MODULE VII

TEACHING SPEAKING IN ANOTHER

SPEAKING LANGUAGE
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FEEDBACK

Faerch and Kasper (1983a:36) articulate that a communication strategy

is "a potentially conscious plan for solving what to an individual
presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative
goal".
Procedures language learners use to make up for gaps in their
knowledge and skill with the second or foreign language they are
learning.

Learners’ efforts to communicate successfully without the linguistic

tools needed to do so.
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES STRATEGIES EXPLANATION

leaving a message unfinished because of

Message abandonment
Avoidance or linguistic difficulties
Reduction
Strategies Topic avoidance
avoiding topic areas or concepts which
pose linguistic difficulties

Stalling or time Using filling words or gambits to fill in

Use of fillers/hesitation
gaining devices pauses and to gain time to think (e.g.,
strategies now, let me see…)
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES STRATEGIES EXPLANATION

Describing or exemplifying the target object or

Circumlocution action (e.g., the thing you open doors with for
describing keys)

Achievement or Using an alternative terms which expresses the

Compensatory Approximation meaning of target lexical items as closely as
Strategies possible (e.g., ship for describing sail boat)

Extending a general empty lexical item to

Use of all-purpose
words contexts where specific words are lacking (e.g.,
overuse of thing)
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES STRATEGIES EXPLANATION

Creating non-existing L2 word based on a

Word-coinage
supposed rule (e.g., paintist for painter)

Use of non-linguistic
means Mime, gestures, facial expressions
Achievement or
Compensatory
Translating literally a lexical item an idiom, a
Strategies Literal translation
compound word or structure from L1 to L2

Using a L1 word by adjusting it to L2

Foreignizing
phonologically (e.g., adding a L2 suffix)
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES STRATEGIES EXPLANATION

Code switching Using a L1 word with L1 pronunciation

Achievement or
Compensatory
Strategies Appeal for help
Turning to the conversation partner for help
directly or indirectly
HOW

TO

SPEAK
HOW TO SPEAK

What knowledge is required for speaking?

How can this knowledge be made available for use?

HOW TO SPEAK

KNOWLEDGE LINGUISTIC INFORMATION

AVAILABILIT READY TO USE

Y
KNOWLEDGE
• a core grammar: grammar is essentially a grammar of writing (a grammar of

sentences), not of speaking (a grammar of utterances)

• the linkers and, but and so and discourse markers such as well, you know, I mean …

• a core vocabulary of 1,000 to 1,500 high-frequency items: these will cover 90 per cent

of her day-to-day needs

• a core ‘phrasebook’ of Chunks, including time and place adverbials (two years ago,

the end of the day) and vagueness expressions (something like that).
KNOWLEDGE
• some strategies, such as the use of the formulae: it’s one of those things

that…, what do you call it? to get around the fact that occasionally there will

be words she doesn’t know

• one or two all-purpose quoting expressions, of the he said … and then I

said ... type

• some formulaic ways of performing common speech acts (such as

greeting, thanking, promising, etc.)

KNOWLEDGE

• some standard backchannel devices, i.e. the things we say when we are

listening to another speaker, such as Really? You’re kidding! etc.

• the strategic use of intonation to segment the flow of speech into

meaningful units, to flag new topics and to signal the ends of turns.
AVAILABILITY
Essentially, to ensure availability for use, there are three processes
involved:

• Learners need to become aware of features of the target knowledge-

base. AWARENESS
• They need to integrate these features into their existing knowledge-
base. APPROPRIATION
• They then need to develop the capacity to mobilize these features
under real-time conditions. AUTONOMY
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES

Focus on students’ knowledge gaps and how to help them

uncover or realize it.

The concept comes from cognitivist learning theory.

AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES

Three processes of awareness - raising

ATTENTION

NOTICING

UNDERSTANDING
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES

ATTENTION

• Students need to be on alert- interested, involved and curious.-

if they are going to notice features of the target skill.

AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
NOTICING

• Conscious registering of the occurrence of some event or entity.

• Students also notice the difference between their own
performance and the performance of the expert which is called
noticing the gap.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES

UNDERSTANDING

• The recognition of a general rule or principle or pattern.

AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
EXAMPLE

Present an anecdote that has a

CALL ATTENTION humorous or unusual outcome

Incorporate Ss. into the story with several

PROMOTE NOTICING instances of a narrative device. Introduce
new vocabulary.

SUPPORT Asking Ss. to underline each instance of the

UNDERSTANDING pattern in a transcript of the anecdote.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Using recordings and transcripts

• The results from being both scripted and performed is the lack of
authenticity.
• Although it makes the conversation sound a little artificial, there is
more chance that the construction will be noticed here than in the
authentic conversation.
 AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
How can the teacher put the recorded data to good practical use?

• Activate background knowledge: depending on the difficulty of the

content, it may help to establish the topic and/or the context of the speech event.

• Check gist: play and extract, or an initial segment of it, and ask general gist
question.

• Check register: it is often important to establish the register variables,

particularly the tenor of the speech situation.
 AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
How can the teacher put the recorded data to good practical use?

• Check details: depending to what extent the teacher wants to achieve

zero uncertainty.

• Listen and read: hand out the transcript. Replay the recording while
learners read silently.

• Resolve doubts: learner should be given the opportunity to ask about

problems they have about the text.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Focusing on Selected Language Features

• Focus on organization – to sensitize learners to the features of

spoken genres that may be unfamiliar to them, such as giving
business presentations, use the transcript to identify the macro-
structure of the genre.

• Focus on sociocultural rules – prepare two versions of a cross-

cultural encounter – one of which is successful – and one of which is
not successful.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Focusing on Selected Language Features

• Focus on performance effects – ask learners to use a transcript to

identify features of unscripted talk that result from its real-time
construction.

• Focus on communication strategies – script or improvise some

conversations where speakers use a variety of communication
strategies to achieve their goal.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Focusing on Selected Language Features

• Focus on discourse markers - script or improvise a conversation that

includes some common discourse markers such as well, so, oh.

• Focus on features of spoken grammar – such as ellipsis, heads and

tails, repetition.

• Focus on vocabulary – use a transcript of naturally occurring talk to

AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Using live listening

• listening to the teacher or a guest speaker

• teacher can adjust her talk according to her perception of the learners’
level of understanding, and the learner can interact to ask questions,
clarify details, and solicit repeats
• to raise awareness of features of spoken language, the technique that work
well is to combine the advantages of live listening with recorded listening,
and make a recording while ‘speaking live’
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Using noticing the gap activities

• activities aimed at raising awareness of the difference between the

learner’s current competence and the target competence.
• Learners can get important messages about their current state of
proficiency by attending to their own output, and by making comparison
between their output and that of others.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Using noticing the gap activities

• learners will only notice certain features of the L2 when they have reached
the developmental stage in which they are ready to notice them. So,
probably the most effective gap noticing is that which is initiated by the
learners themselves.
AWARENESS RAISING
ACTIVITIES
Using noticing the gap activities

• learners will only notice certain features of the L2 when they have reached
the developmental stage in which they are ready to notice them. So,
probably the most effective gap noticing is that which is initiated by the
learners themselves.