Donya Nouri Chapter 18 Practicum

Developing Adult EFL Students' Speaking Abilities
• Introduction
• Factors affecting adult EFL learners' oral communication
• Components underlying speaking effectiveness
• Interaction as the key to improving EFL learners' speaking
abilities
• Some Interactive Activities
Learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing its
grammatical and semantic rules. Learners must also acquire the knowledge of
how native speakers use the language in the context of structured interpersonal
exchange, in which many factors interact. Therefore, it is difficult for EFL
learners, especially adults, to speak the target language fluently and
appropriately.
Speaking a language is especially difficult for foreign language learners because

effective oral communication requires the ability to use the language
appropriately in social interactions. Diversity in interaction involves not only
verbal communication but also paralinguistic elements of speech such as pitch,
stress, and intonation. In addition, non- linguistic elements such as gestures and
body language/posture, facial expression, and so on may accompany speech or
convey messages directly without any accompanying speech.
In addition, "there is tremendous variation cross- culturally and cross-
linguistically in the specific interpretations of gestures and body language.”
Furthermore, different cultural assumptions about the purposes of particular
interactions and expected outcomes of encounters also affect communication.
Consequently, due to minimal exposure to the target language and contact with
native speakers, adult EFL learners in general are relatively poor at spoken
English, especially regarding fluency, control of idiomatic expressions, and
understanding of cultural pragmatics. Few can achieve native-like proficiency in
oral communication.
Factors affecting adult EFL learners' oral communication
• Age or maturational constraints

• Aural medium
• Sociocultural factors
• Affective factors
Age or maturational constraints
The interactive behavior of EFL learners is influenced by a number of factors. Perhaps
age is one of the most commonly cited determinant factors of success or failure in L2
or foreign language learning. Krashen, Long, and Scarcella (1982) argue that acquirers
who begin learning a second language in early childhood through natural exposure
achieve higher proficiency than those beginning as adults. Oyama's study (1976) also
shows that many adults fail to reach native-like proficiency in a second language.
Their progress seems to level off at a certain stage, a phenomenon which is usually
called "fossilization"-the permanent cessation of second language development. This
shows that the aging process itself may affect or limit adult learners' ability to
pronounce the target language fluently with native- like pronunciation. Even if they
can utter words and sentences with perfect pronunciation, problems with prosodic
features such as intonation, stress, and other phonological nuances still cause
misunderstandings or lead to communication breakdown.
Aural medium
The central role of listening comprehension in the L2 or foreign language
acquisition process is now largely accepted. And there is little doubt that listening
plays an extremely important role in the development of speaking abilities.
Speaking feeds on listening, which precedes it. Usually, one person speaks, and
the other responds through attending by means of the listening process.
In fact, during interaction, every speaker plays a double role-both as a listener

and a speaker. "While listening, learners must comprehend the text by retaining
information in memory, integrate it with what follows, and continually adjust
their understanding of what they hear in the light of prior knowledge and of
incoming information.” If one cannot understand what is said, one is certainly
unable to respond. So, speaking is closely related or interwoven with listening,
which is the basic mechanism through which the rules of language are
internalized.
The fleetingness of speech, together with the features of spoken English-
loosely organized syntax, incomplete forms, false starts, and the use of
fillers, undoubtedly hinders EFL learners' comprehension and affects the
development of their speaking abilities, as well.
Sociocultural factors
Many cultural characteristics of a language also affect L2 or foreign language
learning. From a pragmatic perspective, language is a form of social action
because linguistic communication occurs in the context of structured
interpersonal exchange, and meaning is thus socially regulated. In other words,
"shared values and beliefs create the traditions and social structures that bind a
community together and are expressed in their language.”
Thus, to speak a language, one must know how the language is used in a social
context. It is well known that each language has its own rules of usage as to when,
how, and to what degree a speaker may impose a given verbal behavior on
his/her conversational partner (Berns 1990). Due to the influence or interference
of their own cultural norms, it is hard for non-native speakers to choose the forms
appropriate to certain situations.
In addition, oral communication, as mentioned above, involves a very powerful
nonverbal communication system, which sometimes contradicts the messages
provided through the verbal listening channel. Due to a lack of familiarity with the
nonverbal communication system of the target language, EFL learners usually do not
know how to pick up nonverbal cues. As a result, ignorance of the nonverbal message
often leads to misunderstanding.
Affective factors
"The affective side of the learner is probably one of the most important
influences on language learning success or failure.” The affective factors related
to L2 or foreign language learning are emotions, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety,
attitude, and motivation. L2 or foreign language learning is a complex task that
is susceptible to human anxiety, which is associated with feelings of uneasiness,
frustration, self-doubt, and apprehension. Speaking a foreign language in public,
especially in front of native speakers, is often anxiety-provoking.
Adults, unlike children, are concerned with how they are judged by others. They
are very cautious about making errors in what they say, for making errors would
be a public display of ignorance, which would be an obvious occasion of "losing
face" in some cultures such as in China. Clearly, the sensitivity of adult learners
to making mistakes, or fear of "losing face," has been the explanation for their
inability to speak English without hesitation.
Components underlying speaking effectiveness
• Grammatical competence
• Discourse competence
• Sociolinguistic competence
• Strategic competence
Grammatical competence
"Grammatical competence is an umbrella concept that includes increasing expertise

in grammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary, and mechanics. With regards to
speaking, the term mechanics refers to basic sounds of letters and syllables,
pronunciation of words, intonation, and stress"
In order to convey meaning, EFL learners must have the knowledge of words and
sentences; that is, they must understand how words are segmented into various
sounds, and how sentences are stressed in particular ways. Thus, grammatical
competence enables speakers to use and understand English language structures
accurately and unhesitatingly, which contributes to their fluency.
Discourse competence
In addition to grammatical competence, EFL learners must develop discourse

competence, which is concerned with intersentential relationships. In discourse,
whether formal or informal, the rules of cohesion and coherence apply, which aid in
holding the communication together in a meaningful way. In communication, both
the production and comprehension of a language require one's ability to perceive
and process stretches of discourse, and to formulate representations of meaning
from referents in both previous sentences and following sentences.
Effective speakers should acquire a large repertoire of structures and discourse

markers to express ideas, show relationships of time, and indicate cause, contrast,
and emphasis
Sociolinguistic competence
Knowledge of language alone does not adequately prepare learners for effective
and appropriate use of the target language. Learners must have competence which
involves knowing what is expected socially and culturally by users of the target
language; that is, learners must acquire the rules and norms governing the
appropriate timing and realization of speech acts.
Simply, it is the ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic,

sociolinguistic, and discourse rules
Interaction as the key to improving EFL learners' speaking abilities
The functions of spoken language are interactional and transactional. The

primary intention of the former is to maintain social relationships, while that of
the latter is to convey information and ideas. In fact, much of our daily
communication remains interactional. Being able to interact in a language is
essential. Therefore, language instructors should provide learners with
opportunities for meaningful communicative behavior about relevant topics by
using learner-learner interaction as the key to teaching language for
communication because "communication derives essentially from interaction"
Small talk
The ability to get along with people in society may correlate somewhat with
how well a person can engage in brief, casual conversation with others or an
exchange of pleasantries. Talk of weather, rush hour traffic, vocations, and
sports events etc., may seem "meaningless," but it functions to create a sense
of social communion among peers or other people. So, at the initial stage,
adult EFL learners should develop skills in short, interactional exchanges in
which they are required to make only one or two utterances at a time
Interactive activities
EFL learners learn the target language in their own culture, practice is available only
in the classroom. So, a key factor in L2 or foreign language development is the
opportunity given to learners to speak in the language-promoting interaction.
Teachers must arouse in the learners a willingness and need or reason to speak.
Effective interactive activities should be manipulative, meaningful, and

communicative, involving learners in using English for a variety of communicative
purposes. Specifically, they should (1) be based on authentic or naturalistic source
materials; (2) enable learners to manipulate and practice specific features of
language; (3) allow learners to rehearse, in class, communicative skills they need in
the real world; and (4) activate psycholinguistic processes of learning.
Aural: oral activities. With careful selection and preparation, aural materials such as news
reports on the radio will be fine-tuned to a level accessible to particular groups of
learners. These materials can be used in some productive activities as background or as
input for interaction. In practice, students are directed to listen to taped dialogues or
short passages and afterwards to act them out in different ways.
Visual: oral activities. Because of the lack of opportunity in foreign language settings to
interact with native speakers, the need for exposure to many kinds of scenes, situations,
and accents as well as voices is particularly critical.
Material-aided: oral activities. Appropriate reading materials facilitated by the teacher

and structured with comprehension questions can lead to creative production in speech.
Story-telling can be prompted with cartoon-strips and sequences of pictures.
Culture-awareness: oral activities Culture plays an instrumental role in shaping speakers'

communicative competence, which is related to the appropriate use of language

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Developing Adult EFL Students' Speaking Abilities

Speaking a language is especially difficult for foreign language learners because

• Age or maturational constraints

In fact, during interaction, every speaker plays a double role-both as a listener

"Grammatical competence is an umbrella concept that includes increasing expertise

In addition to grammatical competence, EFL learners must develop discourse

Effective speakers should acquire a large repertoire of structures and discourse

Simply, it is the ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic,

The functions of spoken language are interactional and transactional. The

Effective interactive activities should be manipulative, meaningful, and

Material-aided: oral activities. Appropriate reading materials facilitated by the teacher

Culture-awareness: oral activities Culture plays an instrumental role in shaping speakers'

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