peterstrutt.co.ukpeterstrutt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Helping... · Web viewMany of my students tell me they feel comfortable with typical course book transactional conversations,

Helping learners tell casual conversational stories


LSA1/Skills: Speaking

Candidate number:

The ELT Hub, Strasbourg FR023

July 8, 2019

Word Count: 2497

Contents

1. Introduction 22. Analysis of genre 2 2.1 Features of conversational stories 2 2.2 Features of narratives 3 2.2.1 Structural features 3 2.2.2 Linguistic features 33. Skills and knowledge involved 4 3.1 What competent speakers do 4 3.2 What competent speakers know 44. Learning problems and teaching solutions 5 4.1 Problems with evaluative language 5 4.1.1 Teaching solutions 5 4.2 Problems with contrastive stress 5 4.2.1 Teaching solutions 5 4.3 Problems with automaticity 6 4.3.1 Teaching solutions 6 4.4 Problems with the interactive nature of narratives 6 4.4.1 Teaching solutions 75. Conclusion 76. Bibliography 87. Appendices 9-14

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1. Introduction

For most learners of a second language, learning to speak competently is a main objective and all modern language-teaching methods prioritise speaking. In many classrooms however, it is not ‘dealt with’ as a skill in its own right but rather as a means of practising grammar (Thornbury, 2005). Through this assignment I hope to discover how I can truly address shortcomings in learners’ speaking techniques and help them become more competent and confident speakers.For the purpose of this essay, I will focus on the skills involved in casual conversational storytelling; in particular the skill of retelling a story heard on the radio, seen on TV or read in the newspaper. This type of narrative occurs frequently in real-world, casual conversation and the ability to tell a good story is a highly regarded talent, probably in all cultures (McCarthy, 1991). Many of my students tell me they feel comfortable with typical course book transactional conversations, but experience anxiety when they want to engage in more personal, casual conversations. By helping them become better storytellers, they will hopefully become more confident speakers in general.

2. Analysis of genre

2.1 Features of conversational storiesThornbury and Slade (2006) distinguish four conversational storytelling genres:

anecdote: recount of a ‘remarkable’ occurrence presented with the speaker’s reaction.

narrative: a situation is established, a complication introduced and resolved. Events are given their significance through evaluative comment.

exemplum: story told in order to make a moral point. recount: the least elaborated form of story: core ingredient is simply a

record of events. There is no complication that is resolved, nor any moral to be drawn.

These genres share a common core: a series of events, removed from the moment of telling, involving characters who are assumed to be real (Thornbury & Slade, 2006). They have generic structural features in common but have different functions.Narratives and anecdotes typically function to entertain and amuse and there is overlap between the two genres: both genres include the virtually obligatory place and time references, as well as an appeal to shared knowledge (Thornbury & Slade, 2006). A narrative might very well be centered around a remarkable event, as is the case in anecdotes. However, in narratives the events are problematised and a resolution to the complication is obligatory. In an anecdote a resolution is not necessarily expected—the speaker’s reaction is essential, but events are not problematised.I believe retellings of stories heard on the radio, read in the paper or seen on TV that go beyond simply stating the facts of a news story (as in recounts) are narratives as

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described by Thornbury and Slade (2006). Although such a story might be shared to make a moral point (as in an exemplum) and might be based on a remarkable event (as in an anecdote), it will inevitably contain a complication and a resolution. From here on, I will refer to these types of stories as narratives.

2.2 Features of narratives

2.2.1 Structural featuresAs all good stories, a narrative is made up of a beginning, middle and an end and these stages can be further ‘subdivided’ into the following:

abstract: announces the onset of the narrative, often in a way that encapsulates the point or theme of the story (Speaking of unbelievable coincidences, I read this story in the paper the other day, ….).

orientation: to provide circumstantial information (…about this man who went on trip to Paris for business….).

complication: to introduce, into a sequence of events, a problem (…little did he know that he would meet his twin brother he didn’t even know he had…)

evaluation: signals the speaker’s attitude to the events: this may be spread throughout the narrative (I think that was really inconsiderate of him) and it may take a paralinguistic form, such as laughter.

resolution: shows how the actions of the protagonist or of another character resolve the problem (So then he confronted his mother and it indeed turned out that…… They now meet up at least once a year.)

coda: connects the story to the conversational context in which it takes place—providing a bridge from the past (event time) to the present (utterance time): So you see, your coincidental meeting wasn’t that remarkable! (Thornbury & Slade, 2006)

Abstract and coda are optional, but the other stages are obligatory and are therefore defining of the genre.

2.2.2 Linguistic featuresApart from linguistic features that are exemplary of spoken language in general, such as the clausal nature of it, incomplete sentences, the use of chunks, idioms and colloquial expressions narratives will typically contain the following:

simple tenses (past to ‘background’ information, present to ‘foreground’); verb phrases marked for progressive aspect: One morning she was watering

her plants when….(to provide a temporal frame around an event); second and third person pronouns; evaluative language (such as adjectives; amazing, unusual, etc.); time references; references to place; parataxis (i.e. the linking of clauses using coordinating conjunctions such as

and);

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parenthetical embedding of background information (They’d just finished renovating their house when…);

constructed dialogue: to give voice to characters (And he said….. She went…..); reported speech. (Thornbury & Slade, 2006)

3. Skills and knowledge involved

3.1 What competent speakers doSpeech production is in essence a linear process, which takes place in real time. With very limited planning time, the speaker has to conceptualise, formulate, articulate and monitor his utterances. This means that a speaker’s attentional resources are thinly stretched and in order to achieve fluency, a certain degree of automaticity is necessary (Thornbury, 2005). At the level of formulation, automaticity can be achieved through the use of pre-formulated chunks. Automaticity at the level of discourse is achieved when, through repetition, a speaker is familiar with the genre in general or with the details of the story at hand in particular. As telling a narrative does not happen in a vacuum, but involves interaction between the speaker and the listener, speakers need to manage the process by following the ‘rules’ that govern normal interactions (Hedge, 2000). They apply to conventional ways of starting and ending a narrative, turn taking (signaling that you want to speak, holding the floor, signaling the fact that you are listening), topic management and paralinguistics.

3.2 What competent speakers knowBeing skillful at speaking assumes having a knowledge base. Knowledge that is relevant to speaking can be categorized in extra-linguistic and linguistic knowledge (Thornbury, 2005) Extra-linguistic knowledge includes topic and cultural knowledge, knowledge about social values and norm of behaviour. Linguistic knowledge includes:

discourse knowledge: within the structure of a narrative, the individual elements need to be structured to form coherent stretches of discourse. The use of discourse markers is of vital importance.

pragmatic knowledge: the speaker needs to be familiar with the register appropriate for a narrative.

knowledge of ‘spoken grammar: familiarity with the clausal nature of spoken language, use of question tags, vague language, ellipsis, narrative tenses (see paragraph 2.2.2).

knowledge of vocabulary: words and expressions used to express the speaker’s attitude to the events in the narrative; ways to express positive or negative appraisal; deictic language and chunks (collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, sentence frames and discourse markers).

knowledge of phonology: pronunciation, but most importantly placement of stress (contrastive stress is important in narratives) and use of intonation.

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4. Learner problems and teaching solutions

4.1 Problems with evaluative languageAs mentioned in paragraph 2.2.1, evaluation is a main and essential feature of narratives. In my experience this feature presents one of the greatest challenges for lower-level learners. The moment-by-moment lexico-grammatical encoding at clause level tends to interfere with discourse-level skills (they often also lack the lexical knowledge) and learners deliver a bare, factual story (Willis, 1996).

4.1.1 Teaching solutionI have used a picture story activity suggested by Jones (2001). Students are shown a set of pictures (Appendix 1) based on which they are asked to recount the story to their partner (in his activity Jones asks the students to imagine the main character is their uncle, but in the context of narratives they could be asked to imagine the story appeared in a local newspaper). The teacher then hands out transcripts of two versions of the story (Appendix 2); a bare narration of events with little elaboration and a version containing features of evaluation. Students usually have no difficulty in recognising the ‘embellished’ version as more interesting. By handing out a set of questions to be discussed in pairs, students’ focus is directed at relevant features (Appendix 3). This activity can be adapted to meet learners’ interest by changing the story and the teacher can decide to focus on other aspects of narratives as well (narrative tenses, discourse markers etc.).A consciousness-raising activity such as this one encourages learners to notice and reflect on linguistic features and to draw their own conclusions about how language might work (Willis, 1996.).

4.2 Problems with contrastive stressI find that many of my French students, even those at higher levels struggle with stress and intonation. Where English uses stress to mark contrast, French often uses a grammatical construction (Swan, 2001). Contrastive stress is of particular importance in narratives and when it is incorrectly placed, the point of a narrative (or element of it) can be lost to the listener. I remember when one of my French students was relating a story he had heard the famous comedian Gad Elmaleh tell. In it the comedian remembered himself standing on a Moroccan beach with his father overlooking the ocean. His father would tell him that if he sailed over the ocean for days and days he would eventually end up in America. He always wondered if there was an American father on the other side of the ocean looking in the direction of Morocco and telling his son the same thing. My student said: He wondered if there was an American father on the other side of the ocean....He placed the stress on father and ocean, instead of American and other. The point was lost on the listeners.

4.2.1 Teaching solutionI have used an activity by Hancock (1995) to raise awareness of contrastive stress and to provide opportunity for practice. First the teacher writes a few contentious

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sentences on the board: I saw the news on the radio or The Nile is the world’s shortest river. She then demonstrates contrastive stress by responding: You mean you heard the news on the radio and Don’t you mean the Nile is the world’s longest river? After some drilling, students are handed a pack of cards (Appendix 4) with a contentious statement and a response (correct placement of stress is indicated on the card). In turns, students pick up a card and read the statement to their partner who has to respond by correcting the mistake using contrastive stress. The reader should say if the response was correct or not. In this activity both the production and perception of contrastive stress are practised, which is important as these go hand in hand.

4.3 Problems with automaticityBeing able to produce language quickly and automatically helps learners build ease and confidence. When my elementary to pre-intermediate students are required to hold the floor for longer speaking turns (as is the case in telling narratives) they often lack that confidence. They ‘waste’ valuable processing time on generating original utterances and might compensate by repetition or by just avoiding telling stories altogether. They often feel frustrated about their lack of fluency.

4.3.1 Teaching solutionFluency is only possible when speakers have formulaic patterns and lexicalized multi-word units at their disposal. One way for learners to ‘build’ their repertoire of such chunks is through an appropriation activity. Through what Thornbury (2005) refers to as practiced control, learners demonstrate progressive control of a skill while still allowed to make mistakes (as opposed to controlled practise) but where support is always at hand. Learners are encouraged to make certain linguistic features their own.The teacher plays a recording of a narrative in which a number of useful chunks are embedded. After working on their understanding of the narrative, students are given the transcript (Appendix 5). The recording is played again, but paused at strategic points. Learners repeat the preceding utterance (only key phrases are repeated). To further reinforce, learners underline the drilled chunks on the transcript and mark stressed words. They can then read the dialogues aloud, paying special attention to the underlined sections (Thornbury, 2005). The activity could be adapted to suit all levels by varying the complexity of the narrative and the chunks. On many occasions my business students have indicated that they very much appreciate activities such as this one that help them develop their conversational skills as they often have to interact socially with clients.

4.4 Problems with the interactive nature of narrativesMost speakers adjust their delivery of a narrative to take into account the response of their audience. The story is in a sense constructed by the speaker and the listener. Being a good speaker also means being a good listener as the speaker often builds on what the other participants have said. Although this is likely universally true, my lower level students have very limited language for back-channeling at their disposal and even higher level students sometimes feel insecure about their ability

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to show interest and to keep a conversation going, which makes them feel awkward in social situations.

4.4.1 Teaching solutionI have used a gap-fill activity (Appendix 6) from Speakout (Clare & Wilson, 2011) with intermediate students to practice showing interest. Students are presented with the transcript of a dialogue in which the responses of the listener are omitted. Students choose the appropriate one from a list and listen to a recording to check their answers. Learners are encouraged to pay attention to intonation. Alternatively, students could listen to recordings of two conversations in which a narrative is told, one with an active, interested listener and one with an uninterested listener. Students indicate which listener sounds more interested. To build on this, they are presented with the transcripts and asked to focus on back-channeling. A set of questions can encourage them to think about the purpose and effects of these devices (e.g. How does the listener feel about what is being said?). Of course activities such as these should be followed up by speaking activities where students can practice using these devises.

5. ConclusionBefore I started the Delta programme, I would quite confidently have said that students do get plenty of genuine speaking opportunities in my classroom: to discuss, to express their opinions, their feelings. However, the ability to function well in a classroom situation does not necessarily transfer to the real world. And after doing the research for this essay, I realise that I might have just let my students practice language they already have, rather than help them improve their communicative competence. In the future, I will continue to provide opportunities for free discussion, but I will include more activities that focus on skills and knowledge.

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6. Bibliography

Reference:

Hedge, Tricia. Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Jones, Robert, E. “A consciousness-raising approach to the teaching of conversational storytelling skills”. ELT Journal, 55/2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Labov, W. and Waletzky, J. “Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience”. In Helm, J. (ed.) Essays in the Verbal and Visual Arts. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967.

McCarthy, Michael. Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Swan, Michael and Smith, Bernard. Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and Other Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Thornbury, Scott. How to Teach Speaking. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2005.

Thornbury, Scott and Slade, Diana. Conversation: From Description to Pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Willis, Jane & Willis, David. Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Oxford: Macmillan Education, 1996.

Practical:

Clare, Antonia and Wilson, JJ. Speakout: Intermediate Students’ Book. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2011.

Hancock, Mark. Pronunciation Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Appendix 1

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Appendix 2Transcript (Version 1)

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My uncle was fat and he was worried about it, so he bought a keep-fit book and went jogging. He looked funny, and a lot of people laughed at him. He turned a corner and there were two women with a dog, but he didn’t notice them. He tripped over the dog’s lead and banged his knee. The dog bit him. Then he started walking home, and it began to rain. By the time he got home he was very wet. He threw the keep-fit book into the bin.

Transcript (Version 2)Speaker 1: Oh, talking about losing weight, did I tell you about my Uncle John?Speaker 2: No, I don’t think so.Speaker 1: Well, you see, my Uncle John’s quite a bit overweight and he’s always been worried about it, so erm…the other week he decided he was going to do something about it.Speaker 2: Uh huh.Speaker 1: So, anyway, he got himself a keep-fit book and then one morning he stood in front of the mirror and he put on his vest, his shorts, his running shoes… you know al the er…gear.Speaker 2: all the gear, yeahSpeaker 1: and out he went. Now you can just imagine it, can’t you? This big fat guy who’s never been jogging in his life before. He goes running down the road and all the kids stand there laughing at him but y’know, he doesn’t take any notice, he just keeps on running and then he comes to a corner, right?Speaker 2: Uh huh.Speaker 1: So, he jogs round the corner and there are these two women standing there with a dog. Anyway, he was so busy running that he didn’t even notice them and he tripped, right over the dog’s lead and banged his knee.Speaker 2: Hah.Speaker 1: So the dog got angry, turned round and bit him on the hand and the two women started shouting at him.Speaker 2: Good grief!Speaker 1: So there’s my Uncle John, blood coming out of his hand and blood coming out of his knee. He starts limping home and then, just to make matters worse, it starts pouring with rain.Speaker 2: Hah hah, oh no.Speaker 1: So, by the time he got home he was absolutely drenched. He walked straight over to the kitchen table, picked up the keep-fit book and tossed it straight into the bin.Speaker 2: Hah ha. So I don’t suppose he’ll be going jogging again then, will he?Speaker 1: Well, what do you think?

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Appendix 3

These are the questions suggested by Jones. They relate to different features of narratives, questions 4 and 7 are relevant for the evaluative elements of the story.

Questions on the transcript (version 2)These may be given in the form of a worksheet for discussion in pairs.

1. What topic were S1 and S2 discussing before they started talking about Uncle John?

2. Why does S1 begin the story with a question?3. What do we learn about Uncle John in lines 4-64. In lines 9-12, S1 gives a detailed description of Uncle John getting dressed.

Does this add any interest to the story? Why/why not?5. Would it be possible to replace ‘you see’ (line 4) with ‘you know’? Could ‘you

know’ (line 11-12) be replaced with ‘you see’?6. Why does S1 say ‘So, anyway’ (line 9)?7. Does S1 try t make S2 feel sorry for Uncle John?8. How many disasters occur in this story?9. Underline the following words and phrases in Version 1” walking, began to

rain, very wet, threw. What are the equivalent words and phrases in Version 2?

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Appendix 4

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Appendix 5

Speaker 1: Talking about taking a joke too far (pause)…. I heard the funniest story the other day (pause) on This American Life.

Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I love that show.

Speaker 1: Yeah, well so it’s about this African-American student. The guy was born in the US, grew up in Fresno. His parents were Ugandan though and the guy’s name is Zora Bikangaga or something like that (pause). Anyway, he’s about to start (pause) at a new college when his roommate emailed him because he was really eager to get to know him. And the first question he asked was, your name is awesome, man. Zora Bikangaga. Where does it come from? The guy was apparently (pause) very excited to meet someone like Zora. Zora's friends thought this was hilarious. They were like, (pause) dude, he probably thinks you're an international student or something. You know? Zora Bikangaga. Who has a name like that? You should totally act like you're from Africa. And so when the guy called him, he answered the phone like this: (AFRICAN ACCENT) Hello? Reed! Reed Stoker? You are my roommate, huh? The accent was sort of (pause) a hybrid of Zora's dad and Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, you know that movie, right?

Speaker 2: I do. So did the guy fall for it?

Speaker 1: He did, believe it or not (pause). It was just a joke and he could have shown up on the first day of school speaking in his regular voice. But his friends back home wanted to see if he could fool his roommate face-to-face. He figured he'd (pause) mess with the guy for a few minutes at the most. But when Zara got to the dorm, Reed wasn't alone.

Speaker 2: Oh no! Who did he bring?

Speaker 1: He was there with his dad and his little sister, this white family from Orange County. And right off the bat, (pause) they were so warm to him and so friendly. And they were just fascinated by his background. He never had someone react to him in that way as far as I know (pause) and he just couldn’t help himself. He pulled from his parents' experiences and his limited knowledge of Africa to dazzle them with descriptions of tribes and exotic animals.

Speaker 2: That’s taking it a bit too far if you ask me (pause).

Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. And he didn’t stop there either. At some point (pause), he was introduced to two Kenyan students, actual African students. He knew the game was over. And he was like, all right. This is it. He was introduced to them. And they're like, oh, man, you're from Uganda. I went to Kampala. And they started to talk about Nairobi. And he know about Nairobi because his mom lived there as a teenager. She actually went to school there. And he spoke a little Swahili. And they knew a little bit of Luganda, which isn't even his parents' language, but it's the main language in Uganda. And I guess he knew enough about Uganda to the point where it's like, yeah. They were like, all right. Yeah, he's from-- OK. He's from Uganda. And he looks like he’s from Uganda. That's when it got real to him. And he was like, these two guys think that I'm from Uganda, these two Kenyans. This is a real thing. I can do this for a long time. Actually, I could probably get away with this forever

Speaker 2: No way! How long did he keep it up?

Speaker 1: Well, to cut a long story short……

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(About This American Life, episode 598: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/598/my-undesirable-talent)

Appendix 6

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Documents

peterstrutt.co.ukpeterstrutt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Helping... · Web viewMany of my students tell me they feel comfortable with typical course book transactional conversations,