What helps a speaker speak

Distribution tests can be applied to checking different habits and skills using the techniques of distributing items within a group. They may ask for 1) excluding an extra item according to its lexical, grammatical or stylistic meaning; 2) grouping items according to the same criteria; 3) generalising the meaning of the items included into a group with a family name; 4) arranging the items in a certain order.

1) An exclusion test:

a) Instruction: Define which of the words doesn’t belong to the group:

A. tomatoes B. cucumbers C. onions D. peaches

b) Instruction: Define which of the phrases doesn’t belong to the group:

A. How are you getting on?

B. How do you do?

C. How’s life treating you?

D. How have you been doing?

2) A grouping test:

Instruction: Divide all the adverbial modifiers given below into those referring to the past simple tense and those referring to the present perfect tense:

Lately, recently, a short while ago, the day before yesterday, for ages, since childhood, never in my life, this morning, this year, for a long time.

3) A generalising test:

Instruction: Write the common name for all these words:

A table, a chest of drawers, a stool, a bookcase, a wardrobe, a shelf, an armchair, a cupboard, a dressing table, a desk, a sofa, a bed.

4) An arrangement test:

a) Instruction: Arrange the following quantifiers in the order of increasing:

No, a lot of, several, some, a few, a number of.

b) Instruction: Arrange the following adjectives starting from the most generous praise to the most reserved:

Wonderful. Not bad. Excellent. Well-done. How smart! Good. Good work.

16.6.4.5. Monolingual/bilingual matching tests

Monolingual and bilingual matching tests usually imply finding equivalents or correspondences in two lists of items (words and word combinations, grammatical structures, phrases).

1. A monolingual grammar matching test:

Instruction: Which of the phrases in the left column correspond to those in the right?

1. He had left by the time I came. 2. He left when I came. 3. He was leaving when I came. 4. He left after I had come.

A. He’s been waiting for me to come. B. I had no chance to see him. C. We met at the door. D. We had little time to speak.

2. A monolingual lexical test:

Instruction: Match the names of occupations to the names of tools:

1. a dress-maker 2. a hair-dresser 3. a teacher 4. a driver a builder

A. a blackboard B. a sewing-machine C. a brake pedal D. a crane E. a pair of scissors

3. A bilingual lexical test:

Instruction: Match the words to their equivalents:

1. to tell 2. to speak 3. to talk 4. to chat 5. to discuss 6. to contradict 7. to say 8. to confirm

A. подтвердить B. рассказать C. болтать D. произнести E. возразить F. поговорить G. выступать H. обсудить

 

Speaking and writing

Speaking about writing as a separate skill, we have already mentioned that its function is often to reinforce new language learned orally. At this point, it might be a good idea to make some comparison between written and spoken English. This is particularly so since the differences imply different types of exercises, which focus on different aspects of language. At the same time, these differences demand different levels of correctness.

What helps a speaker speak

Speakers have a great range of expressive possibilities at their command. Apart from the actual words they use, the speakers can vary their intonation and stress. This helps the speakers show which part of what they are saying is most important. By varying the pitch and intonation in their voice, the speakers can clearly convey their attitude to what they are saying. They can indicate interest or lack of it and they can show whether they wish to be taken seriously.

At any point in a speech event speakers can rephrase what they are saying. They can speed up or slow down. This is often done in response to the feedback they are getting from their listeners. The listeners will show to speakers through a variety of gestures, expressions and interruptions what they do not understand. In case of a face-to-face interchange, the speaker can use the whole range of facial expressions, gestures and general body language to help convey the message.

Not all the speakers have the benefit of such immediate listener feedback. Speakers on the phone have to rely on the words and on the use of intonation, pitch and stress only. They are not able to see all the visual clues that would help them know what the other person was thinking.

10.1.2. Writing: Accuracy comes first

Perhaps, the single most important difference between writing and speaking concerns the need for accuracy. Native speakers constantly make ‘mistakes’ when they are speaking. They hesitate and say the same thing in different ways. They often change the subject of what they are saying in mid-sentence. Except in extremely formal situations, this is considered normal and acceptable behaviour. However, a piece of writing with mistakes and half-finished sentences would be judged by many native speakers as illiterate since it is expected that writing should be ‘correct’. From the point of view of language teaching, therefore, there is often far greater pressure for written accuracy than there is for accuracy in speaking.

The writer also suffers from the disadvantage of not getting immediate feedback from the reader and sometimes getting no feedback at all. Writers cannot use intonation and stress. Facial expression, gestures and body movement are also denied them. These disadvantages have to be compensated by greater clarity and by the use of grammatical and stylistic techniques for focusing the reader’s attention on main points, ideas and so on.

Perhaps most importantly, there is a greater need for logical organisation in a piece of writing than in a conversation. This is so because the reader has to understand what has been written without asking for clarification or relying on the writer’s tone of voice and expression.