Research on the Teaching of Speaking

1. *
Article by: Michael McCarthy and Anne O’Keefe
Presentation by: Tabitha Waltman

2. * The influence of more corpora, or the collections of writings
on the teaching of speaking
* Native Speaker (NS) vs. Non Native Speaker (NNS) models for
spoken pedagogy
* Authenticity of spoken materials
* Approaches to understanding speaking in the classroom
* Texts and aspects of spoken language for teaching of
speaking
* Developments in materials and methods
* Teaching genres of spoken interaction
* Direction for the future of the teaching of speaking
*

3. * This is a database of speech, audio files, and
text transcriptions. It is used in linguistics to
look at phonetics, conversation analysis, and
dialectology. There are 2 types of spoken
corpus:
* Read speech which can include book excerpts or
news broadcasts
* Spontaneous speech such as dialogues and
narratives
*

4. * In the past the norm has been to use native
speakers as a model for spoken corpus but there has
been debate on whether to use non native speakers
also since learners may encounter them in real
world situations
* Data is collected using discourse completion tasks
(DCT) where learners are given prompts and asked
to speak and react to the given situation,
conversation analysis (CA) analyzes the speech in its
natural setting, questionnaires, recall protocols,
and role play
*

5. * Scripted dialogues used for classroom programs
such as audio CDs that go along with a
textbook have come under scrutiny. Although
there may be a good reason to use them, they
don’t allow the learner to experience the rich
and unpredictable structures and forms of
language. It is said that it doesn’t fully prepare
them for the real world situations they will
encounter
*

6. * Speaking tasks are usually done in IRF fashion. The teacher
initiates a conversation, the students responds, and the
teacher follows up.
* This method, while it can be useful to help students
participate in the classroom setting, encourages the learner
to be more passive.
* McCarthy argues that “listenership” or the role the listener
plays when they aren’t the main speaker, is an important
part of speaking. However, in follow up activities, the
learner gets few chances to do this as the teacher is the
person who takes on this role.
* It is suggested that “listenership” should move toward a
model that is peer-to-peer using the teacher as a model. (p.
30)
*

7. * Conversation analysis (CA) has been looked at
for the use of improving speaking.
* CA can be effective for allowing natural
speech. The downside is that talk can be
influenced by how the task is designed by the
facilitator.
* It can also be difficult to produce evidence of
learning over time in regards to speaking.
*

8. * Cognitive tasks focus on fluency, accuracy and
complexity of speech.
* Pre task planning can help with greater fluency and
complexity.
* Online planning allows more time for learners to
give responses and track progress.
* Repetition and recycling of material has been seen
to also increase fluency, accuracy, and complexity.
* The teacher’s role is important in guiding cognitive
tasks.
*

9. * Vygotsky developed the idea of scaffolding and the
zone of proximal development (ZPD).
* Scaffolding is the assistant given to the learner to
help understand difficult tasks.
* ZPD is the distance between where the learner is
and what the learner may achieve with proper
scaffolding which not only includes help from
teacher, but also the help from peers.
* Learners can play a key role in developing
scaffolding in order to understand tasks and help
with preparing the spoken language.
*

10. * Conversation analysis (CA)
* Initiation response follow
up analysis (IRF)
* Critical discourse analysis
(CDA)
* Systematic functional
linguistics (SFL)
* Speech Act Theory
* Pragmatics
*
* SFL may assist in analyzing spoken
discourse
* IRF focuses on speech produced
naturally and gives tools to adjust
the langauge
* CA can help students see how
conversations work like the act of
taking turns and sequencing of
topics
* CDA can help students see power
rules in conversations
* Speech Act Theory and pragmatics
helps teachers show when to apply
things like utterances, accepting
and rejecting. These can be done
through role play and simulations.

11. * Transcribed texts from an
audio source can be used to
help teach speaking.
* Students can be given a
portion of a transcribed text
and learners would be asked
to fill in the blanks with the
missing speech.
* Transcribe the recording
* Give background on the text
* Analyze text using a specific
approach or framework such
as IRF
* Identify specific teaching
points that occur from
analysis
*

12. * Based on the research conducted from different
fields of framework it is suggested that teachers
should use the following topics:
* Conversational rules and structures: This can
include conversational openings, closing, and topic
changes.
* Conversational strategies: This may include
paraphrasing, asking for repetition, or clarification.
* Functions and meaning of conversation:
Illocutionary acts such as requesting for something.
* Social and cultural contexts: Discussing social
norms of proper speech.
*

13. * Shumin (2002) suggests that teachers teach
small talk.
* Teachers should engage students about topics
such as the weather and show students how to
answer in short responses.
*

14. * Florez (1999) suggests planning speaking lessons to include
preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and extension.
*
*
*
*
*
During the preparation phase the teacher might show pictures of a
scene and students must hypothesize about what is being discussed
During the presentation stage students might be shown people
engaging in small talk.
The practice stage students might discuss simple dialogues based on
the research they gathered from previous stages.
During the evaluation stage students would compare their own
dialogue to that of a teacher prepared dialogue to discuss similarities
and differences.
An extension activity might be to have students explore conversation
outside of the classroom and reporting back to the class (34).
*

15. * Discussions can be overlooked at times in the ESL
classroom. Green (2002) suggests the following
approach (35).
* Discussion groups can be formed, topics are chosen,
and each student conducts research on the topic.
* Prediscussion involves a singular group discussion on
a given topic while other peer groups observe and
monitor.
* Postdiscussion is where feedback is given from
peers and the teacher
*

16. * Slade (1997) identified the following common
genres of talk: Narritives, anecdotes, exempla,
and recounts.
* Suggestions for teaching these genres can be to
read a story to students and stopping to ask
students to create their own ending.
*

17. * While more research should be done on the
social and cultural impact of speaking
activities, it seems that language learning in
terms of literacy is moving to involve written
and spoken speech.
* McCarthy, M., & O’Keefe, A. (2004). Research
in the teaching of speaking. Annual Review of
Applied Linguistics, 24, 26-43.
*

18. * 1. When teaching speaking in your classroom,
which teaching model or framework do you
believe would be most successful in your
classroom?
* How would you teach one of the following
topics: Conversation rules and structure,
conversational strategies, functions and
meaning of conversation, or social and cultural
contexts? How might proficiency and grade
level affect how you teach the lesson?
*