Materials for Developing Speaking

Irene T. Merino Sept. 20, 2012
M.A Ed-ELT ELT 505

Materials for Developing Speaking Skills

According to Bygate, Speaking skills maybe viewed into 2 basic aspects:
1)Motor Receptive Skills- involved mastering of sounds and sructures not necessarily in any particular context.
2) Interaction Skills-involves making decisions about what and how to say things in specific communicative situations to convey the right intentions to maintain relationships.

More research on language awareness suggest s that the teaching sequence does not have to be structured before the communication of meanings, but content –based activities can help learners to experience and and respond to meanings.Arguably, speaking skills are best developed when learners learn eventually to take control of their own performance from an insider persperctive rather than constantly dictated to by an outsider manipulation.

As viewed by Tomlinson, second language teaching materials can be treated not only by writers, but also by teachers and learners. In other words, the act of developing materials should be understood beyond the act of writing scripts for coursebooks, and in fact can bedynamic, creative process which stretches from the writers desk to real classroom. Tomlinson’s perecption coincides with Nunan’s vision that communication should be seen as process rather than a set of products. It is also closely related calls the “process syllabuss”. According to this syllabus, when materials are scripted by a writer, they appear in the form of a predesigned plan, which should not be final production yet but be open to reinterpretation by the users of that plan. In other words, the happening of task implementation in the classroom can serve as a poweful tool for relevant materials to be jointly discovered and created. Ideally, if materials are constructed for speaking skills, then the interactive process by the designer and the users should take place through speaking, since it would be unrealistic for participants simply to sit there and imagine silently how speech might work from written script.

Methodological Trends CLT has made the teaching od spoken language a good deal for inspiring, effective and meaningful, which is clearly the reason why the approach is still in use and coursebooks using it continue to sell.
1960s
while many theorists still emphasized the learning of the linguistic system as the main method to master the 2nd language(Johnson, 1982:8-22), criticism aimed at a mechanical language practice began to appear, and such expressions as communicative, meaningful activities started to emerge in many academic discussions.
1970s
continued to see the most explicit debate with the criticism of structural design, leading to what was regarded as many as the” communicative revolution”(McDonough and Shaw)

1980s began to witness many attempts to make the communicative approach less extreme, that is by laying emphasis merely on use and ignoring the learner's need for linguistic knowledge. Specific points of such reactions were criticism that in fact the new methodology was attempting to replace the structural approach. (Dubin and Olshtain, 1986;88); the criticism that in fact the new method had not made the learning of grammatical knowledge any easier than before and the appeal not to deny the value of structural framework in supporting rules for use.
1990s-
Saw the idea of multidimensional syllabus becoming more explicitly and systematically addressed, which opened up new possibilities for encompassing a more comprehensive series of teaching dimensions such as functions and notions, roles and skills, themes and situations. The main purpose of this kind of syllabus, as pointed out by Mcdonough and Shaw, is to build a range of communicative criteria at the same time as acknowledging the need to provide systematic practice in the formal proprieties of the language.

Trends in Materials for Speaking Skills Arguably, trends in material design tend to progress in parallel with trends in methodology. This should not surprise us , since the activities in coursebooks are precisely where principle and practice are brought together.In fact, materials have been indicators of how the key principles of communicative approaches are incorporated into speaking activities. Together with the changes in pedagocical principles, there have been gradual but constant efforts to improve how materials for speaking skills are designed. Speaking activities like a) In Streamline English, b). In Interchage-English for International Communication, c) In Language in-Use demonstrate a shift from the mechanical rehearsal of language structure to a more interactive exhange of factual information to a more dynamic processing of personal opinions. By and large, many conscious efforts for improvement made by course writers over the decades have enabled materials design to evolve towards increasingly sophisticated levels. Sometimes such an evolution causes practitioners to feel worried about how to handle all his sophistication effectively in teaching. However, materials development in recent years tend toprove the opposite:as course design becomes more thoughtful,it also tries to make the language teaching easier in the classroom by aiming for less teacher preparation.(e.g. by improving teachers’ manuals). Examining publishers’ claims over several decades is another way to recognize change in materials development. It shows us gradual transfer from a strictly communicative focus toward a more balanced view in teaching both grammar and communication, justtified on the grounds that form and use are not necessarily two opposing areas. For example, during the late 1960s and early1970s, such expressions as real life contexts, functionally based, meaningful and effective communication are to fill publishers claims, then, since the early 1990s, the key concepts have become systematic development in combination with other three skillls practice, core grammar structures,allowance for different learning styles and teaching situations. (Mcdonough and Shaw1993:22,25,46)

A Proposed Framework for Developing Materials for Spoken Language

1) Conceptualizing Learner Needs According to Brindley, it is important to look at both subjective needs and objectives needs in the learner. Subjective needs comprise such areasas the learners’ speaking proficiency, the learners’ speaking difficulties and real life conversational situations outside the classroom, all of which will help the teacher to decide what to teach. While objective needs include such aspects as personality,learning styles and preferences, wants and expectations of the course, all of which will help the to decide how to teach. Needs assessement, as suggested by Graves should be viewed as an on going process which takes place before , during and after the course. Seeking to know the learner needs after all, does not mean describing learners, but more importantly, it means actually involving learners in the process of developing materials and giving them a voice in their materials. 2) Translating Needs to Subject Matter and Communication Situations As learners reeal what they want to do with the target language,they also directly or indirectly imply the type of environments where the language is exercised. The more specifically learners state their needs, the more appropriately the subject matter can be established towards appropriate sets of topics,situations, functions,strategies, registers, and key structures as can the sources to build all these components with. In general, this step is a preliminary effort to outline the instructional content of the target language. 3) Identifying Verbal Communication Strategies Interaction strategies, styles and registers,features of spoken proficiency should be included in materials design for oral communication. Conversational strategies must be incorporated in teaching materials because they are essential tools to serve the communication of meanings. Methods like designing a task for leaners to act upon their interlocutor’s speech and building into materials many practial devices that cn help facilitate oral production and compensate for thosecommunication difficulties under time pressure, help learners to ealize how temporary and flexible spoken language can be and therefore that imperfection can be tolerated as part of the interactive process. 4) Utilizing Verbal Sources from Real Life Implementing and modifying materials help bridge the gap between plans and effects. To modify materials, we cal also uitlize many verrbal interactions taken from real life and in the classroom. Examples of these are: a) taping learners’ peer group interaction in the target language and analyziing it. b). Finding opportunities to compare naturally occuring conversations with designer versions which deal with the same topic. c) Keeping a diary might also be a realistic way to collect resources for desiging speaking activities. 5) Designing skills acquiring activities -Creating tasks that learners in three essential aspects: a) to acquire new language;b) to learn rules of interactions and to experience communication of meanings. It is through this classroom process that materials users promote conditions that enable them to be active contributors in task design. It helps the designers see where materials work and fail to work, which will hint at gaps for modification.

A Rationale for Effective Materials for Speaking Skills

1). Share and Process Information Sharing information means discovering missing information from one’s knowledge gap by learning about it from one or more partners. While, processing information means communicating by exchanging what belongs in learners’ individual by allowing learners to use their own backgrounds and personalities. It also involves such skills as expressing reactions and preferences, justifying opinions, suggesting solutions,making personal judgments and decisions-as well as extracting personalresponses from conversation partners.

2). Respect for LearnerControl of Meanings Communication Skills are best developed when learners eventually to take control of their own performance from their own perspective.Materials should return control to the learner and learners’ provide a topic for their own interests, raise a question, talk about their own experiences, bring into the classroom stories that they wish to share with others. The signiicance of creating opportunities for learners means allowing them to be involved in the materials developing process.

3). Potential for a Range of Learner Choices Good materials allow for learner choices. The range of decisions may involve learners choosing their role in a project that involves many partners. They might give learners a chance to adapt certain aspects of the subject matter. They should allow learners to assess and decide what they need and do not need from wht is provided. Good materials reflect a real-life communication, encourage learners to seek their own partners amd decide on the people they want and need to communicate with.

4). Concern for Learner Affectivity Learners tend to find it easier to articulate thei r ideas when they feel emotionally involved and enjoy what is going on. Good materials must therefore be inspiring enough to stir and enhance individual learners’ interests, needs and abilities as well as their affective involvement. Good materials should also be user friendly by allowing for the learning process to be fun.

5). Utililization of Individual Knowledge The content of speaking tasks should not be uninformed to learners that they do not fully understandthe topic and thus do not know how to discuss it. Conversely, good contents should not be so familiar to the learners that there is nothing left for learners to grapple with, and which contains little new information value.

6). Utilization of Ellipsis in Spoken Language Knowledge has to go through action to be transferred to skills. Materials for speaking skills must encourage and enable learners to process speech by experiencing use. It should also encourage learner awareness of the grammar of speech and help them to be conscious of the use of ellipsis in spoken language which is an essential grammatical feature of effective interpersonal exchange.

Aspects that Deserve More Attention

1) The Need for Reflection of Learner Identity is the opportunity to express their identity in the second language. Materials designers need to make a conscious effort to provide individual learners with the tools to reflect, to a certain extent, the type of people they are. Speaking tasks need to be created in the awareness of learners’ level of maturity and education, so that when verbalizing int he target language, a thirty year old intellectual does not have to sound like a three year old child. Much of this hass less to do with the linguistic levels than the type of language required to serve the subject matters of individual learners’interests as well as the kinds of strategies that help train them in discussing those matters.

2). The Need for Cultural Localization of Materials From a theorist viewpoint, it is not unreasonable sometimes to blame the poor instructional effect of the approach on the contextual constraints of many local educational systems. From the perspective of coursebook users, it is sometimes recognized that course materials with little flexibility have ignored the importance of localizing language tasks and have denied learner opportunities for contextual use.. Local users sometimes realize that their cultures have become marginalized and have little or no room for the materials. Breen and Candlin recommend that materials should have room for learners to express the values important to them.Materials developers need to take into consideration the difference of educational systemslearning conditions, teaching and learning styles, the students’ cultures of learning and differences in needs for language use in the job market.

-This article gave me a clear concept on the things that I have to consider when writing materials for developing speaking skills. I agree that speaking skills are best developed when learners have the freedom to express their feelings and opinions without being dictated or manipulated by the teachers or the expected outcome from the materials being used. I would also like to follow the framework for developing materials for spoken language because they would be of great help in designing my own materials. like identifying my learners strengths, difficulties,personality and learning styles-knowing these things would help me come up with the materials suited for the kinds of learners that I have. The more specifically learners state their needs, the more appropriately the subject matter can be established towards appropriate sets of topics,situations, functions,strategies, registers, and key structures. Considering the learners interests and abilities too would also be of great help because the learners would be more encouraged and participative if the topics or activities that they are having are those of their interests. There's a greater possibility that the learning would be more interactive, and lastly, the need for cultural localization of materials is another thing that I consider very important.
We need to need to take into consideration the difference of educational systems learning conditions, teaching and learning styles, the students’ cultures of learning and differences in needs. I hope to come up with speaking materials that would be of great help and that would cater to the needs of my Korean students.