Lucrare metodico-științifică pentru obținerea gradului didactic I în

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Specializarea: Limba și literatura engleză

A Survey on Strategies of Teaching Speaking Skills to Upper Intermediate

Students

Coordonator ştiinţific:

Conf. univ. dr. Evelina Mezalina GRAUR

Candidat prof.:

Mardarescu ( Bulancea) Catalina Elena

Liceul Tehnologic “ Vasile Sav” Roman

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 Contents

Abstract ………………………………………………………………………… 2
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………... 3
1. A Formulation of the Problem ……………………………………... 4
2. Aims and Rationale………………………………………………….. 6
3. The Background of the Study……………………………………… 7
Chapter I: Teaching Speaking Skills :Theoretical Guidelines ……………… 9
I.1. The Concept of Speaking as a Skill/or Set of Skills……………. 9
I.2. Fluency……………………………………………………… 11
I.3. Accuracy…………………………………………………….. 12
I.4. Pronunciation, Stress and Intonation…………………………. 14
I.5. Register………………………………………………………. 15
I.6. Paralanguage………………………………………………….. 18
Chapter II: Differences between Spoken and Written English Spoken Grammar. 21
II.1 Aspects of Spoken Grammar …………………………………. 26
II.2. Conversational Ellipsis…………………………………… 27
II.3. Heads……………………………………………………… 30
II.4. Tails ……………………………………………………… 32
II.5. Conversational / Spoken Discourse Markers…………… 34
II.6. Response/Reply Questions……………………………………41
II.7. Vocative Use………………………………………………….42
Chapter III: Learner Strategies of Communication…………………………. 43
III.1. Achievement Strategies………………………………………. 44
III.2. Reduction Strategies…………………………………………...46
Chapter IV: Interactive Methods to Develop Speaking Skills………………... 4
IV.1. Critical Debate…………………………………………... 48
IV.2. Open Discussion………………………………………….

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 IV.3. Picture Description……………………………………….
IV.4. Role play…………………………………………………
Chapter V: Teaching Spoken Language……………………………… 56
Chapter VI: Research Methodology………………………………………
VI.1. Introduction……………………………
VI.2. Hypothesis………………………………………………… 60
VI.3. Research Objectives…………………
VI.4. Setting and Sample…………………………………………
VI.5. Means of Research and Procedure………………………………
VI.6. Description of the test……………………………………………
VI.7. Description of the instruction…………………………………
VI.7.1. Spoken Grammar………………………………………
VI.7.2. Critical Debate……………………………………
VI.7.3. Open ended Questions………………………………
VI.7.4. Picture Description………………………………
VI.7.5. Open Discussion………………………………………
VI.8. Rating Scales………………………………………………
VI. 9. Analysis and Interpretation of the Results………………………
VI.10. Implementation of the Research………………………………
VI.10.1 Critical Debate………………………………………
VI.10.2. Open-ended Questions……………………………………
VI.10.3. Open Discussions………………………………………
VI.10.4. Picture Description…………………………………
VI.11. Findings of the Research………………………………………
Conclusions …………………………………………………………………………… 99
Bibliography
Appendix 1

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Abstract

This study seeks to examine the effectiveness of strategies used to develop

learners’ speaking skills in foreign language classes. More precisely, the objective is to
determine whether or not Critical Debate Technique has played a major part in improving
students’ fluency unlike other speaking methods (open-ended questions, open
discussions, prepared speech/monologue or picture description). To achieve this, the
research was conducted at “Vasile Sav” Technology High School in Roman over a period
of 4 months, from March to June 2018. The sample of the study consisted of 63 students
quasi-equally divided into 29 pupils for the experimental group and 31 for the control
one. The oral pre- and post –test applied to both groups consisted of a 50-minute
examination employing one type of assessment: speaking test in the form of simulation or
role-play. Their oral performances were recorded by means of a tape recorder. The
classroom conversation was recorded during the two, 50 minutes weekly sessions,
without any additional preparation or unusual exercises, so as to try and get as close to
real samples from the students as you could get. What we acknowledge from this is that
there is a very big difference between the results before and after the test. The debate
activities had a great impact on the participants by improving students’ critical thinking ,
giving them opportunities to engage in using extended chunks of language for a purpose:
to convincingly defend one side of an issue by raising awareness of speakers’ roles . They
also became acquainted with plenty of new vocabulary, and a better grammar from their
conversations, as they used English to give arguments on the topic given by the teacher.
Most of the students who had stage fright braced up to speak up in front of the class.
They also felt motivated to study together so as not to feel embarrassed and anxious
anymore to express their ideas through speaking.
The ones that took part choose a communicative strategies that were
compensatory and avoidant. During the teaching of oral communication, I recommend
that students learn in a relaxing and interactive environment that promotes interaction and
helps the students develop good oral communication skills.

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 The first part of my thesis revolves around the concept of speaking regarded as a
complementary, interdependent set of skills. Fluency, accuracy, pronunciation and stress,
register and paralanguage are distinct but interrelated aspects of oral language learning.
The second chapter argues that learners need to be given choices between written
and spoken grammar and that the inclusion of the latter in teaching English is highly
necessary, however, not without proper knowledge by the teachers as to the types of
spoken grammar features: ellipsis, heads, tails, discourse markers, etc. This chapter draws
special attention to the obvious contrast between spoken grammar and written grammar
as far as subordinate and coordinate clauses are concerned.
In the tricky way of learning a second language, learners will often have to cope
with communication issues caused by a lack of linguistic resources. The third chapter
pointes out the Communication strategies students make use of in order to convey what
they originally had in mind buy sometimes find difficult to pinpoint the precise word.
They use circumlocution, replacement, creating new words, resorting to the first native
language, and asking for help.
The second part includes a brief description of the interactive methods that help
students develop their speaking skills. Activities may include: Critical Debate, picture
description, open discussion, prepared speech, and open questions. I also, highlighted
Paterson`s Three Stage Approach that helps teachers implement features of the spoken
language in class.
The third part of the study focuses mainly on the students` ability to improve their
level of English if they are subjected to an experiment dealing with different types of
teaching strategies: critical debate, picture description, open discussion / prepared speech
and open- questions. Moreover, during the instruction time, students got acquainted with
the structures of the spoken grammar. I chose to teach the eleven aspects of spoken
grammar using the approach recommended by McCarthy and Carter (2002): Illustration
and Interaction. In the illustration phase I presented each feature of spoken grammar in a
number of given examples in comparison with the classic grammar. In the interaction
phase, I provided the students with exercises for each aspect. Various examples and
exercises are illustrated in Appendix 1 found at the end of the paper.

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Introduction

1. A formulation of the problem

During the teaching and learning process, the students hardly ever use English for
communication purposes, even in the simplest forms. They rely heavily on their mother-
tongue or keep silent if they do not find the proper words or expressions to share with
their interlocutors. Based on the pre-test results given to both groups, the data indicated
that some of them have a low level of comprehension when being asked questions by
their interlocutors; they often mispronounce words and lack of fluency. In addition, they
are afraid of being laughed at by their friends and feel nervous and shy. I had several of
my students recorded to answer the question: “What seems to be the most difficult aspect
when learning a foreign language? The idea was to identify the difficulties they had to
deal with, when it comes to learning English and it seems speaking is the sore spot. Both
the recordings and the transcripts were registered with their consent:

“ I think speaking is the most difficult part for me because…I don’t know…I
can’t express myself…I have the idea in my head but when I open my mouth, my head
stops working and the words won’t come out. Maybe I’m afraid of saying something
wrong and the brain says: Better not say it than say it wrong”.( C. A.- 11th grade)
I’ve also written down the transcript of a highly advanced student of mine, R.
L.,who, nevertheless, complains about the speaking problem:

“R L: For me the problem is displaying a continuous strain of thoughts, mostly

because of lack of practice and I somehow feel ashamed sometimes to speak in English. I
don’t really know the reason. I just feel like I rather wouldn’t.
Teacher: Ashamed of making mistakes?
RL: More like ashamed as uncomfortable.
Teacher: Can you please define the word uncomfortable?
RL: I feel like I’m taking a test.
Teacher: Being tested, aha…

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 RL: That sort of uncomfortable...”

There is one student however who confessed being content with her knowledge of
English so far but dissatisfied moreover with her attitude towards people in general. The
conversation fillers and hesitation markers have been transcribed as they appeared on the
record. There will be a separate chapter on that.

“I would like to think of myself as being pretty decent with all the aspects-
reading, writing, speaking, listening in English…but I DO find it a bit difficult at times to
express my thoughts. That’s not a problem I have in English…only it’s something I have
to deal with when I’m talking in my mother-tongue as well because I have to feel
comfortable with people to be able to speak naturally and say all I wanna`
say ...because…erm.. I have a lot…I wanna` say a lot and I don’t manage to…because
I`m shy. I’m not that confident. So I don’t get to. Sometimes I find myself talking to my
mom and being like… I don’t know how to say it in my mother-tongue…like certain
words. Sometimes I think in English only. I think it’s because I DO have a few friends
with whom I only speak in English. If someone would be to take my phone and look into
my texts, they could count the messages in my mother tongue on their fingers, like… it’s
that less. What I’m trying to say is not that I have the richest vocabulary ever but I have
got to this point where I find it pretty easy to express myself in English.”(B.P. 11th grade)

Based on the result of the informal interview, I came up with the conclusion that
the problem may not necessarily lie within the students, but often within the teacher. The
latter often pays too much attention to methodology and curriculum and excludes
significant variables such as a learner-centered approach. However, some teachers would
draw special attention to the importance of introducing Communicative Language
Teaching to EFL classrooms. They assert that the purpose of learning a foreign language
was to be able to communicate without any restraints. Karavas Doukas (1996) says that
even if some teachers praise the communicative approach, they resort to more traditional
methods when it comes to practice.

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 Secondly, speaking is taught by using a controlled practice or mechanical drills
which make students lose attention and become bored. From my experience as a teacher I
have observed that when teaching speaking, certain aspects of standard grammar are
sometimes the only choice for interaction in all kinds of spoken contexts. In addition to
that, students may underuse certain devices (conversational fillers, discourse markers,
etc.) unlike natives and sound awkward and unnatural. These “small words” describe the
fragmented nature of speech produced under real time constraints which are reflected in
filled and unfilled pauses, repetition, incomplete grammatical structures. Natural
conversation requires the use of certain interactive devices which only spoken grammar
can provide.
Thirdly, students lack of ideas when it comes to expressing themselves on a
particular topic and use their mother tongue as a gateway.
Finally, the school does not have the proper equipment and material to ease the
process of learning.

2. Aims and rationale

To all the problems stated above I came up with the solution of applying Critical
Debate in the experimental group to increase students’ motivation, actively encourage
their objective multiple-perspective analysis. This strategy requires students to assume a
position opposite to their own and develop tolerance for other viewpoints.
On the other hand, is the debate strategy suitable for all students? Some introvert
ones, even after five sessions of practice found it hard to overcome their fears of
standing out from the crowd. Similarly, some students will dominate the conversation.

Therefore, the control group was subjected to different speaking methods,

starting from semi-controlled to free activities: open discussions, open- ended questions,
comparing/describing pictures.
The above said leads us to the conclusion that, in order for our students to have an
efficient speech in spoken English, they need to both acknowledge and make use of the
characteristics of spoken grammar lest they should resemble inauthentic text books. I will
also supply information related to the features of spoken grammar and provide materials

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of teaching spoken grammar. My study highlights a vast range of activities for teaching
features that improves their fluency and permits students to adjust to the pressures of
simultaneous communication

3. The background of the study

The phenomenon of globalization and the need for a medium of a common

language across different nationalities and cultures gradually turned English into an
international language of communication. As we all know it, language is of utmost
importance as it keeps us in contact with other people in a multiplicity of situations, be it
for business travel or pleasure. McDonough & Shaw (2005) claim for good reason that
speaking becomes so very often the label upon which an individual is evaluated. To put it
differently, people might too often be judgmental about our linguistic abilities and
knowledge on our speaking than on any other language skills.
However, during the teaching and learning process, the students can hardly use English in
communication even in the simplest circumstances.
Nevertheless, speaking is and has always been an undervalued skill due to the fact
that it makes use of the “colloquial” register. Writing, however, the language of literature
and scholars is more generally prized as it deals with elaborate, well described sentences
and does not alter over the centuries.
With the multitude of educational theories and philosophies, speaking strategies
have tended to oscillate between opposite extremes: grammar versus communication,
teacher- talk versus student- talk, reading to learn versus learning to read, language
versus culture, spoken versus written language, speaking as a skill / knowledge or as a
series of skills.
In the first case, many teachers think that students should be taught language as a
means of communications only after having mastered its grammatical structures in
mechanical drills. Furthermore, rules first have to be explained and students should know
the basic linguistic skills. Nowadays, we are told that pupils should be given the

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opportunity to use communication skills even before thoroughly assimilating them. The
message is far more important than the form.
The second case tackles the pedagogical principle that student should do the most
talking while the teacher the least. The latter has to share a body of knowledge, but the
learners have to discover that knowledge by themselves in order to incorporate and
assimilate it. The fundamental question is: How can teachers at the same time impart it to
them and make them discover it on their own?
Thirdly, learners who have become aware of the importance of written texts
wonder whether reading should be regarded as an exercise to reinforce their knowledge
of grammar and vocabulary or treat them as a source of information about a foreign
culture? In the first case, the stress is laid upon reading to learn- that is decoding forms
(unknown words, idioms, etc) in texts; in the second- learning to read- the student
interprets information from the text and makes sense of it without having a deep
knowledge of the forms.
Fourthly, much too often, in teachers` guidelines culture is simply regarded as
information transmitted by language, but not as a characteristic of language itself. Thus,
we should teach the students the four skills plus “culture” as a separate part. Moreover,
an advanced language course should provide the best circumstances and factors to
enhance learners’ socio cultural knowledge, that is “the culturally embedded rules of
social behavior” (Thornbury 2007: 31).All these contain as part of a whole the discourse
and speech act knowledge, grammar and vocabulary rules and not in the least, phonology
of the target language. In order to improve regular speaking skills, these knowledge areas
must be appropriately stimulated in the classroom and beyond.
But can speaking be regarded as knowledge, as a unique skill, or as a
complementary, interdependent set of skills? We shall give a broader analysis of the
question above in the following chapter.

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CHAPTER1

TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS: THEORETICAL GUIDELINES

I.1. The Concept of Speaking as a Skill/ Knowledge or Set of Skills

It is generally acknowledged that knowing a language and being able to speak it is

not the same thing. So, the claim “She knows English” does not necessarily encompass
the second statement “She can speak English”. It is obvious that in order to speak a
foreign language, knowing some grammar and vocabulary and having some relatively
good pronunciation isn’t enough. There are some other skills involved in the speaking
process and it is important to make the distinction between knowledge and skills when it
comes to teaching. Martin Bygate makes a brilliant analogy between speaking a foreign
language and driving a car. What is the necessary knowledge a driver might need? First
he has to know the names of the controls, what they do and how to use them efficiently.
But what about the skills of driving a car ? Is knowledge sufficient to get around the city?
You need the skills to drive smoothly and unhesitatingly, without hitting various
obstacles in a straight line and to adapt to different weather conditions and variations on
the road.
In a similar way, as Thornburry states, speaking is reciprocal and asks for the
capacity to collaborate “in the management of speaking turns”. .( Thornburry S. 2007: 5)
There is no room for meticulous planning beforehand as it all occurs simultaneously, as
we speak .So , in order to speak fluently, the speaker has to possess a vast array of “
memorized lexical chunks” ( Thornburry S. 2007: 5) Moreover, the grammar of the
spoken language is so much different from that of the written texts. Let us have a look at
a sample of conversation between a native speaker (ns) who uses short replies, and a non-
native speaker (nns), who uses full, grammatically correct sentences.
ns: How’s it goin` mate?
nns: I am very well, thank you for asking.

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 ns: Your folks?
nns: They are doing very well, as well,, thank you.
ns: Whereya headin`?
nns: I am going to the pub. Would you like to join me?

The native speaker didn’t have any problems in understanding the non native one,
but the latter sounded somewhat clumsy and strange. Full and correct sentences are a
feature characteristic of the formal writing rather than “lexical chunks” ( Thornburry S.
2007: 5) which belong to the spoken discourse. Therefore, children should be taught the
rules of conversational grammar and pronunciation. Bits of language (e.g., “Howzit
goin?” and “ Whereya?”) ought to be taught to students as separate expressions rather
than sentences corresponding to the rules of written grammar. Let us have a look at the
following example:
ns: How you doin` man?
nns: Goin` great.
ns: Family?
nns: Could be worse.
ns: Whereya goin`?
nns: Don`t ask.

To introduce the idea of connected speech is very difficult for the teachers as well, since
few, if not any, have come into contact with a native speaker and had little time to
acquire these forms of colloquial English.

John.: Hey, waddarya gonna do this Sunday? (/wʌdərjəgʌnə/)

Paul: I’m not certain, but I don’t wanna stay in and watch a movie. (/wanə/)
John: Well, I’m gonna meet Susie at the shop and buy something for my sister for her
birthday. (/gʌnə/) Wouldja like to join me? (/wʊʤə/)
Paul: Yup, that sounds fine. Do you have any idea whatchou gonna get for your sister?
(/waʧərgʌnə/)

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John: No, actually. I’ll jus’ged‘er some flowers. (/ʤəgɛdər/)By the way, how ’bout I
pick you up in the afternoon? (How ’bout /haubaut/)
DAVID: Great, thad’d be cool. (/ðæd/)
(( Thornburry S. 2007: 5)

The question is: What are the necessary skills involved in speaking?

I.2. Fluency

According to Hartmannn and Stork (1976, :86), a fluent speaker of any language
has the ability to use well known patterns of speech automatically, without any
interruption and pause, at normal speed, focusing more on content rather than on form.
When riding a bike, you don’t concentrate too much on the turning of the wheels, the
pedals or holding on to the handlebars, but you focus your attention on the traffic. Thus,
automaticity is closely related to fluency in that it allows natives to do things without
occupying their mind with the basic level of uttering words and expressions by making
use of “prefabricated chunks” (Thornburry S. 2007: 6) .
Richards, Platt and Weber (1985: 108) give an extensive definition of fluency as
the set of characteristics which render the speech natural when making use of pausing, ,
intonation, ,rhyme ,tempo, interjections and pauses.
What does it mean when we say that “He is a fluent speaker of English”?
Is fluency closely related to speed? Speed might be an important factor, but it is, by no
means, the only one .All speakers, once in a while, draw their breath, so to say. So
pausing is equally important. The continuous flow of the utterances and pausing at the
intersection of clauses or after groups of words that form a meaningful unit makes the
language sound smooth like a wave. As we have seen, there are rules for connecting
sounds and the best way to learn is to prolong the ends of your words and let them
connect with the next word naturally. Pausing too much tough, might be considered as a
obvious sign that you are a poor speaker or a non-native.

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 There’s a sample of a text where the slash marks the pauses when naturally
occuring:

Dora: “Morning, / Mrs. Smith. It was an accident/ you know.

Jake : Oh/ there’s no such thing.
Dora: Well, /I can’t think of worse.
Jake: Oh yes, you can/ It was ordered.

Additionally, the length of run (the number of syllables between pauses) is also an
important factor to enhance fluency. The longer the run, the more fluent a speaker is. But
there are also abnormal fluent speakers such as horse –race commentators and
auctioneers who hardly pause or hesitate when speaking. It has been proved that actually
use “prefabricated lexical chunks” ( Thornburry S. 2007: 5) and use it automatically
regardless of which car or horse they are speaking about.

I.3. Accuracy

There have always been controversial arguments over what is highly important in
English language – accuracy versus fluency. A broad definition, according to Samuel
Yesuiah, would sound as correctness with reference to pronunciation, grammar and
sentence sample. (Samuel Yesuiah, Fluency versus accuracy in English learning,
Jan.2017)
If accuracy sets high standards in speaking and writing, then this leads to many
students being unmotivated and having a low self- esteem. To be fluent or accurate? If a
teacher focuses more on fluency, then his students will be able to express themselves
with ease, regardless of the number of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation mistakes
they will make. Context and meaning are far more important than grammatically correct
utterances. If you choose to put more emphasis on accuracy, then your goal is to produce

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students who become prone to limited but correct language use and also have better
control over their responses. So the typical answer of the question above is to maintain a
balance between the two so as not to produce students who speak fluently but with
grammatical error that can be painful to the ears of most teachers. Or, students that are
flawless in grammar but stutter when speaking.
The course of speaking occurs simultaneously, so it is potentially possible for
learners to make mistakes in direct communication. Thus, their speech may abound in
“grammatical slips, indecisiveness, false-starts, and poor vocabulary” (Hughes, 2002, p.
77).Moreover, as human’s mind has its own restrictions and limits, it is not an easy job to
focus on everything at the same time. Concentrating on one part only, limits the students’
attention to other areas. “Over-emphasis on accuracy might lead to lack of fluency and
viceversa.” (Skehan & Foster, 1999: 125).
The notion of “correctness” is sometimes forgotten even when native speakers
produce the language. There are so many examples of slips, errors and incompleteness
uttered by the speaking under the pressure of time, trying to correlate what he is saying
now with what he has just said, while he is working out what he is going to say next.
Obviously, foreign students shouldn’t be taught incomplete, incorrect samples of
sentences only to sound natural. As beginners, students should be given as models to
copy, short complete sentences and phrases produced by the teacher. When listening to
native speakers talking, it is important for second- learners to know that they don’t
produce ideal sets of perfectly formed sentences. Natives use the language exploratorily
and manipulatively. An interesting article in “The Guardian” said of some Russian
speakers of English that you could tell they were foreign by they way they spoke English
so “perfectly”, as if they were talking to an audience at a public meeting. So, the
language may be formally correct but inappropriate. What is the natural reaction of a
native speaker when being talked to like this? It will be hard for him to feel friendly
towards someone who uses unnatural register. Advanced learners should be exposed to a
wide range of modes of speech according to different contexts of situation. In the end,
students should be able to take short turns in primarily interactive chats and longer
transactional turns when they have mastered the language.

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I.4. Pronunciation, stress and intonation

As students gradually learn the language, they must become acquainted with the
phonemes and their associated stress patterns. Small (2005) claims that second language
learners will often sound foreign to natives as each language has its own stress patterns
and it is rather difficult to use it correctly. Many of the outdated approaches in teaching
much of the pronunciation involved the practice of isolated sound or stress and intonation
in types of grill exercises. A broad definition of stress would be that it describes the point
in a word or phrase where pitch changes. For example, the word “export”: “if it is
stressed on the second syllable (expo`rt) it is a verb, if it is stressed on the first syllable
( `export) it is a noun.” (Harmer, 2007: 35). Placing the stress wrong can distort the
message and lessen the chances to be understood.
Intonation or the music of language operates with the pitch and the use of
rhythm in speech. Meaning (intention, disapproval, discouragement, expectation,
excitement, etc) is conveyed by the correct use of the rhythm and the pitch. The
movement can be upwards (a rise), downward (a fall) or flat. On top of that, the way they
pronounce words plays a big role when speaking since it makes it obvious when the
speakers has finished their point of view or idea.
Intonation also makes the difference between one type of phrase or sentence from
another. Thus, if we say “Your full name is Theodora Marley.” beginning with a medium
vocal range and ending with a falling pitch, it is a simple assertion; “Your full name is
Theodora?” with a rising intonation a question.
If we understand and use the intonation correctly, we have more chances to sound natural
when speaking. A correct display of grammar and vocabulary are not sufficient if you use
the speech patterns and intonation of your mother tongue. Let’s take the following
example: “I’m leaving for America for good” and the response: “Are you serious? `A
question going up illustrates curiosity or maybe concern for the person. “But, are you
serious?” A falling pitch conveys disapproval or judgment. “I don’t think you should be
going to America”.

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 Correctness in terms of pronunciation is also, as we have remarked, a frequent
goal in spoken language. The norm for those learning to speak British English is usually
taken to be RP- that southern British rhotic accent, which is also called “Oxford English”
or “BBC English.” (Brown G. & Yule G., 1991: 26). For us, the ones that are teachers,
we accepted that having a perfect pronunciation that is native-like is not only
unachievable but unreasonable. The subtleties of pronunciation whether an “l” is light or
dark or an “ e” is prolonged or not are things of the past , since the teacher is simply
grateful if the student can produce an opposition between them. “It is rarely demanded,
nowadays, of native English teachers that they should lose their Yorkshire or Somerset
accents. It is only required of such teachers that they should produce clear and not
“heavily accented English” (Brown G. & Yule G., 1991: 26). Many speakers of English
produce English just about perfectly in every respect, with the exception that they
preserve their foreign accent. Lots of French, Italian, Polish speakers want to keep their
own identities, to be known like a Hungarian speaking superb English and not be
mistaken for an Englishman or a Welshman. However, there are some individuals who
can easily adopt or imitate a native-like pronunciation, independent of the educational
system. Striving to attain this goal would make students think they were failures.

I.5. Register

It` s a common experience when we are anxious and stressed out and the word
wouldn’t come out or we have encountered the particular verbal slip-up or, as the French
say, “faux pas”. Young J. (2012), a skilled linguist and translator claims that in informal
speech, “a faux pas” or a slip or gaffe as it is called, is usually self- ridiculed and moved
on from as fast as it appeared. However, in business meetings and formal speeches it gets
difficult to overlook it. The misuse of language register is one of the major sources of
faux pas. There’s a difference between greeting a friend and saying, “How goes it/what’s
up?” instead of “How have you been?” There is no difference in meaning as both
functions as greeting expressions. The only difference is the way the level of formality is
used.

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Language register

According to social context and the relationship between the people involved, the speech
demands different levels of formality. So, it is extremely important to make the
difference between registers when addressing somebody. Thus, people resort to language
alternation, which intervenes when shifting from one register to another according to
social context. Known otherwise as a social skill, the register is difficult to master even
for experienced interpreters as it requires adaptability in speech. Linguists have made a
distinction among five ranks of formality in each and every language. (See the table
below)

Register Definition Examples

Language that is fixed and relatively Vows, A country’s Constitution, a

Frozen static working contract

Formal Standard English Business letters , official speeches,

Consultative Less formal standard English Conversation between strangers,

Casual Language used among friends Colloquial speech,

Language between people who share

Intimate a close bond Terms of endearment, inside jokes

There are five different ways in which the average patient - going to the dentist's
office - might be addressed by a female nurse:

Formal: “Please come into my cabinet, Mr. Black. I would like to have a look at
your teeth, if I may.”

Consultative: Come into the room here, Mr. Black. What seems to be the
problem? Do you mind if a have a look at your teeth?

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 Casual: So, Paul, come in and have a seat here. How are things? OK. Hmmm….It
looks like you have some cavities here.

Intimate: John, we're lookin` good there days… Let me check you out. Now,
don't be shy. Step up there. You know what? Bad news . It looks like you’ve been
eating lots of sweets. There are some tiny nasty cavities in here (David Bar-Tzur-
2001)

There should be taken great care when using the informal register as not to
mistake it for the familiar register. The topic usually carries a high degree of casualness
and there is a close relationship between the speaker and the audience. The tone is
conversational. The rules of written grammar are not normally broken and opinions are
conveyed objectively. The ceremonial register may be found when reading transcripts of
speeches or historical manuscripts. The difference between a formal and ceremonial
register fades when one is not experimented with the new vocabulary and a dictionary
might come in handy at times.

For example:

“I find myself on this platform with a sense of utter bashfulness and great pride -
bashfulness in the memory of those great soldiers of our history who have stood here
before me, pride in the consideration that this home of legislative debate stands for
human liberty in the purest embodiment yet devised.

(General MacArthur's Address to Congress April 19, 1951: Old soldiers never die they
just fade away extracted from the American Experience homepage)

A native speaker may switch from one register to another free of any effort. The
non-natives, however, with a low or medium level of English, have great difficulties in
adopting the right register, (especially the academic one), according to the given context
and this may lead to offense or comic response. Some researchers have discovered that,
besides non-natives, people living in poverty “are prone” to be “stuck” ” (Dr. Sarah

19
Elaine Eaton, 2018) at the casual register. The consultative or formal language registers
are the ones less likely to be learnt by the second language learners. Dr. Sarah Elaine
Eaton (2018) gives us an illustrative comparison. It looks as if someone “is wearing a suit
that does not fit properly”. Therefore, this prevents them from moving up the social
ladder and ultimately, getting rid of poverty. The same thing applies to non-natives` level
of English. Seeing that the result in a conversation is not what they expected it to be –
that is - produced hilarious situations, they feel unmotivated to seek improvement and
“get stuck” to the same speech patterns.

I.6. Paralanguage

Paralanguage is defined as “the area of non-verbal communication that draws

special attention to body movement and tonality as away of expressing thoughts and
feelings”. (Paschalis Chliaras, 2013). Some of the features of paralanguage are
considered to be the following: stance or posture, establishing eye contact, hand motions,
tone and inflection of voice.
In the classroom, messages are produced by means of verbal or non-verbal signs.
Studies have proved that people express themselves nonverbally over 90% of the time.
Paralanguage may take many forms such countenance, mimic and other body gestures
and it involves verbal and nonverbal aspects of speech that influence meaning, including
tone, intensity, pausing, and even silence.
Lesikar (2005) asserts that the use of space (proxemics) and paralanguage affects
teachers` act of teaching in a positive way. In his study, Rodrigeuz et al (1966) teachers
who want to establish a strong relationship with their students stimulate them to spend
more time in class and hand them out asks to expand their perception that they learn more
On the other hand, .Elsadig Mohamed Khalifa & Habib Faddal in their thesis “Impacts of
Using Paralanguage on Teaching and Learning English Language” have brought forward
a thorough analysis on the positive effects of using paralanguage during classes. The
summary of the study is presented as follows:

20
 1) “Smiling teachers are reported to be more efficient than serious ones”.
2) “Communication is made easier with teachers who nod their head as a way of
encouraging students”
3) The teacher’s charming or non- friendly personality is partly responsible for
the success of the teaching act:
4) “Teachers who change the tone, volume and rhythm of their speech are more
lucrative”.
5) “Staring at your students coldly makes them reluctant to learn”
6) “Students never respect teachers whose classes are irregular or unpunctual”
7) “Students get easily bored in classes whose teacher uses a monotonous tone”
8) “Students get distracted if the teacher makes the whole speech behind the
rostrum”
9) Teacher’s hand gestures in the classroom keeps students active”
10) “Students lose interest in lecture when the teacher shows signs of fatigue and
exhaustion”
11) “Students become motivated if they are involved in discussions or asked their
personal opinions”.
12) Students don’t keep eye contact when they don’t know the answer of the
question asked”.
13) “Getting a seat next to teacher helps students to better understand the lecture”.
14) Shaking hands with the students and patting on their back encourages them to
show interest”
15) “Students feel motivated in well furnished, properly lit, spacious classroom &
get depressed in poor classrooms”.

The conclusion is that there is a strong relationship between learners` appreciation

of learning English as a non- native learner and teachers` paralanguage. The latter has a
great effect on students` learning and helps to convey effective meaning when it is used
appropriately. Why appropriately? On the whole, there are five errors as Kroehert (2006:
31) puts it, related to paralanguage: “strange personal habits, rigid stance, blocking or

21
touching face, chest, head, exaggerated hand movements, and tapping or shuffling legs
and hands”.

CHAPTER II

II.1.Differences between spoken and written English: Spoken Grammar

A universal problem in Romania's EFL (English as a foreign language)

classrooms is that even learners at an advanced level frequently lack of idiomatic spoken
language speech. Let alone the fact that students’xz speaking time in classroom tends to
be overlooked and the type of spoken English they often use is inauthentic and rigid. The
learners' spoken language applies more to the rules of written English and this may make
them seem clumsy and strange. Thus, the written language performed orally is what is
being taught now in Romanian classrooms. The teacher lectures about written texts and
grammatical issues, mechanical drills, about the English culture and civilization using a
formal register. The spoken aspect of the language is often completely obliterated or
purposely turned a blind eye on.

From my own experience as a teacher at my high school, I have noticed that the
only choice for interaction in all kinds of spoken register: the formal, semi-formal or
informal one is the aspect of standard grammar. This explains the students` unnatural use
of spoken output. To tell it differently, learners who are exposed only to the standard
grammar are likely to have bookish English, that is, to speak like a book. And,
unfortunately, the natives tend to be critical of people speaking like a book: partly
because books are not addressed to individual people, or written according to the way we
talk, and partly because it seems as if the speaker were talking to an audience due to the
long, elaborate sentences.
I, for an instance, during my “Work and Travel” programme in America, was
deeply embarrassed when my native colleagues replied that my English sounded
“bizarre” and “funny”. I felt reluctant to even utter a single word in English, and that led

22
to my estrangement from my peer colleagues. As an English teacher, I continuously
monitorize my fellow citizens` mistakes, even if they sounded sometimes more natural
than my bookish language.
Martin Bygate claims that one main difference between speech and writing
involves the time factor. Due to the fact that the words are being uttered at the same time
they are being determined puts a great strain on the speaker’s ability to deal with the
message and to control the language being used. In real time speech we tend to make
syntactic mistakes because we prefer the shortest way of conveying meaning, even
though it is grammatically inaccurate. In other words, we might forget what we initially
wanted to say, or what we have already said and repeat ourselves. Whilst the reader can
reread the fragment he finds ambiguous, the listener’s memory can play tricks on him and
this calls for a repetition.
Besides the time limitation and its associated problems, Bygate introduces a
second feature of speech, which is reciprocity. “ When speaking, the person we are
talking to is right in front of us and makes sure we have been given the right information
when we make a mistake” ( Bygate M. , 1991: 12) He can express approval or
disapproval, incomprehension or lack of it. When reading a text, the writer’s considerable
part of the skill comes from his ability to imagine the reader’s point of view. Anticipation
and prediction of problems are required if the writer doesn’t want the reader to give up
the book in disgust or boredom. Thus, the former has to make guesses about what the
reader knows and understands and what he is willing to read. However, if something is
too clear that he does not need to read it, or, on the contrary, if it is unclear to them, then
they have no way of signaling this to the writer.
Speakers, however, have different roles. In order to make sure that
communication intervenes, they have to pay attention to their listeners and adjust their
replies according to the message transmitted. The listener’s reaction changes the message
from moment to moment, understanding can be improved by asking further explanations
or details and the speaker’s task is facilitated. However, speakers in fact must take notice
of certain feedback , because if they do not, they will be seen as socially obtuse, perhaps
distant and arrogant, and maybe stupid: if someone is signaling to you that they have
perfectly understood something , or already know about it, it would look odd if you

23
ploughed on with a prepared speech”. Reciprocity forces us to take turns when speaking,
to take notice of the other, to adjust to what our interlocutor is saying and to share the
new mutual knowledge.
Now, that we have seen the major differences between spoken and written
language, let’s focus on the aspect of spoken grammar and shed light on the matter.
The notion of spoken grammar has been around since the 1990s, when the English
Language Teaching Journal published ― “Spoken Grammar: What Is It and How Can
We Teach It?” by McCarthy and Carter (1995). Spoken grammar could be defined as “a
set of ―grammatical items restricted to particularly common words in spoken English
and some types of writing that mimic the spoken style”. (Paterson, 2011: 1)
Many widely acknowledged grammarians believe that the spoken language is
“corrupt” since it has a negative influence on grammatical norms. The correct English
grammar is what lies in standard grammar of English, “yet what is codified in the latter-
does not tell the whole story (about the nature of spoken language)”.( McCarthy and
Carter, 1995: 207)
There are many interactive aspects of the spoken language that standard, written –
language grammar hasn’t taken into account. Therefore, researchers have started to
collect data related to spoken language, coming up with an alternative: a socially
embedded grammar. They claim that forms are perfectly acceptable if they are
communicable, appropriate in context and commonly used by their real speakers.
This spoken corpora has been developed not to replace standard grammar, but to
tackle the ever –changing - naturally- occurring phenomena of conversation. So, as
McCarthy and Carter emphasize it, the real purpose was not to criticize the existing
grammar of English (regularly based on written- language-based examples) , but to point
out that spoken grammar is worth every bit of attention and analysis.
Let’s take the illustrative example Thornbury (2005: 20) gives us:

A: Coffee?
B: Thanks.
A: Milk?
B: Please.

24
 A: Sugar?
B: No, thanks

Is it possible to have a conversation consisting of a single word or short phrase?

Thornbury (2005) claims that take into account we the context factors, as well as the lack
of formality. The use of complex language is, therefore, unnecessary. But, to be able to
hold a conversation like this one over a wide range of topics with a number of speakers
would be virtually impossible. The immediate effect would be ― “baby talk”. In order to
produce a much more complex range of meanings, the resources of grammar need to be
taken into consideration. This does not mean that the grammar of speech (spoken
grammar) is similar to the grammar of written texts (standard grammar). Crystal (2003)
explains that there are a number of discrepancies between speech and writing, and some
of the most important differences are related to the notion of a sentence. As he puts it:
―Do we use sentences when we speak?” Yes, we do. But the way sentences are created
in speech is so much different from the ones recorded in writing, as the example below
shows (Crystal, 2003: 214).The absence of capital letters shows that this is a speech
transcript. Pauses are marked by the symbol ― ‖ and units of rhythm by ― / ‖.

“ We took our lunch in the kitchen / – and then we kind of did what we felt like it/
and er got ready to go out / we kind of went out quite soon after that / – erm the children
were always up and about / at the crack of dawn / with the miller/ – and they got into the
milking hut/ and gave him a hand to feed the pigs / and all this / you know, we didn’t get
tosee the children/ – and erm then we used to go out/ we – we had great weather/ –
absolutely great/ – and so we went to the beach / usually for erm but by about two’clock
it was painfully hot and we had to come back/ – so we’d normally go for a tea somewhere
/ just in case supper was put off you know / and then we’d get back / and the children
would go right back on to the farm / and ride ponies / their own children had ponies / and
they’d come up and place them on the ponies’ backs / and erm – and the milking it was
milking time / and really we were devoted to getting back for milking time / .”

25
 David Crystal (2003) seeks to prove that in writing, one usually has time to put
down notes, have second thoughts, plan ahead, analyze, pause, start all over again,
proofread, revise and generally improve the language until s/he has made it to the point
where everything contents him/her. The reader gets into contact with the polished
product. Nevertheless, in face –to-face communication, there is no time for all this. The
interlocutor doesn’t have time to plan what he has in mind and would like to say, and
consequently, he deals with interruptions, false starts, and second thoughts, words on the
tip of the tongue, repetitions and a set of other ambiguities which occur while speaking.
Thornbury (2005: 20) asserts “that producing speech in real-time with little if no planning
ahead places immense pressure on the kind of complexity of sentences that speaker can
achieve in a relatively short time”. Let us convert the above quotation in a spoken act of
speech. It might sound like: ―Speaking, you’re doing it in real-time, you don’t get much
planning time, so it tends to become less complex than … or rather it’s a different kind of
complexity, than, say, writing”. ( Thornbury , 2005: 20)
Crystal (2003) admittedly asserts that the transcript of informal spoken
conversation appears to be bizarre and confusing, sometimes incomprehensible when
read because it is not possible to render the intonation and the tone of voice. But in real
speech, however, all these come as perfectly natural. Moreover, it illustrates the
difference between the spoken and written speech.
Crystal also tried to make a comparison between the first and a second version of
the transcript, as demonstrated below, where an attempt is made to remove all pauses,
hesitations and false starts and to create grammatically correct possible sentences.

“We had our lunch in the kitchen, and then we did what we liked, and got ready to
go out.
We normally went out quite soon after that. –
The children were always up and about at the crack of dawn with the miller, and
they went into the milking hut s and lent him a hand to feed the pigs.
We didn’t see the children too much.
And then we would go out.
We had great weather, absolutely great.

26
 And we went to a beach, but by about two o’clock it was painfully hot and we had
to come back.
So we’d normally go for a coffee somewhere, just in case supper was put off.
And then we’d get back, and the children would go right back on to the farm, and
ride ponies.
Their kids had their own ponies, and they’d come up and place them on the
ponies’ backs.
And it was milking time, and really we were devoted to going back for milking
time.”
Thornbury (2005) reports that the distinct aspects of spoken grammar are
reflected in the form of rules, such as the use of question tags and the three-part division
of utterances into a ―body‖ plus optional ―head‖ and ―tail‖ slots. Other aspects are
more like tendencies than proper rules; for example, the preference for direct rather than
reported speech, and the tendency to use vague language structures rather than precise
ones. Nevertheless, some speech output seem to be neither rules, nor tendencies, but
rather audible effects of real-time processing difficulties, that is - performance acts, such
as false starts, repetitions and hesitations .

II.2. Aspects of Spoken Grammar

Even if linguists have not covered the whole range of aspects concerning spoken
language, there is a common belief: the features of the spoken grammar are unique and
distinguish themselves from written, standard aspects. According to the context in which
language is used: spoken or written, formal or informal, we tend to make grammatical
choices varying from the standard or spoken language. The most noticeable features of
spoken output are: conversational ellipsis, heads, tails, question tags, informal reported
speech, conversational/ spoken discourse markers, vague language, and other aspects of
spoken grammar (contractions, response/ reply questions, statements as questions and
vocative use).

27
II.3. Conversational Ellipsis

Ellipsis is the omission of one or more words from a sentence without destroying
the meaning. In order to avoid repetition, words are left out with the assumption that the
listener already knows what is being referred to from contextual clues. Ellipsis functions
in a text to give cohesion. For example, in the sentence: “He was a chain smoker but
eventually quit” it is obvious that “he” is the subject in both clauses and does not need to
be repeated. Likewise, in the sentence: “You were thirsty and so was he.” It is
unnecessary to repeat the word “thirsty”.
Situational ellipsis is mostly used in spoken discourse where the interlocutors are
familiar with each other. Due to shared situational context, the speech partners have to
make out from the context what is commonly intelligible. The tone is relaxed and
friendly. For example, ‘Would you care for a cup of orange juice?’ is able to become
‘Juice?’ if you are pointing at a mug, or even just sitting in the kitchen. There is a
illustrative dialogue from The Telegraph between Pip and Vica where we can witness
several contextual ellipsis. The information that the speakers have left out is inserted in
the brackets.

“P: Well I saw it in “The Herald” there...

V: Did you (see it in The Herald)?
P: Mm…today’s the Festival of Sydney…The big eighty- page cover…
V: Oh, yeah, I didn’t (see it in The Herald)… (I) saw something in the Tele (Telegraph) I
think…about the plays that are on… ( in the Festival of Sydney).
P: Yes, (it’s) worth getting because it covers everything…and a lot (of it) is free.
V: Oh, yes, OK.
P: Because I just love Sydney at that time.
V: (Are) you going?
P: (I am going to the Sydney Festival) if I get round to booking…”
(The Telegraph, a Sunday newspaper. Thornbury &Slade, 2006: 54)

28
 Even if the speakers have deliberately left out some words (I), phrases (in the
Sydney Festival- it would seem redundant to make reference to it again since it’s the
topic of the conversation), or whole clauses (I am going to the Sydney Festival), they
negotiate the meaning perfectly. Mcarthy (19980) claims that there are hardly any
examples of ellipsis in the pedagogical textbooks which leads to an absence of it in the
non- native speaker’s second language.
Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000: 163) suggested the following rules
regarding the use of conversational ellipsis that occurs at the beginning of the clause:
1. Leaving the subject out in informal context. For example, “I” at the
beginning of what s/he says. In the sentence “Didn’t see you last
week”, this frequently occurs with mental verbs like hope, think, expect,
believe and guess; for instance: “Hope you‘re doing fine?”, “Think
that‘s ok” and “Guess she is gone.”
2. Subjects and auxiliary verbs can also be left out. Sometimes, they are
left out together: “Fine now?” and “Finished?”
3. Sometimes, the determiner and the dummy subject (there is/are) can
also be left out: “Any milk left?” (Not necessarily ―Is there any tea
left?)
4. Ellipsis also occurs commonly with verbs such as see and hear in
questions and answers. In questions “Have you” and “Do you” can be
dropped with these verbs: “Seen Matt lately?” and “Hear this noise?”
5. Ellipsis often occurs at the beginning of common evaluative
expressions or comments such as (I) “Don‘t know”, (It) “Sounds nice”,
(I‘ll) “Be seeing you” and (It‘s a) “Pity we‘ve missed it”.
6. In questions that start with “Do you want…?” and “Would you
like…?”, “Do you” and “Would you” can be dropped: “Some juice?”
and “More cream on it?”
7. As a conversation progresses, omission or ellipsis of words is likely to
occur. When people know what the topic is and who is speaking, it is
not always necessary to make repetition, as in “I like the place”, (it‘s)

29
 “very happy there”, (I) “must say” and “I sat on a bench there and
honestly, (I‘ve) never seen so many people.”

Another type of ellipsis, that we can hear later on in the sentence , implies the
omission of (a) particular part of sentences that is placed after the verb. Carter, Hughes
and McCarthy (2000: 168- 70) put forward the following rules regarding the use of
conversational ellipsis that occur in the second part of the clause.
1. When one replies to a question, s/he does not need to repeat the main verb: “A:
Can you swim? B: Yes, I can swim.”, “A: Does he like fruit? B: No, he does not like
it/fruit.” In such cases, the subject cannot be omitted: “Yes, can.”, “No, does not.”
2. If modal verbs (such as must, can, will and may) are used in the perfect tense
with “have” or with the main verb “be”, these verbs are repeated. One reason why
speakers repeat them is that there can be confusion between the present perfect and future
uses of modals: A: “Have you rung Betty?” B: “No, but Julia might.” (might phone in the
future) B: “No, but Julia might have. “(might have rung her already)
3. When using ellipsis with the verbs love, hate, hope, ask and want plus another
verb in the to-form, the word “to” is commonly repeated in the answers. This also applies
to the common expressions “would like to” and “would love to”: A: “Do you want to
come with me tonight?” B: “Yes, I’d love to.” A: “Okay, I‘ll pick you up at eight, then.”
B: “Okay, but only if you really want to.” You don‘t have to. I could get a taxi.
“However, when these verbs and expressions are used in questions, the full form is
usually needed, unless the meaning is obvious or has been established previously in the
conversation; for instance, “Would you like to (share a taxi) ?
4. The exchange below takes place at a green-grocer’s counter between a
customer and the seller. It is a further illustration of ellipsis which occurs later in the
clause.

“Customer: Can I have one kg of apples, please?

Seller: You can.
Customer: Thank you. C

30
 Seller: Here you are [gives him the apples] and two pennies. [Gives change]
Customer: Mm. Last of the big spenders, eh? (It is an idiomatic expression,
generally describing someone who saves up his money.)
Seller: Thank you.
Customer: I wanted to do some shopping when I was in town today and I‘ve left
my money at home in my shopping bag.
Seller: Did you? Oh, dear.”

II.4. Heads

Heads, also known as left-dislocation as Cullen and Kuo claim, are a subtle
method to introduce and familiarize listeners to a topic before coming up with the
information on the topic. (Cullen and Kuo, 2007:366). They cannot be found in written
English as they are regarded as incorrect forms. For example: “That animal print dress, it
was really fabulous.” (With head) “That animal print dress was really fabulous.” (No
head)” Heads give the interlocutors more time to process the information in simultaneous
communication” (Cullen and Kuo 2007)
Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000: 156) identify two man categories of heads :
typical heads and heads which provide a broad topical framework for what comes later in
the utterance They point out the following rules on the use of typical heads:

1. It can also serve as a frame for jokes, sayings and narratives, highlighting the
main characters or setting, or even giving a summary of a key point. 1. Speakers make
use of a wide spectrum of heads, ranging from a singular proper noun; for example,
“John, he‘s nice” to an extended relative clause, such as in “The man from Leeds we met
on holiday, his sister lives just around.”
2. The head aspect does not have to be the same as the following subject: “The
chap in Cardiff I bought the car from, his brother was saying they‘re going to close down
the school.”
3. Sometimes, another topic or subject is created from the fronting unit: ‘Madge,
one of the secretaries at work, her daughter got married last week.”

31
 4. Most heads refer to subjects in the following clause: “That teacher, he seems
cool.”
5. However, it is possible for them to refer to other items; for example, objects:
“Those shoes with low heels, I really like them”, complements: “Very strong they are” or
relative clauses: “Who bought the car I don‘t know.”
II. The second type of head can refer to a more general class of items or a broader
event than the item it refers to later in the utterance. It can also serve as a frame for jokes,
sayings and narratives, highlighting the main characters or setting, or even giving a
summary of a key point.

[Jill is teaching her daughter, Sharon, how to make a cake.]

Jill: “Okay, let’s go back again, eggs, flour, water and sugar, whisk the eggs and
pour the mixture then…
Sharon: Put the mixture in the pan and heat it up.
Jill: Medium heat, keep that in mind.”

[Conversation between two amateur swimmers]

Billy: Ancient Japanese proverb, if you‘re warm enough when you start, you‘ll be
too hot when you‘ve finished.
Bill: Good one that.”

[Two friends are chatting in a pub with a group of people.]

Byron: “Well, the moment I nearly smashed the car, I was driving home late one
night…
Joe: You must`ve forgotten to turn your lights on.
Byron: Yes, and I just couldn`t see the car in front.”

[Two students, Gary and Jeff, are in a college common room.]

Gary:” Right, Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman, the Englishman, he
says…
Jeff: I‘ve heard this before. Gary: Let me finish…”

32
 Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000) explain that there is a link among each of the four
heads, in these examples, to the next part of the utterance: “Eggs, flour, water and sugar” is
mentioned beforehand to introduce all the ingredients before talking about what to do with
each of them. The “Ancient Chinese proverb” introduces the proverb. “The time I nearly
crashed the car” announces the event to be depicted. “Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman” is
the introduction to the joke Gary was supposed to share to Jeff.

II.5. Tails

There is both a part of speech at the beginning of clauses whose sole purpose is to
orientate (heads), as there is at the end of clauses for particular grammatical aspects –
―tails. The latter, Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000) assert, permits the speaker to
expand what s/he has just said. Because tails are informal language forms, native
speakers prefer to use them when in familiar conversations and to avoid using them in
formal contexts such as formal business presentations and interviews. The construction
involves the repetition of a noun, pronoun or demonstrative from an earlier part of the
clause, as the following examples taken from Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000: 147-
8) show.

“He was very helpful, Max.”

“It‘s very nice, that road up through Skip on to the Dales.”
“It affects a lot of people, migraine does.”
A: What‘re you going to have?
B: I can‘t decide.
A: I‘m going to have a burger with chili sauce, I am.
B: It‘s a specialty here, chili sauce is, isn‘t it? “
“I‘m a bit lacking in confidence, I am.”

When the interlocutor generally assesses matters, evaluating something or

somebody to be positive or negative, then the tails usually occurs in such statements.

33
 Tails occur in utterances which include words like exciting, very nice, great and
too much. They are also used to voice the speaker’s attitude towards names of people and
places and allow the speaker to express his/her attitude towards them. Furthermore, like
heads, tails are used in narratives for the sake of emphasis and highlighting or evaluating
key moments in them.
Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000: 149) give us a number of norms according
to the position and order of tails in spoken output:

1. In a tail, the noun can either follow or precede the verb; for example: “He was
very helpful, Bob was” or “He was very helpful, was Bob”, and “She still hasn‘t
finished, Mary hasn’t” or “She still hasn‘t finished, hasn’t Mary.”
2. When we begin a sentence with a personal pronoun in a clause and a noun is
formed in the tail, the noun emphasizes the comment: “He was a great leader,
Margret Thatcher was”
3. Sometimes, the tail involves a whole noun phrase as in “It never occurred to
me, the danger I was in.” The same sentence can be given a more formal, less
spoken tone by putting such a tail as the subject of the sentence in place of it:
“The danger I was in never occurred to me”.
4. The noun can also be used as a tail on its own: “He was very helpful, Max‖
and “and “It‘s an exciting place, Hong Kong.
5. When pronouns occur in tails, the word order of the preceding phrase is
repeated; otherwise the sentence may be heard as a question. Thus, one normally
says: “You‘re stupid, you are,” not “You‘re stupid, are you?”, and “It would take
about half an hour, it would,” not “It would take about half an hour, would it?”
6. When the tail repeats a verb which is not an auxiliary (to be or to have) or a
modal (can, will, must, etc.), the auxiliary “do” is used: “She performs very well,
she does” and “They whine all the time, they do”. Speakers never say: “She‘s a
very good tennis player, Hiroko does,” “Those musicians have always been
amazing, they have done” or “Paul can’t make it, he doesn’t.”
7. Tails always agree with the phrase to which they refer: “It‘s not a good drink,
that isn’t” and “She‘ll never pass the exam, won’t Tony”.

34
 8. Negative adverbs such as “hardly” and “scarcely” normally keep a negative
tail, as in “He scarcely speaks, he doesn’t.”

II.6. Conversational / Spoken Discourse Markers

Discourse markers, as well as the other features of spoken discourse, are multi-
functional in achieving social communicative targets both in written and spoken discourse.

They:

o Outline when a speaker’s turn begins or ends

o Outline grammatical structure by placing it purposefully at the beginning or end

of a clause
o Emphasizing new information or marking the beginning of a new topic
o Illustrate the speaker’s feelings about what he is going to say or about what he has
already said
o Make sure that the listener is following the speaker
o create agreement with the listener

Therefore, they are not seen as meaningless or merely stylistic but, as Brinton
(1996) asserts, discourse markers fulfill a wide variety of practical functions both on the
textual and interpersonal level of discourse. Schiffrin (1987: 31) provides an early
definition when she claims that DMs (discourse markers) are “regularly inter dependent
elements which link units of talk” and which render the discourse coherent. Discourse
markers are claimed to fulfill textual functions in that they mark various types of
boundaries and help in turn-taking in spoken speech. Indeed, discourse markers are also
seen as communicative tools which coordinate and assess the ideas in the discourse, thus,
the use of these linguistic elements is directly linked to the communicative aim of the
text. Those DMs with interpersonal functions explicitly direct the interlocutor to the
speaker’s or writer’s behavior and keep intimacy between the participants.

35
 Blakemore (1992, 138) claims that a statement can be pertinent if:
- It may strengthen an existent supposition, by offering better evidence for it (e.g.,
after all, moreover, furthermore);
- it may disprove an existing supposition (e.g., however, but, nevertheless);
- it may bring forward the role of the utterance in the discourse (e.g., anyway, by
the way, finally).
Castro (2009, 61) highlights her own categorization of the DMs` functions
initially created by Brinton as following:
- To open up a discourse, including bringing the attention of the speaker (opening
frame marker);
- To end discourse (closing frame marker);
- To help the speaker in order to take or give up the floor (turn takers);
- To perform as filler or postponing strategy used to keep up discourse (fillers);
- To switch to a new topic or a partial shift in topic (topic switchers);
- To point out both new and old information (information indicators);
- To mark subsequent dependence (relevance markers);
- To admit one’s own or other’s discourse mistakes (repair markers).
According to Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000: 175) classification of DMs,
they are divided into two categories: markers which target the listener, such as yeah,
mm, I see, you see, you know, I don’t know, right and okay, and markers which target
the speaker, such as I mean, I think, so, well, like, ‘cos, anyway, still and basically.
The first group of spoken discourse markers checks that the listener understands what is
being said and/or make sure that the speaker does not sound very assertive or arrogant to
the listener. The markers yeah, mm and I see check that both the listener and the speaker
have the same viewpoint. You see (or simply see?) and you know are similarly used to
check that the speaker and listener have mutual knowledge. Nevertheless, when using
you know, it is assumed that the speaker knows something or would like to share
something, whilst ―you see implies that the listener does not know something. The
marker I don‘t know has another interactive, interpersonal function: tempers or softens
the speaker‘s opinions. If the discourse markers right and okay appear at the beginning
of replies, they usually delimitate a boundary between one part of a conversation or one

36
topic and another. The following conversation highlights a number of conversational
discourse markers which focus on the listener. (Hailey is a post-office clerk; Joanne is a
customer. The book they refer to is a book of stamps which can be bought monthly to pay
for a television license fee.)

“Hailey: They‘re starting to do it again, they used to print it in book form years
ago and I think they‘re doing it again...
Joanne: I get it.
Hailey: So, you, you know…
Joanne: She‘s probably moving away for a year. Right, we just want to keep in
touch with her, to see how she goes, right…
Hailey: She can always have the address changed, you see, at the same old post
office where she usually goes to.
Joanne:: Yeah…
Hailey: If she does make up her mind to take a yearly one out, you know.
Jennifer: Right, okay…
(Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 175-6)

(This conversation is among a group of people discussing their beliefs.)

“Karla: (…) But, it gets bad as well, because when I have, you know, when I do
sometimes go out with my friends and just confess to them…I kind of try to just, sort of,
hope my life isn‘t ruined, you know, by my faith in that way…
Raj: But is because of your own faith, or is it because you‘ve got too much of a
conscience?
Liam: Mm..
Helen: I see, have no idea, I think it is my faith because I feel guilty of something
I’ve done.
Moja: Isn‘t our faith and conscience influenced by our faith?
Raj: Yeah, but…
Helen: No, no, I‘m not trying not to sound too general in that sense… See? We all
know that…”(Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 176)

37
 The spoken discourse markers which focus on the speaker, I mean, I think, so,
well, like, ‘cos, anyway, still and basically, help the speaker to organize his thoughts and
give coherence to the spoken discourse. Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000) claim that
the markers I mean, I think and so indicate that further details will follow. When the
speaker has started speaking, he or she might use the discourse well. Like serves to
introduce examples; it is used to announce that the clause which closely follows is a
suggested example. Cause, an informal spoken contracted form of ―because, is used to
justify a previous statement. In the following example, the above mentioned markers (I
mean, I think, so, well, like and ’cos) are illustrated.
(A married couple is planning a summer holiday with the help of a friend.)

“Victoria: (…) You know, like, if you can catch the early train first thing in the
morning.
Susan: Yeah, but the only thing is, when I opened that up at Brexton, first thing it
said in it was “Don‘t go to Braxton,”– no, it says, ― “Don‘t stay in Braxton `cos it‘s
dear”.
Janice: Is it?
Dave: Yeah.
Susan: Yeah, it might say that …
Dave: Well, maybe we could leave for Brussels, `cos Bruges isn‘t far from
Brussels, is it?
Janice: I thought it was miles away from Amsterdam.
Susan: Don‘t think so.
Dave: Well, I mean, it‘s only…, Belgium‘s only small, so, it‘s not a big country…
(Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 178)

Moreover, the marker anyway is particularly used in getting the conversation

back to its main track, after an interruption to another topic; for example:

38
 “I‘m not that stupid . Anyway, what I was saying was, when I first typed it up it
was like normal spacing and normal character size and I‘d done nine pages” (Carter,
Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 232).

This marker also helps the speaker move from one stage to another one in spoken
narratives, as in:

... she went back to her seat and stood up and sort of started again. Anyway,
when I got off the bus the teacher came to me and he said, ―Thank you for that “(Carter,
Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 232).

A further function of anyway is indicating that the speaker is ready to close the
topic or whole conversation; for instance:

“But, anyway, we‘ll continue this discussion when we get into the regulations. I
must run ‘cos I have to teach a lecture.” (Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 232).

Still, as a discourse marker (not an adverb), has a meaning similar to the more
formal marker on the other hand or nevertheless; for example:

“I worked in cinemas, but I was out of work at 51 because the cinemas closed. But
still, who isn‘t out of work today?” (Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 232) Basically
has the more explicit equivalent “What I am simply saying is”..; for instance:

“Basically, you get to the top of the stairs and there‘s, er … just this counter and
there should be one member of the staff standing there on their own.”(Carter, Hughes and
McCarthy, 2000: 232).

The spontaneous, chatty tone is lost if one replaces the spoken discourse markers
with more informal ones such as consequently, moreover, on the other hand, in
conclusion, alternatively and the whole phrase you appreciate what I am saying.
These discourse markers are suitable for formal written language (such as academic
essays, reports, language used in trials, formal letters addressed to someone in authority)

39
as well as formal spoken settings (such as formal speeches, formal business presentations
and broadcast talk).
Carter, Hughes and McCarthy (2000: 180) illustrate in the following examples, how
bookish and unsuitable are the above-mentioned discourse markers (consequently,
moreover, in conclusion, alternatively, and you appreciate what I am saying) in
conversational contexts.
The formal markers have been replaced with less formal, more conversational ones
(the italicized versions) in order to make the utterances sound more natural and less
writing like.

1. “The whole room was in a mess after the party. Consequently, I had to clear it up.
The whole room was in a mess after the party. So, I had to clear it up.
2. He fell out of a first floor window, tough he did not hurt himself. Moreover, he was
drunk. He fell out of a first floor window, tough he didn‘t hurt himself. What‟s more he
was drunk.
3. In conclusion, I am meeting Jack at six o‘clock tonight. So, I‘m meeting Jack at
six o‘clock tonight.
4. Alternatively, it is important to book early for the New Year celebrations. But, it‘s
important to book early for the New Year celebrations.
5. You appreciate what I am saying, I am sure. You know what I mean, I‘m sure
about that.”

II.7. Other Aspects of Spoken Grammar

Response / Reply Questions

They are questions that do not require answers, but express emotions or personal
attitudes in response to what has been said; for example:
(Friends commenting on an incident)

40
 A: I rang the police yesterday.
B: You did what?
(Paterson, 2011: 3):

(A brother and sister talking on the phone)

A: I went to France to see her.
B: You went where?
A: I had to talk to her, I had to.

[Business partners discussing a problem]

A: I talked to them, and they promised to help us.
B: Are you kidding?
A: It was the only way.

Vocative use

The vocative case is used when somebody or something is being directly

addressed by the speaker. Such forms involve the listener(s) in the conversational process
through the use of their names, adjectives or pronouns that directly address them, as
shown in the following examples (Paterson, 2011: 4).
(Mike is calling Steve to help him fix the remote control.)
Mike: Steve, come and see this!
Steve: What is it, Mike? –

[Parents giving permission to their daughter to go to a party]

Father: You can go, darling, but don‘t be late.
Daughter: OK, Dad.
Mother: Honey, enjoy it and be careful. –

[Classmates talking about the unsatisfactory results of their school project]

A: If you just had finished that last part...

41
 B: Hey, you, it‘s not my fault! I did my best.
A: I‘m just saying we could have done better if we‘d finished that part.

CHAPTER III

LEARNER STRATEGIES OF COMMUNICATION

We have so far treated the native speakers` use of spoken language but what we
are highly interested in is the way first-language users cope with certain aspects of oral
communication. Communicative strategies are known as key points in communication
and play a major part in second language acquisition. They preserve the communication
channel open and support hypothesis formation.
From different prospects, linguists bring various definitions to communicative
strategies (CM):
Færch and Kasper (1983) define “communicative strategies” as a series of
strategies that help a speaker convey the meaning he attempts to achieve. Tarone defines
communicative strategies as reciprocal attempts of two interlocutors to comply on a
message in situations where meaning strategies do not seem to be shared “(Tarone 1980,
420)
Poulisse (1989) states that CSs are strategies that a speaker uses so as to sort out
any communication misunderstandings, which are triggered by the lack of appropriate
lexical units. The speaker makes up for these omissions either by resorting to the basic
stage or by trying out alternative linguistic formulations. Stern (1983) asserts that “CSs
are procedures of dealing with obstacles in communicating in an imperfectly known
second or foreign language.” Corder (1978) “CS is a regular technique employed by a
speaker to convey his own idea when tackling with some difficulties.”
In this section we shall focus on two types of strategies: achievement strategies
and reduction strategies.

42
III.1. Achievement strategies

Smith (1978) said that intelligent guessing occurs just as much in reading as it
does in oral production. If a speaker uses “guessing, he probes for a word whose meaning
he does not know or he is not sure of it, using his own knowledge of the language. He
just hopes that he will have a hit on the word or expression which the other speaker will
understand”. One can notice various sorts of achievement strategies that (Bygate, 1987)
proposes:

I. Guessing strategies:
1. He/ she may foreignize a mother-tongue word, pronouncing it as if it
belonged to his own language. For example the word “to deduce” is the
same in Romanian with “a deduce”. So, the Romanian learner might
have a Romanian pronunciation for the English word.
2. He might borrow a word from his mother tongue, hoping that the
interlocutor will understand and recognize it. For example: “I was
walking down the road, when I saw a bird whose « aripa » was
missing.”
3. He can literally translate a word from his mother-tongue. A
Portuguese could try “feast” instead of “party”, based on “festa”)

II. Paraphrase strategies involve finding an alternative to the expression, word he

needs. This can be done in three different ways: Ellis (2008, p.507)
A. Approximation: the speaker uses a word or expression that he/she already
knows is nor correct but it has the same feature with the intended word. The speaker may
say a worm for silk worm.
B. Circumlocution: Instead of using the correct target language word, the
speaker tries to describe the object. When the teacher has a slip of tongue and
cannot recall the word “ apron” for example, he describes it as ‘piece of

43
 clothing ones wear it when cooking to keep ones clothes clean”, “ a mixing of
brown and beige”= “light brown” ;
“a basket which serves for buying things in the market”= “shopping basket”.
C. He can invent or “coin” a word from his target-language, hoping that his
interlocutor will get the idea. For example Speakers will invent non existing
word when they do not know the exact one such as the use of the phrase
‘economic problem ‘instead of ‘economic crisis ‘to express the intended
meaning or “airball” for “ballon”.

III. Co-operative strategies are a third type of achievement strategies that are
used when the speaker gets help. For example, he may ask for the word`s
translation of his mother-tongue or physically indicate the object that he means or
using the mime.
Co-operation takes place when the two speakers construct the sentence together:

“S4: you have a basket for…

S3: a basket for …
S4: for umbrellas
S3: for
S4: umbrellas.” (in Bygate 1987, p.46).

A. Appeal for help

The speaker asking for assistance from the interlocutors either directly by using
such sentence’ what do you call …?’ or indirect via raising intonation, pause, eye
contact…’ Once can say that, in this strategy the speaker may ask the listener for
aid so the speakers may use such expression ‘do you understand…’.Non-
linguistics singles: Speaker uses non-verbal expressions such as gestures, facial
expression, and sound imitation

B. Non-linguistics singles: Speaker uses non-verbal expressions such as gestures,

facial expression, and sound imitation.

44
 III.2. Reduction strategies

The formal reduction strategies involve reducing or altering the message in order
to avoid parts of parts of linguistic system. This is because want to avoid making
mistakes or they feel embarrassed to talk in a foreign language. There are some learners
that feel awful when it comes to communicating in a foreign language. T Varadi (1980)
suggests that non- native speakers have become aware of the fact that the reduction or
elimination of certain formal elements does not intervene with the conveyance of
meaning. In order not to lack of fluency and be incorrect, learners may decide to
communicate by using “reduced” systems which concentrate on old rules.
Formal omission can be identified to all layers of the linguistic structure.
However, some elements become essential in communication at the phonological level:
learners cannot convey meaning by a reduced phonological structure. The rules are far
from being different when it comes to morphological reduction since an item has to be
compensated by employing some of the achievement strategies and by substituting the
reduced morphological element with a lexical one.
For example, a learner might have difficulties in pronouncing a particular
phoneme in English “th”: the voiced dental fricative /ð/ (as in this) and the voiceless
dental fricative /θ/ (thing), or avoid a particular grammar structure he is not familiar with.
Therefore, he may use an alternative word or expression and sacrifice some part of the
meaning he was about to convey. Lack of vocabulary, likewise, leads to abandoning the
message altogether and looking for something else instead and even falling silent, which
is the case with some of my students.
Tarone (1980, 233-241) categorizes communicative strategies under the following main
groups:
(1) Paraphrase has three subcategories:
(A) Approximation: Making use of the features of the target language word that may be
similar with the correct item in order for the other interlocutor to get the main idea (e.g.
“keeper” for “housekeeper”, “kick” for “sidekick”, “light” for “daylight”).
(B) Word coinage or creating a brand new word (e.g. “plant food” for “fertilizer”, “
country people” for “ country folk”, “ sky army” for “ air force”)

45
(C) Circumlocution: Trying to give a description to the individual or componential
features of the target word (e.g. “It has a red part at the top and a white part at the
bottom”).
(2) Transfer comprises four cases:
(A) Literal translation: or word for word translation. There are cases when literal
translation doesn’t work (in case of idioms, prepositions, jokes, etc) unlike technical type
of data that allow for direct translation. The idiom “ to make a whale of a time” would
sound bizarre if translated into any other language, or, “ kindergarten” into “ children
garden”.
(B) Language switch: using the native language word instead of the one in the foreign
language (e.g. “balon” for ‘balloon”).
(C) Cooperation strategies when somebody asks for assistance in case he /she doesn’t
know a word or expression. (e.g. “what’s the color of this? (She points to her blouse?)).
(D) Mime: the learner employs paralanguage techniques instead of the desired words
(e.g. “nodding or shaking one’s head to illustrate approval/disapproval.”).
(3) Avoidance
(A) Topic avoidance: changing the topic when the interlocutor is at a loss with any
vocabulary or other meaning structures.
(B) Message abandonment: starting to talk about something but being incapable to
continue because of lack of the known target structure.

CHAPTER IV

INTERACTIVE METHODS AND STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS

In order to make a difference between strategy, technique and method in terms of

teaching, I shall give a brief definition to each one of these.
A teaching method is a set of techniques and procedures used for instruction.
Whether one chooses a particular method depends largely on the skill he/she wants to be

46
taught. Some of the teaching methods may be regarded as following: demonstration,
recitation, memorization, or class participation.
A technique is the ability or the stratagem of the teacher used to achieve a
practical exhibition to get the desired outcome. There is a wide range of techniques the
teacher can choose from. They vary from static (illustration, explanation, demonstration)
to dynamic (dramatization, simulation).
A strategy is a plan or series of maneuvers to approach a problem and/or to
obtain a specific goal or result. In the long run, one needs to plan ahead in order to deploy
a strategy. Therefore, if you use an analogy of the path in which you head towards your
goal, the strategy is the mode/way you get to you goal, the techniques are the steps you
choose to get further on your way and the method includes the steps
Since we are in the post – communicative turn era, we use in our classes interactive
methods, techniques and strategies to teach English. In order for our students to employ
authentic language and the interaction to be natural and meaningful, I will focus mainly
on the critical debate in the simplified format.

VI.1 Critical Debate Technique

A. Definition

Critical Debate is a rather intricate technique that requires rehearsal and training.
It can be seen as a form of discussion, but to a greater extent, it comes in a form of
diverging and opposite views. According to Balcer and Seabury (1965: 310) debate is
seen as a mutual attempt where two or more individuals get involved and are stimulated
and guided by someone knowledgeable to attain the best outcome. The debate can be
seen as a competition where there are two opposite sides that intend to persuade the other
of the contrary of their beliefs .It is an argumentative clash between two teams that try
hard to defend their arguments. The first team is called the affirmative team and supports

47
the motion while the negative team opposes it. The jury or the adjudicators decide the
winner of the debate based on the regulations agreed before.

B. Terms in Critical Debate

1. Motion
Motion is also known as the proposition statement or the topic of discussion. The
affirmative team has to back the motion while the negative team must argue against
it. There are three types of motions:
a. Fact: something is or is not true beyond a reasonable doubt. (e.g. “Advertising
does more harm than good for society. Weigh the facts.”)
b. Policy: something should be done .( e.g. “ Cell phones should be prohibited in
schools”)
c. Value: something is or is not of inherent value. (E.g. Shakespeare is the world’s
greatest writer.”)
To proceed a debate, a motion should avoid ambiguity and be comprised into one
concise sentence format. Problems will arise if the words of the motion are unknown
and true meaning of the motion is misunderstood. For example, the statement
“Ignorance leads to mediocrity” is mostly misunderstood by students as they don’t
know the definition of the word ignorance. “Ignorance” which is defined as lack of
information or knowledge is mostly confused with “willful disregard of something.”
Therefore, it is the teacher who should address the problem and provide a clear and
reasonable definition for the motion.

2. Arguments

The arguments explain why the pro or con team adopts a certain point of view.
The arguments have to be logical and relevant to the issues discussed. Inconsistence
and contradiction of the arguments lead to a poor performance of the team. The best
way not to mix up the arguments is to have a main idea or a theme line that connects
or supports the other secondary arguments related to it. In order to prove your points

48
 the debater should provide relevant pieces of evidence in the form of statistical data,
facts, quotations, public opinions etc.

3. Rebuttals

Rebuttals consist of counter replies of the other team’s arguments. Rebuttals

prove that the other team’s point of view is not sufficiently backed up by consistent
arguments or it is simply not as important as it seem to be. The attempt to contradict or
disprove an argument should be done by giving reasonable explanation and evidence.
Doe to a time limit, a team should focus on the weighty arguments first and keep the
poor ones as a back up plan.

4. POI

A point of information is a question that you ask your opponent (on the opposite
side of the table) in order to weaken his argument. Points of information permit speakers
to exchange one another's arguments make speeches more interactive throughout the
debate and ask for a clarification to the speaker. When giving a point of information you
are supposed to stand up, raise your hand and say something like “Point of information,”
“On that point Sir /Madam,” “On that,” etc. POI`s are used when the opponent’s
argument doesn’t make sense, or you can turn what he has just said against him or slow
down the speaker. A fair level of politeness should be kept. Also, a POI should be used
sparingly and not abusively in order to hold the speaker off. The first and the last minute
is known as “protected time” and you can’t offer POIs . Nevertheless, the speaker who
has the floor has the right to either to accept or to refuse the POI.

C. Procedures of Critical Debate Technique

Michael Birshan in ISDC Official Regulation (2006: 2) brings forward a debate

layout that I chose to apply to my English classes:

49
 1. There are two teams –the Affirmative one (the team that agrees with or is in
favor of the motion) and the Negative one (the team disagreeing or holding a
differing opinion with the motion). Each team comprises of 3 members who
would be the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd debater.
2. Every speaker will have to deliver an 8 minute- speech with the affirmative
taking the floor first. The reply speech will amount to 4 minutes with the negative
going first.
3. Debaters of the opposing teams are entitled to POIs that can be given between
the 1st and the 7th minute of the 8-minute speech.
4. A time keeper will mark the time. There will be a knock at the end of the first
and 7th minute to signal the beginning and ending of POI and two knocks at the 8 th
minute to mark the end of the speech. A debater speaking less than 7 minutes is
considered under-time and more than 8 minutes – overtime. Points of the team
can be reduced if team members speak less than 7 minutes (under-time) and more
than 8 minutes (overtime) .
5. There will be a judge who will decide who is the winner of the debate and will
bring arguments to sustain his decision.

The complete order is as follows:

1st Aff→ 1st Neg→ 2nd Aff →
2nd Neg →3rd Aff → 3rd Neg →Reply Neg→
Reply Aff

Affirmative team Negative team

1st speaker (8min) → 2nd speaker (8min)
2nd speaker (8 min) 2nd speaker (8 min)
3rd speaker (8 min) 3rd speaker (8 min)

Reply speaker Reply speaker

(1ST/2nd) speaker- 4 min (1ST/2nd) speaker- 4 min

50
MINUTES

│0 1ST ││ 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH │ │7TH 8TH │

↑ ↑ ↑
POIs NOT ALLOWED POIs ALLOWED POIs
NOT ALLOWED

IV. 2. Open Discussion

The problem when carrying out a natural discussion in English is the students’

reluctance to give their personal opinion in front of their friends. Particularly when the

students are not mastering the topic of discussion they switch to Romanian in their

discussion groups. Learners often use mother- tongue in class when the topic of the

lesson is difficult, for cultural identity and lack of internal motivation, low- self esteem

and willingness to communicate. The teacher maintains control of the conversation but is

supportive of the idea to concede the initiative to the student to lead the conversation to a

new topic. Tone of voice, pitch and intonation, expression of face and body language all

contribute to the success of an authentic communication. Taking the initiative, asking

questions, expressing disagreement, all require a good command of the language. The

type of student willing to take risks by starting up a conversation is the extrovert and

talkative one. The natural instinct of many of us is to keep quiet, speak only when spoken

to and not try anything clever. Features of the spoken language such as false starts,

51
ambiguous statements, mumbles and shifts are characteristic of natural conversation and

should be introduced to students when teaching speaking.

Therefore, to encourage the students is to provide communicative activities which

force them to express ideas related to familiar topics. One way to make them talk is by

having students do prepared talks , a popular activity among students .They have to

make a three –minute presentation on a topic of their own choice. Due to the fact that the

speeches are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation and are prepared at

home, the students feel at ease and self confident. If properly organized, they help

students to overcome the feeling of stage fright and encourage them to make spontaneous

mini- dialogues later on. While monologues aren’t open to any questions on the part of an

audience, a dialogue involves two or more speakers and promotes social exchanges.

Depending on his level of English, the learner has to add reasons supporting his opinion

as well as explaining his own position on his chosen issue. When he has finished

speaking, the interviewer may ask questions to clarify a point or to explore further

arguments presented. Dialogues can be practiced in pair work between two or more

students or between teacher and student. The teacher can set up a situation (customer and

client for example), take one role himself and perform in front of the class with a

volunteer student to demonstrate how it is done. Open pair work is when the students

rehearse or practice a dialogue in front of the class while the rest observe. In order not to

put too much pressure on the students so that they feel frustrated and avoid risk-taking,

the dialogues should be rehearsed and the teacher should provide helpful material for the

assimilation of the new language. For example:

52
 - Useful expressions on blackboard : expressing an opinion( “ if you ask me..” ,”

Personally I think..”, “ If you want my opinion”..,) conceding an argument ( “Ok you

win.”, “ You’ve convinced me”.), hedging (“ I take your point but…”), strong

agreement(“ I couldn’t agree more”).

- Pictures and word cues: the dialogue can be illustrated in the form of simple

drawings and chunks of words (“by the way”, “speaking of which” etc.) to help students

retell the dialogue.

- Flow –diagram dialogues as represented in the following picture:

A: Greet B

B: Greet A

A: Offer B something

B: Accept B: Refuse

↓ ↓

A: Offer something else A: Insist

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

B. Accept B: Refuse B: Accept B: Refuse

A Flow Diagram (Thornbury, 2005: 75)

53
 IV.3. Picture Description

Interpreting activities also help students improve their fluency in English. Using
pictures proved very helpful especially to avoid misunderstandings when giving out a
task or using unknown vocabulary. Students can relate the question to the picture given.
Therefore, pictures have an important role in the understanding of meaning as they give
illustration of something and help students comprehend something clearly and easily.
Activities range from describing and/or comparing pictures on general issues, using
picture series to retell/narrate a story or describe a personality using the picture given.
Pictures allow students to be creative as they are open to different interpretations and
provide a talking point for insecure and shy students. The pictures are specially drawn for
this purpose, to exclude objects or actions which are difficult to describe or are very
culture- specific. Research has proven that fluency can be improved by stimulating the
visual memory .Pictures can transform abstract concepts into more realistic forms. Well-
chosen visuals trigger an immediate response from any learners. Therefore, in order to
provide a topic of conversation, visual stimuli come as an efficient way to give the
speaker ideas and hints on what to talk about. Either he/she is left with the image/s to
comment on (advanced level) or uses guided vocabulary to help him/her break the ice.
( intermediate/beginner level). Sometimes this technique can be employed as a one/two
minute- warm –up so as to make the students feel at ease with the speaking process.
Although students are entitled to freedom of expression, the topic of conversation is
settled by the picture or story and the learner make up his own personal story within the
subject area.

IV.4. Role-play technique

Generally speaking, a role play is when the student is asked to adopt a particular
role and to get into character in a particular situation. He has to behave and talk to his
interlocutor in a way that is suitable for the part and the situation given. It is an activity
that gives students the freedom to improvise rather than rely on practiced dialogue.

54
Students may be handed out specific instructions before the activity, certain tasks to
complete and match the partner’s role. Teacher no longer controls the so-called stage and
should interfere in case something unexpected goes wrong. Therefore, the instructions
must be clear and concise for the learners to be able to play their parts. According to
Porter-Ladousse (1987: 3), role play activities vary greatly from controlled guided
conversations on the one hand, to spontaneous drama activities on the other; from basic
practiced dialogue, to highly complex staged scenarios.
Depending on the level of the student, the situation may be specified in great
detail or can be left entirely for students to invent. The “roles” of a person or a job title
can be printed on cards to give the learners guidance as to what act out. Simulations can
be practiced in closed or open pair-work. For example “boy and girl meet at a party”,
“lawyer and client accused of…”, “shop manager and customer making complaint about
goods”, etc., or can involve more students, if not the whole class. For example, balloon
discussions: a hot-air balloon is dangerously overloaded with its passengers and they
have no choice but to throw one out. In order to save your life, you have to plead your
case and say why you should be saved and why someone else should be sacrificed. The
group members are famous people in history, famous living people or people in different
professions.
Thornburry argues “that the use of simulation and role-playing in the classroom
provides authentic language in interactive contexts, patterns of speech of authentic
conversation such as repetitions, interruptions, hesitations, changes of topic, facial
expressions and body movements. Harmer (2007) adds that it gives more introvert and
shy students the chance to be more downright in their behaviors, without having to take
full responsibility for what they might say or do when they are performing a role.

55
CHAPTER V

TEACHING SPOKEN LANGUAGE

There are many questions of how spoken grammar should be taught .Thornbury
(1999) points out that spoken English, including its grammar, often displays “strong
regional and idiomatic aspects that may cause comprehension problems to especially EFL
learners. The approaches I recommend for implementation in the classroom are the
Native-speaker Spoken Grammar Approach: Timmis (2005) and The Three Stage
Approach: Paterson (2011).
Timmis (2005) argues that in order for the learners to assimilate certain structures
of the spoken language naturally, they should be exposed to native dialogues as much as
possible. The excerpts should be accessible to students and not contain too ambiguous
and intricate structures so as not to discourage the learners. The text, wherever possible,
should be listened to more than once before asking comprehension questions. It is
sometimes difficult for the teachers to actually find the right listening text with
interesting spoken grammar aspects of the spoken language.
Paterson proposes a more thorough approach that is similar to that of Thornbury
(1999): Presentation- Practice - Production (PPP). In Stage 1 (Presentation), learners are
acquainted with the target grammatical structure such as heads, ellipsis, tails, discourse
markers, etc., in decontextualised dialogues. Paterson‘s Stage 2, (practice stage) allows
students to master the grammatical element(s) and improves accuracy. Paterson‘s Stage 3
(the production stage) allows little intervention on the part of the teacher as students have
more freedom to practice the grammatical structures. Fluency adds up to accuracy to
ensure the mastery of a foreign language.
Paterson’s approach helps students` knowledge become a skill through successive
stages of practice and allows teachers to be in control of the content and pace of the
lesson. I will give some practical examples of heads, direct speech, spoken discourse
markers and vague language to be practiced by the students according to the three stages.

STAGE 1: Presentation

56
1. Invented dialogues or sentences showing meaning and grammar:
a. Spot the differences between the sentences:
“This book, is it the most expensive in the shop?”
“Is this the most expensive book in the shop?”

b. “The boy with the red trousers, do you know his name?”
“Do you know the name of the boy with the red trousers?”

c. “These cakes, do you want them all?”

“Do you want all these cakes?”

Students are expected to find and explain the meaning of the head “This book” ,
The boy with the red trousers” and “These cakes” in the sentences given.

2. Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with the co-referential pronouns:
she/them/that/it, as in the following exercise (Paterson, 2011: 7)
a. “The new cafeteria around the corner on St. James Street looks good, does … … …
look good?
“My pants, I can’t find … … … anywhere.”
“My dad , … … … is always complaining!”

STAGE 2: Controlled practice for giving students time to manipulate the new language
forms

Heads
Work on the model to transform the sentences:
a. Is that red dress Anne’s? (It)
That red dress, is it Anne’s?

b. I bought these nice magazines only for £1 each! (Them)

These…………………………………………………………………………………. .

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Vague language
Choose the best answer to complete the sentences:
“Mel: Have a seat. Would you like a coffee or something? (1) (and everything / or
something)
Jo: No thanks, I‘ve just had one. Listen, have you heard the news about Paula? She left
her flat and her job …………. (2) (and everything / and things like that), and she‘s going
to Australia to work as a tour guide!
Mel: Really? What about her fiancé and family …………. (3)? (or something / and
stuff)”
(Paterson, 2011: 10)

STAGE 3: Freer practice

In order to make students use spoken grammar aspects naturally and not in drilled
type of exercises, the teacher may give them a number of speaking activities such as
dialogues where they are expected to interact more freely and make use of certain
subtleties of spoken grammar.
Paterson (2011: 3-4) has carefully chosen as being the most suitable a series of
spoken grammar structures that can be used in every day speech.( “Longman Grammar of
Spoken and Written English”)
1. Demonstrative Pronoun Use in Spoken English Example:
A: This is nice, isn‘t it?
B: Yes, but they‘ve put the seats too far apart. I hate that.

2. Discourse Markers that bring in Direct Speech Example:

Then she said, look I‘m going home. So I said, OK, are you taking a taxi?

3. Ellipsis :
A: Want to share a taxi?
B: I‘d love to.
A: More tea?

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B: No, thanks.

4. Interjections :
A: Wow, that‘s great!
B: Oh, good. I thought you‘d like it.

5. Response Questions :

A: I rang the police last night.

B: You did what?

6. Tails:
A: It‘s cheap, this jacket.
B: But are you sure it‘s leather?

7. Vague Language:
A: Did you see that thing on Africa last night?
B: I did.

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 CHAPTER VI

REASEARCH METHODOLOGY

VI. 1.Introduction

This part of the study focuses mainly on the students` ability to improve their
level of English if they are subjected to an experiment dealing with different types of
teaching strategies. We shall try to analyze the following major questions:
1. To what extent is the use of Critical Debate Technique effective in improving
students` level of English if it is applied in class?
2. Does it have better results than other speaking activities like open-ended
questions, discussions/prepared speech or using pictures to comment on?
3. Would the learners’ conversational English be more natural if they are taught the
aspects of spoken grammar?
The answers to the questions formulated above will be observed in my present
research after having applied in class.

VI. 2. Hypothesis

By teaching speaking in a contrastive way, that is applying different types of

speaking activities (1) and getting the students acquainted with the structures of the
spoken grammar (2), their conversational level will increase and their English is
likely to sound more natural.

VI.3. Research Objectives

This study aims to investigate whether the use of a unique method ( critical
debate) or combined methods(open-ended questions, prepared speech/discussion and

60
 using pictures) diminishes or increases the performance of using conversational
English and to examine and test the students` use of spoken grammar with a selected
range of spoken grammar aspects.

VI.4. Setting and sample

The present study was conducted at “Vasile Sav” Technological High school in
Roman at the beginning of the academic year 2018 within a period of 4 months. Our
sample is a total of relatively 58 students of intermediate- upper intermediate level of
English. It would have been better, however, if there were advanced learners of English
in order to achieve better oral proficiency and the experiment to be more illustrative. The
highschool profile is technological, that means more emphasis is placed on technical
modules/subjects. English is taught twice a week. Also, most of the students are
commuters, which means that their dwelling place is from outside town. The ones who
belong to low- income families, tend to be more humble and shy, not too outspoken,
trying to keep a low profile, whereas the activities proposed demand straightforwardness
and confidence. Thus, the above conditions influence the teaching/ learning process.

VI.5. Means of Research and Procedure

In order to check the two main hypothesis , I divided the present study into three
main stages : the pre-test, instruction and the post-test administered to both Experimental
and Control Group. The pre-test was given at the beginning of the academic year 2018.
Instruction directly followed the pre-test which was spaced away from the post-test of
four months.
I have chosen an experimental design to check both the hypotheses, more
specifically, a pre-test post-test Control Experimental group design. The research
participants were students from X A and XI A. The difference of a school year between
the two groups is irrelevant as far as the level of English is concerned. The two different

61
groups of students received different learning opportunities, so that their oral
performances could be compared. The Control Group was taught conversation by
applying different speaking activities such as open – ended questions (“would you
rather… “– type of questions) or prepared monologue/open discussion and commenting /
describing pictures. Moreover, the instructional period was meant to make students
familiar with the features of the spoken language, use them in daily conversation and
make the difference between standard and spoken grammar. The pre-test and post -test
were administered to check students level of conversation in terms of content, grammar,
organization, pronunciation and fluency.

VI.6. Description of the test

The CG (control group) and the EG (experiment group) `s oral performances

during the pre and post test were recorded by means of a phone recorder. The type of
activity I’ve chosen for the test was simulation / role-play based on the consideration that
language is used in interactive contexts and the students use authentic conversation. It
also helps shyer students as they have the chance to take on a role they have been
dreaming about ( the role of the father for example).
The students were divided in groups of two which formed a closed pair. They
were asked to choose from a range of 21 subjects according to three main themes. They
were told that they should perform a role or a simulation and use the natural language
they listen to on TV or on the radio.

Theme 1: Family Relationship

Topic 1: Child and Parent: Permission to Go to a Birthday Party

Topic 2: Child and Parent: Permission to Go on a Camping trip
Topic 3: Child and Parent: Convincing Your Parent about Having a Summer Job

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Topic 4: Child and Parent: Choosing a University Specialty
Topic 5: Siblings: Blaming Your Sibling for Messing up Your Room
Topic 6: Siblings: Preparing a Dish / Cake with Your Sister‘s Help
Topic 7: Siblings: Remembering Last Summer‘s Incident
Topic 8: Cousins: Preparing for a Wedding Party

Theme 2: University Relationship

Topic 9: Students: At the University

Topic 10: Students: The University Conditions
Topic 11: Classmates: Sharing Memories with a Former Classmate
Topic 12: Roommates: Refusing Politely a Roommate
Topic 13: Roommates: The New Roommates

Theme 3: Social Relationship

Topic 14: Friends: Complaining about Being Late

Topic 15: Friends: Shopping with a Friend
Topic 16: Friends: Refusing an Invitation from a Friend
Topic 17: Friends: Discussing TV Programmes with a Friend
Topic 18: Neighbours: The New Neighbours
Topic 19: Neighbours: Missing a Neighbour‘s Party
Topic 20: Neighbours: Looking after a Neighbour‘s Apartment

The topics of discussion were carefully chosen for the students to use the
interactive nature of spoken language in exclusively informal situations. Each pair was
given role cards as it was time - saving and students found it appealing and interesting.
Cues or short pieces of information were written on the cards to stimulate students`
thoughts and remind them what to say when they keep silent.
There are two samples of role cards used in the pre-test:

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Topic 2:
Child and Parent: Permission to Go on a Trip Role Card 1: CHILD – You‘re going on a
trip with friends. – You‘re trying to get your parent‘s permission by reassuring him/her
that everything will be fine: telling him/her the place you‘re going to, the names of
friends, how long you‘re going to stay there, the place you‘ll be staying in, etc

Topic 2:
Child and Parent: Permission to Go on a Trip Role Card 2: PARENT – You‘re an over-
protective parent. – Your child has asked your permission to go on a trip with friends. –
You don‘t accept easily until s/he gives you the details about the trip: the place s/he‘s
going to, the names of friends, how long s/he‘s going to stay there, the place s/he‘ll be
staying in, etc.

The pairs had 20 minutes to take the pre-test: ten minutes to get prepared and ten
minutes to perform their roles. In order not to get inspired from the other pairs`
responses, each pair was isolated not to be overheard. It was also important that each pair
had a different topic to talk about. In The post- test the students were expected to perform
the same role-plays as in the pre-test but the only difference was that they had to
exchange roles : the student who took Role Card 1 in the pre-test was expected to take his
partner‘s Role Card 2 in the post-test, and vice versa.

VI. 7. Description of the instruction

Both groups had two English classes of 50 min. per week. The CG was taught
conversation by applying a diversity of speaking activities: open- ended questions,
prepared monologue/speech and pictures. The EG had to learn how to conduct a critical

64
debate. During the instruction, the groups were also provided with a selected variety of
spoken grammar exercises. The implementation of the research is illustrated in the table
below:

Session class C. group Exp. Group

Session 1 2 classes Pre-test

Session 2 4 classes Open-ended 1.presentation Debate: 1.Presentation

questions: 2. practice 2. practice

Session 3 4 classes – Heads

- Tails
–Conversational Ellipsis : 1.presentation
– Vague Language 2. practice

Session 4 4 classes Prepared speech :1.presentation Debate : 1. practice

2.practice
Session 5 4 – Spoken Discourse Markers
classes - Informal Reported Speech 1. presentation
– Question Tags 2. practice
– Contractions
- response questions
Session 6 4 classes Describing pictures: Debate : 1.practice
1.presentation
2.practice
Session 7 4 classes 1.Integration of the 11 aspects
2.Free practice
Session 8 2 classes Post –test

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 VI. 7.1. Spoken grammar

As far as the methodology is concerned, I chose to teach the eleven aspects of

spoken grammar using the approach recommended by McCarthy and Carter (2002):
Illustration, Interaction and Induction.
In the illustration phase I illustrated each feature of spoken grammar in a number
of given examples in comparison with the classic grammar.
In the interaction phase, I provided the students with exercises for each
aspect, .However, when teaching short forms, vocative case, monologues and reply
questions I did not use similar exercises like the ones used in the presentation of heads,
tails, vague language, linking words, familiar reported speech and tag questions. The four
aspects were only presented in a few examples and they were asked to use them in
sentences of their own. The types of exercises are:
- transforming the sentences given (teaching heads, tails and
informal reported speech); completing the
sentences(teaching tails, question tags and conversational
ellipsis);
- multiple-choice exercises( teaching vague language);
- highlighting (teaching spoken discourse markers ).
In the induction phase, the students had to chose a speaking activity and use
various aspects of spoken grammar which they are already familiar with.
The complete set of exercises related to each aspect of spoken grammar is
illustrated in Appendix I.

VI.7.2. Critical debate

The Experiment Group was taught Critical Debate on the model proposed by
Michael Birshan in ISDC Official Regulation (2006: 2). In the presentation stage, I gave
the students the necessary explanations to perform Critical Debate and made sure they

66
understood the rules. The students were also written down on the blackboard words and
expressions related to the motion that is to be discussed. Then, a warm-up activity
followed up in which students had to give their personal views on the statement and
exchange ideas. They had also to do home research and prepare for the next class on the
motion.
The first practice activity was more like an experiment to see whether they have
understood the rules and could act on them. They were divided into two groups
(affirmative and negative side) each consisted in 3 debaters. The jury also consisted of 3
or 4 students that were, at their turn, active participants in a debate in previous sessions.
The audiences weren’t passive, but had the chance to ask tricky questions and give their
own opinions on the issue debated. A time keeper supervised the whole thing and made
sure each debater kept in the time limits allotted for his speech. Every student has been
distributed either the role of the speaker , timekeeper or the audience. At the end of the
debate, after judging was complete, the chairperson or time keeper announced the
winning team. Judges evaluated the debate on the basis of the arguments and the
refutation only. Judges each reached their conclusions independently.
The teacher played a highly important part in that she exemplified arguments
when they lacked of precision, encouraged students to share opinions, encouraged further
justification when it wasn’t enough to convince the opposing side. If the Affirmative
definitions were absolutely illogical or unreasonable, the debaters on the opposite team
had to contest them immediately by providing compelling reasons to reject them. Teacher
provided additional instruction on the specific vocabulary that was used in class. He had
to make sure all of his students understood any specialized vocabulary so the efficacy of
their arguments attained their goal and conveyed the intended meaning. Moreover, the
teacher encouraged each group to form a strategy as to who will do most of the talking
during the debate. Then, students discussed with their teams the points the opposition
made and decided how to refute them.
There was a list of debate topics the students had to choose from and prepare their
arguments and quotes from experts, research historical backgrounds, bring photos or
sketches and so on.

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1. Should abortion be legalized or not?
2. Can renewable energy efficiently take over fossil fuels?
3. Should animals be tested for medical experiments?
4. Should students have access to cell-phones during classes?
5. Is human activity the main cause of global warming?
6. Should teachers use corporal punishment as a means of teaching?
7. Should death penalty be abolished?
8. Should marriage between same sex be banned?
9. Should illegal immigration in America be overlooked by the authorities?
10. Should consumers be directly warned about the side effects of the prescription drugs?
11. Should the students have the right to choose to wear uniforms?
12. Parents should be entitled to choose the gender of their baby.
13. Should the violence in video games be regulated?
14. Year-round education is not a good alternative for students` progress in school.
15. Teachers should not be permitted to get in touch with students through social media.
16. All students are demanded to do one year of community service.
17. Schools should punish cyber bullying that takes place outside of school.
18. Should we discriminate gypsies?
19. Is English important all around the world?
20. Should students be taught sex education in schools?
21. Does school prepare us for life?
22. Should adopted children know who their biological parents are?

VI.7.3. Open – ended questions

As a teacher I understand the importance of presenting the students with open-

ended questions, those queries that will allow them to expose their own feelings and
opinions. Not only do these questions help the students to discover themselves as full
grown ups, but they can also be as warm-ups and get them to work with different kinds
of vocabulary and sentence structure. “ Would you rather” is a kind of party game where

68
the players have to select a preference and are not supposed to give a reply in the form of
“ Neither” or “Both”. They are also encouraged to give a reason for their choice. In fact,
the reason is the part that will really get them talking as some are ridiculous, some are
quite deep, while others are just fun to answer. Each question was written down on a
piece of paper and the students had to choose one from. If he or she didn’t have any idea
on what to say on the first one, the student was allowed to choose another question. The
“would you rather…” questions are listed below:

1. Would you rather go totally invisible for a single day, or have the superpower to fly for
one day?
2. Would you rather know how to speak fluently all languages and never have the chance
to travel the world or have the money to travel anywhere for a year but never be able to
speak a word of a foreign language?
3. Would you rather be alone and isolated for the rest of your life or be in the company of
people you cannot tolerate?
4. Would you rather be bald but in perfect shape or obese with a head full of hair?
5. Would you rather be able to see things in a crystal ball and know when you are going
to die or how you are going to die?
6. Would you rather live a virtual reality for a life where with infinite power or in reality?
7. Would you rather have the power to teleport yourself anywhere in the world or be
gifted to read minds?
8. Would you rather find your soul mate or a have a bank account with 10 million Euros?
9. Would you let scientists know you donate your body or organs to people in need?
10. Would you rather be an employee with an easy job or be your own boss but work
incredibly hard?
11. Would you rather be cut off from society or be forced to live on the streets in foreign
country as homeless?
12. Would you rather be held responsible for the death of a child or kill three adults by
accident?
13. Would you rather lose a year of your life or spend a year in jail?

69
14. Would you rather be sentenced to jail for 5 years and be innocent or get scot free with
something horrible you did but always live with the thought of being caught?

VI.7.4. Picture description

The activities given to the students ranged from describing and/or comparing
pictures on general issues or using picture series to retell/narrate a story. The picture or
cartoon story usually consisted of four to eight pictures or drawings telling a story or
illustrating various views of an important issue. When they had to make a comparison,
they had to use appropiate discourse markers such as: “unlike”, “on the other hand”, on
the contrary” etc. They were also provided with language bank which supplied useful
phrases and expressions for use. The format was similar to CAE or FCE speaking part.

VI.7.5. Open discussion

My students (those who were willing to try) were handed out a pack of cards and
had to speak on a given subject for one to three minutes. They had enough time to form
an opinion or collect their thoughts on the assigned topic. For those who felt insecure to
deliver a spontaneous speech, I had them write down a few ideas to be reminded of the
direction they’ll take in the development of their talk.

. The topics they had to speak about are listed below:

1. How have standards of beauty changed over the years?

2. Would you rather have a simple and easy life or have some challenges along
the way and why?
3. Are any of your friends completely opposite to you or are most of them similar
to you?
4. Where does your personality originate from? How much do you think of
personality is inherited and how much is your own?

70
 5. Would you willingly move to a different planet in order to colonize and study
it, even if it meant never to return to earth?
6. Do you think space tourism will be big in the near future? Why or why not?
7. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from a failure?
8. Should cloning be allowed?
9. Do you think that English will completely dominate all other languages and if
so, how will it affect the world?
10. What do you like about your English class?
11. Should children be allowed to use mobile phones?
12. Is subtitling in foreign language movies preferable to dubbing?
13. Is the media the West greatest power?
14. Are there any problems related to videogames?

VI.8. Rating scales

For the oral evaluation practice, I chose the ECCE`s (The Examination for the
Certificate of Competency in English) speaking classification scale as it applies to high-
intermediate level English( B2) as a foreign language (EFL) examination. It is applicable
to B2 (Vantage) level of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference).
The speakers at this level have the capability to:
“Understand and pick up the main ideas of an upper intermediate text on topics
that are both concrete and abstract.
Are able to communicate both easily and accurately.
Can elaborate clear, complex speech on a wide variety of topics and sustain an
argument on a given subject giving the advantages and disadvantages.” (Council of
Europe, 2001: 24)
The rating scale is illustrated in the table below:

71
Overall Language Control & Resources Delivery/
Communicative Grammar Vocabulary Intelligibility*
Effectiveness
LEVEL 5
Transmits information • Minor casual • The vocabulary is •When interacting
and ideas and sustains mistakes that do rich enough to , speaks at a
his opinion clearly not hinder transmit ideas with moderate pace
Conveys ideas, clarity of some clarity , even with rare pauses
including specific message if sparingly • Tonality and
details and analysis • Proves he/she employs words not intonation have a
Keep up talk quite is able to use quite on target positive
independently without the grammar • The vocabulary contribution to
any help structures expresses some desired meaning
adequately nuances of • Traces of native
Highly interactive expression language are
Speaker : often brings • Uses cohesive words to express obvious but
sustainable arguments excitement, disappointment etc as an mismatches of
to new topics; interactive interlocutor sounds and stress
commences a topic and seldom create
easily exchanges pieces misunderstandings
of information

LEVEL 4
Transmits information • A few errors arise • Uses • When
and ideas and sustains but rarely hinder grammatical interacting ,
his opinions clearly the clarity of the structures speaks at a
Conveys ideas, message adequately even moderate pace
including specific • Uses grammatical if does not with rare pauses
details and analysis structures with always use the • In more
Keep up talk quite pauses mostly at proper ” word complex replies
independently without phrase boundaries • Corrects pausing is more

72
the need for the other him/herself observable
speaker to restate • Shows Lack of and paraphrases • Voice and
message linking words that in order to intonation
Actively involved accounts for some transmit the contribute
interlocutor: clumsiness desired positively to
spontaneously meaning intended meaning
develops the topic by • Uses the • Traces of native
initiating topic replies register language are
exchanges appropriately obvious but
mismatches of
sounds and stress
seldom create
misunderstandings
LEVEL 3
Transmits information • A few errors arise • sufficient • In interactive
and ideas and sustains but comprehensible vocabulary to context, speaks at
his opinions clearly in all transmit the a reasonable rate
, even if sometimes has • Uses grammatical overall meaning with infrequent
difficulties structures with but at times pauses or
Conveys ideas even if pauses mostly at makes mistakes hesitations
backing details may phrase boundaries in choosing the • In more
not always be concise appropriate complex replies
and intelligible - Proves Lack of word pausing is more
; interlocutor has to linking words that • Uses observable
resume the ideas accounts for some periphrases and
expressed to better clumsiness fillers to make • Traces of native
explain the meaning - confusion and up for some language are
intended lack of some gaps in obvious but
coherence in more vocabulary mismatches of
Understands the main complex answers • self-corrects sounds and stress
ideas but has problems and attentive to seldom create

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in mastering the possible misunderstandings
detailed aspect of the mistakes
utterances
Actively involved
interlocutor:
spontaneously
develops the topic by
initiating topic replies
exchanges

LEVEL 2 Proves some

Transmits general knowledge of • Proves to • discontinuous
information but simple grammar have knowledge and slow
incapable to say structures , but of some discourse,
precisely what he or occasionally self- vocabulary uncertainty and
she would like to corrects oneself, range but not lack of confidence
express There are some enough to hinder
-Attempts to convey missing transmit the communication
general ideas, even if grammatical items desired concept • repetition or
detailed and complex that break the • word choice ambiguity cause
notions are difficult to normal mistakes often strain on the
understand because of communication line prevent interlocutor
lack of vocabulary • there is a high communication
Can keep up a frequency of of detailed
conversation but only sentence break-offs discourse
with a patient speaker and hesitations • self-
who has to explain • May employ assessment and
ideas disconnected sets of self-correction
Understands phrases
interlocutor speech • Constant use of
when it is made clear errors (grammar,

74
and precise, lack of syntax,
comprehensibility morphology,
occurs when the vocabulary)
interlocutor transmits a • Grammar is
detailed and complex insufficient to be
output able to make
Interactive participant oneself understood
to a certain extent and hinders and
• May use
uncoupled phrase
elements so
discourse is often
incoherent
LEVEL 1
Illustration ideas takes • Conveys only •Improper • The inability to
time and proves to be basic meaning and vocabulary conversate at a
challenging and most makes use of impedes the normal pace.
of the times limited phrasal ability to speak • Frequent breaks
unsuccessful ; chunks so that the during speech that
Incapable of expressing pauses that are speaker might results in non
oneself filled or unfilled need to fluent discourse.
Asks for interlocutor’s refrain rephrase in • The way they
assistance to interpret communication order to be associate words
and explain notions understood from their mother
Restates ideas to • there is a high language to words
clarify the intended frequency of form the target
meaning, sentence break-offs language may
Hardly initiates and hesitations interfere with the
interaction • Poor vocabulary flow of the
Has difficulties in has the effect to language.
understanding or prevent the

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 making out the efficiency of
message conveyed. speaking;
Non-interactive lack of mastering
interlocutor the language affects
comprehensibility
accuracy

VI. 9. Analysis and Interpretation of the Results

According to the ECCE`s rating scales, the students` speaking ability in the pre-
test, before the research was carried out is illustrated in the table below:
Table 1:
Number of students in Percentages Level of speaking ability in
Experiment Group EG
5 17.2% LEVEL 4

11 37.9% LEVEL 3
10 34.4% LEVEL 2
3 10.3% LEVEL 1

Table 2:
Number of students in the Percentages Level of speaking ability in
Control Group CG
1 3.7% LEVEL 5

7 25.9% LEVEL 4

11 40.7% LEVEL 3

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5 18.5% LEVEL 2

11.1% LEVEL 1
3

As we can see, most of the students of both groups are rated as having a 4 or 3 level of
English, while only one student is highly proficient in the Control Group with a level of
5. The pre- test showed they had problems in fluency, pronunciation, grammar,
organization and content.

For example: Simulation:

1. Complaining about messing up your room:

“My mommy said it’s okay to took them…”

2. The new neighbors:

“This neighborhood is safe and nobody came at night at your door to knock and here are
a lot of old people”

2. Complaining about being late:

S1: “I’m happy because you are okay and let’s continue the day.
S2: “It is good that nobody get hurt. And…yeah... Where are we going now?
S1: “Let’s go to the food magazine.
S2: “I don’t know…I’m not feeling very good because of what happened. I have….I
need something sweet to eat like a candy or something.
S1: “Okay, let’s go buying some clothes.

8. Permission to go to a birthday party:

S1: “Where does he live?”
S2: “He’s living on the other side of the city, near Kaufland”.

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With reference to the frequency of the spoken grammar features in the EG and CG in role
plays, the following table shows that most of the aspects were remarkably infrequent
(tails, informal reported speech, question tags, response questions and heads). There
were, however, four aspects which were used by half of the pairs taking part in the test:
contractions, conversational ellipsis, spoken discourse markers and vocative use.
Table 3:
Aspects of spoken grammar in the CG Frequency
1. Heads 0
2.Tails 0
3.Conversational Ellipsis 32
4.Vague Language 10
5.Spoken Discourse Markers 29
6.Informal Reported Speech 1
7.Question Tags 1
8.Contractions 74
9.Vocative Use 6
10.Statements as questions 0
11.Response Questions 0
Table 4:
Aspects of spoken grammar in the EG Frequency
1. Heads 0
2.Tails 0
3.Conversational Ellipsis 42
4.Vague Language 7
5.Spoken Discourse Markers 32
6.Informal Reported Speech 0
7.Question Tags 2
8.Contractions 64
9.Vocative Use 0

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10.Statements as questions 0
11.Response Questions 0

Examples of spoken grammar features are illustrated in the simulations below:

1. Conversational Ellipsis
1. Remembering the last summer incident:
S1: “Let’s go and have a drink!”
S2: “Let’s!”

2. Convincing your parent about having a summer job:

S1: “What’s up Dad?
S2: “Just messing around”.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………….
S1: “Thanks Dad”
S2. “Welcome”.

3. The new roommates:

S1: “I’m a freshman at the Police Academy. And you?
S2. I `m studying the Law.”

2. Complaining about messing up your room:

S1: “OK, never mind.”

Spoken Discourse markers:

Permission to go to a birthday party:
S1: “Which friend?
S2: His name is Bob, that guy who helped me carry that door home.
S1: Oh, that guy, yeah, yeah, I know, I know.”

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3. Tails:
Complaining about messing up your room:
S1: “It won’t go away, the stain.”

4. Vague language:
S2: “I’m at Roman Voda highschool at Social Sciences profile and I kind of don’t like it.

VI. 10. Implementation of the research

VI.10.1. Critical Debate

First debate: Should sex education be taught in schools?

The first session was applied in four meetings. In the first three classes, the
students were introduced to the implementation of debate practice. They were shown a
short video on what a middle school debate tournament is like. They asked further
questions if they had any misunderstandings related to it. The motion they were to deliver
was: “Should sex education be taught in schools?” The teacher provided the necessary
vocabulary related to the topic and used questions as conversation starters. The students
were instructed to find data related to the topic.

Should sex education be taught in schools?

I. Presentation
1.Useful words and phrases:
3. Conversation starters:
• sexual activity outside of marriage
• Is sex education helpful towards
• sexually transmitted diseases
preventing teenage pregnancy among the

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• other associated health problems youth?
• a mutually faithful monogamous
• Does the Church fight against sexual
relationship education in primary schools because it
lowers the children’s moral values?
• out-of-wedlock pregnancy
• health gains • Does providing youth with sexual health
education leads to earlier or more frequent
• unwanted pregnancies
sexual activity?
• birth control measures
• to engage in safe sex
• teenage pregnancy
• social stigma
• rate of abortion

II. Practice
Cons:
3. Pros:
• Informs students about issues related to • sex education is not taken seriously
sex and sexual health. Ignorance about sex • some students might interpret that by
is the primary cause of the spread of teaching them sex-education you are giving
sexually transmitted diseases and cases of them a green light to practice it, when in
abortion. fact you are teaching them to be careful,
• It teaches children about sexual health in and trying to avoid unwanted situations.
school rather letting them use other • teachers are not always trained how to
resources they might be curious to know properly teach sexual education courses
about • Teenagers place too much importance on
• Proper education can have an impact on sexual encounters than on true feelings
the prevention of sexual problems in
adulthood.

Question: “If sex education is taught in schools, teenagers may start their sexual life. Do
you think it’s a bad thing?
Reply: “It’s not our age to start …..nu ma pot exprima in engleza (the student uses
Romanian)

81
Q.: From your words I understood that it’s a bad thing.
R: It’s not a bad thing.
Q: Then why did you put it on the counter arguments?”
R: (the student uses Romanian)

Conclusions:
The activity in the first meeting was a training session in to get them used to
talking and to getting involved in conversations and debates mainly. They were told to try
to ignore the mistakes they would make when speaking and were encouraged to use more
and more English while talking. The debaters could speak English fluently with a help of
a cardboard where they wrote down main ideas but they were not supposed to read. There
were several inaccuracies, errors of tense which did not obscure meaning. Pronunciation
is sufficiently clear although L1 accent may be evident, and sometimes affects the clarity
of the message. There were no rebuttals or POI`s . A student from the audience asked the
con debater a question but got a reply in Romanian. The student could sustain talk
comprehensibly on the speech she had prepared at home but was at a loss for words when
asked a spontaneous question.

Second debate: Should gypsies be discriminated?

Should gypsies be discriminated?

I. Presentation
1.Useful words and phrases:
4. Conversation starters:
• to face prejudice
• Why have the gypsies been so looked
• the public view of the community
down upon?
• to be racist

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• to spread negative stereotypes • Does Europe discriminate its own
European immigrants?
• to commit crimes
• to be called a racist name • How can Romani people be integrated
in Europe?
• to go through discrimination
on the grounds of race, color, nationality or
national or ethnic origins
• to advocate the rights of Romani
minority.
• people with a nomadic lifestyle
harassment
II. Practice
Cons:
3. Pros:
• the terms gypsy relates to burglary, • discrimination is a negative judgment
robbery and theft; towards a person’s age, religion,
• immoral behavior, bad manners, vulgar nationality, sexual preference ;
language; • they are ordinary people just like us;
• cannot be trusted. • they keep their traditions unlike other
nationalities;
• honour and family are the two most
important things they cherish.

Question 1: Do you think Gypsy discrimination will begin any time soon?
Student Reply: The time is different from country to country. In well developed countries
we can deal faster problems…
Teacher: Can you give me some particular examples of gypsy discrimination?
S.R: Like when they want to… (Pause)…university…
Teacher: When they want to go to college?
S.R: They are… (Pause)…
T: There are places at university for gypsies as well, as long as they are
admitted to university, they can attend university.
S.R. They sometimes are….sunt respinsi.( the student uses Romanian)

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Question 2: When the gypsies embarrass us, when you go to Italy, you say you are
Romanian, they (the Italians) think it`s Roms.
T: So, they mistake the word “Romanian” for “Rom”. Aren’t
we entitled to discriminate gypsies for all the things they’ve done?
S.R. …………….(pause)………………………………………..
Question 3: I see your point that gypsies are being discriminated. When it comes to
these special places in high schools or university. Don’t you think we are the ones who
are being discriminated?
S.R. Yes.

Conclusions:
In the second meeting, I realized that the students were more relaxed in practising
the debate. There wasn’t any instruction of the debate rules. In this particular practice
session, the debate took place without any supervision or instructions on the part of the
teacher. The speech time was considerably diminished for each debater, but still it did not
reach the time allocation. They constantly kept eye contact with the teacher to gain her
approval. The debaters maintained the flow of language, although hesitations occurred
when they were not sure of themselves. There were no rebuttals or POI`s . A student from
the audience asked the con or pro debater a question and got a mostly intelligible reply
although with several structural errors. (In well developed countries we can deal faster
problems…)
The answer to the teacher’s question was mostly incomprehensible because of
very limited vocabulary and frequent pauses and interference of mother tongue.

Third debate: Should cell-phones be allowed in schools?

Should cell-phones be allowed in schools?

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I. Presentation
1.Useful words and phrases:
5. Conversation starters:
• to join peer to peer discussions
• use text messaging service to send simple
• Should schools permit digital devices?
assignments
What are your school's rules about cell
• act as emergence contact tools
phone use?
• display data in high resolution
• Does having phones in the classroom
• big storage hardware
present an opportunity for students to
• to do field work research learn?
• the search-and-learn environment
• to be only a search away from an answer.
• economically disadvantaged students

II. Practice
Cons:
3. Pros:
• Easy communications: Parents will
• Distraction: cell phones can distract both
need to keep in touch with their children,
individual students from the lecture as well
so cell phones are an easy way to get in
as their class-mates
touch with somebody
Frequent cell phone use is negatively
Safety Reasons: In case of emergency, it is
related to poor academic performance.
sometimes vital if a student can contact his
•.Cheating of exams: banning cell phones
parents, head teachers or police.
diminishes the chance of cheating. Students
Use cell phones as research
are able to look up answers online and
tools: Students can use their phones in case
cheat their way through the test.
they are required to do field work research
at school.

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Conclusions:
The students didn’t stick to the formal rules of debating. Most of the students
couldn’t reach the time allocation of 8 minutes. There were no questions on the part of
the opposing group or the audience. The “Foreign Accent” necessitated concentration and
lead to occasional misunderstandings. Word and sentence had sometimes to be repeated.
Students mostly had good English when it came to speaking with a few mistakes that
didn’t impede meaning. Sometimes they used inappropriate terms or tenses: “hour” for
“class”. (“In hours usually kids are using the phones and get distracted…”) A debater
came up with pro argument and “saved the day” when everybody else kept silent:
ordering pizza or fast food during break time.

VI.10.2. Open- ended questions (“Would- you rather” questions)

I initially started up with the “would you rather question” as conversation starters
for those who were willing to bring the discussion forward, they were asked more
questions along the way. So, a simple question led to an interesting open discussion.
Some of the answers the students gave were pretty surprising, some funny and some
sensible and wise for their age. I wrote down the transcripts of the ones I found to be
more interesting. For example:

1.
Teacher: “Would you rather be alone for the rest of your life or be surrounded by
annoying people?
Student: “I would rather be alone for the rest of my life because if you are surrounded
by annoying people it would lead to mental illnesses because you couldn’t cope with how
annoying some people can be and it’s easier to live your life alone especially in today’s

86
society and there are hundreds of people that actually prefer living alone rather than
with people.
Teacher: “What does living alone mean? Not communicating with anybody, not having
friends, not having a family? What do you mean by that?
Student: “I think it’s exactly what you said. It’s easier to live alone than be with people
that annoy you.
Teacher: Don’t you think you’ll grow to tolerate them in the end?
Student: I don’t think so, because if someone’s annoying, he or she will continue being
annoying for the rest of their lives. That’s how it generally works.”

2.
T: “Would you rather be infamous in history books or be forgotten after your death?
S: I’d rather be infamous in history books. I don’t really have a particular reason just
that I wouldn’t like to be forgotten and being remembered for something bad is not as
bad. It’s like any publicity is good publicity.
T: Even if you did incredibly bad things like killing people…
S: yes, yes…
T: Would you be able to deal with that?
S: Well, I’d be bead. So, it wouldn’t matter what I feel. I just would know before I die that
I would be remembered.
T: Do you believe in life after death?
S: I don’t .I think it’s (he snaps his fingers).Puff, you’re gone.
T: You just vanish into thin air?
S: The body doesn’t but the mind yes. It just shuts down. You’ll probably don’t exist
anymore, just your body.

3.
T: Would you rather go to jail for 4 years for something you didn’t` t do or get away with
something terrible you did but always live in fear of being caught?

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S: I definitely would rather go to jail if I would do something terrible because I would
know I couldn’t live with myself and also a life on the run is not a life of living. I would
rather go to jail and spend 4 years there and come out as a clean person.
T: Yes, but going to jail for something you didn’t do. So you were innocent.
S: Well, if would do something terrible and not go to jail, I would feel guilty for the rest
of my life and if I would be innocent and be put to jail I would feel….
T: Frustrated.
S: Yeah, exactly. It’s hard to tell. I guess I would fight for my freedom of course.
T: But you have to choose either of the two options.
S: I think I would rather go to jail, honestly.
T: And be frustrated for one year…
S: Yeah, exactly and come out of jail and live on.”

Since they were required to develop their arguments, the students with a 5 level of
English improvised the talk spontaneously and asserted their viewpoint accurately,
including details and complexities .They sustained talk quite independently without the
teacher’s support. Apart from a few grammar mistakes (“if I would be innocent and be
put to jail I would feel….), they were highly interactive and expressed their ideas readily.
They also made use as non-linguistics singles as compensatory strategies. Speakers used
non-verbal expressions such as gestures (snapping fingers, shrugging shoulders, facial
expression (frowning, raising eyebrows), and sound imitation.

4.
A level 2 student gave the following reply to the question “Would you rather be balding
but fit or overweight with a full head of hair?”
S: “I would rather be balding with fit because the body is more attracted on your hair.”
The misuse of prepositions, however, didn’t impede comprehension. He knows how to
convey ideas and viewpoint in a restricted, general manner but he is unable to express
ideas due to language constraints. To the teacher’s question: “Can you lose weight if

88
you’re overweight?” he replied by surprisingly using a feature of the spoken language
(vague language). “Yeah, but that would be kind of hard.”
5.
The same question got a different reply from another student:
Student: “I prefer to be balding but fit because my life will be healthier than if I ….
Teacher: “Have hair and be overweight.
Student: And I am overweight and full head of hair and I want to feel something new.
(Laughing) That’s all.
Teacher: “To feel as a new person?”
Student: “Yeah.”
V.M. is able to talk about familiar topics but can only convey basic meaning on
familiar topics .He has poor word choice and uses basic vocabulary to give personal
information, also he lacks vocabulary which causes some issues when trying understand
him.

6.
Another student (D.M.) replied to the teacher’s question “Would you rather be
fluent in all languages and never be able to travel or be able to travel anywhere for a year
but never be able to learn a word of a different language?” The choice was to be fluent
and accurate in all languages. The answer, however, just resumed the question without
giving any personal comments to the query. To the follow- up question:” What would
you do with all these languages if you could never travel?” he kept silent.

7.
A student ( O.B) used message abandonment as reduction strategies .He began to
talk about something but was unable to go on because of lack of knowledge and stopped
in mid-utterance. At the question “Would you rather live you entire life in a virtual reality
where all your wishes are granted or in the real world?” he replied: “I would rather live
in the real world, I don’t know, because bad feelings are…I don’t know how to say that.”
The teacher then added: “Imagine that all your wishes came true but they were virtual

89
wishes. The student “I’m not interested in that. Virtual things are not real things. You
can feel real things in another way.” He conveyed his viewpoint comprehensibly, though
at times struggled a bit to express his ideas generally. Even if his supporting details are
not always clear, he resumed his strain of thoughts and took on a different approach to
share his point of view.

VI.10.3. Open discussions

Usually discussion in class starts with a powerful question, as one immediately

recognizes it as “a good question”. A good question can awaken the interest of students,
make them ponder, get them to think and encourage them to connect with the content.
My students chose 7 topics out of 14. They had 10 to 15 minutes to write some basic
ideas on a favorite topic. This gave them time to gather their thoughts, particularly with
complex material. The conversations were recorded, in the span of 50 minutes, each
week. There was no preparation ahead, in order to get samples as close to reality as
possible. I decided to use some of my transcripts as a data source, a decision that
reinforces my opinion that the complexity of speech can only be analyzed in detail
through the review of a full transcript. There was a 5- minute discussion whose transcript
I decided to render below:

Is subtitling in foreign language movies preferable to dubbing?

S.: “I personally agree because I think that watching a movie that has subtitles is
definitely better because it enriches one’s vocabulary, it keeps the brain wired because
you have to make connections between the subtitles and the words in a certain language.
When you’re watching a movie that is dubbed or voice-over, you don’t really have to put
you brain to work, so you just watch it. And generally watching a movie could be a lot
better if you watch it with subtitles or without subtitles at all.
T: Also the tone of the voice of the….

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S: Yeah, like when a movie is being dubbed, the actors might not get it right. So it’s not
as realistic…
T: Or natural…
S: Yeah, exactly.
T: Do you think Romanians should dub cartoons?
S: I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really think so because kids are definitely a lot more open
and they’re like sponges and they absorb all the information they get. So it’s a lot easier
for them to learn something quicker than adults or teenagers. If they had subtitles, they
would learn to read a different language a lot faster. So, I personally think it’s not such a
good thing.
T: What strategies should we use with little kids, like 3-4 years old to learn it naturally?
English, I mean.
S: I know that there are cartoons out there that have lessons in English or any other
language; but mostly in English because it’s required nowadays to know English, cause
it’s used everywhere. So, I think that we should try to teach them through cartoons so
they would get the English version and the Romanian version. I think it would be
entertaining, funny. They wouldn’t see it like a chore. It would be more like something
nice to do because kids don’t like to be told what to do. They want to feel like they have
the power and do whatever they want to do.
T: Are there some expressions that cannot be translated into Romanian for example?
S: Yes, definitely. Each language has certain terms that cannot be translatable exactly
like the same thing in the certain language. So you need to find….
T: An equivalent.
S: yeah, exactly.
T: Would you like to work as a translator?
S: It was one of my options when I was younger, but time passed and I kind of changed
my options.
T: Okay. Thank you.”

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 The student used a wide range of appropriate vocabulary (“to keep the brain
wired”), came up with proper synonyms (“dubbing” or “voice-over”) to express her
views on the matter.
She produced extended stretches of language with ease and with very little
hesitation and pauses (“… kids are definitely a lot more open and they’re like sponges
and they absorb all the information they get.”) Her arguments were relevant, coherent
and varied. The discourse marker she kept repeating was “So” which indicates that
further details will follow. She didn’t restrict herself to plain answers, but widened the
scope of the interaction towards an outcome.

VI.10.4. Picture description

The students were presented a few pictures on the blackboard. They were asked to
pair up, and given 10 to 15 minutes to talk and describe the pictures that they were
shown. After the given time, they were told to share what they thought about the pictures.
Afterwards they received feedback from their teacher. When they had to make a
comparison, they had to use specific linking words such as: “unlike”, “on the other
hand”, on the contrary” etc. They were also provided with language bank which supplied
useful phrases and expressions for use. The pattern was similar to CAE or FCE speaking
part.
. It also allowed me to make an easy assessment between students who
commented on the same pictures. Speech samples from different learners were directly
comparable because they were based on the same picture. Virtually, the same
interpretation or story was given, which made it easier for me to judge which learners
communicate the best.
I will render the transcript of a student of mine who had to compare a set of
pictures and answer the following questions:

“1. How can the weather conditions affect people’s lives?

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 2. Which two kinds of weather conditions could have the most harmful effect?”

S: “In the first picture we can see hard snowfall that is more common in the Nordic
countries. The snow prevents the people from going to school, the transport gets slow-
down, and people can’t even walk to the store to buy food, water, clothes if they don’t
have. It’s really bad. In the second picture, unliked the first one it is flooding, so it’s
more warm. The flooding in my opinion it’s much worse than snow because the snow it’s
solid, it doesn’t move. The flooding it’s literally coming in people houses and destroying
everything they have; actually destroy a house from its foundation and sink people ,
animals , everything they have. In the fourth picture, there are thunderstorms and
tornadoes. Those come usually both at the same time. Thunderstorms are not that
dangerous because it’s not very often to hit a human, more likely to hit a tree and a tree
falls over a human. Tornadoes, on the other side, are more dangerous if one of those
enters the city, it wracks everything in its way. It’s very dangerous but from all of those, I
think the flooding is the worse. It can cause most damage to the country and to the
people.”
My student made use of approximation as achievement strategies. He employed a
word or expression which he knew that it was not correct, but shared the same feature
with the intended word: “hard snowfall” for “heavy snowfall”, “sink people” for “drown
people”. He also gave a literal translation of the discourse marker: “pe de alta parte” that
he translated “on the other side” instead of “on the other hand”. There were some
mistakes regarding the repetition if the subject “it”: “the flooding it’s literally coming…”
or “the snow it’s solid”, the place of the adverb “usually” in: “those come usually both”
instead of “those usually both come”, the superlative of the adjective “bad”: “the worse”
for “the worst” and the comparative of the adjective “warm”: “ more warm” for “
warmer”. Nevertheless, mistakes are inherent in real conversation.
All in all, he interacts fairly well, with sufficient degree of naturalness and a wide
range of vocabulary. There were occasionally inaccurate structures which did not obscure
meaning. .Pronunciation is clear with the right intonation and stress. He has generally
effective command of the language with no pauses to occur.

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VI. 11. Findings of the research

The improvement of students` speaking achievement after applying the wide

range of speaking techniques is illustrated in table 5 and 6. We can see the difference in
figures and percentages between the pre- and post-test. Gradually, by practicing the role
effectively and being one with the characters, by reviewing their performance and
analyzing their own strengths and weakness, students became more confident and started
expressing themselves without any restraint.
Table 5:
Number of students in Percentages Level of speaking ability in
Experiment Group EG
Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test

5 10 17.2% 34.4% LEVEL 4

11 12 37.9% 41.3% LEVEL 3

10 7 34.4% 24.13% LEVEL 2

3 2 10.3% 6.8% LEVEL 1

Table6:
Number of students in the Percentages Level of speaking ability in
Control Group CG
Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test
1 1 3.7% 3.7% LEVEL 5

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7 11 25.9% 40.7% LEVEL 4

11 12 40.7% 44.4% LEVEL 3

5 2 18.5% 7.4.5% LEVEL 2

3 1 11.1% 3.7% LEVEL 1

On the basis of the results obtained by the E.G and CG it can be deduced that
there is a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test performances in
terms of frequency of spoken grammar features.

Aspects of spoken grammar in the CG Frequency

Pre-test Post-test
1. Heads 1 2
2.Tails 0 0
3.Conversational Ellipsis 32 45
4.Vague Language 10 15
5.Spoken Discourse Markers 29 37
6.Informal Reported Speech 1 4
7.Question Tags 1 7
8.Contractions 74 89
9.Vocative Use 6 10
10.Statements as questions 0 1
11.Response Questions 0 1
Table 4:
Aspects of spoken grammar in the EG Frequency

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 Pre-test Post-test
1. Heads 0 3
2.Tails 0 0
3.Conversational Ellipsis 42 65
4.Vague Language 7 14
5.Spoken Discourse Markers 32 54
6.Informal Reported Speech 0 1
7.Question Tags 2 5
8.Contractions 64 78
9.Vocative Use 0 2
10.Statements as questions 0 1
11.Response Questions 0 1

Conclusions

As it has been previously said, speaking is usually regarded as one of the most
difficult skill to teach. Apart from its difficulty, teachers do not have much time and
sufficient resources to concentrate on this skill, do not possess the necessary knowledge
to assess all the students individually and figure out what works best for each one. An
idea would be to give them opportunities to use their speaking in real life situations:
inviting people from an English speaking country, using new technologies, participating

96
in international events or simulated ones: performing role-plays or debates to build
appreciation for diversity and tolerance for other viewpoints.
This study has tried to show that it is easier to stir students’ interest and
motivation when the suggested materials are entertaining, original and diverse. As a
teacher, we have to bear in mind that our students will always be tense and anxious when
it comes to talking in English on a certain topic. Learners need encouragement and they
need to know when they make a mistake that getting the right answer is not always the
most important thing. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, but this fact does
not decrease our value as people.
After applying all the aforementioned activities to both groups, there are some
general conclusions that are worth being taken into consideration.
Due to the fact that the Experiment Group was subjected to a single type of
speaking activity, that is, Critical Debate, they soon become bored of it and lost interest.
The more diverse and creative your speaking activities are, the easier it will be for your
students to improve their speaking skills. Therefore, debates should be kept fun and
simple and not overloaded with plenty of rules that they might be afraid to break and,
thus, forget about the main purpose of the activity: to speak in English. One of the
greatest benefits was that the students had, obviously, to research about a topic assigned
and look at it from both sides. It did not only improve their knowledge, but also taught
them to work together as a team and learn important skills about cooperation and trust.
Some students, however, had a difficult time speaking up in front of an audience, while
others dominated the conversation. As a teacher, you need to have a back –up plan for the
entire class and for the individuals who are withdrawn.
Unlike the debates which are highly interactive and challenging, picture
description method proved somehow to be an artificial task. Although it allowed for
meaningful practice of vocabulary and structure presented in class and provided a
stimulus for using the language, it was more appropriate for shy students who lacked of
ideas and inspiration to speak spontaneously on a certain topic. Picture activities are ideal
for practicing the language of comparison but they allow little for the creativity of the
speaker.

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 The first thing I had to be aware of , when preparing the students for open
discussion , was their language level and how much they identified themselves with the
topic under discussion. This was important if I wanted real, free-flowing conversation..
When some of the students were at a loss for words, I tried to direct the class and get the
exact information I was looking for through the use of display questions. The use of a
tape recorder also made me realize that the amount of teacher’s talk during the activities
should be limited. Instructions should be kept simple and there is no reason why an
activity should be re-explained or interrupted. It also proved to be difficult to decide
when to correct. Some teachers choose to adopt on-the –spot correction or at the end of
the activity or class. The benefit of immediate correction is that the learner uses the
corrected language for the rest of the activity but it can also interfere with the learner’s
stream of the communication and possibly make him feel awkward.
Based on the result of the research above, it can be concluded that mostly
interactive speaking activities increase learners’ achievement, help the teacher to create
contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful, create motivation, and give
language learners the opportunity to communicate spontaneously in a real-life context.

As Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me
and I learn.”

Bibliography:

1. Chamot Uhl, Anna and Sarah Barnhardt, Sarah and Beard El-Dinary, Pamela and
Robbins, Jill. The Learning Strategies. London, Pearson Education ESL, 1999
2. Bygate , Martin . Speaking, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991. Print

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3. Curt, Carmen Judith Nine. Non-Verbal Communication in Puerto Rico.
NADCBBE, 2nd edition 1976. Print
4. Crystal, David. English as a Global Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press, 2003 Print
5. Nunan, David. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print
6. Byrne, Donn .Techniques for Classroom Interaction. 1st edition, Prentice Hall,
Longman, June 1,1987 Print
7. Byrne, Donn .Teaching Oral English. 2nd edition, Longman Publishing Group,
March 1st 1991 .Print
8. Elsadig, Mohamed Khalifa and Faddal, Habib. “Impacts of Using Paralanguage
on Teaching and Learning English to Convey Meaning”. Vol. 5, No.2, Studies in
English Language Teaching, Albaha University ,2017
9. Foster, Pauline and Skehan, Peter. “The Influence of Planning and Task Type on
Second Language Performance”. Studies in Second language Acquisition,
September 1996
10. Brown, Gillian and Yule, George. Discourse analysis. Cambridge
University Press, 1983 Print
11. Harmer, Jeremy, How to Teach English , Pearson Longman Education Essex,
2007 Print
12. Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Third Edition,
Completely Revised and Updated, Longman , 2001.
13. Karavas, Doukas. “Attitudes Toward Communicative Language Teaching”,
International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Issue February 1996
14. Paterson, Ken and Caygill, Caroline and Sewell, Rebecca. A Handbook Spoken
Grammar , Delta Publishing, 1973 Print
15. Lamy, Marie-Noelle and Hampel , Regine. Online Communication in Language
Learning and Teaching. Palgrave Macmillan, December 2007.Print
16. Carter, Ronald and Hughes, Rebecca and McCarthy, Michael. Exploring
Grammar in Context. Cambridge University Press, 2000 Print

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17. Littlewood ,William. Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge University
Press, March 31st 1981 Print
18. Lucas, Robert, W., Creative Learning. Activities and Games that Really Engage
People, San Francisco: John Wiley&Sons Inc., 2007. Print
19. McDonough, Jo and Shaw Cristopher and Masuhara, Hitomi. Materials and
Methods in ELT: A Teacher`s Guide, Wiley-Blackwell, December 2014 .Print
20. Christison, MaryAnn and Murray, Denise E. What English Language Teachers
Need to Know, Volume I., Taylor and Francis Group, New York, 2014. Print
21. R.R. Hartamann, R.R. K. and Stork, F.C. , Dictionary of Language and
Linguistics, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972 Print
22. Hughes, Rebecca and Michael McCarthy, Michael. Exploring Grammar in
Context: Upper Intermediate and Advanced, Cambridge University Press, 2000
23. Richards, Jack, C. and Rodgers, Theodore, S., Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print
24. Nolasco, Rob and Arthur, Lois. Conversation. Oxford University Press, 1987
Print
25. Scrivener, Jim, Learning Teaching. A Guidebook for English Language Teachers,
2nd edition, Macmillan Education, 1994. Print
26. Seymour, David and Popova, Maria.700 Classroom Activities.Oxford: Macmillan
Publishers Limited, 2005. Print
27. Thornburry, Scott. How to Teach Speaking .Pearson Education Limited-London,
2005
28. Underhill Nic. Testing Spoken Language. Cambridge University Press, 1987
29. Snider, Alfred C. “Debate as a Method for Improving Critical Thinking and Creativity”,
World Debate Institute, University of Vermont,2006,
www.debate.uvm.edu/travel/china/chinaspeng.html. Accessed 6 March 2018
30. Hilliard,Amanda. “Spoken Grammar and Its Role in the English Language
Classroom”, Number 4 /English Teaching Forum, 2014,
www.americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/_spoken_grammar_and_its_ro
le_in_the_english_language_classroom__by_amanda_hilliard_english_teaching_foru
m_2014_524.pdf.Accessed 6 March 2018

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 31. Semakdji, Fatima-Zohra. “The Place of Spoken Grammar in the Teaching and
Learning of Speaking”. University of Constantine, Faculty of Letters and Languages,
2015,www.bu.umc.edu.dz/theses/anglais/SEM1372.pdf. Accessed 25 March 2018
32. Calude, Andreea S. “The Slippery Grammar of Spoken vs. Written English” .The
Conversation, 2018, www.theconversation.com/the-slippery-grammar-of-spoken-
vs-written-english-92912, Accessed 15 May 2018
33. Desita, Lidya Ratna . “Improving Students` Speaking Ability through Debate
Technique”, English Education Teaching Program, Tanjugpura University, 2017,
www.media.neliti.com/media/publications/192675-EN-none.pdf. Accessed 15 May
2018
34. Tarti, Wahyuni, “The Effectiveness of Using Picture Series as Media in the
Teaching Speaking of The First Grade Students in SMAN 1 Kampak”, Iain Tulungagung,
2013 , www.http://repo.iain-tulungagung.ac.id/574/ .Accessed 8 June 2018
35. Sasson, Dorit. “How to Improve Speaking Skills in the ESL Classroom”,
Teaching Community Where Teachers Meet and Learn,
www.teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/9539-how-to-improve-speaking-skills-in-
the-esl-classroom .Accessed 9June 2018

APPENDIX II

Teaching the Spoken Grammar Aspects

– Heads
– Tails

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 – Conversational Ellipsis
– Vague Language
– Spoken Discourse Markers
– informal Reported Speech
– Question Tags
– – Integration of the Eleven Spoken Grammar Aspects

Heads –
Illustration Phase: Examine the following informal spoken sentences and indicate what
you notice about them.

1. A: Fortunately, John was there to fix my PC.

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 B: John, he‘s nice.
A: Oh, he is.

2. A: How was your first day?

B: Fine, thanks. The teachers seem nice.
C: The teacher with glasses, he seems very nice.

3. A: The man I bought the car from, he lives near here.

B: Really? I didn‘t know that.

4. A: My new neighbour, she is cool.

B: Very much.

5. A: Those shoes with low heels, I really like them.

B: Yes, they‘re fashionable.

6. A: Linda, her brother has a taxi firm.

B: I thought it‘s her father‘s.

7. A: My friend, his aunt, her husband is a good lawyer and can help you.
B: Can you please get me his phone number?
A: Sure.

Interaction Phase :(Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 159)

Make the following sentences more informal by using heads.

1. A: Most castles in Spain are really impressive.

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 B: Indeed.

2. A: The English football team are always losing.

B: Very disappointing.

3. A: The brother of the girl over there owns the office I work in.
B: The girl with brown eyes and dark hair?
A: Yes, the one in red.

4. A: If Laura‘s thinking seriously of quitting, then who‘s going to replace her?

B: Mr. Brown‘s secretary‘s sister from Australia is coming to work here.
A: When?
B: I heard next month.

5. A: Is that boy with curly hair your friend?

B: I‘ve never seen him before.

6. A: Do they live in that house with the large garden?

B: Since they were kids.

7. A: Montpellier is a city with lots of old buildings in the centre.

B: Quite a lot.

8. A: I like that black car most.

B: So do I.

Tails
Illustration Phase: Examine the following informal spoken sentences and indicate
what you notice about them.

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1. A: It‘s an exciting place, Hong Kong.
B: Have you ever been to there?
A: Once when I was 17.

2. A: Did Samy help you?

B: Yes, he moved all my books. He was very helpful, Samy was.

3. A: He was a great leader, Ghandi.

B: Very great.

4. A: It has collapsed suddenly, that big house has.

B: Fortunately, nobody was in.

5. A: You can fix everything, you can.

B: Not this time.

6. A: Have you heard her sing?

B: Yes, she sings beautifully, Maya does.

7. A: It was late at night, and the last bus had gone, it had.
B: And what did you do?
A: I called Kate to come and pick me up.

Interaction Phase (Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 150)

Fill in the gaps in the following sentences with an appropriate tail:

1. A: What do you think of Sarah?

B: She‘s the best swimmer in the class, she is.

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2. A: You‘re too slow, …………… .
B: I guess I need more practice.

3. A: I‘m ready to play now, …………… .

B: Well then, go ahead!

4. A: It‘s a sweet dish, …………… .

B: Very sweet.

5. A: That little cat hasn‘t moved from there since morning.

B: Cats just lie in the sun all day, …………… .

6. A: Carol‘s just passed all her exams, …………… .

B: Oh, good, congratulations, Carol!
C: Thanks.

7. A: Do you watch a lot of movies?

B: I don‘t, but Maria and her sister watch TV all the day, …………… .

8. A: It was a nice movie, …………… .

B: One of the best movies I‘ve ever seen.

9. A: It‘s getting very expensive these days, …………… .

B: You can say that again.

Conversational Ellipsis
Illustration Phase:
Mark places where you think words are missing in the following spoken sentences.
What would the speakers have said in full if they had put in all the words?
How formal do you think these situations are?

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1. A: Hope you‘re OK?
B: Great, thanks.

2. A: She‘s not coming.

B: Think so.

2. A: Have a look at the painting now. What do you think?

B: Much better now.

3. A: Finished?
B: All the work.

4. A: Any tea left?

B: I‘m afraid not.

5. A: More cream on my cake, please.

B: OK.

6. A: How about going to the cinema tonight?

B: Sounds nice!

7. A: Don‘t forget to bring Judy with you. See you soon!

B: See you!

Interaction Phase (Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 162-64)

Mark places where you think ellipsis is used.
Write the words which you think could be added in a more formal context.

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1. A: Another coffee?
B: Yes, please.
A: Some more cakes as well?
B: No, thanks.

2. A: Seen Mike lately?

B: Yes, last night actually.

3. A: Heard the joke about the monkey?

B: Don‘t you remember you told me that last week at the party?

4. A: Can I have chips, beans and a sausage?

B: Chips, beans and a sausage?
A: Yeah.
B: Wrapped up?
A: Open, please.

5. A: No, you can‘t change the name after it‘s been registered.
B: Didn‘t know that.

6. A: I came by bike, along the river.

B: A bit dangerous there, isn‘t it?

7. A: He‘s been ill because of the weather.

B: Because of the weather?
A: Yes, too cold for him.
Vague Language
Illustration Phase
Examine the following informal spoken sentences.
What is the function of the underlined aspects?

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1. A: What‘s that sticky stuff on the carpet?
B: Samy‘s friend spilt some jam on it.

2. A: So, you‘re not coming with us?

B: My father‘s bought a sort of artist‘s studio and needs some help with the
cleaning.

3. A: What do they sell in there?

B: I guess home-made biscuits and things like that.

4. Linda: Sarah, can you please get me a sandwich or something?

S arah: How about a cheese burger?
Linda: Good, thanks.

5. A: Please, give me your pen or anything to write the number.

6. B: Here it is.

Interaction Phase (Paterson, 2011: 10)

Use the appropriate vague phrases in the following conversation.

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Mel: Have a seat. Would you like a coffee or something? (and everything / or
something) Jo: No thanks, I‘ve just had one. Listen, have you heard the news about
Paula? She left her flat and her job …………… (and everything / and things like
that), and she‘s going to Australia to work as a tour guide!
Mel: Really? What about her fiancé and family ……………? (or something / and
stuff)
Jo: Her fiancé isn‘t here at the moment. He‘s working in Scotland …………. (or
something / and things like that). Maybe he can get a job in Australia too. He
makes designs ……………. (and everything / and things like that)
Mel: I think so. But I‘m sure she hasn‘t even e-mailed him …………… (or
anything / or something). You know what she‘s like.
Jo: Her mum won‘t be happy. She plays tennis with Paula and they go shopping
together …………… . (or something / and everything)

Spoken Discourse Markers

Illustration Phase: Examine the following informal spoken sentences:
What is the function of the underlined aspects?

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 1. A: It‘s practical, I mean, you can take it with you everywhere.
B: Fantastic!

2. A: You know, it‘s not easy to find a good job these days.
B: Right.

3. A: Well, I‘ll ring later to confirm it.

B: OK, see you then.

4. A: I didn‘t apologise because it was her fault.

B: Mm, I see.

5. A: Wow, that was an impressive poem!

B: Oh, really? Thanks.
A: Look, I‘m sure everyone‘ll love it.

Interaction Phase (Carter, Hughes and McCarthy, 2000: 175)

Underline the words or phrases which function as spoken discourse markers.
Indicate whether each marker focuses on the speaker or listener.

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A: So, how long have you been doing this new job?
B: Well, er, a couple of months. Hey look, it doesn‘t sound a long time, but I‘ve already
learnt much, you know, if you like something you learn it quickly, right?
A: Yeah. I‘m sure you‘ll do well in this job. Anyway, I‘ll call you tonight to talk more
about it, OK? B: OK, bye!

Informal Reported Speech

Illustration Phase: What do you notice about the way Mary reports‖ yesterday‘s speech?

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(Mary is talking to Jack about what she and her friend Sarah said yesterday.)

Mary: So, we came back home and had dinner and I said, what would you like to do
tonight, Sarah? She said, hey Mary, let‘s go to the cinema! In fact, I don‘t like the cinema

Jack: You don‘t? I don‘t but I had to say yes. All right then, Sarah, what film would you
like to see? I don‘t know, she said, but we‘ll see. So when we got there, we saw very few
people and I said, I don‘t know Sarah, it doesn‘t look like a good film. Well, let‘s find
out, she said. So, we took seats and I said, will the film be starting soon because I‘m
starting to feel bored? Then she said, look Mary, if you don‘t want to be here, let‘s just
go…

Interaction Phase (Paterson, 2011: 08)

Turn the following reported sentences, which sound rather more formal, into informal
sentences. Sort out the aspects that mark these sentences as informal.

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Joe: Then, Steve said he was from America, and I asked him why he didn‘t have an
American accent. He replied by saying that we didn‘t all speak like Tom Cruise!

Rebecca: That‘s interesting because Mike said there were six American exchange
students in our class that year. J

joe: You spoke to Mike! I thought you didn‘t like him any more.

Rebecca: I know, but he looked ill and I asked him if he was Ok. He answered by saying
that he wasn‘t, and that he had a really bad cold. So, I advised him to go home and get
some rest.

Joe: Good advice. Anyway, did you manage to speak to Kate about going to the theatre?

Rebecca: Sure. She told me she was afraid she couldn‘t come. So, I told her that Joe had
already got the tickets. She apologized and said her friends were coming to visit her.

Question Tags
Illustration Phase: Examine the following informal spoken sentences.
Is the speaker asking a real question in each sentence?

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1. A: It‘s a nice day, isn’t it?
B: Yes, beautiful.

2. A: Nora should pass the exam, shouldn’t she?

B: Yes, it‘s her last chance.

3. A: Michael won‘t be late, will he?

B: No, he‘ll be here on time.

4. A: You haven‘t seen Lisa today, have you?

B: I‘m afraid I haven‘t.

5. A: You didn‘t lock the door, did you?

B: No, I forgot.

Interaction Phase (Murphy, 2004: 105)

Insert a question tag at the end of the following sentences.

1. A: You‘re tired, ………… ?

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 B: Yes, a little.

2. A: You‘ve got a camera, ………… ?

B: I‘ve got two actually.

3. A: Sue doesn‘t know Ann, ………… ?

B: They‘ve never met.

4. A: Kate has applied for the job, ………… ?

B: Yes, but she won‘t get it.

5. A: You can‘t speak German, ………… ?

B: Yes, but not very fluently.

6. A: He won‘t mind if I use his phone, ………… ?

B: Of course he won‘t.

7. A: There‘re a lot of people here, ………… ?

B: More than I expected.

8. A: This isn‘t very interesting, ………… ?

B: No, not very.

9. A: You wouldn‘t tell anyone, …………?

10. B: Of course not.

11. A: Helen‘s lived here for a long time, …………?

B: Twenty years. C
Statements as Questions
Illustration Phase : What do you notice about the underlined structures?
Why did the speakers use statements in the form of questions?

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1. A: He didn‘t invite me, but if he had, I don‘t know...
B: You’d have gone?

2. A: Let me first check the number.

B: You can’t remember it?
A: I‘m afraid I can‘t.

3. A: That’s how you repay me for what I did for you?

B: Sorry, I didn‘t mean it that way.

4. A: We have to give him the essay tomorrow, you know that?

B: No idea!

Response Questions
Illustration Phase : Are the underlined structures real questions that need to be
answered?
What do they express?

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1. A: I went to France to see them.
B: You went where?
A: I couldn‘t tell you because it all happened so fast.

2. A: I told her to stop acting like a fool.

B: You told her what?
A: I was getting so angry and didn‘t know what I was saying.

3. A: It sounds boring?
B: Boring? Are you kidding?

4. A: She‘s going too.

B: Really?

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