DESTREZAS LINGUISTICAS: COMPRENSIÓN Y EXPRESIÓN ORAL 1. Introduction
The topic content of this theme is an important part of the FL Curriculum; The objective of most European current curricula is for the learner\user to improve his\her competences in order to achieve accurate/fluent communication (expression; comprehension; interaction and mediation in Oral & Written scenarios). Our curriculum establishes a first emphasis on Oral communication –listening –what and how- and speaking –what and how- as the first and most natural experience facing a second language. Teachers in the 21st century should be awared of the psicho-pedagogical shift from grammar-translation methods to communicative approaches. Communication strategies and communicative competence, are all key elements in the methodological curriculum – LOE 2/2006 - and –LOMCE 8/2013-and serve as guidelines for designing classroom syllabuses and teaching practice.
In this topic we are going to get in deep into understanding the difference between a Oral and written communication. As a first step we should define what do we understand by communication & language in order to develop strategies and techniques to encourage oral /written comprehension & expression skills
2. The process of communication: Animal VERSUS human communication Communication: the exchange of meaning between individuals through a common system of signals. This “exchange” is an essential characteristic of human and animal societies, by way of which individuals can transmit information, express feelings and emotions,etc. Some basic examples of this so called “communication process” may be the crying of a baby asking for food, the barking of a dog or traffic lights announcing free way with its green or stop with its red. All of them are considered acts of
communication between members of a society.
Communication VERSUS LANGUAGE: Although human beings are not the only ones to communicate, they are the only ones to have some concrete features such as
“arbitrariness” –significance opposite to significant-; cultural transmission; duality of patterning –isolated sounds or graphic signs do not transmit meaning but the
combination of them conform a meaning or different meanings-; etc.(C.F. Hocket 1916) Although quite controversial we may conclude for pedagogical reasons that it is
LANGUAGE as a faculty is therefore contrasted to “language” as a code –which is different for each community of speakers; English, Spanish; American deaf; etc. Finally “language as a code should be contrasted to language in use or “parole” in Sausurrian words – the act of speaking or
writing-A definition of the concept of communication must take into account the different elements that are part of the process. Following Canale (1983) “Communication is understood as the exchange and negotiation of information between at least two individuals through the use of verbal & non verbal symbols, oral & written/visual modes and production and comprehension processes.
Authentic learning for beginning learners of a second language is a process of developing communicative language competence. This process requires
comprehensible input in both oral and written form that students store, in varying amounts, in their developing language systems and that they access in real-world communicative tasks. The process of accessing language from the developing system improves accuracy as well as speed of communication. A simplified model of that process is shown below.
Input ---> Intake ---> Developing Language Competence ---> Output (Adapted from Lee and VanPatten, 1995)
One of the most important goals of second language study is the development of communicative competence. When individuals have developed communicative competence in a language, they are able to convey and receive messages of many different types successfully. These individuals use language to participate in everyday social or work interactions and to establish relationships with others. They converse, argue, criticize, request, convince, and explain effectively, taking into account the age, background, education, and familiarity of the individuals with whom they are engaged in conversation. They also use the language to obtain information from written texts and media and to interpret that information given the style, context, and purpose of the communication. In essence, communicatively competent individual combines
knowledge of the language system with knowledge of cultural conventions, norms of politeness, discourse conventions, and the like, and is able to transmit and receive meaningful messages successfully.
Students bring the insights that they have obtained from having developed
communicative competence in their first language to the study of a second one. They already know how to request personal information from others, how to describe, how to argue, and how to explain in their first language. Depending on their age, they are able to obtain information from written texts and media and to interpret that information. When they learn a second language they must learn how to do these things by using a different language system and by following what may be very different rules of interpersonal interaction.
COMMUNICATING
Express and interpret information and ideas.
of purposes including personal, school-based, community, vocational, recreational and professional. In modern languages, curricular designs reflect the importance of students developing simultaneously all four-communication skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing.
3. DEVELOPING LINGUISTIC SKILLS : THE FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS; LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING AND WRITING
Communication could take place through oral and written interaction, it involves receptive skills (Listening and Reading) and productive skills (Speaking and Writing), understanding and expressing oral and written messages in a meaningful context. Tasks and activities in the English classroom should integrate skills as they take place in real life (dialogue and mediation{L/S}; Answer and informing and mediation {R/W}; etc.) Receptive skills, particularly Listening, usually take place before productive skills (S / W), although we must also allow opportunities for productive skills to be practised. In the same way, oral skills (L / S) are recommended to be introduced in Primary Ed. before written skills (R/ W)
The following diagram shows the four language skills: Oral language
Listening speaking
Receptive skills productive skills
Reading writing
Written language
Receptive skills: Listening/Reading (Understanding oral & written messages) Productive skills: Speaking/Writing (producing oral & written messages)
The 4 skills maybe grouped in the following tasks and activities according to CEFR: Listening speaking: conversation + mediation
Listening & reading: Comprehension
Reading & writing: composition + mediation Differences between Oral/Written Communication
Although communication occurs in many different ways, oral communication is the most natural way of using language. Oral communication is restricted to those cases in which the speaker intends to use the oral language to convey certain information to the hearer. The hearer recognizes our intention, based upon what we have said.
Oral VERSUS written communication
Short time for an answer
Immediate answer. No time for thinking
No immediate answer. Time for thinking Affective factors may produce a lack of
fluency Affective factors are not that important
Dynamic Static
Based on negotiation of meaning Non-negotiation of meaning
Relies on verbs Relies on nominalization
Spontaneous language Context-dependent
Nextness. In spontaneous language, phrases are produced one after another
Parallelism: repetition is mostly used Repair: echoing; corrections and
hesitation markers to produce utterances and organize thoughts simultaneously
Conjoined clauses: and; then; so...
Planned language Content-dependent
Non-nextness: Syntactic structure and explicit cohesive elements to draw the connection between the clauses
Parallelism: rhythm, rhyme, alliteration is mainly used Repair: Subordinate clauses or
special syntactic measures are used to substitute the effects of repair in spontaneous talk
Embedded clauses Sentence organisation must always adjust to grammar rules
Contextualized language
Oral discourse do usually focus on interaction and consequently do show features on interpersonal involvement: Overlap showing encouragement Examples demonstrating
understanding
Collaborative completions Clarifying questions
Mimicking voices Actions and agents emphasized more than states and objects
Feedback signals and repairs used where needed
Personal quality (1st/2nd person pronouns)
Decontextualized language
Written texts do not occur on interaction and do not show features of personal involvement; on the contrary they take the so-called features of detachment (some morpho-syntactic forms). They show the importance of complex syntax in integration of ideas
Relative clauses Complement clauses
Sequences of prepositional phrases Nominalizations
Atributive adjectives Passive voice
Subordinate conjunctions Complex morphosyntax
4. Developing Oral Comprehension(LISTENING) & Expressive skills(SPEAKING)
Listening + Speaking = Conversation
Oral interaction requires from language users to apply basic strategies sucha as:
Understanding the oral message: it implies a process of decoding and
their own knowledge of the matter, takes decision, pay attention to paralinguistic issues, etc…. and that in less than a second!!!
Process: decoding and making meaning
Note taking: Taking decisions of what is relevant and dealing with an
hypothesis
Organise: new input should be organized, negotiation of meaning and
feedback through paralinguistic elements with the message sender
Speak: Giving and answer and paying attention to turn taking rules in
English
Oral communication involves listening and speaking, understanding and producing oral messages, that is, social "interaction" between people. When people communicate, they exchange meanings, ideas, opinions, knowledge,etc. in a meaningfill context. Social interaction exists when a two-way flux of mutual cooperation and empathy is reciprocally established between speakers.
Rivers refers to "interaction" when learners use the target language so that their attention focus on sending and receiving real messages in a meaningful context. In an instructed foreign language learning , the English classroom provides the environment where pupils can interact in the target language with the teacher and among themselves, so that we must bear in mind this need when designing communicative activities for the English lesson.
LISTENING (ORAL COMPREHENSION)
What is "listening"? Listening as a complex and active process. Sub-skills involved. Listening is a receptive oral skill and it can be considered a complex and active process, since it involves the integration and activation of aural perception, linguistic knowledge and semantic intuition.
•The learner does not really listen to words: s/he hears noises/sounds and silences and it is only when she has processed, decoded, these noises and silences that she can extract their meaning from them in the form of words, phrases and sentences.
•The listener has no control over the speed ñor the tone of voice of the utterance.
•While listening, the learner has to try to anticipate, predict, what is coming and remember what she has heard before
• Skills and sub-skills involved in Listening (extracted fromMcLaren & Madrid, 1995; Munby, 1978)
A) "Ear-training" skills
-Discriminating sounds in isolated words and connected speech*. -Discriminating stress patterns within words
-Recognizing variation in stress in connected speech -Recognizing the use of stress in connected speech
-Understanding intonation patterns: uses of tone; interpreting attitudinal meaning through variation of tone.
B) "Comprehension" skills
-Understanding explicitly stated information
-Understanding* implicit information in the text, not explicitly stated (inferencing) -Understanding conceptual meaning, notions* (time, location, quantity,...)
-Understanding relations within the sentence and between parts of a text. -Interpreting texts
-Recognizing indicators used fon introducing/developing an idea, transition to new idea, concluding, emphasizing, explaining/clarifying, etc.
-Distinguishing the main idea(s) from supporting details -Extracting relevant (main) points to summarise
-Transferring information from verbal code to, for example, diagrammatic display . -Relating what is listened to the learner's own experience
-Internalizing what is communicated
General reasons for encouraging listening practice in the FL class:
-Listening provides "comprehensible input"* (Krashen), essential for language learning
-It is needed in real life
-It's something the whole class can do
-It allows students to distinguish sounds, stress, intonation patterns
-It is related to what the learner often does anyway: listening to pop-songs, watching cartoons. in English on the TV, videos, etc
-Succesful listening may provide motivation
(*) From the point of view of the theory of language teaching and learning, aural input (listening) has been considered an essential component of language acquisition. Basing their arguments on research into listening in the mother tongue (Ll), Some
authors( Newmark, Ervin Tripp) advocated the application of a "silent period" at the beginning of FL learning.
Krashen (1982) proposes an "input hypothesis" where the learner's interlanguage is developed as a direct result of the amount of "comprehensible input" which s/he receives.
The "frequency hypothesis" states that learners learn quicker what they hear more frequently
(*)A useful account of listen ing-based teaching methods and SLL can be found in Cook (1986)
Teaching listening. Basic points
Listening should be taught systematically, in varied ways and regularly. Some of the basic points to bear in mind when considering the teaching of the listening skill are:
-The importance of distinguishing "pre-listening", "while-listening" and "after-Iistening" phases and activities in teaching the listening skill
Pre-listening: brainstorming activities, working through the visual aids is mostly involved. Students are waken to the communicative situation presented. Old vocabulary is recycled and new vocabulary is correctly contextualized. Inductive approach to new input presentation
While-listening: activities to work out the listening through, Wh- qiestions, true & false, drawing, matching or any other activity. Clear directions should be given.
Post-listening: The text is seen as a whole and as a principal motivator to keep on working –maybe reading aloud the listening, doing a writing activity..etc.
- The need for motivation: if the student understands, s/he is happy. For this reason , wherever possible, tasks and activities should be "success-oriented"
-The need for a large amount of listening and "comprehensible input". (Input / Intake)* (* "/npí//" indicates the exposure to listening in the FL the learner has, while "intake" refers to the amount of language the learner actually processes by means of listening.)
-Only "reasonable comprehension" is demanded. Students do not have to forcé themselves to understand every single word in a text. We must practise "listening for gjst".
-The importance of the purpose of the task, which should be explained to the students before they do the exercise, so they know why they are listening, as we do in real life.
-The problem of "communicative stress". Several principal features of language input have been found to be influential in listening comprehension, among them:
-features of the context (a familiar one, a formal setting,...); -the way in which the information is organized
-the listener's familiarity with the topic
-the type of input: "siatic" (descriptions), "dynamic" (stories, action,...) -the explicitness of the information given.
-The importance of "success-oriented" activities. The tasks should be relatively easy to do, basically simple, so that most students can achieve the goal and feel
encouraged, motivated. Training in Listening
We should bear in mind intensive & extensive listening.
Intensive listening: Scanning the text : it is closer to ear-trainig and therefore to accuracy. We get them to listen carefully to phonemes and words in order to develop a grapho-phonological relationship. The listening is primarily concerned for language items as part of the language teaching programme.
Extensive listening:Skimming the text: It is closer to text-based approach and therefore fluency. We try our students to get a general picture of what has been heard.
Some examples af activities for listening in Primary According to CEFER regulations)
Understanding the message:
•Listening and Acting. "Total Physical Response" (song:"Head,shoulders,knees and toes
•Listening with visuals {L and drawing (e.g. a red ball). Using maps (N, S, E, W), plans
*Listen and match (words / sentences with pictures expressing actions/location,etc
*"Find the picture"
Listening to sequences (order of words; re-order jumbled steps in a story;...) •GAMES (Bingo,...)
Interaction:
•Listening to dialogues: role play and simulations SONGS (listening to general /specifíc information) Mediation:
Listen and summarize “whispering” games Dramatization
Listen to a narrative and create a dialogue Listen and adapt the text
Listen and drawing the sequence
SPEAKING (ORAL EXPRESSION/PRODUCTION) What is "speaking"? Concept of "speaking"
Speaking is a productive oral skill which implies a complex cognitive process in which listening plays an important role.
Oral communication involves listening and speaking
Speaking a foreign language also implies being able to understand it orally; that is, speaking and listening often interact with each other in oral communication. Oral, social, interaction is an exchange of opinions, ideas, knowledge, impressions...between people.
Didactic considerations for the "Speaking" skill
In the teaching process, learners are the subjects of a series of cognitive
operations which will lead them to the ability to communicate. So, the main function on the teacher's side is to help pupils activate the psycholinguistic processes resulting in learning. The natural framework for language development is social "interaction". "Input" and "interaction" are two important factors in SLA. Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis claims that language is acquired only when learners understand the message(s). Ellis (1984) states that "interaction" contributes to language development. Finally, Klein synthesizes both theories and points out that both input and opportunities of communication are essential for SLL/A to take place.
(*) In the Audiolingual, structuralist, method pupils reproduced structures in "drills", exercises which aimed to internalize rules through repetition without a meaningrul context. Meanwhile, tasks and activities in Communicative Language Teaching are designed to promote interaction and provide input and opportunities for oral (and written) communication.
When we are doing oral communication in the EFL classroom in Primary schools, we must be conscious of the limitations and constraints that we have:
• Our students can communicate their ideas and emotions using their Ll, with fluency, expressing, in a natural way, their meanings, but in English they have serious
limitations and lack of language, so they inevitably use reductive and simplifícation strategies in order to express themselves with the language they are able to use.
• Due to lack of competence, at an elementary level, students will often insert Ll linguistic elements combined with the FL already learnt. This is natural at that stage of their interlanguage and sometimes fulfils the communicative purposes.
• At the initial stages, young leamers often make many grammatical, lexical and
the teacher must be more flexible and tolerant with errors and not interrupt
communication (the teacher can write down the errors produced and correct them later) Stages in the process of speaking
The whole process of learning oral communication takes places in two stages (Rivers & temperley 1978)
Cognitive stage: (receptive):
Knowledge of communication components: rules, categories, functions... Internalizing the rules relatin those categories and functions.
Productive stage:
Practice of sequences of sounds (that may incluse “words”, clauses, sentences.. Practice in production complete communicative intentions: asking for
information, introducing oneself, expressing likes or dislikes..etc
Some examples af activities for speaking in Primary According to CEFER regulations)
Oral production : Repating and miming oral activities. Articulation and oral repetition Presentation: New comprehensible input is introduced throuhg different
resources and materils such as realia, texts (dialogues), posters, videos, drawing....etc
Production: free – or pseudo-free- activities are involve-. Fluency is emphasized
Oral interaction: dialogues, pair work, role play…in other words “Practice” : controlled and guided activities are involve. Accuracy is emphasized. Most of the time teachers do create their worksheets or do use of the ones presented ion the textbook or workbook
Oral mediation: say in different words, summarize, select key points, etc Conclusion
The main goal of teaching a foreign language in Primary Education is the
development of the pupils' communicative competence, which comprises the linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic and sociocultural competence.
A Communicative approach to language teaching emphasizes the importance of developing the four language skills; and the Primary curriculum recommends the introduction of the oral skills (listening and speaking) before the written skills (reading and writing), and also the receptive skills (listening and reading) should precede the productive skills, so the order would be: L > S > R > W.
Learning activities should try to promote real communication in the English class. In that sense we should integrate the language skills as it happens in real life interaction.
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