Session 06: Speaking and Writing

Question 1

Describe the speaking process

Answer 1

1. Conceptualization: planning message and content with drawing on top-down knowledge
2. Formulation: select words according to the content and grammar (top-down and bottom-up)
3. Articulation: controlling the articulatory organs
4. Self-monitoring: while we are saying something and shortly after

-> essential for advancing or developing you language skills

Question 2

What is the basic requirement of speaking

Answer 2

Demand ( in class/school environment mostly artificial and not authentic)

Question 3

Classify the speaking activities according to CEFR

Answer 3

• Oral production (speaking)
• Spoken interactions
• Oral mediation

Question 4

What problems occur within the FL classroom

Answer 4

• fear of making mistakes, embaressement
• not enough word storage to express what you want to say
• artifical
• peer pressure
• groups of individuals that dont like each other
• media-outdated
• control/power issues (marks)
• lack of interest

Question 5

What can you, as a teacher, do to respond to the problems within the FL classroom?

Answer 5

• Focus on fluency, accuracy, complexity
  -> distinction between fluency-based and accuracy-based tasks
• Tasks with: limitation of time, quite formals context, highly motivating context, oral primacy
• L2 should be the core language of the classroom (aufgeklärte Einsprachigkeit)

Question 6

Why and how should you teach speaking?

Answer 6

Why
- success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language
- if students dont know how to speak or get no opportunity to speak they might lose interest
- if the right activities are taught in the right way: fun, raising motivation

How
- make the English classroom special
- create the need for speaking
- accept noise ( a loud classroom is a learning classroom)

Question 7

What are common arguments against teaching speaking skills?

Answer 7

• students often wont participate in speaking activities
  solution: tackle the problem by finding the root
• students end up speaking in their own language
  solution: tasks with the right level
• too much nois
  solution: walking around and monitoring, interrupt inapropriate non-speaking activities

Question 8

Describe the writing process and the difference to speaking

Answer 8

task environment: create interest, make it relevant
-> long term memory (top-down): what could I say/write about it? Knowledge of a topic
-> Planning (generating, organizing, goal setting), Translating (bottom-up), Reviewing (editing, evaluating: bottom-up)
monitoring through the teacher

Difference
- continuing real-time re-drafting/re-editing
- writing=developing a text

Question 9

Describe writing in class and the important points

Answer 9

• writing for 2nd language learners is neither easy nor spontaneous
• dinstinction between product-oriented (comment, summarize) and process-oriented (orthography)

Important points:
- choice of task
- social context
- instruction
- teacher support
- feedback on content and form

Question 10

Name the classification of writing in class by the council of Europe

Answer 10

• Written interaction ( passing and exchanging notes or memos)
• Written production ( writing articles or reports, producing posters)
• Written mediation ( translation of contracts, summarizing the gists of articles)