UNIT 7. ORAL LANGUAGE.

THE COMPLEXITY OF GLOBAL

LISTENING COMPREHENSION: FROM HEARING TO ACTIVE,
SELECTIVE UNDERSTANDING. MOVING INTO SPEECH: FROM
IMITATION TO FREE PRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

1. THE ORAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE

a. Characteristics of oral language
b. Aspects and development of oral language
2. THE COMPLEXITY OF THE COMPREHENSION OF THE
GENERAL MEANING IN ORAL INTERACTION
a. From hearing to active and selective listening
b. Guidances to prepare listening tasks
3. BEGINNING TO SPEAK
a. From imitative reproduction to autonomous
production
b. Methodology to practice oral expression
4. CONCLUSION
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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 INTRODUCTION

Language teaching nowadays is based on the idea that the goal of foreign language acquisition
is communicative competence, that is, the ability to use the language correctly and
appropriately to achieve communication aims. A competent language user should possess not
only knowledge about the language but also the ability and skill to activate that knowledge in a
communicative event, which is the desired final result of the foreign language learning
process.

Language is now generally seen as a dynamic resource for the creation of meaning. According
to Nunan (1989), we need to differentiate between knowing various grammatical rules and
being able to use the rules effectively and appropriately when communicating. With
communication as the centre of the curriculum, the goals of that curriculum (individuals that
are capable of using the target language to communicate with others) and the means
(classroom activities which develop this capacity) must be taken into consideration in the
classroom syllabus.

Using a foreign language requires having four linguistic skills, which are related to each other
by two parameters: the mode of communication (oral or written) and the direction of
communication (receiving or producing the message).

LANGUAGE SKILLS ORAL WRITTEN

RECEPTIVE Listening Reading
PRODUCTIVE Speaking Writing

Foreign Language Area Curriculum mentions a sequence which must be followed when
teaching the different skills: the oral skills are stressed over written skills, taking into account
the natural order in which children learn their mother tongue. When dealing with the
designing and monitoring of communicative tasks, we have to consider all the skills conjointly
as they interact with each other in natural behaviour. In real life as in the classroom, most
tasks of any complexity involve more than one skill. However, it is fundamental to take into
account the most significant characteristics of each skill in order to carry out a specific
methodology in the foreign language classroom. In this topic we focus on listening and
speaking skills.

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 THE ORAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE

As it has been mentioned before, the acquisition of an adequate oral communicative

competence in the foreign language constitutes one of the educational systems’ main
challenges for this century. Oral language provides the foundation for literacy development.
English language learners need daily opportunities to learn and practice oral English in order to
develop their literacy skills.

The adoption of communicative approaches in foreign languages teaching has signified, for the
scholars, a significant improvement in the effective acquisition of oral competences. The last
proposals to make suitable the curricular development of foreign languages in the Spanish
educational system agree with the following approach: the appropriation of foreign languages,
like the acquisition of our own daily life languages, is not the result of an academic teaching
but a cultural appropriation.

It has taken many years to give the oral language the importance it deserves in foreign
language learning, because oral language would be acquired automatically by the child.
However, the command of oral language is fundamental for the later acquisition of written
language.

English language students learn the foreign language primarily by listening to language in use
around them, while using context to figure out what the spoken words mean. This language
serves as the input that learners internalize and use to express their own meanings in their
interactions with others. It is important to consider that many students go through a “silent
period”, during which they listen and observe more than they speak. Main aspects of oral
expression and comprehension will be developed in this topic.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORAL LANGUAGE

It is important to keep in mind some of the most significant characteristics of the oral language
in order to carry out a specific methodology in the English classroom. It is fundamental to
know the differences between writing and speech. We will consider many of the differences
between the two modes of language that may result in differences in the skills and knowledge
necessary for successful communicative competence development. Three categories of
differences will be considered, according to Schallert, Kleiman and Rubin (1977), each in a
separate section: differences in the physical natures of speech and writing, differences in the

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uses of speech and writing and differences in characteristics of the language generally found in
speech and writing, although these three categories are not completely separable.

DIFFERENCES IN THE PHYSICAL NATURES OF SPEECH AND WRITING

There are three noticeable physical differences between speech and writing:

 Speech provides auditory information and writing provides visual information

 Speech is generally temporary while writing is permanent. In speech prevails the
spontaneity and the speed, so it is more difficult to engage in complex advanced
planning. From the logical and structural point of view, written language is better
organized, as it allows continuous revision and reflection.
 Speech has prosodic features (rhythm, stress and intonation) while writing does not.
Prosodic features provide listeners with information helpful to comprehension in
several ways. The writing system cannot directly represent these features of speech.
Only a very few graphic conventions relate to prosody, such as question marks.
Readers must compensate for the lack of prosody in text.

DIFFERENCES IN THE USES OF SPEECH AND WRITING

 The situations in which speech and writing are used are different. Oral language is
time-bound, dynamic and transient. It’s usually a part of an interaction in which both
participants are present, and the speaker has a specific addressee in mind. However, in
most of the cases, the writer does not know who the addressee is, so that there is little
expectation of a reply.
 Participants in oral interactions are in a face-to-face contact and share the same
situational context. Oral communication makes use of paralinguistic features like body
language, facial expressions and gestures. Some situations in which speech is used do
not allow interactions between the speaker and the listener (such as television) and
some do not provide a mutual non-linguistic context (e.g. telephone conversations).
However, the speech that is most frequently encountered by young children has one
or both of these characteristics, and the lack of them in writing may present some
problems to the novice reader.
 Purposes of written and spoken communication are different: besides being used in
different situations, speech and writing also differ in the types of things they are
generally used to communicate. While exceptions can be found, there is a strong

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 tendency for speech to be used for informal social communications and writing for
formal informational communications, and for speech to be less detailed and precise
than writing.

DIFFERENCES IN THE LANGUAGE USED IN SPEECH AND WRITING

Studies have found that the actual language used in writing tends to differ in a variety of
characteristics from that used in speech. Writing contains longer and less common words, as
well as a larger diversity of words. In addition, writing tends to be less redundant than speech,
syntactically more complex and more detailed and precise than speech. However, the usage of
these features is determined by the context or situation of the communication process.

ASPECTS AND DEVELOPMENT OF ORAL LANGUAGE

Oral language is the system through which we use spoken words to express knowledge, ideas,
and feelings and it is the child’s first, most important, and most frequently used structured
medium of communication. It involves a process of utilizing thinking, knowledge and skills in
order to speak and listen effectively.

To know what the course of oral language development is, it is very important to identify the
language structure components:

The meaning component of language structure (called the semantic component) includes
one’s knowledge of the conceptual categories of that language and the words lexicon that
express those concepts.

Not all the meaning in language is elemental. Much of it is relational. The syntactic component
of language structure includes our knowledge of the relationships among the items within
sentences and how to express those relationships.

The basic universal way of expressing meanings in a language is through a string of verbal
sounds. Our knowledge of the sound system (the phonological component) helps us recognize
the sound combinations that occur in our language.

In summary, then, to know a language is, among other things, to have an abstract and complex
knowledge system of the semantic, syntactic and phonological components of our language
and how these components relate to one another.

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Some language experts would add a fourth component: pragmatics, which deals with rules of
language use. Pragmatic rules are part of our communicative competence, our ability to speak
appropriately in different situations.

For students learning English as a foreign language in school, oral language development plays
a key role. To optimize classroom oral language learning opportunities, it is necessary to make
time each day for students to talk to each other while working in a variety of situations.
Teachers need to take into account language forms, functions and social contexts (the social
context consists of the social setting, the speakers, and the social and power relations among
them and it affects choice of language form for a given language function or purpose) when
they focus on their students’ oral language.

As we discuss students’ oral language proficiency, we will refer not only to language forms but
also to language functions. It is important to develop specific activities in the English classroom
to expand students’ ability to use language to carry out a variety of communicative functions.

The beginner phase of foreign language development starts immediately on exposure to the
new language. Early on, the child may neither understand nor speak a word of English. Soon,
however, language comprehension develops as a result of opportunities for social interactions
with speakers of the new language and the comprehensible input that is generated. Although
it is important not to force beginners to speak, the fact is that shortly, most students will
naturally begin to speak on their own.

As beginners develop, they are able to produce utterances according to simple grammatical
rules, enabling them to carry out various tasks according to their own needs and purposes. It is
essential to organize the classroom in ways that encourage the two most significant elements
of oral language development: comprehensible input and social interaction.

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE COMPREHENSION OF THE GENERAL

MEANING IN ORAL INTERACTION

As it has been stated before, listening is an essential skill, present in most of the activities we
carry out throughout our lives. Listening is a complex process due to its double psychological
and social nature.

In the following we summarise the most essential aspects as far as oral comprehension is
concerned. To do so it is important to distinguish between reciprocal and non-reciprocal
listening. Reciprocal listening refers to those listening tasks where there is the opportunity for

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the listener to interact with the speaker. Non-reciprocal listening refers to tasks where the
transfer of information is in one direction only (from the speaker to the listener). Anderson
and Lynch (1988) emphasize the complexity of listening comprehension by pointing out that
the listener must simultaneously combine the following skills:

 Identify spoken signals from the midst of surrounding sounds.

 Segment the stream of speech into words
 Grasp the syntax of the utterance(s)
 Formulate an appropriate response

They point out that in addition to these linguistic skills, the listener must also command a
range of non-linguistic knowledge and skills. These include having an appropriate purpose for
listening; having an appropriate social and cultural knowledge and skills; having the
appropriate background knowledge.

FROM HEARING TO ACTIVE AND SELECTIVE LISTENING

Taking into consideration that listening skill plays a vital role, active listening and effective
communication are two fundamental learning goals. Rather than mere hearing improves the
overall comprehensive ability.

The listening process involves six stages that occur in sequence and rapid succession: hearing,
attending, understanding, remembering, evaluating and responding.

Hearing is the first stage and it is referred to the response caused by sound waves stimulating
the sensory receptors of the ear; hearing is the perception of sound, not necessarily paying
attention.

Attention refers to a selection that our brain focuses on. The brain screens stimuli and permits
only a select few to come into focus.

Understanding consists of analyzing the meaning of what we have heard and appreciating
symbols we have seen and heard.

Remembering means that an individual, in addition to receiving and interpreting the message,
has also added it to the mind’s storage bank even if what is remembered may be quite
different from what was originally heard or seen.

In the next stage, evaluating, the listener assesses the message that has been received. It is at
this point when active listeners weigh evidence, sort fact from opinion and determine the
presence or absence of bias of prejudice in a message.

Finally, responding is a step in which, according to the response, the speaker checks if the
message has been received correctly. This stage requires that the receiver complete the
process through verbal or non verbal feedback, because the speaker has no other way to
determine if a message has been received.

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Active listening must be distinguished from passive listening. In active listening, the listener
has a specific responsibility. Passive listeners generally listen less discriminately and with
decreased personal involvement. Thus, active listening must be differentiated from passive
listening by the extent to which the listener becomes involved in a given situation.

When dealing with the listening process, it must be mentioned that there are two possible
ways of performing the tasks according to whether they require the learner to engage in
“bottom-um” or “top-down” processing (Richards, 1987). The difference between them is the
following: for the Top-down process, learners take into account the context and do not need
to pay attention on specific details while in bottom-up listening process, students have to pay
attention because specific details are very important to understand the whole meaning.

GUIDELINES TO PREPARE LISTENING TASKS

 It is necessary to clarify the goals (aspects of communicative competence that the task
is intended to contribute to), the input data, the instructional questions, the
procedures and the predicted outcomes.
 The difficulty will be influenced by the following (Anderson and Lynch, 1988):
o The organization of information
o The familiarity of the topic
o The type of referring expressions used
o The explicitness and sufficiency of the information
o Whether the text describes “static” or “dynamic” relationships
 The pattern:
o Pre-listening would be the first stage, where the context is established
o Listening, where learners do the mentioned task or find the answers.
o Post-listening, the part where students have the opportunity to check their
answers and consolidate what they have learnt.
 It is important to adapt the activities to include authentic talk in order the classroom
activities to become more closely related to the sort of language learners will need to
use outside the classroom.
 The steps of the task should be broken down in order to provide the learning objective
step-by-step. Students should listen several times, each one with a different aim.
 The amount of oral or written production required should be decreased, admitting
non-verbal responses or limiting written responses by accepting “yes/no questions”.

BEGINNING TO SPEAK

Emphasis in oral communication in the FL classroom started with the Direct and the Audio-
Lingual methods. When dealing with speaking skill it is important to distinguish between two
basic language functions: these are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned
with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primary purpose
of speech is the maintenance of social relationships. In this topic we focus on the interactional
function of the language.

This skill is complicated due to the fact that speakers have to interpret not only the message,
but they also have to take the paralinguistic features (such as stress or intonation) into
account. In addition, in a face to face interaction, the speaker can use a whole range of facial
expressions, gestures and general body language to help them convey the message.

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 FROM IMITATIVE REPRODUCTION TO AUTONOMOUS PRODUCTION

When dealing with speaking skill it is fundamental to follow a pattern, taking into
consideration the students’ level, characteristics and needs:

The first stage of oral expression is the presentation stage, in which assimilation of the
language used take place and phonetic, structural and