A focus on oral interaction for primary school aged leaners Rhonda Oliver Outline What is oral interaction Differences between oral and written language Oral interaction in education ID: 378230
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Slide1
English language learning:
A focus on
oral interaction for primary
school aged
leaners
Rhonda OliverSlide2
OutlineWhat is oral interaction?
Differences between oral and written language
Oral interaction in education
Oral interaction in the classroom
Oral interaction for social interaction
Oral interaction and SLA
Age as a factor in SLA
Interaction of younger children
Teacher talk to children
Teachers supporting
SLA
Pedagogy
for child
SLA
ImplicationsSlide3
Oral interaction: what is it?
One type of communicative exchange
The spoken
language that takes place between two or more people
The
type of speaking and listening that occurs in real time (i.e., in the present
)Slide4
When speakers talk in turn and respond orally to these turns (note: sometimes speakers do interrupt or talk “over” each other)
C
ollaborative
and most often
reciprocal
, with each speaker working to co-construct a meaningful exchangeSlide5
Oral interaction is often complementary:
A
: I’m hungry
B
: Me too
And it also can be quite complex
M
ostly face-to-face (except phone and Skype)Slide6
Oral interaction is not always verbal - responses can be non-verbal
M
: What are you doing?
G
:
Points to his head
R
: Did you get hurt?
G
: Nods head and clicks tongue.Slide7
Oral interaction differs from written language
Written language
- is
planned
- can be revised
- is
far more
permanentOral interaction - is unplanned/less planned
- is spontaneous
and
ephemeral
- is less
than
perfect
– consists
of
disfluencies
, false
starts, unnecessary
repetition, and redundant
information
.
Teachers should not assess oral interaction based on written language conventionsSlide8
Oral interaction in education
Oral interaction is important to
our everyday lives and to students’ success socially, academically, and
vocationally
When young children come to school there are many things they must adjust to in order to successfully learn
.
They
need to get used to
interacting:
in a new environment outside their home, w
ith many more peers,
with a range of different adults,
in
new ways with all these
people.
Clearly oral interaction is
an important part of education
And yet….
Slide9
Oral interaction skills may not be given the same priority in our classrooms as reading and writingAnd when
it is included, the focus is often
on presentational
language
And yet…. Slide10
Oral interaction in the classroom
Oral interaction can occur in the classroom such as when:
Teachers
and students are
discussing
aspects of a lesson;
S
tudents
are jointly working on tasks or activities;
Students are
engaging in social chit
chat;
Or
even when they talk
off-task
to someone
else.
Such interaction is particularly important for second language learnersSlide11
Oral interaction for socialisation
Oral interaction serves an important function of supporting their socialisation:
Developing appropriate behaviours (including language behaviours) for social situations, including in behaving appropriately in the classroomSlide12
Ms Jones: Oh no, Amy, you’re supposed to do that on your own
Everybody
needs to do this sheet on their own
I
need to know what everybody can do on their
own
Luke
:
Ms Jones, can I help Rita?Ms Jones: No
Luke
then goes to Rita’s desk. John, (classmate sitting next to Rita, says to Luke)
Luke: Ms Jones said no
Luke
sits on a bench near Rita
John: I’m keeping my eye on you
Linda
comes up to teacher, who is talking to an aide
Linda:
Ms
Jones,
Surjeet was helping Tiffany
Ms
. Jones: Thank you Linda.
Surjeet
do your own
work
Natalie
:
Ms
Jones, Terry and Amy are looking at our work.
Ms
Jones: Maybe you could
move
Toohey
, 1998, p.75Slide13
Oral interaction and SLA…Oral interaction facilitates second language acquisition by providing opportunities to:
Receive meaningful input
P
roduce meaningful output
R
eceive feedback on attempts
Have attention drawn to the form of the target language
Have new language scaffolded (see over)Slide14
Comprehensible inputT: ‘She was a bony old woman, she had bony legs, and
bony
fingers
and feathers on her bony arms.’
What
do I mean by bony?
Pia
?
St: BonesT: Right, where are your bones? Feel your bones (Teacher touches her wrist, elbow, shoulder)
St: Here
T: Good, you can feel inside you’ve got bones
Oliver
, 2009, p.44Slide15
Meaningful/pushed outputNNS 1: Where is the –the, where is the [life] go?
NNS 2: (Pause) What you say?
NNS1: The [life]
NNS 2: The life?
NNS 1: The b[r]
ead
knife
Oliver, 1998, p.378Slide16
FeedbackL: Shape like diamondE: Like diamond
s
?
L: Yeah
Shape like diamond
s
Oliver, 1995b, p.17Slide17
Focus on formT: right now we’re going to talk about all
thumbtacks.
So
we’re going to talk about magnets…
Try
it this way, magnets
S: [attract thumbtacks
T: [attract thumbtacks let’s try it
S: magnets attract thumbtacksT: remember I’m not talking about just one I’m talking about all
magnets
I’m
talking about all thumbtacks so let’s try it again
S: magnets attract thumbtacks
T: the nail is magnetic … so you tell me
S: [the nail
T: [magnets
S: magnets attract the nail
The
nails
T: again
S: magnets attract nails
Gibbons
, 2006, pp.133-134Slide18
ScaffoldingTeacher
:
What
did you do in the garden?
Student
:
Mm
, cut the tree
Teacher
: You cut the trees Were they big trees or were they little bushes?
Student
:
Big
trees
Teacher
:
How
did you cut them?
Student
:
What
?Teacher: How did you cut them? Did you have a big
knife?
Student
:
You
know big knife?
Oliver
, 2000, p.140
Slide19
Age as a factor in language learning
The importance of age
and the impact this has on
language
learning, including second language learning (SLA),
will not come as any surprise to those working in
schools.Slide20
Interactions of younger children
Reflecting their interests and stage of development, their topics of conversation are quite different from those of older learners
Young pre-school
children also
Are less able to take turns
Switch quickly from one topic to
another
However, they are still able to interact with each other in ways that fosters SLASlide21
For example….Em that’s
blu:e
. What’s this? Zebra?
Y yeah
Em
Very
colourful
zebra [baby talk lilting intonation]
Em
what’s that?E the elephant
(several turns later)
Em
[Roberta arrives]
oh hello Roberta I thought you were sick.
R no mum XX
Y [excitedly] look at the zebra very
colourful
zebra isn’t it?
Very
very
colourfulR what’s this?Y tiger {laughing}
Em
I’ll eat you [sing song voice]
Y
eleeephant
Em
yeah elephant
Philp
& Duchesne, 2008, p.94Slide22
Ultimate attainmentAlthough children are the ‘tortoises’ in the language learning race (i.e., eventually they will do better), ultimate attainment will depend on:
quality of the learning environment, (e.g., the nature and quantity of input
provided, especially the opportunities created for meaningful interaction)
type
of language learning
context, (e.g., where
language input and time are limited, such as in foreign language classes
older
children, particularly adolescents, can have the
advantage)Clearly the classroom environment is KEY
And yet…. Slide23
Teacher talk to children
The
type of interaction that is most prominent in many classrooms is the teacher doing most of the talking, and addressing the class as a whole (i.e., one to many
)
Even though this does NOT align with what we understand SLA!
(
i.e.,
input, output,
feedback, negotiation, scaffolding etc
)Slide24
At the same time as children continue their education the topics of conversation in the classroom become:
increasingly complex,
more abstract,
further removed from their personal situation,
Very different to the type of talk that occurs outside of schoolSlide25
It is not just
how
teachers talk, but
what
they talk about:
T
eachers need to support language learners in their educational journey
LANGUAGE LEARNING = MEANING + USE
So….
Slide26
Teachers supporting SLA
What can teachers do?
Provide
a secure and welcoming
environment;
Create motivating situations (e.g., through use of tasks) where students can
meaningfully
use target language;
Give
students the opportunity to participate at their level … non-verbally and verbally;Provide situations that enable the production of comprehensible input and output, peer interaction, Provide meaningful feedback (see over)Slide27
For exampleProviding a recast in response to telegraphic speech
e.g
., when the student points to a snowman while doing a phonic matching activity and says
,
S: a man and snow
T: Yes, it’s a snowman
(
Oliver, unpublished data) Slide28
Or by providing scaffolding..T:
Select a picture. Select a picture or select a part of the story
that you like <
sh
(
quietens
other
chidren
) Okay now what was the story- show the picture- now what was the stor- what was that part of the story?
S: xx apple pie on the wolf
T: Right hit the wolf with what?
S
:
Apple pie
T: With an apple pie
With
a plate and had an apple pie on it
Right where did the wolf go from there?
When he hit the wolf- when Red riding hit the wolf
with
an apple pie where did the wolf go to?
S
:
Went to skate board
T:
Went to where the skate board was and then what
happened to
the wolf?Slide29
Overall there is a need to implement a pedagogy appropriate for child second language
learners, taking account of their stage of development, interests, motivations and way of interacting and then using this in the classroom.
Most importantly oral interaction should hold an important place in our classroom for all our learners!Slide30
AcknowledgementsMy co-author, Jenefer
Philp
My editors Nina
Spada
and Pasty
Lightbown
www.freedigitalphotos.net/Slide31
Thank you
<rhonda.oliver@curtin.edu.au
>