Chapter VIII Teaching Hearing and Speaking

The previous chapters dealt with the teaching of various aspects of the language, namely, phonetics (pronunciation), vocabulary, and grammar. The knowledge of each of the aspects is of great importance to learners. However, when we say a person knows the language we first of all mean he under­stands the language spoken and can speak it himself.

Language came into life as a means of communication. It exists and is alive only through speech. When we speak about teaching a foreign language, we first of all have in mind teaching it as a means of communication.

Speech is a bilateral process. It includes hearing, on the one hand, and speaking, on the other. When we say "hearing" we mean auding or listening and comprehension.

Speaking exists in two forms: dialogue and monologue.

We may represent it as follows:

Oral language: hearing

&

speaking: dialogue

&

monologue

ORAL LANGUAGE AS AN AIM AND A MEANS OF TEACHING

The syllabus requirements for oral language arc as follows:

(1)to understand the language spoken;

(2)to carry on a conversation and to speak a foreign lan­guage within the topics and linguistic material the syllabus sets.

This is the practical aim in teaching oral language. But oral language is not only an aim in itself, it is also a mighty means of foreign language instruction. It is a means of pre­senting linguistic material: sounds, words, and grammar items. It is also a means of practicing sentence patterns (grammar) and vocabulary assimilation. Finally, it is used for developing pronunciation habits and skills and, there­fore, for reading and writing since they are closely connected with pupils' ability to pronounce correctly what they read and write. Thus speaking is the most important part of the work during the lesson.

Oral language is a means of testing pupils' comprehension when they hear or read a text. Properly used oral language ensures pupils' progress in language learning and, conse­quently, arouses their interest in the subject.

THE MOST COMMON DIFFICULTIES IN AUDING AND SPEAKING

A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Auding or listening and comprehension are difficult for learners because they should discriminate speech sounds quickly, retain them while hearing a word, a phrase, or a sen­tence and recognize this as a sense unit. Pupils can easily and naturally do this in their own language and they cannot do this in a foreign language when they start learning the language. Pupils are very slow in grasping what they hear because they are conscious of the linguistic forms they perceive by the car. This results in misunderstanding or a complete failure of understanding.

When auding a foreign language pupils should be very attentive and think hard. They should strain their memory and will power to keep the sequence of sounds they hear and to decode it. Not all the pupils can cope with the difficulties entailed. The teacher should help them by making This work easier and more interesting. This is possible on condition that he will take into consideration the following three main fac­tors which can ensure success in developing pupils' skills in auding: (1) linguistic material for auding; (2) the content of the material suggested for listening and comprehension; (3) conditions in which the material is presented.

1. Comprehension of the text by the ear can be ensured when the teacher uses the material which has already been assimilated by pupils. However this does not completely eliminate the difficulties in auding. Pupils need practice in listening and comprehension in the target language to be able to overcome three kinds of difficulties: phonetic, lexical, and grammatical-Phonetic difficulties appear because the phonic system of English and Russian differ greatly. The hearer often interpret the sounds of a foreign language as if they .were of his own language which usually results in misunderstanding. The fol­lowing opposites present much trouble to beginners in learn­ing English: [w – v, t – d, s –z, s – θ, θ – ð, f – v].

Pupils also find it difficult to discriminate such opposites as:[ ə: — о, a: — Λ,

i: — i, u: — u].

They can hardly differentiate the following words by ear: worked — walked; first — fast — forced; lion — line; tired — tide; bought — boat — board.

The difference in intonation often prevents pupils from comprehending a communication- For example, Good /morning (when meeting); Good \morning (at parting). The teacher, therefore, should develop his pupils' ear for English sounds and intonation.

Lexical difficulties are closely connected with the phonet­ic ones. Pupils often misunderstand words because they hear them wrong. For example: The horse is slipping. The horse is sleeping. They worked till night. They walked till night.

The opposite; are often misunderstood, for the learners often take one word for another. For example: east — west, take — put; ask — answer. The most difficult words for auding are the verbs with postpositions, such as: put on, put off, put down, take off, see off, go in for, etc.

Grammatical difficulties are mostly connected with the analytic structure of the English language, and with the exten­sive use of infinitive and participle constructions. Besides, English is rich in grammatical homonyms, for example: to work — work; to answer — answer; -ed as the suffix of the Past Indefinite and the Past Participle.

This is difficult for pupils when they aud.

2. The content of the material also influences comprehen­sion. The following factors should be taken into consideration when selecting the material for auding:

The topic of communication: whether it is within the ability of the pupils to understand, and what difficulties pupils will come across (proper names, geographical names, terminology, etc).

The type of communication: whether it is a description or a narration. Description as a type of communication is less emotional and interesting, that is why it is difficult for the teacher to arouse pupils' interest in auding such a text. Nar­ration is more interesting for auding. Consequently, this type of communication should be used for listening comprehension.

The context and pupils' readiness (intellectual and situa­tional) to understand it.

The way the narrative progresses; whether the passage is taken from the beginning of a story, the nucleus of the story, the progress of the action or, finally, the end of the story. The title of the story may be helpful in comprehending the main idea of the text. The simpler the narrative progresses, the better it is for developing pupils' skills in auding.

The form of communication; whether the text is a dialogue or a monologue. Monologic speech is easier for the learners, therefore, it is preferable for developing pupils' ability to aud.

3. Conditions of presenting the material are of great
importance for teaching auding, namely;

The speed of the speech the pupil is auding. The hearer cannot change the speed of the speaker.

There are different points of view on the problem of the-speed of speech in teaching auding a foreign language.' The most convincing is the approach suggested by N. V. Elukhina. She believes that in teaching auding the tempo should be slower than the normal speed of authentic speech. How­ever this slowness is not gained at the expense of the time required for producing words (that might result in violating the intonation pattern of an utterance), but of the time re­quired for pauses which are so necessary for a pupil to grasp the information of each portion between the pauses. Gradually the teacher shortens the pauses and the tempo of speech becomes normal or approximately normal, which is about 150 words per minute. According to the investigation carried out by L. Tzesarsky the average speed for teaching auding should be 120 words per minute; the slow speed — 90 words per minute.

The number of times of presenting the material for auding: whether the pupils should listen to the text once, twice, three times or more. Pupils should be taught to listen lo the text once and this must become a habit. However they sometimes can grasp only o0?6 of the information and even less, so a second presentation may be helpful. In case the pupils cannot grasp most of the information, practice proves that manifold repetitions when hearing do not help much. It is necessary to help pupils in comprehension by using a "feed back" estab­lished through a dialogue between the teacher and the class ' which takes as much time as it is required for the repetitive presentation of the material.

The presence or the absence of the speaker. The most favourable condition is when pupils can see the speaker as is the case when the teacher speaks to them in a foreign language. The most unfavourable condition for auding is listen­ing and comprehending a dialogue, when pupils cannot see the speakers and do not take part in the conversation.

Visual "props" which may be of two kinds, objects and motions. Pupils find it difficult to aud without visual props. The eye should help the ear to grasp a text when dealing with beginners.

The voice of the speaker also influences pupils' compre­hension. Pupils who get used to the teacher's voice can easily understand him, but they cannot understand other people speaking the same language.

Consequently, in teaching listening comprehension the teacher should bear in mind all the difficulties pupils encoun­ter when auding in a foreign language.

(Speaking a foreign language is the most difficult part in language learning because pupils need ample practice in speaking to be able (o say a few words of their own in connec­tion with a situation. This work is time-consuming and pupils rarely feel any real necessity to make themselves understood during (he whole period of learning a new language in school The stimuli the teacher can use are often feeble and artifi­cial. The pupil repeats the sentence he hears, he completes sentences that are in the book, he constructs sentences on the pattern of a given one. These mechanical drill exercises are, of course, necessary; however, when they go on year after year without any other real language practice they are deaden­ing. There must be occasions when the pupils feel the necessity to inform someone of something, to explain something, and to prove something to someone. This is a psychological factor which must be taken into account when teaching pupils to speak a foreign language.

Another factor of no less importance is a psycho-linguistic one; the pupil needs words, phrases, sentence patterns, and grammatical forms and structures stored up in his memory ready to be used for expressing any thought he wants to. In teaching speaking, therefore, the teacher should stimulate his pupils' speech by supplying them with the subject and by teaching them the words and grammar they need to speak about the suggested topic or situation. The teacher should lead his pupils to unprepared speaking through prepared speaking)

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH

The development of speaking follows the same pattern both in the mother tongue and in a foreign language from recep­tion to reproduction as psychologists say, and from hearing to speaking if we express it in terms of methodology.

Since "language is not a substance, it is a process." (N. Brooks) and "language doesn't exist. It happens." (P. Strevens), we should know under what conditions "it happens". What are the psychological characteristics of oral language? They are as follows:

I. Speech must be motivated, i, е., the speaker expresses a desire to inform the hearer of something interesting, impor­tant, or to get information from him. Suppose one of the pupils is talking to a friend of hers. Why is she talking? Because she wants to either tell her friend about something interesting, or get information from her about something important. This is the case of inner motivation. But very often oral speech is motivated outwardly. For instance, the pupil's answers at an examination.

Rule for the teacher: In teaching a foreign language it is necessary to think over the motives which make pupils speak. They should have a necessity to speak and not only a desire to receive a good mark. Ensure conditions in which a pupil will have a desire to say something in the foreign language, to express his thoughts, his feelings, and not to reproduce someone else's as is often the case when he learns the text by heart. Remem­ber that oral speech in the classroom should be always stimulated. Try to use those stimuli which can arouse a pupil's wish to respond in his own way.

2. Speech is always addressed to an interlocutor.

Rule for the teacher: Organize the teaching process in a way which allows your pupils to speak to someone. to their classmates in particular, i. c., when speaking a pupil should address the class, and not the teacher or the ceiling as is often the case. When he retells a text which is no longer new to the class, nobody listens to him as the classmates arc already familiar with it. This point, as one can see, is closely connected with the pre­vious one. The speaker will hold his audience when he says something new. something individual (personal). Try to supply pupils with assignments which require individual approach on their part.

3. Speech is always emotionally coloured for a speaker expresses his thoughts, his feelings, his attitude to what he says.

Rule for the teacher: Teach pupils how lo use into-national means to express their attitude, their feelings about what they say. That can be done by giving such tasks as: reason why you like the story; prove something; give your opinion on the episode, or on the problem con­cerned, etc.

4. Speech is always situational for it lakes place in a cer­tain situation.

Rule for the teacher: While teaching speaking real and close-to-real situations should be created to stimu­late pupils' speech. Think of the situations you can use in class to make pupils' speech situational. Remember the better you know- the class the easier it is for you to create situations for pupils to speak about.

These are the four psychological factors which arc to be taken into account when teaching speech.

LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SPEECH

Oral language as compared to written language is more flexible. It is relatively free and is characterized by some peculiarities in vocabulary and grammar. Taking into consid­eration, however, the. conditions in which the foreign lan­guage is taught in schools, we cannot teach pupils colloquial English. We teach them standard English as spoken on the radio, TV, etc. Oral language taught in schools is close to written language standards and especially its monologic form. It must be emphasized that a pupil should use short sentences in monologue, sentence patterns which are characteristic of oral language. We need not teach pupils to use long sentences while describing a picture. For example: The boy has a long blue pencil in his left hand. The child may use four sentences instead of one: The boy has a pencil. It's in his left hand. The pencil is long. It is blue.

Pupils should be acquainted with some peculiarities of the spoken language, otherwise they will not understand it when hearing and their own speech will be artificial. This mainly concerns dialogues. Linguistic peculiarities of dialogue are as follows:

1. The use of incomplete sentences (ellipses) in responses:

—How many books have you?

—One.

—Do you go to school on Sunday?

—No, I don't.

—Who has done it?

—Kick has.

It does not mean, of course, we should not teach pupils complete forms of response. But their use should be justified,

—Have you seen the film?

—Yes, I have seen this film, and I am sorry I've wasted two hours.

—Did you like the book?

—Yes, I liked it very much.

2. The use of contracted forms: doesn't, won't, can't,
isn't, etc.

3.The use of some abbreviations: lab (laboratory), mike (microphone), maths (mathematics), p. m. (post meridiem), and others.

4.The use of conversational tags. These are the words a speaker uses when he wishes to speak without saying any­thing. Here is both a definition of conversational tags and an example of their usage in conversation (they are in italics).

"Well, they are those things, you know, which don't actually mean very much, of course, yet they are in fact neces­sary in English conversation as behaviour."'

Besides, to carry on a conversation pupils need words, phrases to start a conversation, to join it, to confirm, to com­ment, etc. For example, well, look here, I say .... I'd like to tell you (for starting a talk); you see, you mean, do you mean to say that .... and what about (for joining a conversation); / believe so, I hope, yes, right, quite right, to be sure (for confirm­ing what one says); / think, as jar as I know, as jar as I can see, the fact is, to tell the truth, I mean to say (for commenting), etc.

There is a great variety of dialogue structures. Here are the principal four:

1. Question — response.

—Hello. What's your name?

—Ann. What's yours?

—My name is William.

2. Question — question.

—Will you help me, sonny?

—What shall I do, mother?

—Will you polish the floor today?

—Is it my turn?

—Yes, it is. Your brother did it last time.

—Oh, all right, then.

3. Statement — statement.

—I'd like to know when he is going to come and see us.

—That's difficult to say. He is always promising but never comes.

—It s because lie is very busy.

—That's right. He works hard.

4. Statement — question.

—I'm going to the theatre tonight.

—Where did you get tickets?

—My friend got them somewhere.

—How did he do it?

—I don't know.

In school teaching only one structure of dialogue is usually used, i.e., question — response. More than that, pupils dialogues are artificial and they lock, as a rule, all the peculiarities mentioned above.

In teaching dialogue in schools it is necessary to take into account these peculiarities and give pupils pattern dialogue, to show what real dialogues look like.

HOW TO TEACH ORAL LANGUAGE

In teaching oral language the teacher has to cope with two tasks. They are: to teach his pupils to understand the foreign language spoken and to teach them to speak the language.

SPEECH AND ORAL EXERCISES

We must distinguish speech and oral exercises for they are often mixed up by the teacher.

Speech is a process of communication by means of language. For example, (1) a pupil tells the class a story about something which once happened to him; (2) the teacher asks questions on the story read by the pupils at home and starts a discus­sion; (3) pupils speak on the pictures suggested by the teacher, each tries to say what others have not mentioned; (4) pupils listen to the story and get some new information from the text; (5) they see a sound film and learn about something new from it, etc.

(Oral exercises are used for the pupils to assimilate pho­netics, grammar, and vocabulary. They are mostly drill exercises and the teacher turns to them whenever he works at enriching Pupils' knowledge in vocabulary and grammar, at improving Pupils' pronunciation, etc. For example, reciting a rhyme or a poem is considered to be an excellent oral exercise for drill­ing pronunciation and for developing speech habits. Making up sentences following the model is an excellent oral exercise for fixing a sentence pattern and words which fit the pattern in the pupils' mind. .Making statements with (he words or phrases the teacher gives is another valuable oral exercise which allows the teacher lo retain them in his pupils' memory through manifold repetitions.

Oral exercises are quite indispensable to developing speech. However, they only prepare pupils for speaking and cannot be considered to be "speech" as some teachers are apt to think and who are often satisfied with oral exercises which pupils perform following the model; they seldom use stimuli for developing pupils' auding and speaking in the target language. In order to get a better understanding of what speech is we arc to consider the psychological and linguistic charac­teristics of speech.