SPEAKING

Discourse and Context in Language Teaching Marianne Celce-Murcia

and Elite Olshtain

Chapter 9

Learning to speak a new language● The most difficult or the easiest skill?

❖ listening comprehension and speech production subskills.

❖ body language, demonstration, and repetition among other strategies.

Message and medium in oral communication

● Knowledge → message accessible.in order to interpret any spoken message we need

to have a wealth of information beyond the linguistic elements appearing in any statement produced in the oral medium or channel.

Mismatches and Misunderstanding causes● The speaker produces unintelligible

forms in phonology, grammar, or lexical choice.

● The necessary background is not shared by the speaker and hearer.

● The speaker and the hearer do not share sociocultural rules of appropriacy.

How to ensure proper interpretation?

● FACTORS OF FORM: linguistically controlled, relate to the speaker´s

competence as well as to the possibility of the faulty delivery of the

spoken utterance.

● FACTORS OF APPROPRIACY: pragmatically controlled by the speech situation and by the prevailing cultural

and social forms.

The Interactive Perspective of oral

communicationSpeech production framework - interactive and and communicative discourse processing model.

Choosing the Linguistic Features

Spoken discourse* → grammatical competence → linguistic realization of the utterance.

a speaker moves from conceptualization of a message to the capacity for performance.

Level of knowledge and the processing skill

→ interfere→ facilitate

Contextual features → affects the efficacy of communication.

(*)

Contextual factors in speech production -

LEVELT (1978)● DEMAND: The amount of processing

required by a task. (complex sequence → repetition of the basic information)

● AROUSAL: The speaker’s emotional and cognitive response to a task. The importance that the individual attaches to the communicative interaction. (deeper understanding of mutual expectations → how the communicative exchange can be improved)

● FEEDBACK: what the speaker receives from the listener(s) or the wider environment affecting the performance. (important in second language contexts → attentive of back-channeling during conversation)

Question formation, word order, placing propper stress.

→ facilitate→ hinder

❖ Speech production → sociocultural considerations.

Sociocultural norms may play a significant role in successful interaction.

communication

McCarthy and Carter (1995)● Colloquial speech has some unique

language features. spoken =/= written

Grammatical features of spoken English:

❖ pervasive ellipsis of subjects, predicates, and auxiliary verbs.

❖ an initial slot frame or introduce topics.

❖ tails (or final slots) for amplification or extension.

❖ reporting verbs with past continuous tense.

Rules of Appropriacy Sociocultural rules of appropriacy are viewed

today as an integral part of a person’s communicative competence.

Leech (1983:11) PRAGMATICS → use and meaning of linguistic

utterances.↓pragmalinguistics: use of language in context.↓sociopragmatics: societal rules of behaviour. ↓SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE enables the speaker to produce utterances that are

both linguistically and pragmatically appropriate.

Pragmalinguistic and Sociopragmatic Rules

1. characteristics of the individuals who take part in the communicative exchange,

2. features of the situation in which this exchange takes place,

3. the goal of the exchange, and4. features of the communicative medium through

which the exchange is carried out.

Maxims of Oral Interaction - Grice (1975) Speech Act Theory (Searle, 1969). verbal utterance

→ social act

● QUANTITY: old information opposed to new information.

● QUALITY: conviction and belief of stating the truth.

● RELEVANCE: speaker needs the hearer to see the r* of what is being said.

● MANNER: the delivery of the message.

PARTICIPATING IN ORAL INTERACTION: Maintaining the flow of

speech

● Speech Community Members● Turn-taking: Change roles constantly

and construct shared meaning● Conversation Analysis: Describes the

sequences and the sequential constraints that are characteristic of the natural flow of conversation Transition points

Adjacency pair● The learner of a new language has to

develop new rules of behaviour

Accommodating the hearer(s)

● Initiating speaker: controlling power over the flow.

● Based on the cooperative principle: The speaker needs to: accommodate the hearer, facilitate the interpretation of the spoken message, adhere to the four maxims and the rules of socio-cultural appropriacy, maintain eye contact and pay attention to the hearer’s body language and overall reaction

● Non-native speakers need to expend much greater effort and exert more attention to maintain the flow of interaction, often turning these tasks over to the native speaker/hearer who becomes more active and responsible

● Learners of a Second Language need to develop strategies in the new language to recruit the help of interlocutors and to facilitate and make adjustments in incomplete or failing interactions

● Interacting in the new language requires self awareness and self evaluation, a great amount of tolerance and accommodation

● Integrating strategy-training with the regular language instruction can improve learners’ ability to communicate through spoken discourse. Awareness of these strategies will lower anxiety and increase self-confidence

Some Prerequisites for Speaking in another

LanguageTo become a truly effective oral communicator in

another language, the speaker needs to:➢ Knowing the vocabulary relevant to the situation➢ Ability to use discourse connectors➢ Ability to use suitable opening and closing

phrases➢ Ability to comprehend and use reduced forms➢ Knowing the syntax for producing basic clauses➢ Ability to use the basic intonation➢ Ability to use proper rhythm and stress and to

make proper pauses➢ Awareness of how to apply Grice’s maxims➢ Knowing how to use the interlocutor’s reactions

and input➢ Awareness of the various conversational rules

that facilitate the flow of talk

● Learners of a Second Language need to develop Compensatory Strategies in order to overcome the deficiencies

● Some of these strategies are: paraphrasing, appealing for help, using examples and explanations, coining words, using circumlocution, among others.

● These strategies can be developed by exposure to authentic speech in the classroom and by participating in a large variety of oral practice activities (not preplanned and brief preplanned activities)

Speaking in the Language Classroom

Students should have the opportunity and be encouraged to become flexible users of their knowledge, always keeping the communicative goal in mind.

Speaking activities in the classroom:★ Role play★ Group discussions★ Using the target language outside the classroom★ Using the learner’s input★ Feedback★ Authentic speech in the form of written

transcripts★ Self evaluation and self analysis through

videotaping★ Computer conferencing

ConclusionThe social and contextual factors play a

more significant role in spoken interaction than in written communication since most of the oral exchanges are not pre-planned. Decisions and choices need to be made under the pressure of trying to communicate messages. This is one of the reasons why speaking is often perceived as the hardest skill to master in another language.