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Date Posted: 18:45:50 10/18/05 Tue
Author: Kênia Horsts
Subject: Final Paper for evaluation: The Ocmplexity to Speak English as a Second Language

THE COMPLEXITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Written and spoken language are called productive skills (even though when you are reading or listening you are also producing thoughts). Some traditional linguistic inquiry maintains that speech is primary and written language is merely a reflection of spoken language. But speaking remains the most difficult skill to acquire. Usually here in Brazil, ESL students face a great oral interaction problem. Some students can read or write but often have difficulty with spoken English. The students can understand but are less confident in speech. We are going to see now; the complexity producing a second language and some strategies we could use in order to improve the spoken language in L2 - English.

There are some problems in oral interaction Brazilian teachers find in classes. It is probably more common here than in a foreign class overseas (where there are students with different native languages). The Brazilian students give up easily speaking English as they make themselves understood faster in L1, even if the activity is supposed to be done exclusively in English.

Another problem in oral interaction is, a fluent speech contains the use of slang, reduced forms, idioms and so on. Brazilian students generally try to practice speaking the written grammar they have learned. Besides the difficulty in understanding a foreigner, they sound “bookish” in their spoken English. The students should be aware that, there are different sets of rules between written grammar and speech grammar.

We must consider some characteristics of the productive skills, which are writing and speaking. In accordance with Brown (1994), permanence is the first characteristic and we will approach it now.

Brown states that, “oral language is transitory and must be processed in real time, while written language is permanent and can be read and reread as often as one likes”. (WEIGLE, Sara 2002, p.15)

As we see here, it becomes easier to accomplish a better result in the written language before the spoken language because you have time working by yourself. Thus, you can improve your production and obtain a better result. However, we should also consider the different kinds of interaction such as a different audience, which makes it difficult to compare such productive skills.

The second characteristic, which we can find in the Brown’s summary about these productive skills (speaking and writing), is complexity. It states that; “written language tends to be characterized by longer clauses and more subordinators, while spoken language tends to have shorter clauses connected by coordinators, as well as more redundancy” (e.g. repetition of nouns and verbs).

In spoken language, you can have a false feeling that you are free to express yourself using short clauses or not paying attention to some formalities. In fact, you do not need to use a formal discourse in order to communicate in spoken language. Although, you are not as free as you feel, because there are some rules to follow anyway due to speech grammar. In addition, you must work hard paying attention to stress, intonation, pitch, volume, pausing and in your own accent which demands a phonetic development.

In the past, it was extremely common to see language teaching methodologies focusing on grammar competence only. Even as important. However throughout the years, the need to balance sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence, has become clear. Thus, as Murphy (1991) believes, “the oral teachers should always connect speaking, listening and pronunciation teaching”. (Anne Lazaraton – Goodwin p 104). Students should be trained in “communicative strategies” as circumlocution, hesitation devices and asking for help. Motivation is also an important feature and teachers can develop a range of materials and activities for specific speaking contexts, which will increase the motivation of the students.

In short, the importance of correctness in writing as opposed to speaking is especially relevant for writing in academic contexts. However, you can read about the topic and elaborate it in a tranquil way. The complexity displayed in the written language is perhaps more simple to solve than the complexity you will find when you have to communicate fluently in the spoken language. Thus, spoken language remains the most difficult ability for students of L2 to acquire, and oral skills are vital to communication. Therefore, strategies to improve speaking should be developed by the teachers on a daily basis.


BIOGRAPHY

WEIGLE, Sara. Assessing Writing. Cambridge: CUP, 2002.

VALÉRIO, Kátia. Habilidades Orais. Faculdade de Letras, UFMG.

WHITE & ARNDT, Process Writing. London: Longman, 1991.

Anne Lazaraton, Language Skills, Goodwin.

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