4/3/2 is a useful technique for developing oral fluency. Learners give
the same talk to three different learners with decreasing time to do it.
The learners work in pairs. Learner A talks to Learner B and has a time
limit of four minutes to do this. B just listens and does not interrupt or
question. When the four minutes are up, the teacher says, "Change
partners". Learner A then moves to a new Learner B. The teacher says
"Begin" and Learner A gives exactly the same talk to the new partner
but this time has only three minutes. When the three minutes are up, the
teacher says "Stop. Change partners." With a new partner, Learner A
now has two minutes to talk. During the three deliveries of the same story, the
B learners do not talk and each listens to three different people. When the A
learners have given their talk three times, the B learners can now go through
the same sequence, this time as speakers.
