11391 ORAL COMMUNICATION

Session 6: TEACHING ORAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS

PROFICIENCY LEVELS
HANU – UC MTESOL & FLT

Hanoi 2023
Discussion point 1
Proficiency descriptors

Read the descriptors in the following slides. Ask yourself the questions below.
• What is the purpose of the criteria?
• Are they useful?
• How can teachers use them?
Planning your class

Fluency & Accuracy

Activities and Tasks

Teacher’s role Authenticity of Teacher’s talk

language

Students’ cognitive learning process Student creativity

Listening &
Students’ level
Speaking Goal

Oral communication class

Discussion

Discuss how all impact factors listed work in an oral communication classroom?
Teaching beginning levels

• Students’ Cognitive Learning Processes

 Students’ processing with respect to the L2 itself is operating
 with very few background schemata;
 with little or no automaticity in producing or comprehending the new language;
Learners need to be led one small step at a time in these early stages, with adequate
repetition of new material.
• The Role of the Teacher
Beginning students are highly dependent on the teacher for models of language, and so a
teacher-centered or teacher-fronted classroom is appropriate for some of your classroom
time.
Teaching beginning levels

• Teacher’s talk
Your own English needs to be clearly articulated.
It is appropriate to slow your speech somewhat for easier student comprehension,
but don’t slow it so much that it loses its naturalness.
Use simple vocabulary and structures that are at or just slightly beyond their level.
It is appropriate to use the students’ L1 in the following:
 negotiation of disciplinary and other management factors,
 brief descriptions of how to carry out a technique,
 brief explanations of grammar points,
 quick pointers on meanings of words that remain confusing after students have
had a try at defining something themselves, and
 cultural notes and comments.
Teaching beginning levels

• Authenticity of language
It is important to present to students language that is as authentic as possible.
Simple greetings and introductions, for example, are authentic and yet easily
understood.
Utterances are limited to short, simple phrases.
• Fluency and accuracy
Fluency is a goal at this level but only within limited utterance lengths.
Attention to accuracy should center on the particular grammatical, phonological, or
discourse elements that are being practiced.
Teaching beginning levels

• Student creativity
The ultimate goal of learning a language is to be able to comprehend and produce it
in unrehearsed situations, which demands both receptive and productive creativity.
At the beginning level, students can be creative only within the confines of a highly
controlled repertoire of language. Innovation will come later.
• Activities and tasks
Short, simple techniques must be used.
Some mechanical techniques are appropriate—choral repetition and other drilling.
Group and pair activities are excellent techniques as long as they are structured and
clearly defined with specific objectives.
Teaching beginning levels

• Listening and Speaking goals

Listening and conversation functions for beginners are meaningful and authentic
communication tasks. They are limited more by grammar, vocabulary, and length of
utterance than by communicative function.
• Form-focused instruction
An inductive approach to grammar with suitable examples and patterns will be more
effective.
At this level some vocabulary items will be efficiently internalized through analogy
and meaningful use in different contexts. Others may require simple definitions with
synonyms, demonstration, or if appropriate, an L1 translation.
Teaching intermediate levels

• Student’s cognitive learning processes

Phrases, sentences, structures, and conversational rules have been practiced and are
increasing in number, forcing the mental processes to automatize.
Learners are also becoming accustomed to being weaned from the dependence of an
L1, so the temptation to think in the L1 is lessened.
Teachers can engage the students directly in the L2. Also, meaningful communication
in the L2 is increasing.
Teaching intermediate levels

• The role of the teacher

The teacher is no longer the only initiator of language.
Learner-centered work is now possible for more sustained lengths of time.
Carefully designed cooperative activities are used to capitalize on differences among
students.
• Teacher talk
Most of your oral production can be sustained at a natural pace, as long as your
articulation is clear.
Teacher talk should not occupy the major proportion of a class hour.
You should be using less of the native language of the learners at this level, but some
situations may still demand it.
Teaching intermediate levels

• Authenticity of language
Students sometimes become overly concerned about grammatical correctness. This
penchant might get them too far afield from authentic, real language. Make sure they
stay on the track, but still allow for some form-focused instruction.
Students may also be overly consumed with accent, thinking that they should strive
for “perfect” pronunciation.
Your goal is to help your students develop clear articulation of fluent speech.
• Fluency and accuracy
Fluency exercises (saying or writing a steady flow of language for a short period of
time without any self- or other-correction at all) are a must at this level.
Teaching intermediate levels

• Student creativity
The fact that some of this new language is now under control gives rise to more
opportunities for the student to be creative. Interlanguage errors are a good
indication of the creative application of a system within the learner’s mind.
When you hear persistent erroneous patterns in your students’ production, make
sure you help them to notice those errors and work on their eventual eradication.
• Activities and tasks
Techniques can increase in complexity.
Common interactive techniques for intermediates include chain stories, surveys and
polls, paired interviews, group problem solving, role-plays, storytelling, and many
others.
Teaching intermediate levels

• Listening and speaking goals

The linguistic complexity of communicative listening-speaking goals increases
steadily. Along with the creation of novel utterances, students can participate in short
conversations, ask and answer questions, find alternative ways to convey meaning,
solicit information from others, and more.
Students at this stage can often understand much more than they can produce.
• Form-focused instruction
Keep grammatical metalanguage to an ideal minimum at this level; otherwise, your
students will become English grammarians instead of English speakers.
Discussion point 5
Teaching advanced levels

• Student’s cognitive learning process

Students can realize the full spectrum of processing, assigning larger and larger
chunks to automatic modes and gaining the confidence to put the formal structures
of language on the periphery.
Some aspects of language, of course, need focal attention for minor corrections,
refinement, and other “tinkering”.
• The role of the teacher
A directive role on your part can create effective learning opportunities even within a
predominantly learner-centered classroom.
Teaching advanced levels

• Teacher talk
Natural language at natural speed is a must at this level. Make sure your students are
challenged by your choice of vocabulary, structures, idioms, and other language
features.
• Authenticity of language
Everything from academic prose to literature to idiomatic conversation becomes a
legitimate resource for the classroom.
Teaching advanced levels

• Fluency and accuracy

At this level most, if not all of your students are “fluent” in that they have passed
beyond the breakthrough stage and are no longer thinking about every word or
structure they are producing or comprehending.
If errors are relatively rare, an occasional treatment from you or from peers may be
quite helpful.
• Student creativity
Students are now able to apply classroom material to real contexts.
Teaching advanced levels

• Activities and tasks

Techniques can now tap into a full range of sociolinguistic and pragmatic
competencies.
Typical of this level are activities like group debates and argumentation, complex role-
plays, scanning and skimming reading material, determining and questioning author’s
intent, and writing essays and critiques.
Planning a lesson/course (the four strands)

• Meaning-focused input
• Meaning-focused output
• Language-focused learning
• Fluency development
(Nation, 2007)
Discussion point 6

Does my current teaching practice reflect Nation’s Four Strands?

How do I apply the Four Strands in my class?
References

1. Loewen, S. (2011). Focus on form. In Handbook of research in second language

teaching and learning (pp. 594-610). Routledge.
2. Nation, P. (2007). The four strands. Innovation in Language Learning and
Teaching, 1(1), 1-12.