Arnold, J. 2000 - Speak Easy - How To Ease Students Into Oral Production
Arnold, J. 2000 - Speak Easy - How To Ease Students Into Oral Production
Arnold, J. 2000 - Speak Easy - How To Ease Students Into Oral Production
SPEAK EASY1
How to ease Students into oral Production
secondary and adult
Jane Arnold
University of Seville, Spain
Menu:
Imagine being in Chicago in the 1920’s, during the Prohibition era. You might find
yourself on a dark street, at the back door of a building, a Speak-easy. Inside
there would be drinking and gambling. But not everyone can get inside. To get the
door to open you have to “speak easy”, to say a password. However, one might
suspect a further meaning for the term and imagine that inside the Speak-easy,
once a person has had some of the then forbidden drinks, it might be easier to
speak.
Our foreign language classrooms are a long way from this scene but we are also
concerned with speaking. But what exactly is this activity that we often take so
much for granted yet find so difficult when learning to do it in a foreign language?
Speaking is using background and linguistic knowledge to create an oral message
that will be meaningful for the intended audience (Chastain 1988). It is taking
thoughts and putting them into words and saying them, with much of this process
being done unconsciously. There are, of course, special characteristics that
distinguish oral production, speech, from written production. Speaking is not
writing that we say aloud. It is greatly conditioned by the time factor: it involves
language produced spontaneously with false starts, repetitions, self-corrections
1
This article is a modified version of a paper presented at the III Jornades de Metodologia de la Llengua
Anglesa, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain, 15-17 November, 2001.
and, under normal circumstances, it disappears, leaving no record but traces in
memory. Another important distinction is that it is directed at a specific audience
in a face-to-face situation where we can make use of the here-and-now and we
can get immediate feedback from the listener(s).
The speaking skill is so central to our thinking about language learning that when
we refer to speaking a language we often mean knowing a language. For
example, we might hear some one say “Ask Olga to help you with your translation
of Tolstoy – she speaks Russian”, where what is really mean is knowing the
language and the skill of speaking is not involved at all. You can, of course, know
a language but not actually be able to speak it, just as you could know the rules for
playing football but not be able to put that knowledge to practical use by playing the
game yourself.
Bygate (1987:5) points out that speaking involves two different types of skills –
basic, lower level motor-perceptive skills, such as how to produce phonemes or
use irregular verb forms, and the decisions and strategies used in communication
such as what to say, how to say it (considering the conditioning factors of the
context as is dealt with in pragmatics) and what to do if problems arise to negotiate
meaning.
In the classroom a wide variety of activities pass for speaking. On the one hand we
have an exchange such as this:
This is an example of what I would call “Test Speak”. Here the teacher is only
concerned with practicing grammar and has missed an extraordinary opportunity to
develop communication on a topic which emerged and which would be of great
interest to the class. Kundu describes the situation in many classrooms: “Most of
the time we talk in class, hardly ever giving our students a chance to talk, except
when we occasionally ask them questions. Even on such occasions, because we
insist on answers in full sentences and penalize them for their mistakes, they are
always on the defensive” (Kundu in Lynch 1996:109).
Another possibility is “Talk TO” speaking. In this case, we have the teacher
talking to the class – giving a lecture, explaining grammar points. This may
be useful as it provides students with information and with language input,
but to develop the skill of speaking in the second language, we need not just
“talking TO” but also “talking WITH”. It is this, establishing opportunities for
true interaction, “Real Speak”, that should be the focus for developing
speaking in the foreign language classroom. Frank and Rinvolucri (1991:6)
stress the importance of bringing in this type of speaking, which is not
always a part of the coursebook:
If we consider the students in our classes to be more interesting than the
rather cardboard characters found in the traditional coursebook, it follows
that a real need exists for activities where the students are invited to speak
to each other and express their ideas... Practicing structures in this very
personal series of contexts is much more emotionally real than practising
them in the make-believe world of a textbook..
One way that foreign language learning differs from other subject matters such as
history or mathematics is that it is connected much more strongly to the learner’s
identity. Williams (1994:77) affirms that “there is no question that learning a foreign
language is different to learning other subjects. This is mainly because of the
social nature of such a venture. Language, after all, belongs to a person’s whole
social being; it is part of one’s identity” and, regarding speaking, this is crucial
because language “is used to convey this identity to other people”. Our self-image
becomes more vulnerable when our expression is reduced to infantilized levels.
This situation inevitably leads to anxiety.
Many researchers have pointed out that the skill producing most anxiety is
speaking (MacIntyre and Gardner 1991). Thus it would seem that in a second or
foreign language context speaking is definitely NOT easy. This anxiety comes in
part from a lack of confidence in our general linguistic knowledge but if only this
factor were involved, all skills would be affected equally. What distinguishes
speaking is the public nature of the skill, the embarrassment suffered from
exposing our language imperfections in front of others. The possibility of negative
affective feedback from the teacher can increase the anxiety significantly.
Oral production, as we have seen, is open to peer scrutiny, but so would be written
production which is, for example, put up around the classroom after a writing
activity. In both case, imperfection is evident to those who are exposed to our
linguistic production, be they listeners or readers. I would venture to say, though,
that even if written production were exhibited with the errors corrected in
intimidating bright red ink, it would still be less anxiety-provoking than speaking. It
seems that, even more than our difficulties with grammar or semantics, it is often
our concern with pronunciation that makes it difficult for us to speak..
Interestingly, Guiora found that one predictor of good pronunciation had nothing to
do directly with things more usually associated with phonetic ability, such as a
good ear for sounds. In his research (Guiora et al 1972a and 1972b) he concluded
that one factor that correlated to accurate pronunciation was empathy. When
learners are able to “put themselves into someone else’s shoes” – which involves
appreciating the identity of another person – it seems that this facilitates a
temporary narrowing of the ego boundaries (Ehrman 1999), the limits we establish
between what is “us” and “not us”, making it easier to hear ourselves – and have
others hear us – sounding “foreign”.
A series of studies by Guiora and his colleagues (Guiora et al 1972a) provided one
possible solution which might sound attractive but which has some obvious
difficulties for broad implementation. They found that pronunciation improved by
giving subjects an optimal amount of alcohol, which lowered inhibitions yet did not
affect cognitive control. In a later study (Guiora et al 1980) valium was used but
with inconclusive results; what was shown was that the person administering the
test made a significant difference for the learners. As Brown (1994) suggests, from
the days of these early studies, language teaching methdology has increasingly
sought to mitigate the effects of learner inhibitions and defense mechanisms by
creating classrooms where language learners feel comfortable enough to take the
risks involved in speaking. Lynch (1996:113) recognizes the importance of the
classroom climate for developing successful skills in communication: “Learners
are not neutral pawns in the teacher’s game, but individuals with positive and
negative feelings about themselves and others. One of the skills of teaching is
knowing how to create a positive atmosphere”.
Making speaking easier seems to have more to do with the affective side of the
learning process than with the cognitive. Stevick (1996:154) sees no magic cure
for speaking anxiety but he narrates a change in his own teaching as it evolved. In
his early years, like many young teachers, he focused mainly on linguistic content.
As he came to maturity as a teaching professional, he found that at the beginning
of a course it is more important to focus on students’ attitudes. Instead of asking
himself “What have they learned?”, he would start out wondering “How are they
learning?”. He was putting the affective horse before the cognitive cart. In a
landmark comment Stevick (1980:4) has provided what for many has been a key
understanding about the language learning process: “Success [in language
teaching] depends less on materials, techniques and linguistic analyses and more
on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom”, in other words,
the affective factors.
Voice
Looking at some specific ways to make speaking easier, on the most basic level
we might consider first of all the main channel for pronunciation, the voice. As
Maley (2000:vii) has said, “we are our voices. Our individual voiceprints are every
bit as distinctive as, and a great deal more public than our fingerprints... Others
judge us by them. It is through our voices that we tell others who – and how – we
are” (emphasis added). Teachers are not far behind singers, actors, news
broadcasters in their need for awareness of voice. Maley (2000:vii) states that “by
developing a confident, natural speaking voice, which can sustain prolonged use,
we have the capacity to change our relationships with our students”, and this can
affect the results in our classrooms since “through better understanding and control
of our own voices, we can share the benefits of voicework with our students. This
has the double benefit of making them both more confident and more motivated to
learn”.
To begin to work with students on voice Rinvolucri (in Maley 2000) suggests
having them do the following activity to develop awareness of their voice. Have
students fill out the questionnaire and then compare their answers with others.
MY VOICE
1. How many different ways have I listened to my own voice?
On a tape recording?
On a video film?
In my own head as I speak?
On an answering machine?
With a microphone?
Any others?
2. Am I a fast or slow speaker of my own language?
3. When do I speak faster? And when slower?
4. Do I tend to to speak softly or loudly?
5. When I speak in English do I change the speed or the loudness?
6. What is different about my voice when I speak in English?
7. Is my voice different at different times of the day?
8. Has anyone every commented on how my voice sounds to them?
9. Who is my favorite voice? (actor, singer, friend...)
What is it that makes their voice attractive to me?
(adapted from Rinvolucri in Maley 2000)
Further awareness work could be done with video. Select a short section of a film
with interesting voices and have students only listen to it and try to discover as
much as possible about the speakers just from their voices. Are they young or
old? How are they feeling? What kind of relationship do they have? Then they
can watch the video to see if their mental pictures were appropriate. They can also
decide if what Underhill (1999:134) refers to as speakers first voice (their words)
and second voice (tone, volume, speed, body language, gestures...) are
communicating the same message.2
2
See Appendix for further suggestions by Underhill (1999) for teachers to work with their voice and their
own speaking.
making mistakes with their pronunciation, leading to more natural sounding
English.
Listening
A second step in making speaking easier is has to do with listening. Speaking is,
except in special cases, such as making speeches, an interactive process and, as
such, it is imposssible to separate speaking from listening. Even though our main
concern may be promoting speaking we might remember Epictetus’ advice:
“Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we
speak”. Tannen (1989:12) notes that “conversation is not a matter of two (or more)
people alternatively taking the role of speaker and listener but rather that both
speaking and listening include elements and traces of the other”. To encourage
speaking, be a good listener. As teachers it can be very helpful for us to practice
active listening. Active listening encourages us to do the following: empathize with
the speaker, listen with attention to what the speaker says (both the verbal and
nonverbal language), show understanding nonverbally, respond nonjudgementally,
echoing in different words what you hear or sense, stay with the speaker, keeping
yourself out. We avoid agreeing or disagreeing, offering opinions or advice,
interrupting the speaker’s flow of thought.
To bring home to students the importance of listening for speaking, Hadfield (1992)
suggests this activity. Have students do a role-play in pairs. Each gets a card with
detailed instructions. Student A is to tell B about his/her problems with his/her
flatmates. B doesn’t listen, looking out the window, avoiding eye contact, etc.
Then the pairs get a new set of cards. This time A tells about another problem but
now B is an active listener, paying close attention, giving verbal and nonverbal
feedback. Afterwards, students discuss how they felt in each situation. This
activity makes evident what research (Blubaugh 1969; Höweler 1972, cited in
Stevick 1976) has shown, that agressive or unfriendly listener behavior influences
fluency in speaking in a negative manner.
A fourth way to facilitate speaking is with its concern for creating an atmosphere of
support and interdependence. In this respect, Cooperative Learning is an
approach to general education which, when applied in language teaching, can
greatly benefit the development of speaking. As learners work together and get to
know each other better, speaking is less intimidating. Many of the types of
activities of Cooperative Learning are effective preparation for real interaction, and
they have built-in mechanisms to solve some common communication problems in
a FL classrom. In Talking Chips, for example, each person in a small group
discussion task has a set of chips (or slips of paper) and for the given task when
someone wants to talk he or she must put a chip in the center. The same person
cannot talk again until everyone has contributed a chip and a comment so this
prevents students from remaining silent and avoids conversational monopoly.
Casal (2001) gives each student a set of chips with specific types of responses
they can make, using each only once:
EXPRESS A DOUBT
ANSWER A QUESTION
ASK A QUESTION
GIVE AN IDEA
ASK FOR CLARIFICATION
CLARIFY AN IDEA
RESPOND TO AN IDEA
SUMMARIZE
ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION
SAY SOMETHING POSITIVE ABOUT SOMEONE’S
IDEA
Learners would have been shown several ways to make the different responses
and in this activity they would have the opportunity to develop important
convesation sub-skills.
Similarly, offering learners the possibility of speaking from where they are as
individuals can make a great difference in their willingness to speak and their
fluency. As Rinvolucri (2001) says, language is a question of being and in general
course books at most lead students to “have” the language, not “be” in it. If we
search for ways to make personal what is done in the classroom, make it come
alive, students will be able to “be” in the target language. This importance of
personal relevance can also be seen in oral examination situations where students
asked to speak on a topic which doesn’t interest them generally do poorer than
when speaking about something they feel involved with.
Conclusions
A check list of some of the things we can do to make speaking easy might include,
among others, the following suggestions:
Let students begin to speak when they are ready. Then give them a chance to
speak – less teacher talk that is obtrusive and unnecessary and more room for
student talk. Similarly, let students have time to process what they want to say
before having to speak in front of others.
Aim for an appropriate level of difficulty and risk with speaking activities.
Don’t insist on perfect pronunciation, complete sentences, near native
grammar. Leave most accuracy work for other moments.
3
For application of the dogme cinema principles to language teaching, see the following web site:
www.teaching-unplugged.com
After any pre-communicative exercises needed to prepare learners, be sure to
focus on real communication tasks, not excuses for language practice.
Expect learners to be successful. Teachers expectations can have great
influence, positively or negatively, on learners.
When students speak, listen to the person, not only to the language.
With measures such as these, we can help our students to find the password to
get the door leading to communication to open up for them; we can help them to
“speak easy”.
APPENDIX
1. Can you begin to notice more about the way you speak to your class? Start by
noticing your words. Do you say more than you need? Do you repeat yourself?
Can you be succinct? Try to notice this at the moment you do it, not just in
retrospect.
2. For a few days notice features of your speech other than your words. For
example observe the tone of your voice, including intonation, timbre, softness,
harshness. Notice the volume at which you speak, and also how fast you
typically speak. What causes this? How do the tone, volume and speed
compare with the way you speak in the staffroom? And with your family? And
with your friends?
3. And what do you tend to do with silences? Fill them? Avoid them? Enjoy them?
Worry that the class will get out of control during them? I find it helpful to look
on silences and pauses as part of the words, rather than as something
separate. In general what other messages are carried by the way you speak?
4. I find it useful to distinguish between my first voice (my choice of words) and my
second voice (everything else including my volume, tone, speed, body
language, gesture, transmission of feelings). Then I can ask myself helpfully
provocative questions such as "Do my first voice and second voice say the
same thing?" and "If not, what is the effect on my students?" "Which is the one I
really mean, and which is the one they really listen to?" Can you try to monitor
both your first and second voice? If you can, try to notice when they say the
same thing, and when they give different messages.
5. From time to time during the day, when giving explanations or instructions in
your class, make some subtle changes just to confirm to yourself that you have
choices in addition to your habits. You could experiment with any of these: Be a
bit more succinct, then stop and listen. Notice if you get carried away with the
delightful sound of your own voice! Leave a few short pauses during which you
listen and observe. Deliberately lengthen your existing pauses by just a second
or so. Be behind your voice so that you speak with the force and warmth of your
full presence. Speak just a little more softly than usual. These are just
examples, but better still, experiment with small changes of your own.
(adapted from Adrian Underhill 1999 in J. Arnold (ed.) Affect in Language
Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
References