English language learning :

English language learning: A focus on oral interaction for primary school aged leaners Rhonda Oliver

Outline • What is oral interaction? • Differences between oral and written language • Oral interaction in education • Oral interaction in the classroom • Oral interaction for social interaction • Oral interaction and SLA • Age as a factor in SLA • Interaction of younger children • Teacher talk to children • Teachers supporting SLA • Pedagogy for child SLA Implications

Oral interaction: what is it? • One type of communicative exchange • The spoken language that takes place between two or more people • The type of speaking and listening that occurs in real time (i.e., in the present)

When speakers talk in turn and respond orally to these turns (note: sometimes speakers do interrupt or talk “over” each other) • Collaborative and most often reciprocal, with each speaker working to co-construct a meaningful exchange

Oral interaction is often complementary: A: I’m hungry B: Me too • And it also can be quite complex • Mostly face-to-face (except phone and Skype)

Oral interaction is not always verbal - responses can be non-verbal M: What are you doing? G: Points to his head R: Did you get hurt? G: Nods head and clicks tongue.

Oral interaction differs from written language • Written language - is planned - can be revised - is far more permanent • Oral interaction - is unplanned/less planned - is spontaneous and ephemeral - is less thanperfect – consists of disfluencies, false starts, unnecessary repetition, and redundant information. Teachers should not assess oral interaction based on written language conventions

Oral interaction in education • Oral interaction is important to our everyday lives and to students’ success socially, academically, and vocationally • When young children come to school there are many things they must adjust to in order to successfully learn . They need to get used to interacting: • in a new environment outside their home, • with many more peers, • with a range of different adults, • in new ways with all these people. • Clearly oral interaction is an important part of education And yet….

Oral interaction skills may not be given the same priority in our classrooms as reading and writing • And when it is included, the focus is often on presentational language And yet….

Oral interaction in the classroom Oral interaction can occur in the classroom such as when: • Teachers and students are discussing aspects of a lesson; • Students are jointly working on tasks or activities; • Students are engaging in social chit chat; • Or even when they talk off-task to someone else. • Such interaction is particularly important for second language learners

Oral interaction for socialisation Oral interaction serves an important function of supporting their socialisation: Developing appropriate behaviours (including language behaviours) for social situations, including in behaving appropriately in the classroom

Ms Jones: Oh no, Amy, you’re supposed to do that on your own Everybody needs to do this sheet on their own I need to know what everybody can do on their own Luke: Ms Jones, can I help Rita? MsJones: No Luke then goes to Rita’s desk. John, (classmate sitting next to Rita, says to Luke) Luke: Ms Jones said no Luke sits on a bench near Rita John: I’m keeping my eye on you Linda comes up to teacher, who is talking to an aide Linda: Ms Jones, Surjeet was helping Tiffany Ms. Jones: Thank you Linda. Surjeet do your own work Natalie: MsJones, Terry and Amy are looking at our work. MsJones: Maybe you could move Toohey, 1998, p.75

Oral interaction and SLA… • Oral interaction facilitates second language acquisition by providing opportunities to: • Receive meaningful input • Produce meaningful output • Receive feedback on attempts • Have attention drawn to the form of the target language • Have new language scaffolded (see over)

Comprehensible input T: ‘She was a bony old woman, she had bony legs, and bony fingers and feathers on her bony arms.’ What do I mean by bony? Pia? St: Bones T: Right, where are your bones? Feel your bones (Teacher touches her wrist, elbow, shoulder) St: Here T: Good, you can feel inside you’ve got bones Oliver, 2009, p.44

Meaningful/pushed output NNS 1: Where is the –the, where is the [life] go? NNS 2: (Pause) What you say? NNS1: The [life] NNS 2: The life? NNS 1: The b[r]ead knife Oliver, 1998, p.378

Feedback L: Shape like diamond E: Like diamonds? L: Yeah Shape like diamonds Oliver, 1995b, p.17

Focus on form T: right now we’re going to talk about all thumbtacks. So we’re going to talk about magnets… Try it this way, magnets S: [attract thumbtacks T: [attract thumbtacks let’s try it S: magnets attract thumbtacks T: remember I’m not talking about just one I’m talking about all magnets I’m talking about all thumbtacks so let’s try it again S: magnets attract thumbtacks T: the nail is magnetic … so you tell me S: [the nail T: [magnets S: magnets attract the nail The nails T: again S: magnets attract nails Gibbons, 2006, pp.133-134

Scaffolding Teacher: What did you do in the garden? Student: Mm, cut the tree Teacher: You cut the trees Were they big trees or were they little bushes? Student: Big trees Teacher: How did you cut them? Student: What? Teacher: How did you cut them? Did you have a big knife? Student: You know big knife? Oliver, 2000, p.140

Age as a factor in language learning • The importance of age and the impact this has on language learning, including second language learning (SLA), will not come as any surprise to those working in schools.

Interactions of younger children • Reflecting their interests and stage of development, their topics of conversation are quite different from those of older learners • Young pre-school children also • Are less able to take turns • Switch quickly from one topic to another • However, they are still able to interact with each other in ways that fosters SLA

For example…. Em that’s blu:e. What’s this? Zebra? Y yeah Em Very colourful zebra [baby talk lilting intonation] Em what’s that? E the elephant (several turns later) Em[Roberta arrives] oh hello Roberta I thought you were sick. R no mum XX Y [excitedly] look at the zebra very colourful zebra isn’t it? Very verycolourful R what’s this? Y tiger {laughing} Em I’ll eat you [sing song voice] Y eleeephant Em yeah elephant Philp& Duchesne, 2008, p.94

Ultimate attainment • Although children are the ‘tortoises’ in the language learning race (i.e., eventually they will do better), ultimate attainment will depend on: • quality of the learning environment, (e.g., the nature and quantity of input provided, especially the opportunities created for meaningful interaction) • type of language learning context, (e.g., where language input and time are limited, such as in foreign language classes older children, particularly adolescents, can have the advantage) Clearly the classroom environment is KEY And yet….

Teacher talk to children • The type of interaction that is most prominent in many classrooms is the teacher doing most of the talking, and addressing the class as a whole (i.e., one to many) • Even though this does NOT align with what we understand SLA! (i.e., input, output, feedback, negotiation, scaffolding etc)

At the same time as children continue their education the topics of conversation in the classroom become: • increasingly complex, • more abstract, • further removed from their personal situation, • Very different to the type of talk that occurs outside of school

It is not just howteachers talk, but what they talk about: Teachers need to support language learners in their educational journey LANGUAGE LEARNING = MEANING + USE So….

Teachers supporting SLA What can teachers do? • Provide a secure and welcoming environment; • Create motivating situations (e.g., through use of tasks) where students can meaningfully use target language; • Give students the opportunity to participate at their level … non-verbally and verbally; • Provide situations that enable the production of comprehensible input and output, peer interaction, • Provide meaningful feedback (see over)

For example Providing a recast in response to telegraphic speech e.g., when the student points to a snowman while doing a phonic matching activity and says, S: a man and snow T: Yes, it’s a snowman (Oliver, unpublished data)

Or by providing scaffolding.. T: Select a picture. Select a picture or select a part of the story that you like < sh (quietens other chidren) Okay now what was the story- show the picture- now what was the stor- what was that part of the story? S: xx apple pie on the wolf T: Right hit the wolf with what? S: Apple pie T: With an apple pie With a plate and had an apple pie on it Right where did the wolf go from there? When he hit the wolf- when Red riding hit the wolf with an apple pie where did the wolf go to? S: Went to skate board T: Went to where the skate board was and then what happened to the wolf?

Overall there is a need to implement a pedagogy appropriate for child second language learners, taking account of their stage of development, interests, motivations and way of interacting and then using this in the classroom. Most importantly oral interaction should hold an important place in our classroom for all our learners!

Acknowledgements • My co-author, JeneferPhilp • My editors Nina Spada and Pasty Lightbown • www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Thank you • <rhonda.oliver@curtin.edu.au>

English language learning :