Teaching Spoken Language
Essay title: The validity of using artificially constructed written text as the basis of language-learning activities aimed at the acquisition of oral skills is being increasingly questioned.
How do you use intensive text study in your teaching to practise oral skills? Do you think the methods you use are valid ones?
The Use of Short Texts for Production Purposes
Notes from a teacher development session given by Robert O'Neill.
Why use short texts?
- They are easy to use. Examples include life histories, typical days, future ambitions, descriptions of towns and places, and descriptions of people's appearance.
- They provide compression: a relatively small amount of text can provide a substantial amount of language for practice.
- They are transferable: material can be transferred from dialogue to text or from text to dialogue.
- They provide a permanent record, unlike a spoken dialogue which disappears as soon as it has been performed.
- They can generate more ideas.
- They can focus attention on a particular range of ideas.
What kind of texts?
- Parallels
- Rhetorical transformation
- Discussion and extension
A. Parallels
A short model text can provide a framework which learners adapt to their own circumstances. For example:
I was born in ...
... is a city/town in the west/east/south/central part of ...
When I was ..., I attended ... for ... years.
When I was ..., it was my ambition to ...
For the last ... years, I have been ...
The aim is not simply to reproduce the model, but to use its structure as a framework for producing new language.
B. Rhetorical Transformation
In rhetorical transformation, learners change the form of a text while retaining its essential meaning.
Example 1: You have written a letter of complaint, but decide to make the complaint by telephone. The manager's side of the conversation is provided, and the learner has to transform the written complaint into a one-sided telephone conversation.
Example 2: Read a description of an experiment. Then change the description into a set of instructions or directions, transforming passive constructions into active ones.
C. Discussion and Extension
A short text can also be used as a starting point for discussion and further production. Once learners have understood the text, they can be encouraged to extend its ideas, relate them to their own experience and produce language beyond the original text.
Examples of how I use short texts in the materials offered on this site
Each of the 22 chapters of my elementary-level graded reader First Time in England contains a short text, including elements of dialogue, with each chapter increasing gradually in difficulty. I use these texts to contextualise vocabulary, grammatical structures and language functions. The story follows the experiences of learners coming to England to study English, making it easy for learners to relate the language they are studying to situations they may encounter themselves.
For example, Chapter 1, Preparing for the Journey, focuses on Spanish student Rosa's decision about what to put in her suitcase. The writing and speaking practice that follows the text are based on the same situation and encourage learners to think and talk about what they would take with them to England. A central aim in writing the reader was to reflect a learner's experience as closely as possible, and this approach is maintained throughout most of the chapters.
I also use short texts in my published books, Prepare for Discussion (28 topics) and Extend Your Discussion (14 topics), to contextualise the core vocabulary learners need to discuss each topic fluently. For example, see the short text on the planning system.
Bibliography
English in Situations by Robert O'Neill [Oxford University Press]
This book broke new ground in the use of short texts for grammar presentation. It brought Robert O'Neill to the attention of English-language publishers and demonstrated a thorough command of the situational contexts in which language forms most frequently occur.
O'Neill's approach to structural syllabus design — developing the ability to generate language forms — was closely tied to situational context and narrative, providing learners with an opportunity to understand meaning and use.
This approach led to the immensely successful Kernel Lessons series, published by Longman.
If your school is still lucky enough to possess audio cassettes for Robert O'Neill's Kernel Lessons - Plus: Laboratory Drills and Tapescript and Kernel Lessons: Intermediate Recorded Drills: Tapescripts, then you have some of the best self-access material that you could offer learners who wish to produce grammar orally instead of plodding through written exercises confined to testing receptive knowledge at an unrealistically slow pace.