Other Other students Student modifies

students’ participate his/her

Teacher’s feedback understanding Student
feedback sees how it
turns out

INPUT
Audio/video tapes
Native speakers in person OUTPUT
Native speaker media LANGUAGE Speech
Reading and pedagogic texts STUDENTS Writing
The teacher

Figure 1: The circle of input and output

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 What is Speaking?
0 A social vehicle and indicator (Bygate, 1987)
0 A complex skill which involves the use of
0 pronunciation
0 grammar
0 vocabulary
0 fluency
0 comprehension (Harris, 1977)

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 What is Speaking? (cont’d)
0 An interactive process of constructing
meaning (Brown, 1994; Burns and Joyce,
1997)
0 Spontaneous (yet predictable), open-ended,
evolving
0 Involves both linguistic and sociolinguistic
competence
0 Skills and conventions are different from those
used for writing

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 What is Speaking? (cont’d)
0 Language knowledge - knowing how to use
pronunciation, words, and grammar to
verbally produce a sentence.

0 Language skill - ability to correctly use these

conventions in a particular verbal interaction.
Also involves the ability to negotiate meaning
and to manage the interaction.

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 KNOWLEDGE SKILL
Planning

Knowledge of routines: Message planning:

informational information plans
interactional interaction plans

Knowledge of the state of Management skills:

discourse agenda management turn
taking

Selection

Lexis Negotiation of meaning:

Phrases explicitness skills
Grammar resources procedural skills

Production
Production devices Production skills:
facilitation compensation

Grammatical rules Accuracy skills

Pronunciation rules

03/05/2016 EXPRESSION

Figure 2: A summary of oral skills

 Types of Spoken Language
0 Monologues
0 Lectures
0 News Broadcasts
0 Readings
0 Speeches

0 Planned and Unplanned

0 Redundancy
0 Ease of Comprehension

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 Types of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Dialogues
0 Interpersonal function
0 Transactional function

0 Participants
0 Familiar
0 Unfamiliar

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Characteristics of Spoken Language

0 Clustering - production of groups of words

0 Redundancy - use of repetitions, rephrasings,

elaborations, and insertions such as “I mean”
and “you know”

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Clustering - the production of groups of words

0 Example: For this last talk in this series of lectures,

I’m going to discuss learning a language. I shall deal
with the basic problems first and then I’ll go on to
suggest various possible solutions.

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)

0 Example: For this last talk | in this series of

lectures| I’m going to discuss | learning a
language | I shall deal with | the basic
problems first | and then | I’ll go on to
suggest | various possible solutions |

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Reduced forms
0 Elisions, e.g. “Djeetyet” for “Did you eat yet?”
0 Contractions, e.g. “I’ll”
0 Ellipsis, e.g. “When will you be back?”
“Tomorrow, maybe.”

0 Performance variables such as hesitations,

false starts, pauses, and corrections

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 But, uh - I also - to go with this of course if you’re
playing well - if you’re playing well then you get
uptight about your game. You get keyed up and
it’s easy to concentrate. You know you’re playing
well and you know … in with a chance then it’s
easier, much easier to - to you know get in there
and - and start to … you don’t have to think about
it. I mean it’s gotta be automatic.

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Colloquial language - words, phrases, idioms,
slangs used in everyday casual speech

0 Rate of delivery - speed at which native

speakers speak

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Slang
0 informal style of speaking
0 e.g. cool, spaced out, right on, hang-up, rip-off, barf
0 “invented” in keeping with new ideas and customs
0 may represent “in” attitudes

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Stress, rhythm, and intonation - English is a
stress-timed language. Also, intonation
patterns are very significant.

0 Interaction - negotiating meaning by means of

giving feedback, asking for clarification,
maintaining a topic, etc.

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Characteristics of Spoken Language
(cont’d)
0 Pitch
0 high, low, normal
0 is used to communicate emotion and mood such as
excitement, boredom, or fear
0 Intonation
0 is also used to convey emotion and mood
0 “What’s going on?”

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 Differences between Spoken and Written
Language
Speaking Writing
It is innate. Everyone It is learned. Not
is born with the ability everyone learns to
to speak. read and write.
Spontaneous Planned
Dialect variations Standard form
Linguistic and Only linguistic means
paralinguistic means
are used to convey a
message
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 Differences between Spoken and Written
Language (cont’d)
The use of pauses and The use of punctuation
intonation
The use of The use of spelling
pronunciation
Immediate response Delayed or no
from the listener response from the
reader
Usually informal and Formal and compact
repetitive

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 Issues in Teaching and Learning Speaking

0 Conversational Discourse
0 Carry on a conversation reasonably competently
with other speakers of the language
0 Words and structures (linguistic forms) to
accomplish pragmatic goals (language functions)
such as to greet, to introduce oneself, to accept or
decline an invitation, and to complain.

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 Issues in Teaching and Learning
Speaking (cont’d)
0 Automaticity of response
0 Social appropriacy
0 Topic

0 Accuracy
0 The use of correct pronunciation and grammar to
produce clear and articulate speech
0 Language oriented

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 Issues in Teaching and Learning
Speaking (cont’d)
0 Fluency
0 “The ability to keep going when speaking
spontaneously” (Gower et al., 1995)
0 “The ability to get across communicative intent
without too much hesitation and too many pauses
to cause barriers or breakdowns in
communication” (Crystal, 1977; Bryne, 1986;
Nation, 1991)
0 Message oriented

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 Issues in Teaching and Learning
Speaking (cont’d)
0 Accuracy and Fluency
0 Emphasis on message orientation with language
usage offering a supporting role (Brown, 2001)

0 Teaching Pronunciation
0 Poor pronunciation can affect comprehensibility
even if grammar and vocabulary are excellent
(Fraser, 2000)
0 Intelligible pronunciation

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 Issues in Teaching and Learning
Speaking (cont’d)
0 Affective factors
0 Anxiety over the risk of saying something wrong or
incomprehensible and be judged by others

0 The interaction effect

0 The interactive nature of most communication
involves conventions of how to say things, when to
speak, etc.

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 Approaches to Teaching Speaking

0 The Structural Approach

0 Emphasis is on the production of grammatically
accurate sentences
0 Forms and functions are taught in isolation
0 Present-practise-perform model
0 Practice dialogues seldom mirror real
communication
0 Correct usage but not appropriate use

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Approaches to Teaching Speaking
(cont’d)
0 The Communicative Approach
0 Emphasis is on the use of appropriate utterances
0 Activities engage the learner in more meaningful
and authentic language use
0 A task-based approach where students are given a
communicative task and they are asked to assume
roles
0 Teachers act as facilitators
0 Minimum teacher talk and maximum student
participation

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Approaches to Teaching Speaking
(cont’d)
0 The Balanced Approach
0 Input and practice of language patterns are semi-
authentic and are of communicative value
0 Activities are meaningful and purposeful

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 The Teaching of Speaking
0 Rivers and Temperley’s View
0 Skill-getting: studying the grammar, phonology, and
vocabulary of a language
0 Skill-using: using the skills learned in real
communication
0 These skills are not successive in nature
0 Pseudo-communicative activities provide the link
between these skills

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 The Teaching of Speaking
(cont’d)
0 Littlewood’s View
0 Pre-communicative activities: preparatory
activities where students are taught and given
practice in the language or skill required for a
particular communicative act
0 Teaching the part-skills
0 2 types of pre-communicative activities

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 The Teaching of Speaking
(cont’d)
0 Communicative activities: learners use the
knowledge and skills learned to engage in
interactive activities
0 Teaching the total skill or whole-task
practice
0 2 types of communicative activities

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 Types of Classroom Speaking
Performance
0 Imitative
0 Drills whereby students listen and repeat some
particular element of language, e.g. a certain vowel
sound or intonation contour
0 Limited practice through repetition
0 A controlled activity
0 Short, simple, and must lead to communicative
goals

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 Types of Classroom Speaking
Performance (cont’d)
0 Intensive
0 Any speaking performance that is designed to
practise some phonological aspect of language

0 Self-practice or pair-work where learners “go over”

certain phonological forms

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 Types of Classroom Speaking
Performance (cont’d)
0 Responsive
0 Short replies to teacher or student-initiated
questions or comments
0 Examples:
0 T: What is the main idea in this essay?
S: The United Nations should have more authority.
0 S: So, what do you think of this story?
S: Well, it’s very interesting.

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 Types of Classroom Speaking
Performance (cont’d)
0 Transactional (dialogue)
0 An extended form of responsive language
0 Conveying or exchanging specific information
0 Example:
0 T: What is the main idea in this essay?
S: The United Nations should have more authority.
T: More authority than what?
S: Than it does right now.
T: What do you mean?

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 Types of Classroom Speaking
Performance (cont’d)
0 Interpersonal
0 Maintaining social relationships
0 The use of everyday casual language, slang, ellipsis
0 Asking about a person’s health or weekend

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 Types of Classroom Speaking
Performance (cont’d)
0 Extensive (monologue)
0 Oral reports, summaries, short speeches
0 Planned or impromptu
0 Formal register

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 Characteristics of A Successful
Speaking Activity
0 Allows for learner talk
0 Equal participation from learners
0 Learners are motivated to talk
0 Learners have the language to perform the
activity

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 Problems in Getting Learners to Talk

0 Inhibition
Conscious about talking in another language in front
of other people; Worried about making mistakes and
being criticised

0 Nothing to say
Cannot think of anything to say; Not motivated to talk

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 Problems in Getting Learners to Talk
(cont’d)
0 Low or uneven participation
Little talk time or the tendency of some learners to
dominate can discourage participation

0 Use of mother tongue

Tendency to use the mother tongue rather than the
target language when the learners in a class share the
same L1

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 Principles for Designing
Speaking Activities
0 Use activities that cover the spectrum of
learner needs
0 Language-based to message-based activities

0 Provide intrinsically motivating activities

0 Appeal to learners’ goals and interests, and to their
need for knowledge

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Principles for Designing Speaking
Activities (cont’d)
0 Encourage the use of authentic language in
meaningful context

0 Provide appropriate feedback and correction

0 Give learners opportunities to initiate oral

communication, e.g. to nominate topics, to ask
questions, to control conversations, and to
change the subject
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Principles for Designing Speaking
Activities (cont’d)
0 Encourage the development of speaking
strategies, i.e. strategic competence
0 asking for clarification (What?)
0 asking someone to repeat something (Excuse me?)
0 using fillers in order to gain time to process (I
mean, Well)
0 using paraphrases for structures one can’t produce
0 using non-verbal expressions to convey meaning

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 Types of Speaking Activities
0 Controlled activities, e.g. drills, picture or word
prompts
0 Guided activities, e.g. sequencing statement,
modifying statements, describing and comparing
0 Creative or freer communication, e.g. discussion,
defending statements, problem-solving, moral
issues
0 Individual work, pair work, group work, whole
class
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 Teaching Pronunciation
0 Clear, comprehensible pronunciation

0 Non-native accents are acceptable

0 One’s accent is a symbol of one’s heritage or

cultural identity

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 Aspects of Pronunciation
0 Sounds – Consonants and Vowels

0 Stress – Word and Sentence Stress

0 Rhythm and Intonation

03/05/2016 45
Aspects of Pronunciation (cont’d)
0 Minimal pairs – a pair of words which
contrasts in one sound
0 Articulatory chart – consonant table, vowel
chart, and diagram of the speech organs
0 Foreign accents
0 Tongue twisters

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