1. Research In the
Teaching of
Speaking
Lauren Matarazzo
Fall 2014
ESL-501

2. Focuses on 6 main areas
relevant to teaching of
speaking and current debates
 Growing influence of spoken Corpora
 Debates concerning Native and nonnative
speaker models
 The issues of authenticity in spoken materials.
 Modeling Speaking in the classroom.
 Descriptive frameworks and the teaching of
speaking
 Spoken language materials in the classroom.
 Teaching distinct genres of spoken
interaction.

3. The Growth of Spoken
Corpora
 What is Spoken Corpora?
 Utilizes computer-based corpora (large
databases of real-world language) as its primary
source.
 Spoken Corpora remains unchanged and
there is no shift in the paradigm, but there has
been advances.
 Spoken corpus size
 Number of languages that now boast spoken
corpora
 Applications that have taken corpus linguistics
beyond its roots in stylistics and lexicography

4. Native & nonnative speaker
models
 There has been a shift from Native speakers as
the sole model for spoken pedagogy to
having both Native and nonnative speakers
model.
 Many argue that Native speakers are by
nature the best person to teach his/her
foreign language.
 Some argue that Varieties and cultures
“Never master, or ever own.” and it is difficult
for nonnative speakers to own what they
teach.

5. Spoken Language to
Speaking
 Imbalance between spoken language
and speaking.
 Should and do speaking materials reflect
naturally occurring spoken language ?
What is the importance of teachers and
learners perceptions of real speech
samples?
 Do learner output reflect authentic
spoken patterns?

6. Authenticity and Spoken
Materials
 Increase in recording technology and naturally
occurring conversations and dialogues produced in
the classroom. However, these are all scripted.
 Scripted dialogues rarely reflect the unpredictability
and dynamism of conversation.
 Students that only encounter scripted spoken
language, have less opportunity to increase or
extend their speaking.
 Students will be unprepared for unforeseeable
interactions both inside and outside of the classroom.
 Textbook dialogues lack core spoken language
 Lacks three part exchanges in question and answer
sequence.

7. Modeling Speaking in the
Classroom
 Fails to give opportunities for tacking the
complex demands of everyday
conversation.
 Teachers exercise the follow up role, while
students remain in the passive,
respondent roles.
 Teachers can help their learners to
become actively involved in interaction.

8. Conversation Analysis and
Speaking Tasks.
 Understanding and improving speaking in
pedagogical contexts.
 Continually growing
 Local choices unfold in interaction and
home in on aspects of talk which are
relevant to the participant themselves.
 Factors of task design and execution can
influence the resultant talk.

9. The Vygotskian perspective on
Speaking
 Perspective feeds into speaking pedogogy.
 Scaffolding is the cognitive support provided
by an adult or other guiding person to aid a
child or learn.
 Helps child/learner make sense of difficult
tasks.
 Teachers and students interactively co-construct
the arena for development. It is not
predetermined and has no limits.
 Meaning is created in dialogue during goal
directed activities.

10. Descriptive Frameworks and
the Teaching of Speaking
 Casual conversation cannot be taught
explicitly because it is unstructured.
 Speaking needs to be taught explicitly
 The awareness should not be judge by
the amount of speech learners produce,
but the depth of understanding of
speaking and why they make the choices
they do.

11. Spoken Language Materials in
the Classroom
 Selecting Spoken Texts for Classroom use
 Teachers using spoken data in the
classroom should:
 Transcribe a recording
 Give background information
 Analyze the text using an analytical
approach.

12. Teaching Distinct Genres of
Spoken Interaction
 Small Talk
 Interactional talk such as talk about the weather, traffic, etc,
create a sense of social communion.
 Only required 1 or 2 utterances at a time.
 Discussions
 Neglected in ESL classroom
 3 stage format recommended
 Discussion groups are formed
 Groups discuss
 Peer feedback
 Narratives
 Rarely represented in language teaching materials.
 Can be taught explicitly
 Stories are a familiar way of gaining language

13. Discussion Questions
What are some of issues with the
authenticity in spoken materials? What
can teachers do to add authenticity to
Spoken materials?
Why do you think there are so many issues
with nonnative speaking students being
able to master or own new culture?