ENG 345 Wk 8 - Teaching of Speaking and Listening

SUMMARY

Brown Chapters 18, 19

Chapter 18 was entitled "Teaching Listening". Brown talks about input and uptake according to Krashen (1985). He also discusses types of spoken language. Brown also discusses what makes listening difficult and points out eight characteristics of spoken language that attention needs to be paid to (p 304-306). He then discusses listening performance in the classroom (p 308-310). And finally some principles for teaching listening skills (310 - 312).

Chapter 19 was entitled "Teaching Speaking". In this chapter Brown discusses some of the theoretical foundations of teaching speaking in the classroom. He then talks about some of the difficulties of speaking, and the types of speaking that happen in the classroom. Finally he provides some principles for teaching speaking skills in the classroom (331 - 332). Brown then discusses the role of feedback and in what ways it can be utilized for enhancing students' speaking skills.

Kumar Chapter 5

This chapter was entitled "Facilitating Negotiated Interaction". In this chapter Kumar discusses three different types of interactional activities. He borrows these from Halliday: textual, interpersonal, and ideational.  Kumar then discusses the foundational theory behind these activities (Krashen, Vygotsky), and provides some classroom interactions for examples. Lastly, he provides four microstrategies to help demonstrate some of these points in action.

Cary 2008 - "How do I support a student's first language..."

This article discussed a woman named Delores' ESL classroom in California. It demonstrated a multitude of ways that an ESL/EFL teacher can be supportive of their students' first language. This involved a lot of code-switching activities, having presentations from the students' parents, and utilizing other community volunteers for assistance. I really enjoyed how she involved many members of the community to take part in the classroom activities.

RESPONSE

The Brown chapters were really practical and provided a wealth of information on how to approach teaching speaking and listening in the classroom, for all levels of learners. They will be invaluable resources going forward. The Kumar was a little less practical, or perhaps a bit more wordy than the Brown. One thing I noticed from one of the classroom examples in the Kumar was that a teacher asked a student to stop referring to their dictionary. This made me wonder, to what extent should we allow students to refer to a dictionary in class? The way I see it is that the dictionary is a resource that helps to facilitate understanding, (and probably in situations where I cannot provide a good explanation of a word  [i.e. translation]) so why should we say "No don't use a dictionary."

The way I saw it was that the teacher inhibited the learners' autonomy for learning by asking for the student to stop. I think I won't mind students using a dictionary in class. I would just have to pay close attention to the way in which the students are using it. On one hand, I don't students to become over-reliant on dictionary translations, but on the other hand I want students to be able to understand a topic. Hmm...

TfM