NOTES on listening and speaking skills

Listening SUB-SKILLS (Thornbury)

-perceiving and discriminating individual sounds

-segmengin the stream of speech into recognizable units such as words and phrases

-using stress and intonatin cues to distinguish given information from new information

-attending to discourse markers and using these to predict changes in the direction of the talk

-guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words

-using clues in the text (such as vocabulary) and context clues to predict what is coming

-making inferences about what is not stated

-sleccting key information relevant to the purpose for listening

-integrating incoming information into the mental ‘picture’ (or schema) of the speeh event so far

-recognizing when speakers have finished their turns, or when it is appropriate to interrupt

-providing ongoing signals of understanding, interest, etc. (backchanneling)

-asking for clarification, asking someone to repeat what they have just said, and repairing misunderstandings

SPEAKING SUB-SKILLS (Thornbury and Harmer)

-opening and closing a conversation

-turn-taking

-repairing

-paraphrasing

-interrupting

-using pause fillers

-automaticity

-discourse markers – Harmer 343

-using adjacency pair – Harmer 345

-register – the ability to speak diffently depending on the audience

-how to perform common speech events such as agreeing, inviting, suggesting

“Speaking is generally thought to be the most important of the four skills (Thornbury 2006: 207).”

HARMER

“As teachers we should encourage paraphrasing and improvising…A major reason for having students perform oral communication tasks in class si to give them practice in just these kinds of strategy (Harmer 2007: 277).”

“When we are engaged in conversation, we are bound to listen as well as speak because otherwise we could not interact with the person we are speaking to (Harmer 2007: 265).”

“We modify what we write or say as we go along, based on how effectively we think we are communicating Harmer (2007: 266).”

“It is almost impossible to complete a task successfully in one skill area without involving some other skill, too (Harmer 2007: 267)