 12,9% to art and 11,9 % to technology. The equal number of students (approximately 9 %) are engaged in the topics related to self-development and science. The list of 8 most preferable topics of TED Talks is finalized by such topics as social issues and politics.

Nevertheless, some disadvantages of topic selection were also pointed out. For example, some topics could be outdated and not relevant to the student's interests. In such cases it would be better to select either relevant topics or compare relevant with outdated ones. Moreover, a teacher could also conduct a questionnaire to find out what topics learners are engaged in. Besides, for teachers lesson preparation could be time-consuming as 7,3 % of respondents think that some ideas of TED Talks could be biased and influence the listeners in an unexpected way. To tackle the issue, students should be taught how to take a subjective and rational standpoint. Sometimes teachers can also avoid talks provoking students to an unfavorable discussion.

4.Valuable language input resources. Considering that TED Talks are delivered by speakers all round the world, it is evident that some of them are native speakers, meanwhile others are not. Doubtless, students are exposed to natural speech and different accents, what makes a material authentic and variable. What is more, the results of our questionnaires illustrate that some students regard the diversity of speakers (with different nationalities, backgrounds, etc.) as a valuable experience in terms of socio-cultural awareness and a multi-faceted world view.

Besides, TED Talks can be considered as a significant linguistic input for language learners. To clarify, these videos: are full of good content (ideas worth spreading, touching stories, diverse cultural elements), have a wide range of contextualized vocabulary, are relevant to practice listening skills and such technique as notetaking, have free transcripts in English and subtitles in over 40 languages. In addition, according to the outcomes of our questionnaires such a sufficient language input as TED Talks could be a solid basis for language output, e.g. further discussions and other types of speaking activities as well as for future improvement, e.g. TED can broaden students' outlook and develop critical thinking skills.

However, the outcomes of our questionnaires show that for both students and teachers, the speech of non-native speakers with different accents may turn listening task into a challenge. To illustrate, 14,5 % of respondents state that the speakers' strong accents usually could lead to misunderstanding of the content as well as to the total task failure. At the same time, from the teachers' perspective (13,7%) not being adapted to levels TED is not always easy to implement within the group of weak students as some learners may lack practice of listening to native speakers whose speech might seem too fast.

5. Imitating TED speakers and awareness of using body language. In general, student as well as teacher respondents (6,5 %) regard TED as a very useful platform to acquire public speaking skills since TED performers set remarkable models for students to emulate. They tend to imitate the speakers' clear, concise and effective way of delivering their speeches, including their interactivity, open-mindedness and sincerity with a large audience (eye contact, gestures, smiles, and other mannerism). Moreover, the confidence of speakers prompts students to practice their speeches as much as it is needed. Convincing arguments and timely jokes provide students with the example how to make a good impression on audience by providing it with proofs and a portion of humour.

Yet there some students came up with certain disadvantages concerning the speakers' ways to deliver speech. To illustrate, several respondents find the speakers' jokes unfunny. It is quite understandable as sense of humour varies from culture to culture. Besides, about 6% of students claim that sometimes facts and statistics which performers provide the audience with seem doubtful and, therefore, this arises prejudices towards the authenticity of talks.

6.Peer or self-evaluation and feedback. Peer-assessment as well as self-assessment play a significant role in the development of students' pragmatic competence that deals with the knowledge of how language is related to the situation in which it is used. To clarify, evaluating the presentation of their colleagues according to certain criteria students become aware of how they use the language, and how they might learn from each other. At the same time, if a student is asked to videotape the way s/he delivers a speech and provides the teacher with the self-evaluation presented in the form of a written analysis (comments), the process of reflection takes place as they analyze their strengths and weakness. Besides, students have a chance to practice a metacognitive strategy and become more autonomous.

In brief, even though TED-motivated pattern is concerned with accessibility, motivation, free selection of topic, effective language input, imitation, peer / self-evaluation and feedback, several drawbacks of the implementation of TED were still outlined. Nevertheless, since discourse is basically context and students should take into account such features of the context as the setting, the participants, the issue under discussion, the pragmatic factor, etc. it is crucial for learners to enhance it to become communicatively competent. Thus, the use of TED could help learners to improve their discourse competence by exposing them to different contexts.

The main aim of the sub-chapter below is to provide the analysis of the activities presented in syllabus ''Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' by Stephenson (Stephenson et al., 2015) based on the platform TED Talks in which we have identified some merits and flaws.

3.2 The analysis of ''Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' by Stephenson, Dummett & Lansford (2015) as the syllabus based on TED

Taking into consideration the rising popularity of using technology during classes, certain syllabuses based on educational platforms have already been published these days. To illustrate, a series of integrated-skills syllabus named ''Keynote'' is grounded on twelve TED Talks at each level. It is believed that this teaching material provides a carefully designed springboard for students to develop their authentic listening, critical thinking and presentation skills.

Basically, ''Keynote'' is an integrated-skills syllabus as its content is focused not only on the development of all four basic language skills (reading, listening speaking, writing) but also on the enhancement of pronunciation and critical thinking (helps to analyze, synthesize, conceptualize and accomplish many other intellectual operations with information). However, since our study is concentrated on the development of the 1st year university students' spoken discourse competence we will briefly outline the major speaking activities presented in the syllabus used for the English language course '' Speech Practice'' namely ''Keynote Student's Book for Upper- Intermediate level'' by Stephenson (Stephenson et al., 2015).

Primarily, each unit starts with activating students' schemata and with a brief description of the speaker' s background and his or her talk. By that, such speaking technique as making guesses triggers the production of micro-monologues. Besides, by contextualizing vocabulary and grammar that the learners might face with while watching and listening to a talk the material also prepares students for the further exercises aimed at practice of productive skills.

In general, students could benefit from this syllabus as real-life situations lay foundation for mostly all exercises. Besides, a communicative intention varies sometimes, e.g. students could be asked to work with a new partner. Such important conversational technique as turn taking is incorporated in many speaking tasks. All in all, the following speaking activities could be found in the syllabus:

1. An integrated listening and speaking skills task (ex-s 7- 10 p 111. Students need to listen to a phone call conversation, then answer the questions concerning it and have a conversation about the same situation that ends satisfactorily for both people).

2. Storytelling (e.g. ex.10 p 46 Work in pairs. Tell your partner about a mistake you have made, whether trivial or serious. What advice would you give someone in a similar situation?)

3. Role plays (e.g. ex.7 p 17. Work in groups. Imagine you are attending a social event between several English schools. You can be a teacher or a student. Introduce yourself to at least 3 people.)

4. Conversation completion (ex.8 p 29. Complete the conversation between two colleagues on a company training course. Use the prompts.)

5. Finding differences and similarities (e.g. ex.9 p 89. Work in small groups. Compare your diagrams and find the main similarities and differences in the way you spend your day.)

6. Discussions (e.g. ex.7 p 95 Work in small groups. Discuss the questions. At one time, it was suggested that technological innovations would mean that people would work less and have more leisure time. What do you think of this suggestion? In your experience, what are the advantages and disadvantages of computerized or online learning?)

7. Brainstorming (e.g. ex.11 p 101. Work in small groups. Brainstorm a list of five TV adverts you are familiar with. Then give them stars (five stars=the best) according to the following questions.)

8. Descriptive monologue (e.g. ex.8 p 134 Work in pairs. Read the story. How would you describe the person's friend?)

Ultimately, the syllabus ''Keynote Upper-Intermediate'' provides learners with various types of speaking activities which are completed mostly in pairs or in groups.

Since we are interested in the development of such format of students' spoken discourse competence as monologues, we will study the section called ''Presentation skills'' that can be found in each unit in ''Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' (ibid, 2015). In this section various tips about the ways how to deliver a speech successfully are given. Our main goal is to identify whether each speaking activity presented in this section satisfies criteria proposed by Thornbury (2005, pp. 90-91) in terms of maximizing speaking opportunities and increasing the chances that learners will experience autonomous language use.

To start with, the first tips in the section ''Presentation skills'' touch upon how to use examples in the form of stories or visuals (slides, objects, etc.) effectively. To illustrate, the following pieces of advice are mentioned (Stephenson et al., 2015, p. 11):

1. Your examples should clearly support the points you are making;

2. If your example is a story, it should be easy to understand quickly;

3. If your example is a visual, it should have a strong visual impact;

What lacks in these tips is that there is no explanation how learners can implement them in real life. Doubtless, student's books cannot dig dipper into the issue, but we find it relevant to give students at least one example or a brief explanation to make each tip more concise. For example, for the 3 tips mentioned above we would recommend adding the following:

1. Before choosing a story think about why you are using it and whether this story or picture is a suitable example in this context.

2. You stories should consist of sequences, e.g. opening scene followed by a scene with the main action or conflict, and then a final scene as ending. Do not forget to use linking words to make your story more logical.

3. Make sure your visual is relevant to your topic, audience and event. Be careful with informal visuals (e.g. memes) as you might be either misunderstood or judged by your audience.

Then comes the task (ex.10 p 11) to analyze according to the criteria given by Thornbury (2005): Work in pairs. Decide whether you would use a story or a visual to give an example of each of these items (a brand name, a viral video, social media). Choose 1 item and decide what you would say and /or show an audience. Use the techniques in the Presentation tips box and practise presenting your example.

Criteria given by Thornbury (2005)	The degree to which speaking activity satisfies a criterion.
Productivity	The activity can be characterized as productive as it focuses mostly on meaning rather than content.
Purposefulness	The activity can be characterized as purposeful as the outcome that students should present is clear enough as they should use a story or a visual to support their speech with examples.
Interactivity	The activity can be partially characterized as interactive. On the one hand, there is interaction between two groupmates. On the other hand, there is no interaction between the speaker and the audience.
Challenge	The activity cannot be characterized as challenging as its main goal is quite trivial, i.e. to practise at giving examples of the item chosen by students.
Safety	The activity can be characterized as safe as the task is not challenging and students are free to choose as the item itself as what they will say or show to the audience.
Authenticity	The activity can be characterized as authentic as it suits the students' need to learn how to give academic presentations provided with examples.

The following tips to study concern pace (the speed at which the speaker talks) and emphasis (the frequency of pauses the speaker takes). To clarify, the following pieces of advice are mentioned (Stephenson et al., 2015: 87):

1.Do not speak too quickly to be clearly understood;

2.Vary the speed to keep the audience engaged and interested;

3.Pause for emphasis at the most essential points in your talk.

From our point of view to make the tips clearer we recommend adding the following:

1. Fast talkers risk getting lost in a flood of words. Make it easy for the audience to capture, consider, and retain your key points.

2. If the speed of your voice never changes, you will be speaking in a monotone. As a result, you'll risk losing your audience.

3. Watch George H. W. Bush putting the right emphasis in his well-known phrase of the 1988 presidential race: 'Read. My. Lips. No. New. Taxes. '

The exercise that proceeds the tips is : Prepare a short anecdote about one of these topics (something you did with a member of your family, something funny that happened to you or someone you know, something you learned from a mistake) or an idea of your own. Then work in pairs and practice telling the story. Use the techniques in the Presentation tips box. (ex. 11 p 87)

Criteria given by Thornbury (2005)	The degree to which speaking activity satisfies a criterion.
Productivity	The activity can be characterized as productive as students have an opportunity to practise storytelling in such genre as personal anecdote.
Purposefulness	The activity can be characterized as purposeful as its aim is quite concise, i.e. students need to tell the story.
Interactivity	The activity can be partially characterized as interactive. On the one hand, there is interaction between two groupmates. On the other hand, there is no interaction between the speaker and the audience.
Challenge	The activity can be characterized as challenging as neither structure nor prompts are given.
Safety	The activity cannot be characterized as safe because except for the tips concerning phonetical components (pace and emphasis) students are not aware of the ways the task should be unfolded.
Authenticity	The activity can be characterized as authentic as it is closely connected to a real-life situation when people talk about their personal experience.

It is also interesting to study tips referring to the speech tempo, as well, but that are concentrated on such phenomenon as making a pause. To use pauses in the talk is effectively it is recommended to (Stephenson et al., 2015: 87):

1.Pause to draw the audience's attention to your next words;

2.Pause at the end of a point to give the audience time to process what you have said;

3.Leave longer pauses to allow the audience to reflect and to relate your ideas to their own experience.

We suppose that it could be also relevant to add:

1. For example, ''Do you know what happened?'' … (pause)… (pause)… Such pauses heighten tension in your narrative and gets the audience involved.

2.Having combined the 2nd and 3rd points due to their similarity, we would also add that this type of pause shows the audience that you have left a space for them to think about your words.

3. Pause to support a description heightening feelings in your audience. For instance, ''A summer evening… (pause) …. imagine it… (pause) … you are having a party… (pause) ''.

Ex.11 p 131. Work in pairs. Think of a surprising news item you have read or heard about recently. Make brief notes on the background to the story and the surprising facts. Practise telling the story with pauses in different places to decide what is most effective.



Criteria given by Thornbury (2005)	The degree to which speaking activity satisfies a criterion.
Productivity	The activity can be characterized as productive as it focuses mostly on meaning rather than content. Besides, apart from speaking skills students can practise such technique as notetaking.
Purposefulness	The activity can be characterized as purposeful as the main goal is to tell the story with pauses so as to make it more effective.
Interactivity	The activity can be partially characterized as interactive. On the one hand, there is interaction between two groupmates. On the other hand, there is no interaction between the speaker and the audience.
Challenge	The activity can be characterized as quite challenging as students should not overuse pauses but place them naturally and skillfully.
Safety	The activity can be characterized as safe only if a teacher's attitude towards incorrect use of pauses is non-judgmental.
Authenticity	The activity can be characterized as authentic as it is closely connected to a real-life situation, e.g. when there is a need to share or discuss a surprising news item with friends, colleagues, etc.

Having analyzed several speaking activities presented in the syllabus in ''Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' by Stephenson (Stephenson et al., 2015) we came to conclusion that it lacks activities on developing a monologue. To clarify, mostly all the tasks involve either a pair work or a group work that presuppose the production of dialogues and polylogues. Furthermore, even the tasks located in the section ''Presentation skills'' should be completed in pairs, without addressing to the audience, what in fact deprives students of practising delivering a speech in the way TED speakers do it. Sometimes speaking tasks are challenging and unsafe as they neither make students aware of how to complete the tasks nor provide them with enough prompts. Finally, it should also be pointed out that in most cases students are not scaffolded with the necessary language to be used either while preparation time or during the language development stage.

Due to the gaps mentioned above, we find it relevant to present the tasks we have designed on the basis of 2 TED Talks and which we find useful for students to develop their spoken discourse competence, in particular, monologues.



3.3 The design of tasks aimed at developing discourse competence of the 1st year university students within the ''Speech Practice'' course based on the use of TED

The primary objective of the practical part of our research is to design effective tasks aimed at the improvement of the 1st year university students' discourse competence within the ''Speech Practice'' course based on the use of TED platform.

To begin with, since it was pointed out that TBLT is the best framework for developing students' spoken discourse competence, in particular, monologues, we have elaborated our tasks within this very framework. What is more, having conducted our questionnaires we have learnt that students mostly prefer watch talks that do not last for too long and concern social issues.

With this in mind, for our first group of tasks we have chosen a 6-minute TED Talk ''How fake news does real harm'' delivered by Stephanie Busari who explains the deadly danger of fake news and the ways people can stop it. We find this talk extremely informative since it touches upon a crucial social tragedy that took place in 2014 when the terrorist organization Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria.

Besides the talk is quite relevant to the learners and their interests since it provides them with a vivid example how hashtag activism, e.g. #BringBackOurGirls, works. Thus, the topic cannot be considered as outdated because nowadays there are numerous notable hashtags that are popular among young people who are fond of surfing the Internet. From the perspective of discourse competence development, we find this talk worth to emulate as it illustrates quite well the way such type of monologues as a storytelling should be delivered. Since TBLT works in the 3 main cycles (pre-task, while-task and post task) that encourage students to move from reception to production, the activities we designed follow this way.



Pre- task

Primarily, there is a need to activate students schemata and give them a chance to practise micro-monologues. To that end, pre-tasks that precede watching a TED Talk are the following:

1) Brainstorm the ideas why fake news could be dangerous.

Have you ever experienced a real harm from fake news?

2) You are going to watch a TED Talk ''How fake news does real harm'' by Stephanie Busari. Read the text about the talk. Then work in pairs and discuss the questions below.

1.Have you ever heard about Boko Haram and its crimes?

2.Make guesses about the fake news that Stephanie Busari is going to give her talk about.

Having introduced the topic to students it is also crucial to provide them with active vocabulary to facilitate listening process and enlarge their vocabulary so that they could implement it during production (speaking) stage. Therefore, students should complete the next task:

3) Read the sentences (1-7). The words in bold are used in the TED Talk. First guess the meaning of the words. Then match the words with their definitions (a-g).

1.The story caused ripples around the world.	a) to make something start to happen
2.People like Michelle Obama, Malala and others lent their voices in protest.	b) a person's real but concealed aims and intentions
3.Understandably, they were not too happy with our line of questioning.	c) to express your thoughts or feelings in words
4.But they also told us that the story of the Chibok girls was a hoax.	d) a plan to deceive a large group of people; a trick
5.This video would go on to kick-start negotiation talks with Boko Haram.	e) a personal, intuitive feeling or response
6.I trust my gut, but I ask tough questions.	f) to cause a sound or feeling that is slight but is noticed
7.What do they have to gain by sharing this information? Do they have a hidden agenda?	g) an ordering of questions to develop a particular argument

Task

Next comes the stage where the learners watch the talk and complete the task concerning their understanding of the key points of the story. The link for the TED

4) Watch the Ted Talk. Work in pairs. Answer the questions:

1.What is the format of the talk?

2.Why did not the speaker reveal the name of the victim?

3.Why did the government regarded news about the Chibok news as a hoax? What were the consequences of this regard?

4. What did Stephanie Busari propose to stop the danger of fake news?

Afterwards, students are scaffolded with tips ''How to succeed in storytelling? '' provided with the examples that are taken from the talk. Scaffolding provides students with the model of storytelling that they could use at post-task stage.

5) Storytelling is a one of the types to deliver a speech. Study the tips ''How to succeed in storytelling? '' provided with the examples from the talk of S. Busari.



Tips	Examples from the talk
1. Give your story an introduction. Say briefly what your story is about.	I want to tell you a story about a girl. But I cannot tell you her real name. So, let's just call her Hadiza. Hadiza is 20. She's shy, but she has a beautiful smile that lights up her face. But she's in constant pain. And she will likely be on medication for the rest of her life.
2.Give the background to your story. Say when and where it took place.	Hadiza is a Chibok girl, and on April 14, 2014, she was kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists. She managed to escape, though, by jumping off the truck that was carrying the girls. She was one of 57 girls who would escape by jumping off trucks that day.
3.Say what happened step by step. Use words linking words (so, because, but, etc.), sequencing words (before, later on, finally, etc.) and dates (in April last year, etc.) to connect the actions until you reach the end of the story.	For two years, inevitably, the news agenda moved on, and for two years, we did not hear much about the Chibok girls. Everyone presumed they were dead. But in April last year, I was able to obtain this video. But before I could publish it, I had to travel to the northeast of Nigeria to talk to the parents, to verify it.
4.Use narrative tenses - past simple, past continuous, past perfect.	This story, quite rightly, caused ripples around the world. People like Michelle Obama, Malala and others lent their voices in protest, and at about the same time -- I was living in London at the time -- I was sent from London to Abuja to cover the World Economic Forum that Nigeria was hosting for the first time.
5.Use adjectives and adverbs to make the story interesting.	Understandably, they were not too happy with our line of questioning, Influential Nigerians were telling us at the time that we were naпve. They also told us the story of the Chibok girls was a hoax. Sadly, this hoax narrative has persisted.
6.Use stylistic devices. (e.g. anaphora- a rhetorical device repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.)	I am furious when I think about the wasted opportunities to rescue these girls. I am furious when I think about what the parents have told me. And I am furious that the hoax narrative, I firmly believe, caused a delay. But what if we stopped taking information that we discover at face value? What if we stop to think about the consequence of the information that we pass on and its potential to incite violence or hatred? What if we stop to think about the real-life consequences of the information that we share?
7.Addressing to the audience. Ask questions.	And she will likely be on medication for the rest of her life. Do you want to know why? Who here has done that? I know I have. For those of you who are parents, like myself, in the audience, you can only imagine... I think everybody here, you and I, we have a role to play in that.
8.Be sincere with your audience.	I must confess that I have not been a dispassionate observer covering this story. I am furious when I think about the wasted opportunities to rescue these girls. I trust my gut, but I ask tough questions. Who here has done that? I know I have.
9.Finish your story by saying why it is important.	I think everybody here -- you and I -- we have a role to play in that. We are the ones who share the content. We are the ones who share the stories online. In this day and age, we're all publishers, and we have responsibility.

Post- task

Two previous stages have prepared students enough so that at the final (post-task) stage they are capable of practicing storytelling:

6)From the talk you learnt that around the world people have become aware of the Chibok tragedy via hashtag activism #BringBackOurGirls. Choose any notable hashtag from this web site and make your group aware of the story that the chosen hashtag covers. Prepare a 5-minute talk in the form of storytelling. Follow the tips about successful ways to deliver a story. Use active vocabulary.

To verify whether our final task satisfies all the criteria given by Thornbury (2005) we have conducted the same analysis that we employed to the activities from ''Keynote''. From the columns below, it is evident that our task satisfies the criteria and could be regarded as useful to develop students' spoken discourse competence, mainly the ability to deliver a monologue in the form of storytelling.

Criteria given by Thornbury (2005)	The degree to which speaking activity satisfies a criterion.
1. Productivity	The activity can be characterized as productive as students have an opportunity to practise storytelling as a specific type of monologue.
2.Purposefulness	The activity can be characterized as purposeful as its aim is quite concise, i.e. students need to tell the story on the basis of the chosen hashtag and active vocabulary.
3.Interactivity	The activity can be characterized as interactive since students have an opportunity to address to their groupmates.
4.Challenge	The activity can be characterized as partially challenging because students should prepare their 5-minute talks on the spot to aware their groupmates about the chosen event.
5.Safety	The activity can be characterized as safe because students are provided with tips where the ways their talk should be unfolded are given. Besides, they were scaffolded with the model how to tell stories in a successful way and with topical vocabulary, as well.
6.Authenticity	The activity can be characterized as authentic as it is closely connected to a real-life situation when people need to inform their listeners about a crucial social, political, ecological and other types of event in a concise way. Moreover, since students are active Internet users, it is quite relevant to ask them to talk about hashtag activism.

For our second group of tasks we have chosen a 3-minute TED Talk ''Selfies and seeing ourselves -one's artist look in the mirror'' delivered by Christina Balch who sheds light on the power of taking a selfie that could challenge unrealistic physical expectations of beauty. To clarify, not only does this talk lasts only for 3 minutes so that students will not definitely get bored, but it also covers technological as well as psychological aspects, in particular, how taking a selfie could influence one's self-image. Besides, the speaker touches upon a very popular social movement ''Body positivity'' that advocates the acceptance accept all bodies no matter the form, size or appearance. From the perspective of discourse competence development, we find this talk quite relevant for preparing students to make a summary of the talk and support it with personal commentary. Therefore, it will influence positively both students' critical thinking and their speaking abilities.

Since TBLT works in the 3 main cycles (pre-task, while-task and post task) that encourage students to move from reception to production, the activities we designed follow this way.

Pre- task

Primarily, there is a need to activate students schemata and give them a chance to practise micro-monologues. To that end, pre-tasks that precedes watching a TED Talk are the following:

1)Look at the extract below and answer the question.

Every day, we are surrounded by images of other people. Highly curated portfolios featuring the best snapshots (photographs) of lives being lived. How does being bombarded with these images ultimately shape how we see ourselves?

2) You are going to watch a TED Talk ''Selfies and seeing ourselves -one's artist look in the mirror'' delivered by Christina Balch. Read the text about the talk. Then work in pairs and discuss the questions below.

Work in pairs. Answer the questions.

1. Why is morning regarded as the ugliest possible time?

2. What is wrong with taking a selfie in the morning?

Having introduced the topic to students it is also crucial to provide them with active vocabulary to facilitate listening process and enlarge their vocabulary so that they could implement it during production (speaking) stage. Therefore, students should complete the next task:

3) Read the sentences (1-7). The words in bold are used in the TED Talk. First guess the meaning of the words. Then match the words with their definitions (a-g).



1. I open the camera app and snap a quick photo of myself.	a)to express or represent doubt about the truth of something
2. I can take a photo of myself without having any preconceived notions.	b) to encourage and support the ability to do something
3. We can use today's technology to challenge the norm.	c) formed too early, especially without enough thought or knowledge
4. I've seen myself in hundreds of candid photos.	d) to take a lot of photographs quickly
5. The `Awake' project has empowered me to show my face to the world.	e) very ordinary and therefore not interesting
6. Social change can start with seemingly small mundane actions.	f) relating to or being photography of subjects acting naturally or spontaneously without being posed

Task

Next comes the stage where the learners watch the talk and complete the task where they could pratise using active vocabulary. The link for the TED Talk:

4) Watch the Ted Talk. Work in pairs. Complete the task.

Look at the survey chart and add 2 more questions to the list. Now, ask your partner the questions and collect as much information as you can. Share the results with your group.

Questions	Answers
1. How often do you open the camera app to snap a photo of yourself?
2.Do you usually have preconceived notions about what you want your photo to look like?
3.From your point of view, what is better a candid photo or a staged photo? Why?
4.Do you post candid, staged or both types of photos to your social pages?
5.Is posting photos to your social pages is a mundane action? Why? Why not?
6.In what way do self-portraits (selfies) influence self-perception and self-image?
7.Is it OK to feel comfortable with our faces as they change and age? Why? Why not?
8.What are other ways to challenge the norms and typical expectations of beauty? Name at least 3 ways.

Afterwards, students are scaffolded with tips ''How to make an oral summary provided with a commentary? '' provided with the examples taken from the talk. Being scaffolded with the model of making a well-organized summary provided with a commentary, students will be prepared enough for the post-task stage.

5) Making a summary with a commentary is a one of the ways to deliver a speech. Study the tips ''How to make an oral summary accompanied by a commentary? '' provided with the examples from the talk of Christina Balch.

Tips	Example
Begin your summary with the title of the source (a TED Talk) and the name of the speaker. Mention that your summary will be provided with a commentary.	Today I am going to provide you with the summary of a TED Talk ''Selfies and seeing ourselves -one's artist look in the mirror'' by Christina Balch and then I will continue with the commentary in which I will evolve the ideas presented in the talk.
Identify and mention the issue and key points of the video. Your summary should include information from the TED presented in your own words. NB! Do not include anything that is not in the original talk. Do not express your point of view in this section, just state the facts. Your summary should be concise. Maximum length - 6 sentences.	In her talk, C. Balch sheds light on the power of such a mundane action as taking a selfie that could challenge unrealistic physical expectations of beauty. To clarify, the speaker shares the results of her own project called `Awake'. For over 2 year she has being snapping a quick photo of herself almost every morning. C. Not having any preconceived notions about what she wanted her morning photos to look like she has managed to take a truer self-portrait. Therefore, such experience has empowered the speaker considerably in a self-perception way. She concluded her talk by stating that social changes could be triggered by such day-to-day actions as sharing a selfie.
Develop your summary with your personal commentary (3 - 3,5 minutes) in which you should interpret and integrate ideas from the talk. Your commentary should have the following structure: Introduction (introduce the topic and give a brief outline of your commentary) Body (discuss the key points expressed by the speaker. You should support, object, criticize, give reasons, illustrate with examples etc.) Conclusion (sum up your ideas) NB! You should be logical, fluent, coherent, use a wide range of vocabulary and mind grammar.	Now I would like to proceed the summary with my commentary in which I am going to argue that the convergency of such action as taking a selfie into a mundane ritual can cause adverse effects. Generally, the speaker claims that snapping quick photos of ourselves makes us feel comfortable as our self-image is becoming more and more favorable. However, I cannot share the speaker's view as I believe that many people risk of becoming obsessed with taking selfies. What, in fact, could boost their self-confidence not in the right way. What I mean is that sometimes we put human-beings in jeopardy of becoming too self-centered people even though they post only candid photos…. To conclude, even though the speaker reveals positive effects of selfies, I am still concerned that this experience could influence badly self-perception of certain people.

Post- task

Two previous stages have prepared students enough so that at the final (post-task) stage they are capable of practicing storytelling:

6) Make a summary of the talk ''Selfies and seeing ourselves -one's artist look in the mirror'' delivered by Christina Balch and provide it with your commentary. Follow the criteria for both summary and commentary mentioned above. Use active vocabulary. Present your summary to your groupmates.

Criteria given by Thornbury (2005)	The degree to which speaking activity satisfies a criterion.
1. Productivity	The activity can be characterized as productive as students have an opportunity to practise making an oral summary provided with a commentary as a specific type of monologue. Besides, this task develops students' critical thinking abilities and enables them to express their opinion.
2.Purposefulness	The activity can be characterized as purposeful as its aim is quite concise, i.e. students need to prepare a short summary with a commentary following the certain criteria and using active vocabulary.
3.Interactivity	The activity can be characterized as interactive since students have an opportunity to address to their groupmates.
4.Challenge	The activity cannot be characterized as challenging because students are given a thorough model of making a summary provided with a commentary based on the same TED Talk, they are to work on by themselves.
5.Safety	The activity can be characterized as safe because students are provided with tips where the ways their talk should be unfolded are given. Besides, they were scaffolded with the model how to make a summary and a commentary and they are provided with topical vocabulary, as well.
6.Authenticity	The activity can be characterized as authentic as it is closely connected to a real-life situation when people should analyze a certain source and express their point of view. Moreover, since students are active digital users, it is quite relevant to ask them to talk about their attitude towards selfies.

To verify whether our final task satisfies all the criteria given by Thornbury (2005) we have conducted the same analysis that we employed to the activities from Keynote. From the columns below, it is obvious that our task satisfies the criteria and could be considered as useful to enhance students' spoken discourse competence, mainly the ability to deliver a monologue in the form of summary that is provided with a commentary.

To sum up, it is evident that activities based on TED Talks and elaborated within TBLT framework could be implemented successfully to improve students' spoken discourse competence, namely monologues. Considering students' preferences concerning the topics and duration of TED Talks, we have managed to design two series of tasks drawn on two short, but informative videos. What is more, we have carefully designed a sequence of tasks and prepared for students them a well-organized scaffolding. However, since our study was limited in time and scope, the elaborated tasks worth to test within the ''Speech Practice'' course of the 1st year university students in order to obtain materials to work with for the further research.



Conclusion

Taking into consideration modern requirements for university students concerning their abilities to organize spoken discourse coherently with appropriate cohesive features and to communicate fluently and accurately, it essential for teachers, in particular, those who teach the English language course ''Speech Practice'', to find ways to improve the students' level of spoken discourse competence that would allow them to communicate effectively bearing in mind the context of situation.

The results of the conducted study prove that students are extremely motivated to learn language when their speaking classes are based on TED Talks. The passionate way with which the speakers deliver their speeches inspires students to speak up. Furthermore, the wide range of talks provides teachers with an opportunity to choose the most relevant talks to their students' needs and interests. Though the questionnaires we conducted illustrate that it is difficult for teachers to find an adequate talk since they are unadapted to levels, Thornbury (2005) suggests to present students the tasks in the form of challenge from time to time in order to maximize speaking opportunities and increase autonomous language use. Besides, among disadvantages of TED platform the speakers strong' accents were also pointed out. However, not only is it crucial for language learners to be exposed to authentic language but it is also important to teach them how to be tolerant towards speakers with different backgrounds.

At the same time, many respondents have emphasized that TED speeches are mostly well-structured and set good models for students to emulate. They also arise students' sociolinguistic and sociocultural awareness, provide them with the examples of interactional speech functions.

Since TED Talks are delivered in the form of oral presentations addressed to a large audience, they could lay foundation of activities aimed at improving students' abilities to deliver various types of monologues. Considering that the ''Speech Practice'' course of the 1st year HSE university students is grounded on the language syllabus ''Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' by Stephenson (Stephenson et al., 2015) which is based on TED Talks, we have analyzed it to identify how well the speaking activities are implemented there. As a result, having applied the criteria proposed by Thornbury (2005, pp. 90-91) in terms of maximizing speaking opportunities to the speaking activities presented in the book, we have identified such gaps as the abundance of listening tasks, lack of speaking activities aimed at the mastering such form of speaking as monologues, irrelevant tips and scaffolding.

To fill in these gaps, we have managed to design the procedure developing 1st year university students' spoken discourse competence and which is based on 2 TED Talks and TBLT framework that provides students with the real-life tasks concentrated on meaning, conveying information, relying on linguistic and non-linguistic resources. The focus of the first series of elaborated tasks was to enhance students' abilities to perform monologues in the form of storytelling. Meanwhile, the core of the second series was concentrated on the development of students' abilities to perform monologues in the form of summary provided with a commentary. To test whether or not these activities could be useful to enhance students' spoken discourse competence, it has also been verified how well they satisfy the criteria suggested by Thornbury (2005). The results of the test have shown that the designed activities meet all the criteria. Therefore, having elaborated worthful tasks, not only have we proved that TED platform as well as TBLT framework are helpful to improve discourse competence, in particular, the abilities to give monologues, we have also achieved the primary goal of our research by designing the tasks that could fill the gaps presented in the syllabus of the 1st year HSE university students' ''Speech Practice'' course.

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