会话分析对英语口语教学的启示

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Chapter One Introduction

§1.1 Demands Set by CET-SET

With the demands of spoken English set by the ever increasing opening-up and

cross-cultural communication of the society, China stands at a position with an urgent

need for reform of foreign language teaching, especially oral English teaching. In view

of this situation, the national College English Test Committee, under the ratification of

the Ministry of Education, announced the commencement of CET Spoken English Test

(CET-SET for short) in 1999, and introduced a new syllabus. The criteria for grading set

by the new syllabus for non-English majors can be stated as follows:

A. Correctness: the degree of correctness of tone, intonation, grammar and

vocabulary used by candidates

B. Scope of language: the complexity and scope of vocabulary and

grammatical structure

C. Length of utterance: the contribution made by the candidates in the

communication and the length of utterance

D. Coherence: the ability for candidates to give coherent speeches for a fairly

long period of time

E. Flexibility: the ability for candidates to adapt to different situations and

topics

F. Appropriateness: the capacity for candidates to choose an appropriate

language according to different situations

(Quoted from http://www.newpower.org.cn)

Standard description given full marks to in this domain requires the following:

1) Fundamentally correct grammar and vocabulary, rich vocabulary and fairly

complicated grammatical structure, allowing accent of the mother tongue

2) Ability to give coherent speeches in a fairly long period of time, permitting

occasional pause

3) Capability to become naturally and actively involved in discussion with

other participants, and to adapt appropriately to context, function and

purpose of discussion on the whole (ibid.)

In light of this new syllabus, the teaching curriculum set by most universities or

colleges often goes like this: at the end of two-year oral English learning, the students

The Implication of Conversation Analysis on Oral English Teaching

should be able to

1) Make appropriate dialogues on daily situations

2) Make coherent speeches on ordinary topics of social life

3) Express themselves with appropriateness as well as adequate correctness of

intonation and grammar

(Quoted from http://www.nciae.edu.cn/excellent_course/dxyy_course_outline.htm)

In accordance with the new syllabus of CET-SET and corresponding teaching

curriculum, what the oral English teachers do in class would not only include training

students’ listening ability but also teaching students how to manipulate all stages of

conversation, like how to begin a conversation without offending others, how to move

from one topic to another, how to arrive at a closing at the most appropriate time, and

how to perceive the most proper moment to take or relinquish the floor.

§1.2 Present State of Oral English Teaching

Far from meeting the above standards, the present state of oral English teaching and

learning is on the brink of a precipice. On the one hand, the teachers often find both the

content and the object of oral classes increasingly difficult to manipulate, however hard

they have tried in this special course; for the students, on the other hand, the teachers’

words sound a far cry from their expectations: what the teachers instruct in class fails to

provide a pragmatic blueprint for students to follow in practice. The students wouldn’t

find them qualified to manage a fluent conversation with native speakers of English

after taking such a course.

Based on video recordings made in ten oral classes, five by Chinese teachers and

the other five by foreign teachers, the author finds the following:

Some Chinese teachers cling to textbooks and dare not come up with challenging

topics and questions, for fear of losing control of the teaching process. Some Chinese

teachers invent new material, and organize such activities as role-play and debate, but

there’re still lost lambs in the class who find novels more interesting. For foreign

teachers, they sometimes find it hard to understand responses of non-native learners.

And sometimes they are even at a loss about the misunderstanding occurring because of

cultural dissimilarities.

If a deeper study is made on what teachers instruct in class, more problems may be

found. For the majority of Chinese teachers, their teaching curriculums are often

Chapter One Introduction

burdened with intensive reading and extensive reading classes apart from oral classes.

Confronted with the urgency of teaching progress, many teachers just rush through the

content listed in oral textbooks, most of which are just simple questions for the students

to answer or speeches to make. If the students are not quick enough to keep up with the

teaching process, sometimes it is the teacher who gives the standard answer in class and

complains about the students’ slowness in acquiring communicative competence after

class. For the foreign teachers, their focuses are different from those of Chinese teachers,

yet the students’ disappointment in foreign teachers’ activities outweighs the fun they

gain: students sometimes find nothing concrete in foreign teachers’ oral classes.

Here a question arises: the teachers are often engaged in “teaching a language

through speaking” instead of “teaching the spoken form of a language”, and what is

most dangerous about it is that they teach in this way without any knowledge of it. This

distinction is important despite their trivial differences at first sight. Rebecca Hughes, in

Teaching and Researching Speaking tells us her understanding of this distinction:

Spoken forms of language have been under-researched whether at the level of

grammar or in broader genre based studies. … Whereas a teacher or material

writer may feel some confidence in dealing with stable written forms and

genres … and have some feel for the language appropriate to newer

discourses—such as e-mail—the notion of how spoken genres are structured and

what forms are most typical of them is difficult to establish. …there is a great

deal of speaking going on in classrooms, but … this is different from ‘teaching

speaking’ (Hughes, 2005: 7) .

The key, therefore, is to explore the possible reasons for these phenomena and to

make an analysis so as to give reasonable prescriptions for the present symptoms of oral

English teaching in China.

§1.3 Possible Reasons for the Gap

Faced with such a dilemma, educators as well as teachers tried every possible

means to find out the undermining factors. Three aspects of oral English teaching are

paid respective attention to: who teaches whom what, namely factors of the teachers

who give instructions in oral classes, the students who receive such instructions and the

content of oral English classes.

The Implication of Conversation Analysis on Oral English Teaching

§1.3.1 Position of Speech in Language Teaching

Attitudes to the spoken form of language and its position in the curriculum have

varied considerably through time. As far back as in ancient Egypt the art of speaking

has been connected to the skill of persuasion, and the ability to influence others by

means of rhetoric. With the ancient Greeks, the systematization of argument through

speech reached its height in the teachings of Corax of Syracuse, and the Sophists. Given

the strong link between the spoken form and the Sophists, it is perhaps interesting that

the word ‘sophistry’ has come to have the negative meaning it now has.

The beginning and end of the nineteenth century witnessed a marked change in the

status of speech in the language teaching process. This was brought about in the

transition from “grammar translation” methods which dominated language teaching in

the early parts of the century in Europe to what came to be termed the “Reform

Movement” which arose around the 1880s.

In the situational and audio-lingual methods developed later in the twentieth century,

thanks to the improvements in both color publishing and tape technology, the emphasis

on teaching and learning a language through the medium of speech remained at the

heart of most teaching methodologies. However, it should be noted that although speech

was used in these “naturally” oriented teaching processes, the actual forms used were

very far from naturally occurring speech or indeed natural spoken communication.

Typically, the interactions were highly constrained so that particular grammatical

structures could be practiced. To make matters worse, such structures were derived from

standard formal grammars which were grounded in the forms of “literate” writing.

§1.3.2 Teacher’s Role in the Learning Process

Using a framework suggested by Harmer (1991), it is possible to identify the

teacher in a number of roles: as controller in eliciting nationality words; as assessor of

accuracy as students try to pronounce the words; as corrector of pronunciation; as

organizer in giving instructions for the pair work, initiating it, monitoring it, and

organizing feedback; as prompter while students are working together; and as resource

if students need help with words and structures during the pair work. Harmer’s

framework deals exclusively with roles that relate to classroom procedures. Other

frameworks include categories which move beyond the immediate pedagogic concerns

Chapter One Introduction

of getting the learning task done into areas much influenced by attitudes in the social

and cultural environment.

A study undertaken with a multicultural group of experienced teachers

(Karavas-Dukas, 1995) from widely differing worldwide contexts and representing a

variety of teaching approaches, asked them what roles they performed as teachers. The

subsequent list shows the role categories that emerged and the percentage of teachers

who mentioned functions pertaining to a particular category. However, what is

noticeable is a general balance among the four main categories of source of expertise,

management roles, source of advice, and facilitator of learning. It seems that a large

number of the teachers perceived a need to fulfill the general roles of instructor,

organizer, counselor, and helper and, indeed, these are common to a range of classroom

methods.

The role of oral English teachers, however, differs from that of other teachers.

While it is possible for English teachers of others courses to adopt more traditional

methodology of teaching, oral English teachers, often find the time pressing for them to

organize class activities and meanwhile to teach speaking. One issue to consider is

whether and to what degree teachers might discuss explicitly with student what is

needed for effectiveness in English teaching. Teachers might also consider whether and

how to teach strategic competence, like ways of opening a conversation in order to get

practice with other students or English-speaking members of a community, or ways of

keeping a conversation going. Some people regard it as the best way for students to

learn a second language in native countries, yet for the large number of ordinary

students, their families could only afford an education at home. And although it is

possible for some outstanding students to gain such competence through their own

acquisition, for the overwhelming majority of students, things would be better if the

teacher teaches “speaking” instead of merely teaching through speaking.

§1.3.3 Chinese Students’ Learning Habit

The test-oriented education in middle school and college brings about several

misleading consequences, one of which involves the trend of learning through

memorizing. This very tendency easily gives rise to the neglect of practicing speaking

as far as oral English teaching is concerned. Some extreme examples are about such

students who focus merely on vocabulary and grammar in their English learning and yet

The Implication of Conversation Analysis on Oral English Teaching

gain high marks in the test.

Also, China has enjoyed a long history of respecting teachers ever since Confucian

time. For the students, the teachers are just like “Gods in the heaven” whose authority

and words cannot be questionable. Also the authority of teachers in students’ parents,

even in the society, is unchallengeable. In these key facts lie the strengths and

weaknesses of the teaching model in China. On the one hand, under the authority of

teachers, students are easy to organize, and teachers find that their energy is not wasted

in emphasizing discipline in the class; on the other hand, unless activated by outside

stimulus, the students are prone to keep steady: they are more used to passively

absorbing knowledge passed from the teachers, but not to actively asking questions on

what is taught. Even when there are different voices from different teachers, students are

more likely to question their understanding ability instead of questioning the

authoritative teachers. To make things even worse, the spoken form of language, for its

nature of being transient, does not provide optimal input for Chinese students who are

more adapted to reading, which in turn undermines the process of speech production.

§1.4 One Possible Way Out

As is discussed in the previous section, teachers are mostly engaged in “teaching

English through speaking” instead of “teaching spoken English”. The solution, therefore,

is to teach spoken English. The specific steps for teachers to follow, however, are not

listed in the reference books, but for the teachers to learn in the study of spoken form of

English. Among the variety of spoken forms, conversation sticks out for the dominant

percentage it obtains in daily communication.

§1.4.1 Motivations for a Micro-examination of Conversation

Only by looking into conversation itself can one get inspirations on how to learn it.

As early as in 1965, Noam Chomsky has expressed his opinion on the status and

usefulness of natural speech in linguistic analysis despite his emphasis on the notion of

“competence”.

A record of natural speech will show numerous false starts, deviations from rules,

changes of plan in mid-course, and so on. The problem for the linguist, as well

as for the child learning the language, is to determine from the data of

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摘要：

ChapterOneIntroduction1ChapterOneIntroduction§1.1DemandsSetbyCET-SETWiththedemandsofspokenEnglishsetbytheeverincreasingopening-upandcross-culturalcommunicationofthesociety,Chinastandsatapositionwithanurgentneedforreformofforeignlanguageteaching,especiallyoralEnglishteaching.Inviewofthissituation,the...

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