Learning a Language
Levels of Speech
The Speaking Skill
Student Attitude
Acquiring the Components of Speech Pronunciation Vocabulary Grammar
Developing Competence
Developing Performance Skills
Types of Performance Activities Sub-Performance Drills Discussion of Textual Materials Using Language to Communrcate in Class Relating Material to the Students Cummings Device
Difficulty Level of Speaking Activities Question-and-Answer Practice Resumes
Semi-Controlled Oral Reports Discussion of Selected Topics Interaction
Reasons for Communicating
Organization of Student Activities
330 Part Two: Practice
Second-language educators have long espoused speaking as a major objective in second-language classes. A large percentage of students enrolled in second-language classes are there because they want to learn to speak the language. In general, when the statement is made that so-and-so "knows French," the remark refers to that person's ability to speak French. Yet it is the second-language student with some functional degree of speaking competence who stands out and attracts attention. In spite of the stated goal of speaking in second-language classes, a close observation of many classes reveals only a small percentage of time devoted to activities in which students are communicating with each other in the second language. Too, a casual observation of second-language classes indicates that a majority of students cannot or will not speak the second language.
This failure to produce graduates of second-language courses who can use the language accounts for some of the dissatisfaction with second-language learning among the students and the general public. Admittedly, miracles cannot be achieved in a year, or even two, but given the appropriate classroom activities, one has to hypothesize that many students (not all) can learn to communicate about those topics covered in their texts. The task is to enlarge the vision of second-language educators to the possibilities that exist, to change unproductive activities for those that are more promising. 1 Allen (1974, p. 4) describes an interesting and revealing contrast between the typical second-language class and a real second-language situation:
johnny can walk into a French shoe shop, ask for a pair of shoes in excruciating French, and get rewarded; he walks out of the shop with a pair of shoes. His same performance in an American classroom results in some sort of punishment—a low grade, a frown from the teacher, and even a reprimand. Little wonder that our students remain silent! They soon realize that their teacher is not interested in what they have to say, but in how they say it.
Second-language educators have spent countless hours attempting to condition linguistic habits into their students and correcting them for making the same errors they themselves made when they were learning both their first and second languages. The implication from the perspective of research and theoretical models is that second-language educators have fallen into the same trap as the mother who insisted that her child not go near the water until he
’An analogy as to how potential is limited by past experience and expectations can be drawn from the high jump in track. Apparently the limit to how high an individual could jump had been reached until someone got the crazy idea of jumping backwards over the bar. Now who would think of such an absurd way to jump? Since that time, the heights being jumped have risen.
had learned to swim. Second-language educators should be concerned with steps they can take to produce more positive results in their students.
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the cognitive, affective, and social aspects of speaking and to outline a few activities that might be used to help students learn to speak the second language.
Even a minimum amount of contact with someone learning a first or a second language is enough to show that the entire process is beset with incorrect sounds, forms, and patterns. Errors continue to crop up from time to time throughout the speaker's lifetime. The process of learning a language, especially in the area of vocabulary, is never completed. If the language system were ever perfectly mastered, dictionaries would be unnecessary, and writers would not have to keep a grammar book close by to consult as the need arises.
In this sense, learning to speak is no different from any other skill. Tennis players, golfers, bowlers, etc. arrive close to the pinnacle of perfection only after sustained practice and improvement over a period of years. No player achieves maximum potential without a process of gradually eliminating errors and inconsistencies, and no player can ever say that there is nothing else to learn. A person does not have to be a star to be a player. Some second- language learners will have the ability and the perseverance to become stars. Others should be given the opportunity to enjoy being players.
With regard to errors, teachers should remember that many theorists believe errors are an important and productive part of the language learning process. Too, the occurrence of an error in nowise means that the learner does not know the grammar. The slip may simply mean that with all the other things he had to think about in formulating the message he was unable to incorporate a point or two.
Although learning a language is a process that is never completed, a functional level is attained in a fairly short period of time. By age three or four the child can communicate most of what he wants to say. However, it is not until around age eight that the majority achieve the ability to produce all the sounds of adult speech. Furthermore, it is not until around age ten that the speech of the majority reaches the syntactical level of adults. It is almost certain that second-language students will never reach the native level in their second language, at least not in class. A more realistic goal would be to expect a functional ability to make themselves understood.
Speech is somewhat like an iceberg. Most of the act of speaking is not directly observable. What we hear is the culmination of a series of internal processes. First, people's thoughts are an outgrowth of their feelings, desires,
and needs. They have something to say and are motivated to communicate their thoughts to others. Second, speech involves the conversion of thoughts to language. Third, the sounds, words, and forms used are stored in internal cognitive networks. Fourth, the speakers' competence is brought into play as they begin the conversion of thoughts to speech. And finally, the listeners can hear the result, the performance skill, in action. In short, the speaker's cognitive network contains the motivating force behind the thoughts, content of speech, and knowledge of the language system by means of which thoughts are converted into speech. All except the overt oral message itself are internal processes.
Speech is an affective-social process as well as a cognitive one. The origin of the thoughts, the direction they take, the situation in which they are uttered, and the person to whom they are spoken are the result of both affective-social and cognitive variables.
Another basic characteristic - of speech is that its purpose is to convey meaning. The message may be unclear to the listener. It may be poorly expressed and even grammatically incorrect, but the intent is always the motivating force behind speech. In fact, it is probably true to say that there is no true communication without meaning, and no real meaning without both cognitive and affective support underlying the message.
Some speech acts, however, are set phrases in language that seem to be purely stimulus-response reactions to linguistic stimuli. A good example is the formality of greeting someone. The speaker smiles and asks, "How are you?" The person greeted smiles and replies, "Fine, thanks." The person responding will in all likelihood give the same answer no matter how she feels. In fact, she may have a splitting headache due to the multitude of problems facing her at that moment. However, the truthfulness of the answer in this kind of exchange makes very little difference because the person who asks the question in the first place does so out of habit. Few people expect, or want, an honest answer from other than family or close friends. Although these are speech acts in one sense of the term, in another sense they are not because there is no intention of communicating true feelings or ideas.
One of the difficulties in improving classroom activities selected to develop communicative competence is that the term speech is not always defined in the same way. Definitions of speech may range from "making sounds" to "communicating in the second language with a native speaker of that language in a social situation." Are the students in a second-language class speaking when they imitate sounds modeled by the teacher? Are they speaking when they repeat lines of a dialog? Are they speaking when they are reciting a dialog
from memory in front of the class? Are students speaking when they are doing pattern drills?
Second-language teachers often conceive of speech as being a process of making sounds in the language. On the other hand, most students think of speech as communicating their thoughts to someone else by means of language, in this case the second language. When the students cannot speak, by their definition, they begin to question the practicality of second-language study. Imitating sounds, mimicking a model, and practicing with pattern drills do involve making sounds, but they are not speech, and the teacher must distinguish between making sounds and expressing thoughts and ideas.
There are several reasons why this conflicting situation exists in many second-language classes. First, having one's vision of the goals obliterated by the obsession with the means of achieving those goals is a common malady afflicting all teachers from time to time. Second, in the past the possibility of getting students to communicate with each other in the second language was not part of the model of second-language learning. Third, for those teachers who are insecure in their own language skills, emphasizing communicative activities may be beyond their linguistic or psychological capabilities. Fourth, keeping the class working on material in the book makes it easier to control the students. Fifth, second-language teachers cannot seem to endure the trauma of hearing incorrect grammar in their classrooms. Sixth, audio-lingual theorists have felt that the students should not be permitted to create language in uncontrolled situations. And last, as professionals, second-language educators have stressed linguistic competence more than communicative competence, at times almost to the exclusion of the latter. (One would hope that in the future both will be stressed and that the pendulum will not swing to the other extreme.)
The term levels of speech also refers to the many dialectal distinctions, social registers, and levels of expertise that exist in any language. At advanced levels, or perhaps even intermediate, the students may be introduced in their listening comprehension and reading activities to dialects and social differences in pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary, and speech patterns. Basing the students' own speech on one common dialect is the preferable approach, however. As the students progress in second-language study, their own knowledge of the language should grow, but the goal for the majority will be the ability to function in a real language situation.
Speaking is a productive skill. As such, its development is undertaken after the receptive skill of listening comprehension, and perhaps of reading, and is always somewhat behind that of the receptive skill. Flow far the productive
skill lags behind the receptive depends upon the learner, how far he has advanced in his language learning, and the linguistic complextity of the material. Learning to speak is obviously more difficult than learning to understand the spoken language. More effort is required on the part of the students, and more concern for sequential arrangement of activities is required on the part of the teacher. The entire process covers a greater period of time to develop than does listening comprehension and is more taxing on the students' energies.
Listeners catch certain key elements that enable them to understand the message. For example, in the sentence, He is a great player, there are four words that indicate that the message concerns one person. They do not have to concentrate on each single element. However, the native speaker provides all these clues. The encoding process at the native level requires a complete and readily accessible knowledge of sound, vocabulary, and structure. The second-language learner, of course, does not have to be able to generate all the correct forms in order to be able to communicate. The listener can fill in some of the omissions. The point is that functional communication can, and does, occur at various levels of proficiency.
Native speech combines both a code and a message. The code is composed of the sounds, vocabulary, and structures of the language. These components, along with various kinesic elements, 2 are organized into appropriate combinations in order to convey the speaker's ideas and opinions. The arrangement of the parts of the code into speech occurs at an unconscious level and in an almost instantaneous manner. The objective, then, is to develop the students' speaking ability to the point at which they can concentrate on the message rather than on the code. When they can speak in this manner, the desired skill level has been reached.
It is appropriate to emphasize here that this goal can, and should, be divided into small steps. The tendency in the past has been to delay speaking until the advanced courses. However, delaying work until second year or even second semester causes an unnecessary gap in the sequence of learning to speak and is discouraging to the students. The students should be able to use the content of lesson 1 to express themselves orally before going on to lesson 2. By insisting on complete mastery of each section of the book, the teacher builds a more solid foundation for later, more complex lessons and enables the students to experience the satisfaction of attaining short-term goals. 3 As
the authors say in the introduction to Learning French the Modern Way; Second Edition, "No one truly acquires language skills until he uses them to express himself—such self-expression is not only possible from the outset, it is essential" (Evans et al., 1967, p. 1).
The goal in learning to speak a second language is to be able to communicate orally with a native speaker. Realistically, teachers cannot, and should not, expect their students to be able to speak like natives. The rate of speech will be slower than that of a native. The pronunciation and intonation will not be perfect. The syntactical usage will be at a simple level and most likely will include carry-overs from the native language. There will be many needed words that they will not know. But if they can make themselves understood in the language, they and their teacher can be quite proud of their achievement. Although they may not wish to accept such a modest goal, honest second-language teachers must admit that most students do not attain this level of proficiency in speaking. Perhaps achievement would be higher if the goals of the profession were set at a more realistic level.
Attitude and previous preparation are more important in developing the speaking skill than in the development of any of the other language skills. Speech is generated internally and, therefore, depends upon active participation on the part of the students. Speech cannot occur unless the students have actively incorporated the components of language into their cognitive network. In addition, they must have something to talk about and must be interested in communicating their ideas to someone else. Second-language teachers need to consider the total student as they plan activities to increase speaking proficiency. The teacher's role in acquiring competence is one of selection, explanation, and feedback. The teacher's role in assisting the students in perfecting their performance skills is one of fostering the proper student attitudes for productive participation in communicative speech activities and of providing opportunities for this type of practice.
Most students at the elementary, junior high school, and high school levels arrive at their first language class eager to learn to speak another language. Little do they realize the immensity of the task before them. Some time has elapsed since they learned their own language, and most are completely unaware of the complexity of the process that they are undertaking. The tendency to underestimate the language-learning task has been further complicated by the colorful advertisements claiming and proclaiming new methods of learning to speak a language. All that is necessary is for one to purchase a few long-playing records and to practice for a small number of
hours at home. After that short, painless effort one will be sufficiently prepared to travel abroad, enjoying full benefits from the ability to speak a second language.
Most teachers realize the impossibility of learning a language in the fashion described in the preceding paragraph. The ability to speak a language, unfortunately, is not so easily acquired. Interest must be sustained over quite a long period of time if the students are to gain any measurable success toward their goal of learning a second language. It is important, therefore, early in the course and periodically thereafter, for the teacher to reassure the students with regard to their own progress and to remind them that learning a language is a lengthy process. One method of demonstrating how much has been achieved is to return once in a while to elementary chapters for some oral work. Normally, the students are amazed at how simple that material then seems. The teacher should also encourage the students to continue into third- and fourth-year courses.
In spite of the fact that the students want to learn to express themselves orally in a second language, they are often reluctant to participate in activities that will enhance their facility in oral expression. Why does this happen? First, speaking practice is more difficult than sitting back and listening to the teacher or wandering off into some dream world. Second, many feel uncomfortable in their first hesitant attempts at speech in the second language. Third, many students are self-conscious and do not like to make mistakes or to appear stupid in front of their peers. And last, they are afraid of failure, laughter, and ridicule. The desire to speak is real, but the physchological and social obstacles to speaking are just as real. The teacher should pay careful attention to the students' need for encouragement and support in overcoming these hurdles in the path to a functional speaking ability.
Enthusiasm in language study, especially in speaking, is related closely to success. If the course material is presented in such a fashion as to minimize error and maximize achievement, the students are normally diligent and interested. Speaking cannot be developed in a class in which the students are afraid to respond for fear of making a mistake. In successful classes, the confidence, uncertain at first, with which the students begin the semester is carefully nurtured by a competent teacher. In less successful classes, the number of active volunteers decreases in a direct proportion to the number of times the students experience the discomfort of being told they are wrong. After a few weeks, the class begins to wilt, and only a few continue to participate actively in the class recitation. Part of the teacher's success can be measured by the percentage of students who regularly recite.
Active class participation is important in all the language skills, but especially so in speaking. One does not learn to play a piano by listening, nor by studying sheet music. Any measure of skill is impossible without practice.
However, oral recitation is the most difficult activity to elicit from some students. They may not talk much even in classes in which their own language is used. For the shy, introverted student any oral answer in class is difficult. Answering in another language may seem next to impossible. Even those students who normally enter willingly into class discussions may hesitate to do so in a second-language class.
The development of a warm, friendly classroom atmosphere is a crucial prerequisite for a language class. Teachers should be receptive to, and encouraging of, the students' best efforts and should attempt to dispel the notion that they are constant evaluators of every response. Above all, they should refrain from the ever present urge to correct every single mistake. The students do not speak their own language perfectly, and the chances are that they will not speak the second language perfectly either. The important point is that they feel free to participate and to speak the language.
Both the teacher and the students should view errors as a natural, unavoidable, and even necessary part of second-language learning. The correction of errors should not become a "big thing" in the class. Correction of mistakes should be thought of in terms of feedback in which the proper sound, form, or structure is given to the student. Correction of errors should be limited to those portions of the class in which the students are concentrating on the acquisition of competence. Performance activities in which the students are concentrating on communicating some idea should not be interrupted to consider language forms or structures.
One way to prepare the students for individual participation and to give them confidence is to urge all students to answer all questions. First, the teacher explains to the students that they can learn just as much by answering mentally (covertly) as they can by reciting aloud (overtly). Second, he makes a practice of pausing just a few seconds after asking a question to give each of the students time to prepare the answer. With this procedure each student will have an opportunity to give each answer.
Sequencing is important in developing the speaking skill. The difficulty level of oral activities should be arranged in such a way that the students are usually asked to respond only to those stimuli for which they have been sufficiently prepared. Otherwise, they soon become discouraged and cease to be active participants in the class. Such students then wait patiently, or impatiently, until they are permitted to drop the class. The attrition rate in foreign-language classes at present is alarmingly high, and the teacher should strive to lower that mortality rate.
Individual variations are more noticeable in the productive skills than in the receptive. For psychomotor, affective-social, or cognitive reasons, some students do not speak so much, so often, so quickly, or so well as others. Teachers should be flexible in preparing appropriate activities and in establish-
ing suitable proficiency goals for each student. In deciding what they should expect of each student in class, they should take the capabilities of each into consideration. Not many will be superstars, perhaps, but a large number can become players on their own level. Communication in the second-language class should not be an aesthetic process, but a practical one. The important point is that the teacher get everyone into the game.
ACQUIRING THE COMPONENTS OF SPEECH
Perhaps too much attention has been given to proper pronunciation. Many students will not be able to make all the sounds, especially at first, and constant correction may discourage them. If they are successful in other aspects of the course, they may continue their study of language and improve their pronunciation in the advanced courses. Certainly, this process of successive approximation to adult pronunciation occurs regularly in first- language learning without constant criticism from parents or teachers. In addition, perfect pronunciation of all sounds is not necessary in order to communicate. It is quite common to communicate well with someone who has a noticeable accent. The goal should, realistically, be the ability to talk successfully with a native, not to have a native accent. Certain sounds, naturally, should receive greater stress than others. Those students who have the ability to achieve a near-native accent should not be denied the opportunity; but those who lack that ability should not be denied the opportunity to learn to communicate in the language. Of the two, pronunciation and communication, communication is the more important.
Any assistance that the teacher can give the students as they learn to make these strange new sounds should be provided. If the students are having difficulty with any given sound, the teacher should assist them by describing tongue and lip movements. At times, a diagram on the chalkboard may provide the clue necessary for improving their pronunciation. In focusing on intonation patterns, the teacher may use her hand to indicate the pitch level of the voice. The same is true of stress patterns in the language.
The first step is to teach the students to pronounce the sounds to the best of their ability. The second step is to get the students to repeat phrases and sentences they have just heard. (The teacher must not forget to teach sound discrimination prior to repetition exercises. Unless they can hear the sounds, students can obviously not be expected to repeat them correctly.) Repeating short sentences immediately after a model is not so easy for the beginner as it
may seem to the teacher, and the ability to repeat is certainly an important stage in preparation for later, more difficult activities.
In French, German, and Spanish, the sounds that are more conspicuous in an "American" accent are those listed in the chapter on listening comprehension as being sounds that the students may not hear. (See chapter 10, page 288.) In addition, there are sounds that the students can hear but may have difficulty pronouncing. Both types of sounds need to be focused on in the beginning stages of pronunciation practice.
In French, the additional sounds that cause the most problems are (1) the sounds of the vowel u as in the pronoun tu, eu as in deux , and oe as in soeur; (2) the nasal vowel sounds; the sound similar to the ny of the word canyon in English, which is one phoneme in French; and (4) the semi-vowel u as it glides into the sound of the following vowel as in the word lui. In German, problem sounds, in addition to those listed in chapter 10, are the sounds of the umlauted vowels o' and u and the sound of the consonant r. In Spanish, the additional sounds to be stressed are those of the consonants rand rr.
Also, in French and Spanish, various intonation patterns are different from English, and the students need to practice those patterns that contrast with their English counterparts. For example, those sentences beginning with an interrogative pronoun normally have a falling intonation pattern, while English often has a rising inflection at the end. Unless the students have practice with these differences in intonation, they normally place the second-language sentences in the native-language system.
In teaching pronunciation, the teachers' role is first to identify the differences and then to practice them in class. They can make the students' task easier by providing descriptions that will assist the students in pronouncing the new sounds correctly. For example, the students need to understand that the English t sound and the Spanish t sound differ because the tongue and lip movements are not the same. Asking them to pronounce the word to in English and tu in Spanish and then hejping them to feel the difference between the position of their tongues in both cases is a good beginning. The teacher can then explain or diagram the two different tongue positions on the chalkboard. Given this basic understanding, the students need little more than continuing practice and occasional reminders to pronounce these sounds to the best of their capabilities. It may take some time for them to perfect some of the more difficult sounds.
Many students may never be able to pronounce the r in either French, German, or Spanish. They should not be penalized because of this inability. One thing the teacher can do is to give them hints that may help get them on the track toward an acceptable, if not native, pronunciation.
A good hint in French is to ask the students to pronounce a ga sound. In making this sound the tongue is in the same position as it is for pronouncing
the French r. By releasing slightly the complete closing of the air as in the ga sound, the students can begin to shift to the French ra sound.
In German the r is also pronounced at the back of the mouth. A starting point is to ask the students to say the German word rot , substituting an English w sound for the German r. The next step is to have them hold the pronunciation of the w sound as they tilt their heads back. In doing so, the sound almost automatically approaches that of the German r, thereby giving them an idea of the exact feel of the points of articulation.
Although many students may never learn to trill the Spanish rrand initial r, almost all can learn to pronounce the r. A good exercise is to ask them to say butter, mutter, muddy, buddy, and then pern. If they have been conscious of tongue movement and position, they will feel the tongue movement and position are the same in both instances. The only difference is that they are pronouncing an r sound instead of a tt or dd sound.
The teacher's responsibility while the students are learning to pronounce the sounds is one of objective evaluator. He must identify for the students the sounds that they are mispronouncing, and he needs to point out to them the difference between what they are saying and the native sound. (Often they do not realize there is any disparity.) If possible, he should point out to them what they are doing wrong with their tongue and lips. And above all, he should proceed always with gentle encouragement rather than adamant insistence.
Obviously, vocabulary is learned by means of the receptive skills. Elementary language students cannot be expected to generate words they have not seen or heard. Productive skills are not efficient means of learning words, but they are beneficial for practice in using them to the point at which they are readily available in the learner's active vocabulary. Repeating words that the learner does not know and does not understand is of little value as far as learning vocabulary is concerned.
Vocabulary is normally studied in dialogs and/or narratives. Although most authorities recommend the learning of vocabulary in context, some authors have adopted the practice of presenting words in lists. Generally, these words are unified around some theme or topic, and the purpose is to present to the students the vocabulary needed to talk about some aspect of their lives. For example, in order that the students talk about meals, the names of common foods might be listed along with a series of questions dealing with what they eat. As the students work with the dialogs, narratives, and lists, they gradually learn the words and begin to incorporate them into their own vocabulary. Undoubtedly, vocabulary that relates to the learner's life experiences and that can be used in meaningful communicative contexts will be internalized more quickly, will be more useful, and will be retained longer. Learners should be
permitted to learn those words that seem to be most relevant to their lives. Affective variables play a major role in the acquisition of new words in the second language.
Meaning of the vocabulary is established by various methods. In some cases the context is sufficient. Visuals can establish the meaning while at the same time presenting an image that the learner can associate with the word. If the context is not clear and good visuals are not available, the teacher can give the definition of the word or paraphrase it in the second language. If this does not succeed, she can dramatize or demonstrate the meaning. As a last resort, she may give the meaning in the native language. As the learners progress with the language, they should become increasingly self-sufficient in determining the meaning of new words.
Acquiring words is not the only problem in vocabulary building. The learner also labors under the necessity of remembering the words previously learned while at the same time adding new words. The first step in maximizing the number of words learned is to ask the students to learn words they can use to talk about themselves. The second step is to promote the use of these words in communicative situations. The third step is to attempt to reintroduce these words at regular intervals so that they will not be forgotten.
At various times grammar has been almost an unmentionable in second- language education. Few people wanted to talk about it; some pretended it didn't exist. Former students say it does not help in learning to use the language. Present students say they dislike it yet complain if it is not taught. Whatever one's opinion, there is one overriding fact that cannot be denied— the use of language is governed by rules, rules which the native speaker knows intuitively and which the second-language learner must acquire, either consciously or unconsciously. The difficulties associated with teaching grammar will not disappear by ignoring the problem, since grammar is inherent in the language skills being learned.
Grammar is generally introduced in one of two ways in most textbooks. Either the new grammar is incorporated in the dialog and/or narrative, or the new grammar is presented in example sentences at the beginning of the chapter or unit. Later, after the students have studied these initial presentations, the individual grammar points are isolated and practiced further.
Depending upon his philosophy, the teacher either drills the grammar into the students or introduces the concepts through meaningful explanations, examples, and exercises. The first procedure seeks to condition automatic responses, while the second seeks to help the learners incorporate the linguistic concepts into their cognitive structure. The first approach insists upon the ability to manipulate rapidly the grammar being learned prior to
attaching meaning to form in order to communicate. The second approach stresses the acquisition of grammatical knowledge and concepts prior to using the grammar in a communicative context.
The acquisition of grammar seems to be affected by both cognitive and affective variables. First, learning grammar is primarily cognitive. Those learners who prefer conditioning-type drills would most likely do better in the first type of class. Those learners who are able to handle abstract concepts would most likely prefer and do better in the second type. Affective variables provide the motivation and perseverance to stick with the task of learning.
The liberties the teacher can take with varying the required standards with regard to grammar are less flexible than in the case of vocabulary. Too, individual differences in learning grammar, i.e., in the acquisition of competence, cannot be permitted to the same extent they can at the performance skill level in each of the four language skills. There is a certain basic knowledge of the language system that is necessary in order to attain even a minimal degree of functional language usage. In the case of grammar, the teacher should identify for the students a required core of grammar. Those students who have difficulty achieving this minimal level should be given specially prepared compensatory instructional materials that the teacher feels will help them overcome their difficulties.
According to Chomsky, competence , the learner's knowledge of the language system, is the base upon which the four language skills are built. As second- language educators consider the question of how best to develop the learner's competence, the key word seems to be meaningful. Meaningful implies that the learners will understand the particular aspect of the language system being presented and that they will be willing and able to relate it to what they already know about their language or the second language. Just how this understanding may be best achieved depends a great deal upon the teacher, the learner, the amount of time available, and to some extent the language. Those concrete concepts that can be acted out and demonstrated for the class are perhaps best taught inductively. An example is teaching prepositions of place by putting a book on, over, under, etc. the teacher's desk. Those concepts that are more abstract and complex might best be taught deductively to some students and drilled into others. Followers of Gattegno (1963) refrain from talking and rely upon the perceptive powers of the learner to discover the linguistic patterns in his language charts. Advocates of the direct method favor putting the students in classes conducted entirely in the second language and letting them induce the language patterns, sounds, and vocabulary without explanation or linguistic organization.
For the average classroom, the following sequence of activities to be used to introduce new concepts of the language system would seem to be the most practical for the largest number of students.
Concrete Concepts
1. Examples or demonstration
2. Explanation in terminology comprehensible to the students
3. Discrimination to demonstrate comprehension
Example concept: comparatives
Abstract Concepts
1. Explanation in terminology comprehensible to the students
2. Examples
3. Discrimination to demonstrate comprehension
Example concept: subjunctive
Once comprehension has been established (and the teacher bears the responsibility for ascertaining whether or not comprehension has been attained on the basis of student reaction), the students are ready to practice with exercises containing these concepts. As far as possible, the exercise - should convey meaning to the students while they work with the content. However, at this point the students should be asked to select, not produce, appropriate responses. Listening comprehension or reading exercises in which the students choose their replies are best for this stage of the sequence. Although conditioning drills used in audio-lingual classes and in language laboratories limit the possible answers to one which the authors have preselected, exercises may be prepared that permit student-generated answers.
Examples of the previously described exercises might be similar to the following:
1. In the evening I like to: a. watch television b. do my home¬
work c. call a friend d. help my parents e. go downtown
2. When something is needed at your house from the store, who goes?
A. B.
I go, goes
My mother My brother and I My brother and sister
3. Would you prefer to marry someone who is: a. rich b. hand¬
some or pretty c. intelligent d. religious e. industrious
f. easy to get along with
Using this type of exercise to assist in the establishment of the learner's competence is a rather marked departure from the practice prevailing in recent years. Since the middle fifties, the accepted procedure for developing both
competence and performance has been by means of oral stimulus- response drills. Prior to that time writing was the basic means of establishing competence. Performance skills were ignored for the most part in this era.
What is being postulated here is that the use of oral grammar drills is not the most efficient manner, for most students, in which to develop the learner's interim language system. Oral drills must be utilized, of course, to teach the students to pronounce the sounds of the language, and they may be used sparingly to produce and manipulate forms, but not to learn them. Relying upon meaning-carrying activities contained in either listening comprehension or reading exercises in which the students select responses would be more beneficial and more efficient than oral drills. The utilization of receptive exercises permits students to concentrate more effectively on one aspect of the language at a time in the beginning stages, and they have more opportunity to absorb the concepts if they do not have to concentrate on producing them in the early stages of the sequence. Exercises of this type can be found in the "Listening Comprehension" chapter in the discussion of practice that combines form and meaning in contexts dealing with feelings and opinions. (See chapter 10, pages 300-302.)
Developing competence by means of the receptive skills in general and written exercises in particular has several advantages over the oral stimulus- response drills. First, the exercises can be done outside of class. Second, they can be completed at the students' own pace with time out for pauses and reflection, or time out to return to the explanation and examples if the students find that they have become confused about some particular point. Third, working with a written exercise is not such a forced activity as the oral drill in class in which everyone must keep up with the rapid-fire pace. Fourth, the students do not have to be concerned with their classmates' reactions to their performance. Fifth, and most important, developing and confirming competency in written exercises at home can free much valuable class time for communicative practice, which must be carried out in a social context.
As the students progress through a segment of the text, they will reach a point at which they should have an opportunity to practice the performance skills. Before they are asked to communicate, they should have the necessary cognitive knowledge of the sounds, the grammar, the vocabulary, and an interim knowledge of the language system to guide their efforts. In addition, they should have (1) a confidence in their preparation for and in their ability to communicate, (2) a supportive atmosphere to encourage their attempts, and (3) valid reasons for trying to communicate. Too, the students should have
Speaking 345
some opportunity to practice performance in the receptive skills prior to advancing to practice communicating with the productive skills. Although using pictures to stimulate conversation is a way of limiting oral practice to speaking, the major portion of speaking practice is in response to cues or messages received in listening or reading. The receptive skills not only support the productive skills in the language learning sequence, but in practice sessions as well. Limiting practice with the receptive skills to that one skill is fairly easy. The opposite is true in the case of the productive skills.
Second-language learners do not suddenly or automatically blossom into fluent speakers. They must be assisted in the process of acquiring the component parts of the system that makes language usage possible. At the same time, the ability to function in the language comes by functioning in the language. There is no other way. One learns to swim by swimming, to ride a bicycle by riding a bicycle, etc. What happens in the development of a skill such as swimming, according to physical education experts, is that the learners, through observation, gain an image of how to perform. By performing, they gradually bring their performance into line with the image. The same can be said for language performance. By means of their view of the language system, the learners, through practice in the performance skills, gradually bring their language system and subsequently their language performance in line with that of native speech. In order to learn to listen and comprehend what is being said the learners must practice hearing and understanding the spoken language. The same is true for each of the other language skills.
Performance skills involve the use of the language system to convey meaning. Competence exercises should be meaningful, but performance activities must convey meaning. Any practice devoid of meaning is merely preparation for later practice in performance skills and should never be considered an end in itself. In fact, the latest indications are that such practice may be of questionable value for many students in the development of communicative competence. The goal of second-language educators should be to seek ways and means to expand the proportion of class time spent in the exchange of meaning in the second language. Once comprehension has been established in meaningful presentations, the students can begin immediately to practice with activities in which meaning is conveyed. The students need to be given as many opportunities as possible to use their interim language system in order to create language appropriate for expressing themselves.
Performance activities provide the students with opportunities to communicate in the language. At this stage both the teacher and the students should concentrate on the meaning and intelligibility of the utterance, not the
grammatical correctness. With practice, grammar errors should gradually disappear.
In the case of some students, and perhaps some grammatical points, it may be necessary to insert a drill between the comprehension activity and the use of the content of that activity to communicate to someone else. If such a drill (or drills) is necessary, it should entail the type of exchange that could occur in a real language situation, even though the drill is not being used to communicate. Too, the drill should require the students to make the same kinds of linguistic changes they would need to make if they were communicating. For example, the forms of a verb can be drilled in a realistic drill as well as in a mechanical drill.
Ich gehe zum Fussballspiel.
Cehst du auch?
Ceht deine Freundin Maria?
Ceht Johann?
Cehen deine Eltern?
Cehen deine Eltern und du zum nachsten Fussballspiel?
The two chief weaknesses of such a drill, or of drills in general for that matter, are that the students are required to give answers that are not true and that they are required to give answers for which they have no referent, i.e., for which they have no conceptualized image or experience in their minds. Although such an exchange could occur in a conversational situation, in this context it is a drill of linguistic forms devoid of communicative meaning. (The reader should realize that these weaknesses are inherent in stimulus-response drills, which are based on a learning model in which a preselected response is reinforced. Diversity, creativity, and individuality are not accommodated in drills of this type.) This type of drill may be useful to condition linguistic habits in learners needing this type of practice. Ftowever, for other students it may not be very meaningful. Correction and choral repetition are still appropriate in these drills. Beyond this stage the teacher should refrain from interrupting student attempts to communicate except where assistance is necessary. The primary purpose of subsequent performance activities is to encourage second-language learners to activate their competence to create appropriate and needed language, not to interfere with the process or discourage them. The following activities combine practice and communication in meaningful contexts in which exchanges of meaning occur.
Nein, ich bleibe zu Hause.
Nein, sie bleibt zu Hause. Nein, er bleibt zu Ftause. Nein, sie bleiben zu Hause. Nein, wir bleiben zu Hause.
Textual materials, in this case, refer to both listening comprehension and reading passages. Discussion of the material in the text is so common that no examples are given here. For the most part, these questions deal with the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions over the basic content. These questions are beneficial for several reasons. First, going over them encourages the students to study the passages assigned, a necessary step in second- language acquisition in the classroom setting. Second, this type of question can be prepared carefully before class, giving those students who have less chance to succeed in the give-and-take of the class an opportunity to "get one right in class." Third, these questions are easier to answer in many cases than other types of questions because the students can often take the answer from the passage with only minor changes.
In asking questions over the textual materials the teacher should attempt to avoid two dangers. First, she should not negate her exhortations that force attention to minute details. And second, she should preview carefully the questions included in the text. Those that do not meet her qualifications should be omitted. If additional questions are needed, they can be prepared either by the teacher or by the students.
However, there are obvious disadvantages to asking questions about the textual material. In the first place, the activity is artificial. The teacher knows the answer, or should, when she asks the question. No genuine communication is taking place, although the students are communicating information when they answer. Too, for some students answering questions from the text over some portion of the assigned material may be less than challenging. For both these reasons questions over content of the text should not be counted on for a major portion of the performance skill activities in the class.
At the beginning of their second-language experience, the students should be taught to understand and use those expressions necessary for conducting the class in the second language. From that point on, all exchanges that can be made in the second language should be. (See the reference to Kalivoda in chapter 10, page 302.)
For linguistic and cognitive reasons, teachers must take steps to teach the students to transfer what they have learned to other contexts. They should attempt to relate what is being learned to the students' lives. One of the
348 Part Two: Practice
problems in second-language classes is lack of interest. One reason for this has been the inability of second-language educators to relate second-language skills to student knowledge and experience at a manageable linguistic level. Activities that involve students' feelings and attitudes may give them the satisfaction of expressing themselves in the second language from the early days of second-language study. Certainly, the use of affective activities appears at the moment to offer great promise.
For example, what are the possibilities if the teacher wants to teach the students variations of the question, "What's your name?" One possibility is a mechanical drill like the following:
Model Students
What's your name? What's your name?
his What's his name?
my What's my name?
Another possibility is to use a realistic drill:
Model
What's your name? What's his name? What's my name?
Students My name is jim.
His name is John. Your name is Martha.
The teacher can use this realistic pattern to combine language practice with a meaningful exchange of information and at the same time promote the development of positive-affective-social variables in the class. Obviously, asking the names of the students is a false activity if the teacher already knows their names. Therefore, the teacher may decide to get the students involved
directly in the activity. He might start by saying, "My name is_What's
yours?" After doing this for a time or two and responding with "Pleased to meet you" he asks the students to look around to see if there are other students they do not know. (Given the size of most modern-day high schools, there should be a few.) The activity is to get up, go to those persons, and introduce themselves. The activity need not last very long, but it does meet the requirement of talking with meaning for a reason, it does get the students actively involved, and it helps the students loosen up and begin to get acquainted. Afterwards, if the teacher wants to practice the third person singular forms of the expression, he can ask the students the names of those classmates they met during the activity.
Christensen (1975) has developed a series of "affective learning activities" for practice of the basic grammatical structures in Spanish. The fol-
lowing is an adapted outline format of how one of his ALA activities is organized.
Situation Model
The situation consists of four components: (1) the description or setting, (2) the matrix sentence, (3) the teacher's two examples, and (4) the basic set of questions. The following example in English and Spanish illustrates the structure of these four components.
Language Structure: single verb, future tense Theme: personal experience or fantasy
1. Situation Setting: (given verbally)
Let's suppose you have been overeating for several months. The doctor says it's time to cut down for your health's sake. Name five things you (the class) will not eat for a while.
Vamos a suponer que ultimamente usted ha comido mucho. El medico dice que Ud. tiene que comer menos para su salud. Nombren ustedes cinco cosas que no comeran.
2. Matrix Sentence: (written on the chalkboard)
I won't eat_. No comere
3. Examples: (given verbally)
I won't eat French fries.
I won't eat pastries.
No comere papas fritas. No comere pasteles.
4. Possible Questions: (verbal practice)
What won't you eat?
Who won't eat_?
X, what won't Y eat?
Z, what does X say?
Z, of these five things, what won't you eat?
eQue no comera Ud.? ^Quien no comera_
X, ^que no comera V?
Z, ^que dice A?
Z, de estas cinco cosas, ^que no comera Ud.? 4
Those teachers who are interested in incorporating affective activities into their own classes should consult Allen (1974), Christensen (1975), Simon et al. (1972), Stoller et al. (1974) and Wilson and Wattenmaker (1973) in the Selected References section of this chapter. All have very good suggestions.
Stevick (1971, pp. 143-44) makes a particularly insightful statement when, in discussing textual materials, he says, "Any fixed set of materials, however.
350 Part Two: Practice
carries within it the seeds of its own rejection: irrelevant content, inappropriate length, or uncongenial format. Furthermore, it fails to tap the enthusiasm that comes when the users of a course feel that something of themselves is invested in its creation." One technique to relate the materials to the students, to get them actively involved in manageable communicative exchanges, and to give them an opportunity to create a variety of replies is to use the Cummings device.
Thomas Cummings, who taught missionaries in India, felt that the relatively few interrogative words in any given language could be used to elicit new vocabulary on a variety of topics of interest to students. The prime characteristic of the replies to the questions is that each learner gives a different answer depending upon her own situation. Stevick has found in his own work that (1) shorter dialogs are more profitable; (2) rate of learning was more homogeneous "when the material was true, important and, if possible, autobiographical"; and (3) content used to communicate seems to be remembered better (Stevick, 1971, pp. 310-12).
The Cummings device is basically an utterance initiating some possible interchange accompanied by a list of potential rejoinders and followed by practice. It seems to be a very practical technique of meeting some of the qualifications for communication activities outlined earlier in the chapter. It is a practical technique which teachers may prepare over almost any structure or content as long as they have the creativity to put it into some meaningful exchange which can be answered by individuals in a variety of ways. The format may be used for speaking or writing activities. The following is an example of a Cummings device:
Basic utterances:
Qu'est-ce que vous faites a 6 heures du matin?
Et apres, qu'est-ce que vous faites?
Potential rejoinders:
je me reveille.
Apres je me leve.
Apres je me lave.
Apres je m'habille.
Apres je vais au refectoire.
Apres je prends un casse-croute.
Apres j'etudie le fran^ais.
What do you do at 6 a.m.? And then what do you do?
I wake up.
Then I get up.
Then I wash.
Then I get dressed.
Then I go to the dining hall. Then I have a bite to eat. Then I study French. 5
5 Stevick (1971, pp. 318-19).
Most of the activities outlined earlier in the chapter consist of questions by the teacher and answers by the students. Question-answer practice is a most important part of the second-language class, and deservedly so. However, as the students develop in their ability to generate oral messages, they should progress from short responses to more complex answers, from short utterances to sustained speech over a period of minutes, from mini-dialogs to sustained monolog and back to sustained dialog. Answering a question is easier than maintaining a line of thought for more than a minute or two, but the most difficult speech activity is the action, reaction, and interaction of a sustained conversation. A related factor in the difficulty level of speaking is the amount of anticipation and preparation time the students have to prepare their responses. Extemporaneous speech requires a higher level of language proficiency than an assigned activity.
The difficulty level of the content also obviously varies. Practice with the material in the text is probably the most elementary. (This statement is certainly dependent upon the linguistic complexity of the textual materials. In some cases teachers may have to provide their own adaptations to put the text on a level appropriate to their students' capabilities.) As the students draw farther and farther away from the text itself, they will have to supply more and more of the content of the class activities.
Asking and answering questions is much more closely related to real-life language activity than drills or grammar exercises and, as such, is normally much more interesting to the students. They can readily see the purpose of this activity and relate it to actual speech. Therefore, motivation and participation are not as great a problem. At the same time the difficulty level is much higher than for drills and exercises, and the students may become discouraged if they cannot answer as readily and as easily as they would like. The teacher should be sensitive to this pitfall and be prepared to turn back to additional comprehension exercises if the students are not sufficiently prepared for such a difficult activity. Also, he should make them aware that this slowing down and groping for words is a natural and unavoidable reaction when the learner begins to attach lexical meaning to structural forms. He should assure them that as they practice true communication, their speed and ease of response will increase.
Once the students are ready to participate in question-and-answer practice, they should be expected to answer the questions truthfully. They have
now passed beyond the comprehension stage and are ready for practice in attaching meaning to form. At some point, they must begin to combine code and message, to encode their ideas, to express their own thoughts; and this is the time. Each answer must have a referent in their life. For example, if they asked, "What is your friend's name?", they are expected to answer the question by referring to their friend. If they are asked, "How old are you?", they should answer the question by telling their own age.
Teachers should be aware also that a sequence of difficulty level exists within the question-and-answer practice at the "real" language level. Some questions are more difficult than others, and they should keep this fact constantly in mind as they ask the questions. For example, it is much easier for the students to answer the question, "Do you walk to school?" than the questions "How do you come to school?" or "Why do you come to school?" The easier questions should be given to the slower students, with the more difficult being saved for the brighter ones. During the question-answer session, the teacher should encourage other spontaneous comments in the language. After all, communication consists of continuous reaction and interaction. Therefore, the teacher should avoid, if possible, plodding through a monotonous list of prepared questions. Short conversational exchanges in reply to student answers at appropriate points will keep the students on their toes and enliven and expand the discussion.
Personalized questions for "real" language practice may not be provided in the textbook. If this is the case, responsibility for this activity falls by default to the teachers. They must prepare carefully in advance if they want to have rapid, smooth sessions. Teachers should avoid, at all costs, asking the same questions every day. The questions asked each day should be different from those of the day before. Language contains sufficient variety for the teacher to be able to formulate questions that practice the same structures but with different vocabulary and in different contexts. Admittedly, the preparation of these questions requires time and ingenuity. However, the questions can be put on cards and saved from year to year, and the results certainly justify the expenditure of time and energy. For the purpose of variety, the teacher can at times ask the students to prepare the questions. They can ask each other questions during the next class period.
After having gained some facility in answering questions, the students should be given practice in going beyond simple, one-sentence answers. A good exercise with which to start is to ask the students to give an oral summary of a dialog or reading. This activity has the advantage of providing reasonable restrictions as far as vocabulary and structures are concerned while at the same
time requiring the organization of more sustained communication. This practice is much more difficult than it may appear. If it is to be successful, it should be started at the beginning of the course. Holding the students responsible for the material from the first chapter will prevent superficial learning. If the students have truly assimilated the vocabulary and structure, they should be able to summarize, in an elementary fashion, the content. (Actually, at the elementary level it may be necessary at times to let the class as a whole summarize the dialog or reading. Summarizing in this fashion avoids putting too much pressure on a single student. Also, the teacher can begin with one student but switch to other students as the summary progresses. Whether done by one person, a few students, or the class as a whole, the important point to remember is that the main facts be kept in order and that no important facts be omitted.)