JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.

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JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.es2

INTRODUCTION
Manyofusthinkthatcommunicationistalkingandtalkwe
do. We interrupt, advise, judge, analyze, criticize, argue, threaten,
etc.,etc.But,goodcommunicationrequiresgoodlisteningaswellas
talking.Infact,sincewehavetwoearsandonlyonemouth,listening
justmightbethemoatimportantskill.However,wereceivealmostno
training in good listening and usually do not realize that really
"hearing"someoneisnotapassiveactivity.
Tobeagoodlistener,wemust,first,payattention.Whenyouarespeakingandsomeone
isnotpayingattention,howdoyoufeel?Annoyed,frustrated,discounted,rejected,anxiousor
angry?Suchfeelingsusuallymakecommunicationmoredifficult.Sohowcanweshowsomeone
whoisspeakingthatwereallyarepayingattentiontothem?
Inthistopicwe'llconcentrateontheorallanguage,analysinginthefirstpartthemain
characteristicsofitandthedifferenceswiththewrittenlanguage.
In the second part of the topic, we'll go into detail about both types of oral language,
listeningandspeakingskills,examiningsomeoftheactivitieswecandoinordertoimprove
them.Welltakeintoaccountthatlisteningisareceptiveskill,whilespeakingisaproductiveskill.
Let's analyse first, as I said before, oral language. I will present some general
considerationsonitandwillcompareitwithwrittenlanguagesothatwecanappreciatetheir
differences.
1.ORALLANGUAGE
Whenweusethewordlanguage,wearereferringtothewordsyouchoosetouseinyour
speechsobydefinition,ourfocusisonspokenlanguage.Spokenlanguagehasalwaysexisted
priortowrittenlanguage.
Language is any formal system of gestures, signs, sounds, and symbols used or
conceived as a means of communicating thought. Language is important because it is the
primarymeansthroughwhichhumanshavetheabilitytocommunicateandinteractwithone
another.Intodaysworld,effectiveuseoflanguagehelpsusinourinterpersonalrelationshipsat
homeandatwork.Usinglanguageeffectivelyalsowillimproveourabilitytobeaneffectivepublic
speaker.
Anotherimportant aspect to understand about language is thatoral language (used in
publicspeaking)andwrittenlanguage(usedfortexts)doesnotfunctionthesameway.Tryabrief
experiment.Takeatextbookbandreaditoutloud.Whenthetextisreadaloud,doesitsound
conversational? Probably not. Public speaking, on the other hand, should sound like a
conversation.McCroskey,Wrench,andRichmondhighlightedthefollowingdifferencesthatexist
betweenoralandwrittenlanguage:

Orallanguagehasasmallervarietyofwords,andevenwordswithfewersyllables.
Orallanguagehasshortersentences.
Oral language has more selfreference words (I, me,
mine).
Orallanguagehasfewerprecisenumericalwords(one,
hundred),butusesmoreothertypeofquantifyers,such
asmany,few,orsome.
Orallanguagehasmoreextremeandsuperlativewords
(none,all,every,always,never)
Orallanguagehasmorerepetitionofwordsandsyllables,andusesmorecontractions.
Orallanguagehasmoreinterjections(Wow!,Really?,No!,Yourekidding!).
JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.es3

Orallanguagehasmorecolloquialandnonstandardwords.

These differences exist primarily because people listen to and read

information differently. First, when you read information, if you dont grasp
contentthefirsttime,youhavetheabilitytorereadasection.Whenweare
listeningtoinformation,wedonothavetheabilitytorewindlifeandrelistento
theinformation.Second,whenyoureadinformation,ifyoudonotunderstanda
concept,youcanlookuptheconceptinadictionaryoronlineandgainthe
knowledgeeasily.However,wedonotalwayshavetheabilitytowalkaround
withtheInternetandlookupconceptswedontunderstand.Therefore,oral
communicationshouldbesimpleenoughtobeeasilyunderstoodinthemomentbyaspecific
audience,withoutadditionalstudyorinformation.
Havingpaidattentiontotheorallanguage,letmestartnowwiththeexplanationofoneof
theoralskills:listening
2.LISTENINGCOMPREHENSION
Let us concentrate on the listening skill. It is a receptive skill and it wasn't until the
developmentoftheCommunicativeApproachinthe70'swhenthelisteningskilltookimportance
in the language acquisition. Some previous methods, such as the Direct Method and the
AudioLingualMethod,putemphasisintheoralcomprehension,butlisteningwasconcentrated
onthelowerlevels.
Nowadays it is accepted that listening plays an important role in Foreign Language
Teachingbecauseitprovidesagreatinputforthelearner,itallowsintroducingnewlanguageand
itcanprovideenjoyment.
Andwhatarethestagesinthelisteningprocess?Iwilltrytoexplainitnow
2.1Stagesoftheprocess
Theprocessofwritinggoesonthroughdifferentstages,whichwe'llanalyseasfollows.
Firstly,thepupilshavetoidentifythephonicandsyntacticpatterning,thatis,torecognisethe
familiarelementsinthemassofspeechwithoutbeingabletorecognisetheinterrelationships
withinthewholesystem.Then,thepupilsmustidentifyandselectthemwithoutretention,that
is, listening for pleasure with no questions to be answered. After that, SS must do an
identificationandguidedselectionwithshorttermretention,thatis,theyaregiveraprior
indicationofwhattheyaregoingtolisten.Theydemonstratetheircomprehensionimmediatelyin
somesortofexercise.Andthelaststageisthe identificationandselectionwithlongterm
retention,thatis,SSdemonstratetheircomprehensiondevelopingactivitieswhichrequirethe
useofthematerialpreviouslylearnt.
Andhowdoweplanalisteninglesson?Thatiswhatcomesnext
2.2Planningalisteninglesson
Inordertoachieveasuccessfuldevelopmentofthelisteningskill,itis
essentialtoplanitverycarefully.Alisteninglessoninvolvesfouraspects:
1. Whattolearn;wehavetodecidethelisteningskillstobedeveloped.
2. Howtoteach;theproceduretofollow.
3. Whatmaterialtouse; wehavetomakeachoiceregardingmaterials,andithastobe
madeaccordingtotwocriteria:
- Thelinguisticdifficultyofthelisteningtextand
- Thelearnersmotivation
4. Whatactivitiestodo;theyshouldalsobemotivatingandrelevanttothestudentsneeds.
JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.es4

Therearesomeguidelinesthatmaybeusefulwhenplanninghowto
developpupils'listeningskill,whichwellmentionasfollows:firstly,wemust
trytogivechildrenconfidence;secondly,wemusthelptheSStodevelop
the strategies for listening. They can use strategies such as predicting,
workingoutthemeaningfromthecontext,Finally,wemustexplainthem
whytheyhavetolisten;thismeansspellingoutwhichpartofthemessage
theyneedtofocusonandwhattheyaregoingtodobeforelistening,while
theylisteningorafterlistening.
Wewillnowfocusontwooftheaspectswhenplanningalesson,thelisteningsubskills
andthelisteningmaterials.
Butwhenweareworkingwithlisteninginclasswecandoitindifferentways,andthatis
preciselywhatIwillexplaininthefollowingpartinmytopic
2.3Listeningsubskills
Thelisteningsubskillsare:listeningtoconfirmexpectations,listeningtoextractspecific
information,listeningforgeneralunderstandingandinferringthespeakersattitude.
Listeningtoconfirmexpectations.Wecanaskstudentstopredictwhattheyaregoing
tolistenandthen,listentoittoconfirmtheirexpectations.
Listeningtoextractspecificinformation.Extractingspecificinformationwhenlistening
isamajorsubskillsinceagreatdealofwhatissaidinconversationisunnecessary.
Listeningforgeneralunderstanding.Studentslistentoconversationsinordertogeta
generalideaofwhatthemainpointsare.
Inferring the speakers attitude. An awareness of stress, intonation or any body
language, such as facial expression or gestures, will help the children to work out
meaning.
Arethereanytypeoflisteningmaterial?Letusseewhichtheyare.
2.4Listeningmaterials
Talking about the listening materials, the most useful ones are the songs, the video
recordings,theCDsandtheteacher.
1. Songs.Theychangethepaceofthelessonorintroduceculturalaspects.Theyreinforce
the learning process since they are very useful to review and learn vocabulary,
pronunciation,grammaticalstructuresandpatterns.
2. Video recordings: When using the video it is essential to choose the right technique
dependingonthepurpose:recognition,productionoracombinationofboth.Thereare
severalreasonsforusingvideotodeveloplisteningskills:
Itisamotivatingtypeofmaterial.
Thepupilsimaginationisfostered.
Thissortofcommunicationhasanimagecontext.
Paralinguisticfeatureshelpcomprehension.
3. CDs:Wecanusetapesadjustingtheleveltothepupilsneeds.
4. Theteacher.Thepupilslistentotheteachermostofthetime,sohe/
shemusthaveagoodpronunciation.
Thelastpartisthedifferenttypesofactivitiesandstrategieswecanuseinclass
2.5Listeningactivities
Thelisteningactivitiescanbedividedintoprelistening,whilelisteningandpostlistening
activities.Letusseeeachoneseparately.
JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.es5

Prelistening activities. These activities aim to warm SS up and

prepare themtoachievethemostfromthepassageand toarouse
theirinterest.Wecandistinguishthreetypesofprelisteningactivities:
predictionactivities,vocabularyexercisesandgrammarexercises.
Predictionexercises, forinstance:theSSaretoldthetopicofthe
listening passage and are asked to guess some of the words or
phrasestheythinktheymighthear.
Vocabularyexercises,forexampletheSSaregivenalistofwords
thatmightoccurinthelisteningtextandareaskedtolistenforwhich
onesoccurandwhichdonot.
Grammarexercises,suchasgapfillingexercises,involvinggrammaticalstructures.TheSSwill
checktheanswersfromthetape.
Whilelistening activities. Whilelistening activities aim to guide the pupils to handle the
informationinthepassage.Threetypesofexercisesaretobedistinguished:
Ear training activities help SS in distinguishing between key sounds, stress and intonation
patterns.
GloballisteningexercisesareaimedathelpingSStoconstructanoverallsenseofatextand
theyincludecompletingdiagramsorproblemsolvingactivities
Selectivelisteningactivities aredesignedtohelpSSderivespecificinformationfromatext.
ManygamesdependfortheirsuccessonSSlisteningcarefullytoeachother,e.g.Simonsays.

Postlisteningactivities.InpostlisteningactivitiesSStaketheinformationtheyhavegained
fromthelisteningpassageanduseitforanotherpurpose(composition,discussion).
Nowthisindepthanalysisofthelisteningskillhasfinished,letmeexplainnowthe
speakingskill
3.SPEAKING
Andbeforeexplainingitindepth,letmefirstdefinewhatitis
3.1Definitionoftheprocess
Asfollows,we'llconcentrateonthespeakingskill.Duringthefirsthalfofthiscentury,this
skillwasneglected,sinceintheFLteachingtheemphasiswasonthewrittenskills.
WhenSSarelearningaFL,theywantquickresults.Theywanttospeakandthat'sthe
mostimportantthingtothem.
Althoughthespeakercanchoosethelevel,speakingisoneofthemostproblematicalskills
sincesuccessfuloralcommunicationinvolvesmanythings:
Toknowsomegrammarandvocabulary. Fluency
Tomasterthesuprasegmentalfeatures. Abilitytomaketheforeignsounds.

WhenachildislearningaFL,heusuallymakesmistakes.Asolutionwouldbetoguideoral
practicetoavoidtheSS'mistakes,oratleasttotrythattheymakeas
few as possible. Then, the psychological aspect is important,
becausewhenchildrenrealisethattheycanspeakwithoutmistakes,
they'llbemotivatedtogoonspeakingproperly.
The main goal of speaking will be fluency, which can be
defined as the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably,
accuratelyandwithouttoomuchhesitation.
What activities can we use in class? That will be the next
sectioninthistopic
JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.es6

3.2Speakingactivities
Whenplanningaspeakinglesson,wemustbearinmindthat
speakingactivitiesshouldfulfillcertainrequirements:
Activitiesmustprovideopportunitiesforlanguagepractice.
Theymustbeinteresting.
Thesubjectmattermustbeclosetotheirlives.
Speaking activities fall into the following three categories:
activitiesbasedonrepetitionandimitation,controlledactivitiesand
autonomousinteraction.
Activities based on repetition and imitation. They are preparatory activities, intended to
preparelearnersforcommunicativeactivities.Drillsareanexampleofthistypeexercises.They
are usually very controlled and have a limited potential. The teacher will insist on accuracy,
correctingwhenstudentsmakemistakes.
1. Repetitiondrills;SSrepeatthesamplepatternaccuratelyandquickly;e.g."Iwenttothe
marketandIbought"
2. Substitution drills; SS replace a word / phrase of the model sentence by the cue
word/phrasegivenbytheteacher.
3. Transformation drills; e.g. putting affirmative sentences in the negative or active
sentencesinthepassive.
4. Guessingdrills;theygetSStotrytofindoutthroughguessing.
Controlled activities. Controlled activities help SS develop confidence and the ability to
participateinsimpleconversations.
1. Questionandanswerpracticeisoneofthecommonestwaysofgivinglanguagepractice
intheclassroom.
2. Othertechniquesare right/wrongstatements and corrections.SSareaskedtosay
whetherastatementisrightorwrongwithinthecontextofthetextand,ifitiswrong,they
givethecorrectversion.
3. A third technique can be stating consequences, in which the SS have to say what
happenedasaresultofaneventoractiondescribed.
Pairwork activities provide students with a greater amount of meaningful practice. There are
varioustypesofpairworkactivities:
1. Modeldialogueandkeywords:SSworkwith45relateddialogueswhichareusedto
producedifferentones
2. Ingappeddialoguesoneofthespeakershastosupplythemissingutterances.
3. Cuewords: SS are given cards with a number of cuewords on them, around which a
dialoguecanbemodelled.
4. Picture cards can be used for a range of activities, for
example they can use an object within a particular
environmentorforinstancelinktwoobjects.
5. Language games alsohelptoimprovespeakingskills,e.g.
Hideandseek,
6. Decisionmaking activities require SS to make certain
decisions.Theyemploytheinformationgapprinciple,thatis,
SShavetotrytofindoutwhateachhasdecided.
7. Nonpictorial aids such as maps, menus, radio and TV
programmesareanotherwayofgettingSStointeractusingfairlycontrolledlanguage.
JuanCarlosGuerreroFdez.OPOSICIONESINGLSPRIMARIA,SECUNDARIA,EOIjcarguerfer@yahoo.es7

8. Questionnaires with mixed structures are effective

ways of getting SS to draw on all their linguistic
resources.
Autonomous interaction. The last activities are related to
autonomousinteraction,thataimstogetfreeproduction.
Communicative activities provide the learners
opportunities to use the language for themselves. The
activitiesmustbegearedtothelearnersneedsandtheteachershouldformulatethetasksin
termsthatSScanunderstand.
a) Functionalcommunicationactivitiesinvolvethecommunicationofinformation.Theyhaveto
overcomeaninformationgaporsolveaproblem.E.g.:Discoveringidenticalpairs,discovering
missinginformationordiscoveringsecrets.
b) Socialinteraction activitiesinvolvesimulationandroleplay.Activitiessuchasopenended
dialogues,mappeddialoguesorroleinstructionsareveryusefultopracticethelanguagethat
isbeinglearnt.

Otheractivitiesarediscussionsandfluencyfocusedgames.

CONCLUSION
To summarise,inthistopicwe havedealtwith the oralskills(listeningandspeaking),
which,intheForeignLanguageAreacurriculum,arestressedoverthewrittenskills(readingand
writing).We'vegivensomeguidelinesinordertomakeaproperplanningandwe'vesuggest
someoftheactivitieswecandowhenteachingbothskills.

REFERENCES
ThetechniquesofLanguageTeachingbyBillows,F.L.
TeachingLanguageascommunicationbyWiddowson,H.G.OxfordUniversityPress.
TeachingOralEnglishbyByrne,D.Publishedin1986.
GettingStudentstoTalkbyGolewiowska,A.Publishedin1990.