Teaching the Spoken Language

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this book 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

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements (p. vii)
• Preface (p. ix)
• Data: recorded materials and transcripts (p. x)
• 1 The spoken language (p. 1)
• 1.0 Preliminaries (p. 1)
• 1.1 Spoken and written language (p. 1)
• 1.2 Functions of language (p. 10)
• 1.3 Structured long turns (p. 16)
• 1.4 Spoken language models and feasibility (p. 20)
• 1.5 Feasibility--what can be taught? (p. 23)
• 1.6 Texts (p. 24)
• 2 Teaching spoken production (p. 25)
• 2.0 The production of spoken language (p. 25)
• 2.1 The aims of the course (p. 27)
• 2.2 Interactional short turns (p. 28)
• 2.3 Transactional turns (p. 33)
• 'Communicative stress' (p. 34)
• Grading tasks: events in time (p. 37)
• Grading tasks: descriptions and instructions (p. 46)
• Grading tasks: the discoursal approach (p. 50)
• Pronunciation and intonation (p. 53)
• 3 Teaching listening comprehension (p. 54)
• 3.0 'Listening comprehension ought to be naturally acquired' (p. 54)
• 3.1 Teaching listening comprehension (p. 55)
• 3.2 What might 'listening comprehension' mean? (p. 58)
• 3.3 Native listening: context and co-text (p. 60)
• 3.4 Native listening: strategies (p. 69)
• 3.5 Background: British background and culture (p. 74)
• Background: the speaker's voice (p. 76)
• 3.6 Choosing materials (p. 80)
• Grading materials: by speaker (p. 80)
• Grading materials: by intended listener (p. 82)
• Grading materials: by content (p. 83)
• Grading materials: by support (p. 85)
• Choosing materials: types of purpose (p. 88)
• 3.7 Approaching a text (p. 89)
• 3.8 Assessing listening comprehension (p. 99)
• 4 Assessing spoken language (p. 102)
• 4.0 Introduction (p. 102)
• 4.1 Assessing spoken English production (p. 103)
• 4.2 Practical requirements (p. 104)
• An assessment profile (p. 104)
• The student's tape (p. 105)
• Speech in different modes (p. 107)
• Task types (p. 108)
• The information gap (p. 111)
• Scoring procedures (p. 112)
• 4.3 Principles underlying the methodology (p. 117)
• Elicit speech which has a purpose (p. 117)
• Elicit extended chunks of speech (p. 118)
• Elicit structured or organised speech (p. 118)
• Control the input (p. 120)
• Quantify the notion of 'communicative effectiveness' (p. 121)
• 4.4 Task types and scoring procedures (p. 122)
• Tasks: general conditions (p. 122)
• Task type A Description (p. 123)
• Task type B Instruction/description (p. 126)
• Task type C Story-telling (p. 131)
• Task type D The eye-witness account (p. 138)
• Task type E Opinion-expressing (p. 142)
• 4.5 Can listening comprehension be assessed? (p. 144)
• Illustrations (p. 150)
• Bibliography (p. 160)
• Index (p. 162)