ENG514 Notes Lectures 23-37

Module-23 to Module 37

❖ Language is a means of thinking and transferring culture from one generation to another as well as from one nation to another ❖ Many countries emphasize teaching languages other than the native language to its citizens.

Q: Define speaking. Speaking is one of the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). It is the means through which learners can communicate with others to achieve certain goals or to express their opinions, intentions, hopes and viewpoints. In addition, people who know a language are referred to as ‘speakers’ of that language. Furthermore, in almost any setting, speaking is the most frequently used language skill. As Rivers (1981) argues, speaking is used twice as much as reading and writing in our communication.

❖ Speaking has been classified to monologue (oral presentation) and dialogue (interacting with other).

Q: What are the two function of language?

Speaking can also serve one of two main functions: transactional (transfer of information) and interactional (maintenance of social relationships).

❖ Nunan (1999) and Burkart & Sheppard (2004) argue that success in learning a language is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language ❖ Speaking covers broad areas of mechanics, functions, pragmatics and social interaction. ❖ Speaking is a high complex mental activity which differs from other activities because it requires much greater effort of the central nervous system (Bygate, 1998: 23). ❖ In speaking, speaker has to retrieve words and phrases from memory and assembles them into syntactically and propositionally appropriate sequence (Harmer, 2001: 269-270). ❖ Speaking also happens in the context of limited processing capacities due to limitations of working memory.

Q: What are the common characteristics of a spoken language?

It is both time-bound, and dynamic. Participants are usually face-to-face and so can rely on feedback (extra-linguistic cues to aid meaning). Spoken language makes greater use of shared knowledge than written language. Many words and constructions are characteristic of, especially informal, speech. There is an opportunity to rethink an utterance whilst it is in progress. However, errors once spoken cannot be undone. As such, the interlocutor must live with the consequences. Negotiation of meaning is common and often a large part of any conversation. Interruptions and overlapping are normal and are generally very common. Frequently displays ellipsis. Speech makes use of many formulaic expressions. Negotiation of topic is also very important: yes but«, anyway«, right then«, Interlocutors give and receive immediate feedback.

❖ Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning (involves producing and receiving and processing information) that is dependent on the context in which it occurs.

❖ Speaking is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.

❖ One of the central difficulties inherent in the study of speaking is that it overlaps with a considerable number of other areas and disciplines.

❖ The structure of a conversation culturally determined (related to pragmatics and ethnography) ❖ The grammar and vocabulary of speech different from other sorts of grammar (related to syntax and semantics)

❖ What are the critical factors in the stream of speech that make it intelligible (prosody, phonetics/ phonemics)?

Q: As a second language learner acquires a living language, what aspects other than grammar and vocabulary he needs to be acquired?

As a second language learner acquires a living language, a large number of aspects other than grammar and vocabulary also need to be acquired for successful communication to take place. These relate to culture, social interaction, and the politeness norms that exist in the target language. To learn to communicate expertly in another language a speaker must change and expand identity as he or she learns the cultural, social, and even political factors, which go into language choices needed to speak appropriately with a new ‘voice’.

Q: Write down Aspects of production in context of Spoken discourse and written discourse?

Aspects of production in context of spoken discourse include: Dynamic, Oral/aural, transient, unplanned, context dependent. Aspects of production in context of written discourse include Static, visual/motoric, non-transient, planned, de-contextualized.

Q: Write down Social Aspects in context of Spoken discourse and written discourse?

Social aspect in context of Spoken discourse includes: Primary, rhetorical, stigmatized, informal, inter-personal, locus of change Social aspect in context of written discourse includes: Secondary, logical, prestigious, formal, contractual, conservative

❖ Channel is a term used to describe the physical means by which communication takes place. ❖ In terms of speaking there is the oral/aural channel and in terms of writing the visual/motoric channel. ❖ Discourse can be studied in terms of the effects of channel on the language. These include the constraints of speech processing in real time versus the capacity to reflect and edit that the written channel allows. ❖ One of the commonest problems in oral presentations is information overload for listeners as they try to process densely informative language that has been prepared via a written text. ❖ This faculty is the universal linguistic form: speech. ❖ The spoken form is the basis for investigations in first language acquisition. ❖ Speech is also quintessentially the form in which the inter-personal functions of language are carried out and the form is subject to the benefits and disadvantages that stem from the way it is produced.

Q: Where Does Speech Fit in Language Studies?

The notion that humans have an innate, more recently articulated as a biological or genetic, language ability, which provides the basis for all language use no matter how seemingly These two opposing camps, one based on the notion of an innate cognitive model which sees the diverse, developed in the twentieth century in opposition to earlier behaviorist models. human child as ‘preprogrammed’ at birth to learn to speak, the other seeing learning as wholly dependent on an external stimulus, have a strong bearing on both the status of speech data in linguistic science and on theories of teaching language. The second half of the twentieth century saw the rationalist camp win the theoretical battle.

Q: What are the Historical Perspectives on Speaking?

Attitudes to the spoken form of language have waxed and waned since earliest available records of how and why speaking was taught. The art of speaking has been connected to the skill of persuasion, and the ability to influence others by means of rhetoric. The beginning and end of the nineteenth century show a marked change in the status of speech in the language teaching process. This was brought about in the transition from ‘grammar ranslation’ methods which dominated language teaching in the early parts of the century in Europe to what came to be termed the ‘Reform Movement’ which arose around the 1880s. The 1960s with the influence of the work of Noam Chomsky, and the 1970s and 1980s with the growth of ‘communicative’ approaches, marked two distinct sea changes in the field of language teaching both of which did much to underpin present attitudes to the spoken form. While these two threads are brought into commonality by research in the field of second language acquisition, they have marked differences in the emphasis they placed on speech in their thinking. On the one hand, the transformational grammar movement internalized and made abstract the language system to such an extent that actual speech became something of an irrelevance. On the other, the tenets of the communicative movement held that language was acquired by meaningful and interesting communication in contexts which mimicked real communicative settings as closely as possible

Q: What is phonological loop?

Having a good pronunciation of the language can help in normal communication, particularly intelligibility (Derwing and Munro, 2005). However that is not the only reason for developing a stable pronunciation of a new language. There is a very important mechanism involved in working memory called the phonological loop. In essence, the phonological loop is the brain saying a word or phrase over and over to itself in order to keep it in working memory or to help it move into long-term memory. A good example of this is the way we say a telephone number over and over to ourselves in order to keep it in memory while we go about dialing the number. If learners do not have a stable pronunciation for a word, it cannot easily enter long-term memory because it cannot be held in the phonological loop.

Q: What are the some aspect/characteristics of pronunciation?

Pronunciation includes the articulation of individual sounds and the distinctive features of sounds like voicing and aspiration, voice-setting features (Esling and Wong, 1983), and stress and intonation. Attention to these aspects also requires attention to the blending and omission of sounds, and the effect of the various aspects on intelligibility. Thus, although it can be very useful to provide practice with individual sounds, it is also important to give attention to other aspects of the sound system.

Q: What are the factors to change the fossilized pronunciation of advanced ESL learners proposed by Acton (1984)?

In trying to change the fossilized pronunciation of advanced ESL learners, Acton (1984) also took account of a wide range of factors. First, he placed much of the responsibility for change on the learners, requiring them to make the best use of their time out of class and to find opportunities for making pronunciation changes in their spontaneous speech. Second, he gave a lot of attention to helping the learners to deal with their attitudes and feelings as these affect their pronunciation. Third, he helped learners with the non-verbal behaviors associated with pronunciation like facial expression and gesture.

• Fourth, Acton provided opportunity for the controlled practice of sounds in formal exercises. Fifth, the learners were encouraged to make use of written pronunciation guides in dictionaries so that their pronunciation could be helped by conscious knowledge of the written form.

Once political issues have been considered, the usual approach is to set up a list of criteria that typify a good pronunciation (Brown, 1989). These criteria include intelligibility (Abbott, 1986) (to both native speakers and non-native speakers), identity (does the pronunciation identify the speaker with others he or she would like to be identified with?), ease of learning, acceptability by parents and the educational administration, and the availability of teachers and materials to support the wanted pronunciation.

❖ Stevick (1978) considers pronunciation and personal identity to be very closely related, and any teacher that