Paediatric and Educational Issues 343

Communication difficulties in the classroom

ROSEMARY SAGE Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK

ABSTRACT This paper considers t he problems tha t s o m e children have in process- i ng formal instructional language a n d producing appropr ia te word responses. This actiuity is known as ‘narrative discourse’ a n d a research s tudy is presented suggest- ing tha t when narrative processes a r e emphasised in learning children achieve grea te r academic success.

INTRODUCTION

The word ‘school’ comes from the Greek word ‘schole’, which means ‘leisure’. This is a misnoma for children who struggle to process formal instructional language and produce appropriate spoken and written responses. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are involved together in the reception and transmission of meaning, providing the matrix for learning and presenting knowledge to others.

COMMUNICATION ISSUES IN EDUCATION

Communication issues in education include information-processing-creative and criti- cal thinking, conversation and dialogue, and the oracy-literacy shift.

Information-processing-creative and critical thinking In order to focus on the reception of information and a response, read Dylan Thomas’ (Thomas, 1985 reset edition) description of the Welsh town of Liareggrub in Under Milk Wood:

There’s the clip clop of horses on the sunhoneyed cobbles of the humming streets, ham- mering of horse-shoes, gobble quack and cackle, tomtit twitter from the bird-ounced boughs, braying on Donkey Down. Bread is baking, pigs aregrunting, chop goes the butcher, milk-churns bell, tills ring, sheep cough, dogs shout, saws sing ... and the women scratch and babble in Mrs Organ Morgan’s general shop where euerything is sold: custard, buck- ets, henna, rat-traps, shrimp-nets, sugar, stamps, confetti, paraffin, hatchets, whistles. (P. 46)

What images of the town are clearest - sound, sight or feeling? The passage was given to 10 teenagers and, although 80% mentioned all three types of concept, they had a preferred one, either sound (the clip clop of horses), sight (the array of goods in Mrs Organ Morgan’s shop) or feeling (the bustling activity in the town).

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The point is that although we may have a preference for a particular mode of input, our ability to achieve understanding of Llareggrub is like, and make an adequate re- sponse, depends on organising and integrating information across processing chan- nels. Several activities are at work: perception and analysis of the elements; synthe- sis of these into a whole; evaluation of the information in terms of previous knowl- edge; and application of this to reach understanding and make a response.

These operations have been the focus of interest in Piaget’s Mental Stages (Piaget, 1954), Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Bloom, 1956), and Taba’s Thought Levels (Taba, 1966). There appears to be a hierarchy of lower-, middle- and higher- order skills, as follows:

Lower order: comparing, distinguishing, connecting. Middle order: classification, seriation, analogical reasoning. Higher order: syllogistic reasoning and use of criteria.

At the apex of thinking is a fusion of critical and creative judgement. Critical think- ing involves reasoning, whereas creative thinking embraces imagination. Crucial to this is the link between thinking and language. An individual’s thinking is an internalisation of what has been going on in the groups in which he participates. This movement from social to individual is seen in a child’s acquisition of parental language and appropria- tion of cultural meanings. As children develop they internalise - replicating in their own thinking -the processes of communication they have discovered in their families. For educational purposes the behavioural matrix of thinking is talking, and that of organised thinking is organised talking. Children learn goal-directed behaviour, role reversibility in turn-taking, systematic ordering and the making of abstract disctinctions through their conversations with others.

Conversation and dialogue Communication in the family prepares children for thinking in the classroom and in the languages of subjects. To accomplish this a child must be able to cope with disciplined, coherent dialogue in a community of inquiry. Informal conversation exchanges of feelings, thoughts, information, and understandings display a strong personal note, but the logical thread is often weak. In more formal dialogue the reverse is the case, as this takes on the nature of a deliberate collaborative inquiry using critical and creative judgement.

There is a distinction between communicating something t o someone and being in communication with someone. The first suggesting conveying content from one per- son to another whilst the second implies an interpersonal experience in which each participant causes the other to think. However, the logic of dialogue has its roots in the logic of conversation. Putting together what is meant from the snippets of what is said involves what Grice (1989) calls implicature. This is made possible because conversa- tion is a shared experience of values and meanings conforming to expectations of quantity, quality, relation and manner. These maxims are like the principles of formal logic, stipulating what ought to be done in order for a conversation to take place. Thus, talk emerges as the basic structure for thinking and learning which shifts into writing when required.

The oracy-literacy shift Speaking is characterised by talking about present events so that words are often re- dundant. Mehrabian (1969) suggests that only 7% of meaning comes from the word,

Paediatric and Educational Issues 345

whereas 55% is available through gesture and facial expression, and 38% comes from the use of voice (pitch, pace, pause, power and pronunciation). This demon- strates the importance of integrating sound, sight, and feeling (touch, movement and sense of position in space), in order to gain understanding.

As people become adept at oral exchanges they can cope with unfamiliar words and expressions, talk about events outside the immediate context, and maintain a topic over many communicative turns. They learn to understand and use reference and cohesive devices in order to tie information together. As talk is the main vehicle for acquiring knowledge, the ability to make inference is developed. The following sen- tence illustrates these points:

Luke is sitting on the grass with his cat Basil. After a while they get up.

The words his (Luke) and they (Luke and Basil) are reference words. The phrase ‘After a while’ is a cohesive device linking the actions of sitting and getting up and indicating the passing of time. The inferences that can be made are: that the grass is dry; the weather is pleasant; the subjects are relaxing; Luke is male; the cat is an animal; there is a reason for the change from sitting to standing and this sequence of actions conveys passing time. Thus, patterns of thought and expression are learned in talk that enables us to engage in the manipulation of language topics, forms and func- tions required for reading and writing about unfamiliar ideas.

This organised exchange is known as discourse and encompasses a wide range of activities from casual conversations, steretyped greetings, discussions, interviews and subject presentations which may also be recorded in written forms. One type of dis- course has been pin-pointed as having great impact on educational performance (Westby, 1984). This is known as narrative discourse which lies structurally between the language of spoken and written tradition, having an explanatory function that eases the transition from one to the other. Narratives involve a sequence or organised events, linked through actions and processes that express cause and effect. They are available in spoken and written forms.

There are two major ideas about narrative discourse. The first arises from Bruner’s model (Bruner, 1975) of narrative and paradigmatic thinking where narrative is viewed as the primary mode concerned with metaphor and credibility - dependent on fusing knowledge of oneself and the world. An imaginative perspective, integrating alterna- tive views, is involved in this notion. This contrasts with paradigmatic thinking, which is characterised by logic, contingent on abstract reasoning, proofs and validity. Such theory separates the notions of creative and critical thinking previously discussed and adherents argue that thought is governed more by narrative scripts than abstract proc- esses as evidenced in child play, show and tell activities, and relation of stories.

In solving complex problems, imagination and reason are clearly involved, suggest- ing the importance of both approaches. However, narrative thinking may well be the dominant mode for making sense of the world as it connects strongly with feeling and actual experience.

The second view of narrative discourse is that it exists in a variety of types, which vary across cultural groups (Heath, 1986):

Recounts - where speakers relate past experience in serial form, typically using coordinate clauses with little logical relation. Eventcases - verbal explanations of an activity, demanding an awareness of

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thought and language structure and involving coordination, subordination and knowledge of how events are related. Accounts - the spontaneous sharing of experiences with a predictable pro- gression and demand a knowledge of how to obtain and hold audience atten- tion. Stories - highly structured sequences with a setting, event, action, result and reaction, requiring a knowledge of real and fictionalised information leaned from teasing and role-play experiences.

These descriptions of narrative types help in understanding the development of structured serial ideas and the fusion of mental and linguistic performance. For educa- tional purposes, the most relevant processes are those of inquiry, reasoning, informa- tion-organising, and translation, enabling us to shuttle back and forth amongst differ- ent forms of language in order to make meaning. The warp and weft of this activity is critical as is creative judgement, which weaves a narrative structure that allows meaning to be processed and produced.

One of the issues regarding communication difficulties in schools is that we have concentrated on developing the language elements in a systematic way without paying as much attention to the mental processes that give rise to them. The hypothesis is that if teaching emphasises the development of narrative processes, children will make greater academic progress than they would through a programme of linguistic support.

THE RESEARCH STUDY

Thirty children (aged 4-8 years) with communication difficulties and inadequate educa- tional attainment were matched for age, intelligence, and socio-economic levels as well as language ability by use of standard verbal and non-verbal assessments, reading tests and a Communication Profile 1 (Processing) and 2 (Production) devised by the author (Sage, 1992a, 1992b).

At this stage there were no significant differences in the children’s performance. Half the subjects received a language intervention programme based on the Language Assessment Remediation Screening Procedure (LARSP) (Crystal, 1979) and the re- mainder joined a Communication Opportunity Group Scheme (COGS) arranged by the author in school, to develop oracy into literacy through narrative discourse activities. The framework for this is shown in Table 1.

Although this oracy-literacy continuum is expressed in linear form this is for clarity rather than reality as processes are culture- and context-bound. The point is that it is possible to break down activities into stages, allowing skills to be develop according to National Curriculum and National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) requirements.

After one year, the reseach groups were re-tested and showed significant differ- ences in language and academic performance. The COGS group outstripped the LARSP one, suggesting that an oracy-literacy approach, based on the development of narra- tive processes, was more successful (Table 2).

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TABLE 1: Framework for COGS

Interpersonal discourse

INITIATE topic turn start LISTEN AND RESPOND:

CONTINUE/MAINTAIN TOPIC turn-take REQUEST, DIRECT turn pass CONTRIBUTE to conversation - not appropriate

to discussion turn grab CONCLUDE conversation - action statement turn stop

Oral narrative discourse

RECORD - describe object/situation - here and how REFER - make statement with inference (joke) REPLAY - retell past experience RECOUNT - explain sequenced activity REPORT - summarise, discuss, evaluate RELATE - narrate, factual/imaginary experience (setting,

event, action, result, reaction)

Written narrative discourse

RECITE - register order of events (short notes) REFER - document cause and effect REPLAY - detail personal experience (diary) RECOUNT - explain sequenced activity REPORT - summarise, discuss, explain RELATE - chronicle factual/imaginary experience (setting,

event, action, result, reaction)

TABLE 2: Significant levels of academic performance for LARSP and COGS groups on test and re-test

Test

Raven's progressive matrices Utah Test of Spoken and Written Language Renfrew Action Picture Language Test Communication profile 1 (processing) Communication profile 2 (production) Schonell Prose Reading Test 'My Dog' 'Indicates a significant different between the two groups

Level of significance Test Re-test

0.74 0.06 0.87 0.00' 0.85 0.00' 0.48 0.01' 0.35 0.02' 0.65 0.00'

348 Caring to Communicate

DISCUSSION

Two 8-year-old girls were given a picture of someone working in an office. Here are their responses:

Jenny A lady’s in her office using a computer. She’s uoung with long, straight hair and a smart brown suit. The office is in a tall block in London overlooking the top part of the Post Office Tower. The room looks neat and pleasant. There’s a large company notice board advertising jobs.

0 Kate Someone’s typing. She’s sitting in a chair. She’s got a computer in front with blue buttons, a green chair, sitting at a desk. There’s drawers next to her, a board in front. Out of the win- dow’s a big tower. The walls are yellow. The lady’s wearing a yellow jumper with brown hair. The carpet is green down there. Blue sky outside.

These girls display a different ability to convey meaning. Jenny has grasped narra- tive structure and her ideas are coherent whilst Kate produces information at random.

The results of this study suggest an approach that emphasises the development of narrative structures may be more useful in helping children with communication diffi- culties to achieve academically than methods which rely primarily on developing lan- guage skills. A narrative approach uses the normal social context and develops commu- nication processes in line with curriculum needs. Althought the National Curriculum has sought to raise the status of oral language by making it a benchmark of academic success alongside literacy, the speaking and listening tasks within the four key stages do not accurately reflect our present understanding regarding the shift of oracy into literacy or acknowledge the nature of narrative discourse deevlopment. There is still the assumption that spoken language is acquired spontaneously and does not need a planned framework for its development.

However, in our advanced society, excellent oral and written communication is deemed essential - so we must devise ways to achieve this, especially for those who have difficulties in acquiring adequate skills. A serious approach to communication entails an appraisal of oracy to literacy development demanding the collaboration of profession- als across disciplines. This has happened at the Central School of Speech and Drama where speech and language therapists and teachers work together to develop total communication approaches in teaching and learning. This amalgam of expertise is essential if we are to raise awreness of the specific roles of spoken and written language in learning.

REFERENCES

Bloom BS (Ed.) (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay. Bruner JS (1975). The ontogenesis of speech acts. Journal of Child Language 2, 1-10. Crystal D (1979). Working with LARSP. London: Edward Arnold. Grice P (1989). Logic and Conversation; Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer- sity Press. Heath SB (1986). Taking a cross-cultural look at narratives. Topics in Language Disorders 7 , 23-46. Mehrabian A (1969). Communication without words. Psychology Today, December. Piaget J (1954). The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Basic Books. Taba H (1966). Teaching Strategies and Cognitive Functioning in Elementary School Children. USOE Coop- erative Research Project No. 1754. San Francisco State College.

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Sage R (1992a). Pilot Study for COGS. London: Central School of Speech and Drama Assessments. Sage R (1992b). Communication Difficulties in the Classroom. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Leicester. Thomas D (1985). Under Milk Wood (reset edition). London: Everyman Classics. Westby C (1984). Development of narrative language abilities. In: GP Wallach, KG Butler (eds). Language Learning Disabilities in School-age Children. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.