Teaching the spoken language : an approach based on the analysis of conversational English / Gillian Brown and George Yule.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Gillian.

Contributor:

Yule, George, 1947-

Series:

Cambridge language teaching library

Cambridge language teaching library.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers.

English language.

English language--Spoken English.

Physical Description:

xi, 162 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Summary:

Teaching the Spoken Language is about teaching the spoken language. It presents in a highly accessible form the results of the author's important research on teaching and assessing effective spoken communication. The authors examine the nature of spoken language and how it differs from written language both in form and purpose. A large part of it is concerned with principles and techniques for teaching spoken production and listening comprehension. An important chapter deals with how to assess spoken language. The principles and techniques described apply to the teaching of English as a foreign and second language, and are also highly relevant to the teaching of the mother tongue. The accompanying cassette contains extracts from original source recordings which are transcribed as examples in the book.

Contents:

1 The spoken language 1

1.1 Spoken and written language 1

1.2 Functions of language 10

1.3 Structured long turns 16

1.4 Spoken language models and feasibility 20

1.5 Feasibility

what can be taught? 23

1.6 Texts 24

2 Teaching spoken production 25

2.0 The production of spoken language 25

2.1 The aims of the course 27

2.2 Interactional short turns 28

2.3 Transactional turns 33

'Communicative stress' 34

Grading tasks: events in time 37

Grading tasks: descriptions and instructions 46

Grading tasks: the discoursal approach 50

Pronunciation and intonation 53

3 Teaching listening comprehension 54

3.0 'Listening comprehension ought to be naturally acquired' 54

3.1 Teaching listening comprehension 55

3.2 What might 'listening comprehension' mean? 58

3.3 Native listening: context and co-text 60

3.4 Native listening: strategies 69

3.5 Background: British background and culture 74

Background: the speaker's voice 76

3.6 Choosing materials 80

Grading materials: by speaker 80

Grading materials: by intended listener 82

Grading materials: by content 83

Grading materials: by support 85

Choosing materials: types of purpose 88

3.7 Approaching a text 89

3.8 Assessing listening comprehension 99

4 Assessing spoken language 102

4.1 Assessing spoken English production 103

4.2 Practical requirements 104

An assessment profile 104

The student's tape 105

Speech in different modes 107

Task types 108

The information gap 111

Scoring procedures 112

4.3 Principles underlying the methodology 117

Elicit speech which has a purpose 117

Elicit extended chunks of speech 118

Elicit structured or organised speech 118

Control the input 120

Quantify the notion of 'communicative effectiveness' 121

4.4 Task types and scoring procedures 122

Tasks: general conditions 122

Task type A Description 123

Task type B Instruction/description 126

Task type C Story-telling 131

Task type D The eye-witness account 138

Task type E Opinion-expressing 142

4.5 Can listening comprehension be assessed? 144.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 160-161.

ISBN:

0521253772

OCLC:

9852963