Teaching Listening & Speaking

Majorship                    :        English

Focus                           :        Teaching Listening & Speaking

LET Competency       :        Demonstrate understanding of the nature

of the four language macro-components (listening, speaking, reading, writing, including grammar) and the theoretical bases, principles, methods, and strategies in teaching these components.

Introduction

            Listening is the neglected communication skill. While all of us have had instruction in reading, writing, and speaking, few have had any formal instruction in listening. Most of us spend seven of every 10 minutes of our waking time in some form of communication activity. Of these seven minutes (or 70% of the time we are awake), 10% is spent writing, 15% reading, 30% talking, and 45% listening.

            Think of it! We spend nearly half of our communication time listening, but few of us make any real effort to be better listeners. For those who do, however, the effort pays great dividends—higher productivity, faster learning, and better relationships.

            Listening is more than merely hearing words. Listening is an active process by which students receive, construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages (Emmert, 1994). As such, it forms an integral part of the communication process and should not be separated from the other language arts. Listening comprehension complements reading comprehension. Verbally clarifying the spoken message before, during, and after a presentation enhances listening comprehension. Writing, in turn, clarifies and documents the spoken message.

The Goal of Teaching Listening

As teachers, we want to produce students, who even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.

The Nature of Listening

Listening takes up as much as 50% of our everyday communication time. It is the main channel of classroom instruction and the most used language skill at work and at home. Many learners want to develop effective listening comprehension because it is crucial to their academic, professional, and personal success.

When we teach listening we consider what the object of our instruction is. We look at ideas that have influenced thinking on learner listening in English language teaching.

Kinds of Listening

            Teachers can help students become effective listeners by making them aware of the different kinds of listening, the different purposes for listening, and the qualities of good listeners. Wolvin and Coakley (1992) identify four different kinds of listening:

• Comprehensive (Informational) Listening--Students listen for the content of the message.
• Critical (Evaluative) Listening--Students judge the message.
• Appreciative (Aesthetic) Listening--Students listen for enjoyment.
• Therapeutic (Empathetic) Listening--Students listen to support others but not judge them.

Traditionally, secondary schools have concentrated on the comprehensive and critical kinds of listening. Teachers need to provide experiences in all four kinds. For example, listening to literature read, listening to radio plays, and watching films develop appreciative in addition to comprehensive and critical listening. When students provide supportive communication in collaborative groups, they are promoting therapeutic listening. For example, the listening behavior can show understanding, acceptance, and trust, all of which facilitate communication. Students benefit from exposure to all four types of listening.

            Listening is a general purpose in most learning situations. To be effective

listeners, however, students need a more specific focus than just attending to what is

said. See the following chart which contrasts effective and ineffective listening habits.

The Purposes for Listening       

            Listening requires conscious mental effort and specific purpose. The purposes for listening relate to "types" of listening:

• Are you listening to receive information?
• Are you listening to follow instructions?
• Are you listening to evaluate information?
• Are you listening for pleasure?
• Are you listening to empathize?

Students should be able to determine what their purpose should be in any given listening situation (see figure below).

Listening Comprehension skills or Enabling skills

§  Listening for detail—involves listening for specific information

§  Listening for gist—listen for main ideas

§  Drawing inferences—ability to fill in gaps in the input

§  Listening selectively—listen only to specific parts of the input.

§  Making predictions—ability to anticipate before and during listening what                                                             one is going to hear.

Listening as a PRODUCT

It shows what listeners do in order to demonstrate their understanding. It is described in terms of outcomes which are stated either verbally or non-verbally.

Examples of listening outcomes:

§  Follow instructions

§  Organize and classify information

§  Take effective notes

§  Take dictation

§  Transfer information into graphic forms

§  Reconstruct original text

§  Make appropriate oral respon

Listening as a PROCESS

            Students do not have an innate understanding of what effective listeners do; therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge with them. Perhaps the most valuable way to teach listening skills is for teachers to model them themselves, creating an environment which encourages listening.         Teachers can create such an environment by positive interaction, actively listening to all students and responding in an open and appropriate manner. Teachers should avoid responding either condescendingly or sarcastically. As much as possible, they should minimize distractions and interruptions. It is important for the teacher to provide numerous opportunities for students to practice listening skills and to become actively engaged in the listening process.

Listening is a mental process. Our brain processes linguistic information in three

ways:

1.  Attend to signals (sounds or print) and identify them as words.

2.  Process information in the most efficient way.

3.  Draw on knowledge stored in the long- term memory.

Anderson proposed a three-phase language comprehension model:

v  Perception is the encoding of sound signals

v  Parsing is the process by which an utterance is segmented according to syntactic structures or meaning cues to create a mental representation of the combined meaning of the words.           

v  Utilization occurs when listeners relate mental representations of the input to existing knowledge in long- term memory

Bottom–up Listening

           

This refers to a process by which sounds are used to build up units of information, such as words, phrases, clauses and sentences before the aural input is understood.

Top-down processing

This refers to the application of background knowledge to facilitate comprehension.

It is generally believed now that both top-down and bottom-up processing occur at the same time in what is known as parallel processing (Eysenck,1993).  In some instances, one type of processing might take precedence over the other, depending on the amount of practice an individual has had on a specific task.

Factors that Influence  Learners’ Listening

Three sources of information are crucial to how language learners listen:

1.  Background knowledge (schematic)

2.  Knowledge of the situation  and co-text (contextual)

3.  Knowledge of the language system (systemic)

Listening can be best understood as a combination of low and high inferences (Rost, 1990) Listeners make low-level inferences when they use their knowledge of linguistic features to infer (decode) the sounds in an utterance. To understand what a message means, they engage in higher level inferences by using on their knowledge of both linguistic and pragmatic nature.

Another cognitive perspective on learner listening is the use of listening comprehension strategies.  These are mental mechanisms used to process and manage information. The three categories of listening strategies are:

       

v  Cognitive : process, interpret, store and recall information. This involves strategies such as inferencing and prediction.

v  Metacognitive : manage and facilitate mental process; cope with difficulties during listening. Examples of such strategies include  comprehension monitoring  and visualizing.

v  Social-affective : ask the help of others to facilitate comprehension; manage one’s emotions when listening such as confidence building and cooperation.

Stages in a Listening Lesson

The Phases of Listening

            The three phases of the listening process are: pre-listening, during listening, and after listening.

Pre-listening

            During the pre-listening phase, teachers need to recognize that all students bring different backgrounds to the listening experience. Beliefs, attitudes, and biases of the listeners will affect the understanding of the message. In addition to being aware of these factors, teachers should show students how their backgrounds affect the messages they receive.

            Before listening, students need assistance to activate what they already know about the ideas they are going to hear. Simply being told the topic is not enough. Pre-listening activities are required to establish what is already known about the topic, to build necessary background, and to set purpose(s) for listening. Students need to understand that the “…act of listening requires not just hearing but thinking, as well as a good deal of interest and information which both speaker and listener must have in common. Speaking and listening entail ... three components: the speaker, the listener, and the meaning to be shared; speaker, listener, and meaning form a unique triangle (King, 1984).”

The teacher allows the learner to ‘tune in’ to the context or to the topic of a given text. The students may perhaps express their views about the text to be listened to; they may predict content from the title of a selection, answer a set of questions, study and examine pictures, and sing a song or a chant. Each of these helps students to focus on a topic, activate their schemata or prior knowledge and allows them to use the words which they will shortly hear in the text.

There are several strategies that students and their teachers can use to prepare for a listening experience. They can:

1. Activate Existing Knowledge. Students should be encouraged to ask the question: What do I already know about this topic? From this teachers and students can determine what information they need in order to get the most from the message. Students can brainstorm, discuss, read, view films or photos, and write and share journal entries.
2. Build Prior Knowledge. Teachers can provide the appropriate background information including information about the speaker, topic of the presentation, purpose of the presentation, and the concepts and vocabulary that are likely to be embedded in the presentation. Teachers may rely upon the oral interpretation to convey the meanings of unfamiliar words, leaving the discussion of these words until after the presentation. At this stage, teachers need to point out the role that oral punctuation, body language, and tone play in an oral presentation.
3. Review Standards for Listening. Teachers should stress the importance of the audience's role in a listening situation. There is an interactive relationship between audience and speaker, each affecting the other. Teachers can outline the following considerations to students:
• Students have to be physically prepared for listening. They need to see and hear the speaker. If notes are to be taken, they should have paper and pencil at hand.
• Students need to be attentive. In many cultures, though not all, it is expected that the listener look directly at the speaker and indicate attention and interest by body language. The listener should never talk when a speaker is talking. Listeners should put distractions and problems aside.
• "Listen to others as you would have them listen to you."

4. Establish Purpose. Teachers should encourage students to ask: "Why am I listening?" "What is my purpose?" Students should be encouraged to articulate their purpose.
• Am I listening to understand? Students should approach the speech with an open mind. If they have strong personal opinions, they should be encouraged to recognize their own biases.
• Am I listening to remember? Students should look for the main ideas and how the speech is organized. They can fill in the secondary details later.
• Am I listening to evaluate? Students should ask themselves if the speaker is qualified and if the message is legitimate. They should be alert to errors in the speaker's thinking processes, particularly bias, sweeping generalizations, propaganda devices, and charged words that may attempt to sway by prejudice or deceit rather than fact.
• Am I listening to be entertained? Students should listen for those elements that make for an enjoyable experience (e.g., emotive language, imagery, mood, humor, presentation skills).
• Am I listening to support? Students should listen closely to determine how other individuals are feeling and respond appropriately (e.g., clarify, paraphrase, sympathize, encourage).

            Before a speaker's presentation, teachers also can have students formulate questions that they predict will be answered during the presentation. If the questions are not answered, students may pose the questions to the speaker. Students should as well be encouraged to jot down questions during listening.

            An additional strategy is called TQLR. It consists of the following steps:

T – Tune-in
(The listener must tune-in to the speaker and the subject, mentally calling up everything known about the subject and shutting out all distractions.)

Q -- Question
(The listener should mentally formulate questions. What will this speaker say about this topic? What is the speaker's background? I wonder if the speaker will talk about...?)

L -- Listen
(The listener should organize the information as it is received, anticipating what the speaker will say next and reacting mentally to everything heard.)

R -- Review
(The listener should go over what has been said, summarize, and evaluate constantly. Main ideas should be separated from subordinate ones.)

5. Use a Listening Guide. A guide may provide an overview of the presentation, its main ideas, questions to be answered while listening, a summary of the presentation, or an outline. For example, a guide such as the following could be used by students during a presentation in class.
1. Situation:
   Speaker's name:
   Date:
   Occasion:
2. What is the general subject of this talk?
3. What is the main point or message of this talk?
4. What is the speaker's organizational plan?
5. What transitional expressions (e.g., firstly, secondly, in contrast, in conclusion) does the speaker use?
6. Does the speaker digress from the main point?
7. Write the speaker's main point in no more than three sentences.

                                 What is your personal reaction to the talk?

While- Listening Stage

While-listening tasks are what students are asked to do during listening time. The listening tasks should be enjoyable and meaningful to the students. It should be simple and easy to handle. It should provide opportunities for students to succeed.

Students need to understand the implications of rate in the listening process. Nichols (1948) found that people listen and think at four times the normal conversation rate. Students have to be encouraged to use the "rate gap" to actively process the message. In order to use that extra time wisely.

Effective listeners:

• connect—make connections with people, places, situations, and ideas they know
• find meaning—determine what the speaker is saying about people, places, and ideas
• question—pay attention to those words and ideas that are unclear
• make and confirm predictions—try to determine what will be said next
• make inferences—determine speaker's intent by "listening between the lines"; infer what the speaker does not actually say
• reflect and evaluate—respond to what has been heard and pass judgment.

           

            "Comprehension is enormously improved when the speaker's schema or organizational pattern is perceived by the listener" (Devine, 1982). Teach students the various structures (e.g., short story, essay, poetry, play), organizational patterns (e.g., logical, chronological, spatial), and transitional devices.  Effective listeners can follow spoken discourse when they recognize key signal expressions such as the following:

• Example words: for example, for instance, thus, in other words, as an illustration

Usually found in: generalization plus example (but may be found in enumeration and argumentation)

• Time words: first, second, third, meanwhile, next, finally, at last, today, tomorrow, soon

Usually found in: narration, chronological patterns, directions (and whenever events or examples are presented in a time sequence)

     •     Addition words: in addition, also, furthermore, moreover, another example

Usually found in: Enumeration, description, and sometimes in generalization plus example

• Result words: as a result, so, accordingly, therefore, thus

Usually found in: Cause and effect

• Contrast words: however, but, in contrast, on the other hand, nevertheless

Usually found in: comparison and contrast (and whenever speaker makes a comparison or contrast in another pattern) (Devine, 1982).

            Most students need practice in making inferences while listening. A simple way to help students become aware that there is meaning between the lines is to read a passage from literature which describes a character's actions, appearance, or surroundings. From this information, students make inferences about the character's personality. Teachers should keep in mind that the purpose of an exercise such as this is not to elicit the exact answer, but to provide opportunities for students to make various inferences. Students also need to be aware of the inferences they can make from non-verbal cues. A speaker's tone and body language can convey a message as well.

            Teachers can also encourage guided imagery when students are listening to presentations that have many visual images, details, or descriptive words. Students can form mental pictures to help them remember while listening.

            Although listeners need not capture on paper everything they hear, there are times that students need to focus on the message and need to record certain words and phrases. Such note-making ("listening with pen in hand") forces students to attend to the message. Devine (1982) suggests strategies such as the following:

• Give questions in advance and remind listeners to listen for possible answers.
• Provide a rough outline, map, chart, or graph for students to complete as they follow the lecture.
• Have students jot down "new-to-me" items (simple lists of facts or insights that the listener has not heard before).
• Use a formal note-taking system.

            Transcribing or writing down live or recorded speech can sharpen students' listening, spelling, and punctuation skills.

• Teacher selects an interesting piece of writing.
• The selection is read aloud to the class (and perhaps discussed).
• The teacher then dictates the passage slowly to the class. The students transcribe the form and conventions (i.e., spelling, punctuation, and capitalization) as accurately as possible.
• Students compare their transcription with distributed copies of the original.

            Critical thinking plays a major role in effective listening. Listening in order to analyze and evaluate requires students to evaluate a speaker's arguments and the value of the ideas, appropriateness of the evidence, and the persuasive techniques employed. Effective listeners apply the principles of sound thinking and reasoning to the messages they hear at home, in school, in the workplace, or in the media.

            Planning and structuring classroom activities to model and encourage students to listen critically is important. Students should learn to:

• Analyze the message

Critical listeners are concerned first with understanding accurately and completely what they hear (Brownell, 1996). Students should identify the speaker's topic, purpose, intended audience, and context. The most frequent critical listening context is persuasion. They should keep an open-minded and objective attitude as they strive to identify the main idea(s)/thesis/claim and the supporting arguments/points/anecdotes. They should ask relevant questions and restate perceptions to make sure they have understood correctly. Taking notes will enhance their listening.

• Analyze the speaker

Critical listeners must understand the reliability of the speaker. Is the speaker credible? Trustworthy? An expert? Dynamic?

• Analyze the speaker's evidence

Critical listeners must understand the nature and appropriateness of the evidence and reasoning. What evidence is used? Expert testimony? Facts? Statistics? Examples? Reasons? Opinions? Inappropriate evidence might include untrustworthy testimony; inadequate, incorrect, inappropriate, or irrelevant facts, statistics, or examples; or quotations out of context or incomplete.

• Analyze the speaker's reasoning

Critical listeners must understand the logic and reasoning of the speaker. Is this evidence developed in logical arguments such as deductive, inductive, causal, or analogous? Faulty reasoning might include hasty or over-inclusive generalization, either-or argument, causal fallacy (therefore, because of this), non sequitur (confusion of cause and effect), reasoning in a circle, begging or ignoring the question, false analogy, attacking the person instead of the idea, or guilt by association.

• Analyze the speaker's emotional appeals

Critical listeners must understand that persuaders often rely on emotional appeal as well as evidence and reasoning. Critical listeners, therefore, must recognize effective persuasive appeals and propaganda devices. A skilled critical listener identifies and discounts deceptive persuasive appeals such as powerful connotative (loaded) words, doublespeak, appeals to fears, prejudice, discontent, flattery, stereotype, or tradition. The listener must also identify and discount propaganda techniques such as bandwagon appeals, glittering generalities, inappropriate testimonials, pseudo-scientific evidence, card-stacking, and name-calling.

Problems that Language Learners Face During Listening

Text

Three types of  text feature can affect listening:

1.  phonology and speech rate

2.  discourse features

3.  text types

Task

They are influenced by the types of question, the amount of time and whether or not the listener can get the information repeated.

Interlocutor (speaker)

This includes accent, fluency, gender, and standard or non standard usage.

Listener

Listener characteristics include: language proficiency, gender, memory, interest, purpose, prior knowledge, attention, accuracy of pronunciation, topic familiarity, and established learning habits.

Process

This refers to type of processing that listeners use, whether top-down or bottom-up or both. The type of listening strategy used by the listener is an important factor.

Post-Listening Stage

This is usually at the end of a lesson. These are off-shoots or extension of the work done at the pre- and while listening stage. At this stage the students have time to think, reflect, discuss and to write.

Students need to act upon what they have heard to clarify meaning and extend their thinking. Well-planned post-listening activities are just as important as those before and during. Some examples follow.

• To begin with, students can ask questions of themselves and the speaker to clarify their understanding and confirm their assumptions.
• Hook and Evans (1982) suggest that the post-mortem is a very useful device. Students should talk about what the speaker said, question statements of opinion, amplify certain remarks, and identify parallel incidents from life and literature.
• Students can summarize a speaker's presentation orally, in writing, or as an outline. In addition to the traditional outline format, students could use time lines, flow charts, ladders, circles, diagrams, webs, or maps.
• Students can review their notes and add information that they did not have an opportunity to record during the speech.
• Students can analyze and evaluate critically what they have heard.
• Students can be given opportunities to engage in activities that build on and develop concepts acquired during an oral presentation. These may include writing (e.g., response journal, learning log, or composition), reading (e.g., further research on a topic or a contradictory viewpoint), art or drama (e.g., designing a cover jacket after a book talk or developing a mock trial concerning the topic through drama in role).

Listening Tasks  for Communicative Outcomes

Communicative Outcomes	Examples
Lists	Similarities/difference/errors
Sequenced information	Picture sequences, lyrics
Matched items	Pictures with texts, themes with texts
Restored texts	Complete the gaps in a text
Diagrams or pictures	Floor plans, sketches of people
Notes	Short notes during presentations

One–Way Listening Tasks (transactional)

It involves listening and responding through different ways to achieve outcomes. They do not have to interact with the speaker while listening. It is mainly concerned with obtaining information and knowledge.

Task	Response
Restoration	Include omitted words or phrases
Reconstruction	Create original message    with words heard  or noted down
Sorting	sequence, rank, categorize items
Evaluation	identify inconsistencies   and contradictions
Task	Response
Matching	Match information from listening to pictures or written texts
Jigsaw	Create a whole from different parts

Two-way Listening tasks (interactional)

The listener has to interact with the speaker by asking questions, offering information and expressing opinions.

Task	Response
Creative dictation	Dictate to each other to complete a text
Description	Sequence/reproduce/complete pictures or diagrams
Simulation	Listen and express opinion in simulated situations
Presentation	Listen and respond to   formal and informal  presentations

Some Practical Listening Strategies and Activities

Comprehensive Listening Strategies (elementary)

§ Forming a picture (draw an image, then write about it)

§ Putting information into groups (categorizing, “chunking”)

§ Asking questions (Why am I listening to this message?; Do I know what ___ means?; Does this information make sense to me?)

§ Discovering the plan (description, sequence, comparison, cause and effect, problem/solution)

§ Note taking (demonstrate by taking notes with the children)

§ Getting clues from the speaker (both visual and verbal cues)

Critical Listening (intermediate to high school)

§ Help children to recognize: persuasion and propaganda, deceptive language, loaded words, propaganda devices.

§ Steps:

1.    introduce the commercial(s)

2.    explain deceptive language

3.    analyze it

4.    review concepts

5.    provide practice

6.    create commercials

The same procedure applies to advertisements.

Appreciative Listening (primary)

§ Enjoyment is reason enough to read-aloud to children.

§ Appreciative listening is important for: reading aloud to students, repeated readings, and oral presentations.

§ Teaching Appreciative Listening:

1.    Before reading-aloud: activate prior knowledge, background, set purpose for reading

2.    During reading-aloud: Use Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA)—make predictions, reasoning and further predictions, prove if predictions are true

3.    After reading-aloud: share their log and relate to their lives.

Authentic Listening Activities (for different levels)

§ Acting out a story from one that is read (or being read)

§ Making or doing something by following oral directions

§ Participating in class or group discussions

§ Getting information by listening to an announcement

§ Working on group projects

§ Critiquing a peer’s draft of a story after listening to it

§ Enjoying good literature that is well presented orally

§ Evaluating an issue that is being debated

§ Evaluating products advertised in commercials

§ Evaluating candidates from their campaign speeches

TEACHING SPEAKING

Introduction

            Speech is the most basic means of communication.”Speaking in a second language or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding and challenging of the four skills.” (Bailey and Savage, 1994) What specifically makes speaking in a second language or foreign language difficult. According to Brown (1994) a number of features of spoken language includes reduced forms such as contractions, vowel reduction, and elision; slang and idioms; stress, rhythm, and intonation.  Students who are not exposed to reduced speech will always retain their full forms and it will become a disadvantage as a speaker of a second language. Speaking is an activity requiring the integration of many subsystems.

The Goal of Teaching Speaking

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation.

To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output.

The Nature of Speaking

Oral communication is a two-way process between speaker and listener (or listeners) and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding (or listening with understanding). Both speaker and listener have a positive function to perform. In simple terms, the speaker has to encode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener (no less actively) has to decode (or interpret) the message.

Different views of speaking in language teaching

A review of some of the views of the current issues in teaching oral communication can help provide some perspective to the more practical considerations of designing speaking lessons.

1.  Conversational discourse

The benchmark of successful language acquisition is almost always the demonstration of an ability to accomplish pragmatic goals through interactive discourse with other speakers of the language. Although historically, “conversation” classes have ranged from quasi-communicative drilling to free, open, and sometimes agenda-less discussions among students; current pedagogical research on teaching conversation has provided some parameters for developing objectives and techniques.

Though the goals and the techniques for teaching conversation are extremely diverse—depending on the student, teacher, and overall context of the class—language teachers have nonetheless learned to differentiate between transactional and interactional conversation. Instructors have discovered techniques for teaching students conversation rules such as topic nomination, maintaining a conversation, turn-taking, interruption, and termination. Teachers have also learned to teach sociolinguistic appropriateness, styles of speech, nonverbal communication, and conversational routines. Within all these foci, the phonological, lexical, and syntactic properties of language can be attended to, either directly or indirectly.

2.  Teaching pronunciation

There has been some controversy over the role of pronunciation work in a communicative, interactive course of study. Because the overwhelming majority of adult learners will never acquire an accent-free command of a foreign language, should a language program that emphasizes whole language, meaningful contexts, and automaticity of production focus on these tiny phonological details of language? The answer is “yes,” but in a different way from what was perceived to be essential; a couple of decades ago.

3.  Accuracy and fluency

An issue that pervades all of language performance centers on the distinction between accuracy and fluency. In spoken language the question we face as teachers is: How shall we prioritize the two clearly important speaker goals of accurate (clear, articulate, grammatically and phonologically correct) language and fluent (flowing, natural) language?

It is clear that fluency and accuracy are both important goals to pursue in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). While fluency may in many communicative language courses be an initial goal in language teaching, accuracy is achieved to some extent by allowing students to focus on the elements of phonology, grammar, and discourse in their spoken output.

The fluency/accuracy issue often boils down to the extent to which our techniques should be message oriented (or teaching language use) as opposed to language oriented (also known as teaching language usage). Current approaches to language teaching lean strongly toward message orientation with language usage offering a supporting role.

4.  Affective factors

One of the major obstacles learners have to overcome in learning to speak is the anxiety generated over the risks of blurting things out that are wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible. Because of the language ego that informs people that “you are what you speak,” learners are reluctant to be judged by hearers. Our job as teachers is to provide the kind of warm, embracing climate that encourages students to speak, however halting or broken their attempts may be.

5.  The interaction effect

The greatest difficulty that learners encounter in attempts to speak is not the multiplicity of sounds, words, phrases, and discourse forms that characterize any language, but rather the interactive nature of most communication. Conversations are collaborative as participants engage in a process of negotiation of meaning. So, for the learner, the matter of what you say is often eclipsed by conventions of how to say things, when to speak, and other discourse constraints.

David Nunan (1991) notes a further complication in interactive discourse: what he calls the interlocutor effect, or the difficulty of a speaking task as gauged by the skills of one’s interlocutor. In other words, one learner’s performance is always colored by that of the person (interlocutor) he or she is talking with.

Factors that Influence  Learners’ Speaking

The six factors below suggest that any learner who really wants to can learn to pronounce English clearly and comprehensibly. As the teacher, you can assist in the process by gearing your planned and unplanned instruction toward these six factors.

1.    Native Language

The native language is clearly the most influential factor affecting a learner’s pronunciation. If the teacher is familiar with the sound system of a learner’s native language, (s)he will be better able to diagnose student difficulties. Many L1 to L2 carryovers can be overcome through a focused awareness and effort on the learner’s part.

2.    Age

Children under the age of puberty generally stand an excellent chance

of “sounding like a native” if they have continued exposure in authentic contexts. Beyond the age of puberty, while adults will almost surely maintain a “foreign accent,” there is no particular advantage attributed to age. A fifty-year-old can be as successful as an eighteen-year-old if all other factors are equal. The belief that “the younger, the better” in learning a language is a myth.

3.    Exposure

It is difficult to define exposure. One can actually live in a foreign country for some time but not take advantage of being “with the people.”  Research seems to support the notion that the quality and intensity of exposure are more important than mere length of time. If class time spent focusing on pronunciation demands the full attention and interest of students, then they stand a good chance of reaching their goals.

4.    Innate phonetic ability

Often referred to as having an “ear” for language, some people manifests a phonetic coding ability that others do not. In many cases, if a person has had exposure to a foreign language as a child, this “knack” is present whether the early language is remembered or not. Others are simply more attuned to phonetic discriminations. Some people would have you believe that you either have such a knack, or you don’t. Strategies-based instruction, however, has proven that some elements of learning are a matter of an awareness of your own limitations combined with a conscious focus on doing something to compensate for those limitations. Therefore, if pronunciation seems to be naturally difficult for some students, they should not despair; with some effort and concentration, they can improve their competence.

5.    Identity and language ego

Another influence is one’s attitude toward speakers of the target language and the extent to which the language ego identifies with those speakers. Learners need to be reminded of the importance

6.    Motivation and concern for good pronunciation

Some learners are not particularly concerned about their pronunciation, while others are.  The extent to which learners’ intrinsic motivation propels them toward improvement will be perhaps the strongest influence of all six of the factors in this list. If that motivation and concern are high, then the necessary effort will be expended in pursuit of goals. As the teacher, you can help learners to perceive or develop that motivation by showing, among other things, how clarity of speech is significant in shaping their self-image and, ultimately, in reaching some of their higher goals.

Problems that language learners face during speaking

     Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies—using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language—that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.

Douglas Brown (2000) identified eight factors that can make speaking difficult.

1.  Clustering

Fluent speech is phrasal, not word by word. Learners can organize their output both cognitively and physically (in breath groups) through such clustering.

2.  Redundancy

The speaker has an opportunity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy of language. Learners can capitalize on this feature of spoken language.

3.  Reduced forms

Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc., all form special problems in teaching spoken English. Students who don’t learn colloquial contractions can sometimes develop a stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatizes them.

4.  Performance variables

One of the advantages of spoken language is that the process of thinking as you speak allows you to manifest a certain number of performance hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and corrections. Learners can actually be taught how to pause and hesitate. For example, in English our “thinking time” is not silent; we insert certain “fillers” such as uh, um, well, you know, I mean, like, etc. One of the most salient differences between native and nonnative speakers of a language is in their hesitation phenomena.

5.  Colloquial language

Make sure your students are reasonably well acquainted with the words, idioms, and phrases of colloquial language and those they get practice in producing these forms.

6.  Rate of delivery

Another salient characteristic of fluency is rate of delivery. One of the language teacher’s tasks in teaching spoken English is to help learners achieve an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency.

7.  Stress, rhythm, and intonation

This is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation. The stress-timed rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns convey important messages.

8.  Interaction

Learning to produce waves of language in a vacuum—without interlocutors—would rob speaking skill of its richest component: the creativity of conversational negotiation.

Speaking Tasks  for Communicative Outcomes

Type of Performance	Task/Response
Imitative Speaking	•  student simply parrots back (imitate) a word or phrase or possibly a sentence. •  Tasks: –    word repetition –    pronunciation drills (stress, intonation)
Intensive Speaking	•  one step beyond imitative speaking to include any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspect of language •  Tasks: –    directed response –    read-aloud –    sentence/dialogue completion tasks –    oral questionnaires –    picture-cued tasks
Responsive Speaking	•  short replies to teacher- or student-initiated questions or comments (a good deal of student speech in the classroom is responsive); replies do not extend into dialogues; such speech can be meaningful and authentic. •  Tasks: –    question and answer –    eliciting instructions and directions –    paraphrasing a story or a dialogue
Interactive Speaking : •  Transactional (dialogue) •  Interpersonal (dialogue)	•  Transactional dialogue—carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information; involves relatively long stretches of interactive discourse •  Interpersonal dialogue—carried out for the purpose of maintaining social relationships •  Tasks: –    interviews –    role play –    discussions (arriving at a consensus, problem-solving) –    games –    conversations –    information gap activity –    telling longer stories –    extended explanations
Extensive Speaking (monologue)	•  usually for intermediate to advanced levels; tasks involve complex, relatively lengthy stretches of discourse; extended monologues can be planned or impromptu •  Tasks: –    oral reports –    summaries –    short speeches –    picture-cued storytelling –    retelling a story or a news event

Stages in a Speaking Lesson

What is the role of the language teacher in the classroom? In the first place, like any other teacher, the task of the language teacher is to create the best conditions for learning. In a sense, the teacher is a means to an end: an instrument to see that learning takes place.  But in addition to this general function, a teacher plays specific roles in different stages of the learning process.

The Presentation Stage

This is also known as the pre-activity phase of the lesson where the teacher introduces something new to be learned. At this stage of a speaking lesson, the teacher’s main task is to serve as a kind of informant. As the teacher, you know the language; you select the new material to be learned and you present this in such a way that the meaning of the new language is as clear and as memorable as possible. The students listen and try to understand. Although they are probably saying very little at this stage, except when invited to join in, they are by no means passive. Always be on guard against the danger of spending too much time presenting so much so that the students do not get enough time to practice the language themselves.

The Practice Stage

At the practice stage it is the students’ turn to do most of the talking, while your main task is to devise and provide the maximum amount of practice, which must at the same time be meaningful, authentic, and memorable. This stage is also called the While (or Main) Activity  or the Speaking Activity stage. Your role then as teacher is radically different from that at the presentation. You do the minimum amount of talking yourself. You are like the skillful conductor of an orchestra, giving each of the performers a chance to participate and monitoring their performance to see that it is satisfactory.

The Production Stage

It is a pity that language learning often stops short at the practice stage or does not go regularly beyond it. Many teachers feel that they have done their job if they have presented the new material well and have given their students adequate—though usually controlled—practice in it.  No real learning should be assumed to have taken place until the students are able to use the language for themselves; provision to use language must be made part of the lesson. At any level of attainment, the students need to be given regular and frequent opportunities to use language freely, even if they sometimes make mistakes as a result. This is not to say that mistakes are unimportant, but rather that free expression is more important, and it is a great mistake to deprive students of this opportunity.

It is through these opportunities to use language as they wish that the students become aware that they have learned something useful to them personally, and are encouraged to go on learning. Thus in providing the students with activities for free expression and in discreetly watching over them as they carry them out, you, as teacher, take on the role of manager, guide, or adviser.

Although the sequence described above—presentation → practice → production — is a well-tried approach to language learning and is known to be effective in average (i.e., non-privileged) classroom conditions; it should not, however, be interpreted too literally. These stages are not recipes for organizing all our lessons. In the first place, the actual “shape” of a lesson will depend on a number of factors, such as the amount of time needed for each stage.  Activities at the production stage in particular can vary a great deal in length. Also, stages tend to overlap and run into one another; for example, some practice may be part of the presentation stage.

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