REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

Who should decide what type of English is spoken?

How can you encourage students to accept varieties of English from
around the world?

 e idea that there are only two types of English, British and American,

has been found faulty; one of the authors discovered this view from a child’s

remark when observing an English class in Mongolia. During the break, a

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young girl who heard her chatting with the teacher inquired about the

author’s home country. A er pointing to New Zealand on the map, the girl

exclaimed, “Oh! But you sound quite educated.” Authentic, or “real,” English

is not only the English spoken in the United States, but is also the English

spoken in countries such as Chad, Chile, and China. Teachers of English are

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encouraged to draw on and celebrate the rich and diverse varieties of the

language used around the world today (Alsago , McKay, Hu, & Renandya,

2012; Jenkins, 2006).

In This Book
To meet the needs of students, teachers of oral English have three main

tasks: (1) discover how speaking works, (2) look for ways to introduce


students to the language of conversation, and (3) provide students with

opportunities to practice speaking English. is book aims to prepare

teachers for these three tasks.

Chapters 2 and 3 examine how speaking works through learning what it

means to be a communicatively competent speaker of a second language

(L2). Chapter 2 focuses on linguistic and discourse competence and

speci cally covers language forms and how to put those together into

conversational contexts. Chapter 3 addresses sociocultural and strategic

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competence, looking at how to carry on a conversation appropriately and

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successfully despite cultural di erences and language barriers.

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e nal four chapters move from theory to classroom application,

exploring di erent approaches to designing speaking activities and lesson

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plans (chapter 4), using speaking to teach content (chapter 5), describing

some of the challenges inherent in the teaching of speaking in di erent

contexts (chapter 6), and enhancing students’ learning outside of class and

assessing speaking (chapter 7).

 CHAPTER 2

Language Forms in
Conversational Contexts

Some people learning to speak a new language nd it diffi cult to get words

out of their mouth, although what comes out is accurate; for others, the

words come out and even ow somewhat, but these speakers make many

mistakes.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
As a language student, what aspects of speaking an L2 (such as
vocabulary, pronunciation, or organizing your ideas) did you find most
difficult? Did your classmates struggle in the same area?
What aspects of speaking do your current students struggle with? How
do they differ from your own?

Communicative Competence
In the next two chapters, we will examine what communicative competence

is and how it relates to the teaching of speaking. Communicative language

teaching (CLT) was developed decades ago to emphasize the importance of

using spoken and written language for real-world communication. Critics

observed that some teachers took no notice of accuracy in language,

although CLT does include a focus on grammar. In fact, its intention was to

include all aspects of communicative competence, which, according to

Canale and Swain (1980), includes vocabulary learning (lexis), sentence

structure (syntax), the meaning of words (semantics), and sounds

(phonology) of a language.
 In addition to linguistic competence, other aspects of communicative

competence include discourse competence (whether speech is coherent and

cohesive), sociolinguistic competence (whether language is appropriate to

the context), and strategic competence (whether a speaker can repair a


conversation when it starts to break down).

e following sections explore two aspects of learning to speak: language

forms (linguistic competence) and how to put language together into the

context of conversations (discourse competence).

Language Forms
In the past, popular methods of language teaching (such as the grammar

translation method) primarily focused on accuracy of language. In many

classrooms, the focus of English study is still mastery of grammar or

vocabulary with little emphasis on communication. When people take part

in conversations, however, they do not have time to consult a dictionary and

correct their language. CLT emphasizes real-world speaking by preparing

students not only to study English as an academic task, but also to use it in

conversations. Studying language communicatively results in well-developed

grammar knowledge as well as better communication skills (Savignon,

2005).

Fluency and Accuracy


Although the focus of CLT is to allow students to use the language uently,

this does not preclude activities intended to improve accuracy. A er all,

uency without some level of accuracy is not uency at all.

On the other hand, simply focusing on accuracy will not necessarily lead

to uency.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
Which do you think is more important, fluency or accuracy? Should
teachers focus more on one or the other in a speaking class?
 Depending on the focus of an activity or lesson, the primary goal may be

uency, accuracy, or a combination of the two. Arevart and Nation (1991)

found that uency and accuracy may both improve at the same time. In

conducting a 4–3–2 activity (see Table 2.1) generally associated with uency,

they found that students’ uency and accuracy both improved.

Fluency can be encouraged when teachers

use material that is familiar to learners, such as grammar or vocabulary

they have already learned;

use repetition so students repeat an activity or use the same language

again in a similar context; and

apply some pressure on students (not enough to make them unduly

nervous) to perform the task slightly faster than normal.

In environments where students do not have easy access to English

outside of the classroom, more time may need to be spent in class on uency

activities. A number of classroom activities that improve uency are

included in Table 2.1 as well as in subsequent chapters.

Table 2.1. Activities to Promote Fluency

Activity Explanation

4–3–2 Students work in pairs and present information

or a story to a partner. The first round, the
student has 4 minutes to complete his or her
turn. The second round allows 3 minutes, and
the final round 2. The student shares the same
information during each round but in a shorter
amount of time. This activity can be adapted
for lower-level students who struggle to speak
for four minutes by reducing the time for each
round and can be more engaging if partners
switch for each round.

Improving recordings Students describe a picture or answer a

question while recording, then listen to the
recording and note areas where improvements
are needed. Students continue to rerecord until
they are satisfied.
 Rehearsed speeches Students prepare a talk alone and then either
record themselves and self-evaluate or
practice with classmates before presentation in
front of a larger group, such as the entire class.

Consensus building Students must come to an agreement that

involves compromise or negotiation. It may be
a problem-solving activity or a ranking activity
(e.g., which candidates should be selected for
jobs out of the provided applications).

Adapted from Nation and Newton (2009) and Bohlke (2014).

Most English teachers agree that uency is as important as accuracy in

authentic communication. Letting students know which parts of the lesson

involve answering correctly and which parts are to practice conveying one’s

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message using a range of communication strategies helps them to note

di erent foci during activities. Remind students that making mistakes is part

of the language acquisition process, and make it clear when you will focus

on error correction and when you want students to use the language they

have.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
How can you assure students that making mistakes is part of the
language learning process?
Do any cultural barriers to fluency or accuracy Activities exist in your
context?

Corrective Feedback
Related to the discussion of uency and accuracy is error correction in the


speaking classroom. Students who are experimenting with a new language

will make mistakes. ey are using their interlanguage (Selinker, 1972), their

personal language that combines features from both their rst language (L1)

and their second (L2).

Teachers aim to nd the balance between too little and too much

feedback on student errors. An abundance of error feedback can cause

students to stop trying to communicate. At the other end of the spectrum,

too little can lead to students’ assuming that an error is correct.

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One way to balance the amount of feedback is to focus only on global

errors, or those that a ect understanding (Hendrickson, 1980). If the goal is

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to help students to be intelligible, you can use this as a guide for when to

give error correction: Does the error a ect intelligibility or make it so the

listener cannot understand the intended meaning? Another option is to

focus on errors that have recently been the topic of instruction.

Error correction can be given in ways that do not humiliate learners. For

example, you can address common errors to the whole class and not target

one student. You can also create a classroom environment where errors are

viewed as common and expected aspects of language learning and the

correction of errors is part of the regular learning process. If students

understand that you are helping by providing respectful feedback, then they

will hopefully view errors and feedback more positively.

Lyster, Saito, and Sato (2013) organized corrective feedback types into

either reformulations, where the teacher gives the correct utterance to the

student, or prompts, where the teacher elicits the correction from the

students. Each of these may be either implicit or explicit. See Table 2.2

Many teachers will combine more than one form of error feedback. For

example, a teacher might repeat the error and then correct the error.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
What type of feedback on errors do you think is most effective?
How do you generally respond to student errors?

Table 2.2. Feedback Types

Implicit Explicit

Reformulations Conversational recasts: Didactic recasts: Restating

Restating the utterance the utterance when
in conversation, communication is not
generally when impacted
communication breaks Example
down