CHAPTER-22: DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

 

CHAPTER: 22

DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

This Chapter Deals with

Introduction

Development of Listening Skill

Meaning of Listening Skill

Development of Listening Skill

Objectives of Listening Skills

Programme and Activities for improving the Skills of listening

Conclusion

Introduction: Learning a language is nothing but the development of certain skills. Language Learning is a skill subject. Language involves four basic skills i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and writing. To acquire all the linguistic skills is not possible at a time. The development of linguistic skill occurs gradually. Listening and speaking lay the very foundation of any foreign language learning. It prepares the base. In India, English is taught as a second language, it is generally observed that a teaching first begins with writing of Alphabets. The second stage is reading and then speaking. The skill of listening is given the least importance but this is not a natural way of teaching a language. The procedure of language teaching should be listening, speaking, reading and writing. As the skill of listening and speaking is the base of language teaching, therefore due attention should be laid on the development of skills of listening and speaking. The skill of listening and speaking are intimately related to each other though listening is a perception skill and speaking is the expression skill. In the natural way of learning, the language, listening and speaking come first. The skill of listening and speaking are complementary to each other. The skills of listening and speaking are the language skills as well as media of communication. The English teacher is expected to pay special attention to the teaching of these two basic skills.

Development of Listening Skill

Meaning: The skill of listening is the counterpart of speech because without listening there is no meaning of speech. The skill of listening is related to audio sense and speech Is the function of lingual sense. The listening skill is a passive command, where the skill of speaking is a active command. Language operates in a social situation i.e. in the presence of a speaker and listener. The speaker conveys his ideas and feelings which the listener comprehends.

Conditions for Listening skill: The skill of Listening has the specific meaning and conditions. All the sounds do not facilitate listening. Some sounds have no sense or meaning. When a person is not attentive to the sound which reaches to his audio sense, it will not be listening. The listening skill demands the following conditions for its occurrences.

v  The sound created by the speech must have some sense or meaning.

v  The sound should be supported by action.

v  Pupils should be attentive to the sound which reaches to his audio sense.

v  The speaker should be ready to organize the sense of sound or to understand the message.

v  The pupil is able to understand the meaning of words conveyed through sounds.

v  Pupils should have interest to listen the speech or sound produced by the speaker.

v  The audio sense of the person should be normal.

v  The speech delivered by the speaker should be clear, audible with correct pronunciation.

v   Teachers and students need to be prepared for listening.

v  Students should be encouraged to respond.

v  Oral work should be given prior importance.

v  For developing good listening skill, the teaching task should be divided into some stages.

 

Objectives of Listening Skills: The listening skills have the following objectives-:

v  Listening skill is the basis of good learning of the language.

v  To make speaking skill more effective and workable.

v  It senses the purpose of communicating the message, content, knowledge, ideas, experiences and feelings.

v  To facilitate verbal interaction.

v  To develop the perception skill.

v  To provide basis for educational process.

v  To develop the understanding of concepts, ideas and feelings.

 

Programme and Activities for improving the Skills of listening: There are various programmes and activities should be done by the English Teacher for facilitating the skill of listening, which are as follows-:

 

v  Recitation of the child song in the classroom.

v  Simple poems should be recited in the classroom with Correct pronunciation, intonation, stress, pause, posture and gestures.

v  Ideal reading by the teacher.

v  Imitative reading (Individual and chorus reading).

v  Group activities during English teaching.

v  Hearing and understanding sounds should be the process of learning.

v  Interesting stories should be told by the teacher.

v  Oral composition should be done by the teacher.

v  Question answer should be way for oral work.

v  The learner should be encouraged to participate in the dialogue.

v  Opportunity should be provided for discussion.

v  Debate, play, Drama activities should be done for the development of listening skill.

v  Asking questions by showing a chart, picture, film etc.

v  To be able to comprehend normal conversational speed.

v  Knowledge of vocabulary and phonetics.

v  Listening to native speakers in cassette, Radio, Television, Broadcast etc.

v  To take dictation for developing the skill of listening.

 

Conclusion: Oral work is the basis for efficient learning of the language. A good English teacher will never neglect it. To help the students have more and more aural-oral practice, incidental reading is also recommended. For developing the skill of listening, the teacher can use extensively Radio, Tape Recorder, Lingua phone etc. Pit and bit are two different words with significant meaning differences. The students who listen to these words should be able to distinguish these words not only in terms of the context in which these occur in a phrase or sentence, but also as sound units occurring in words even without any context. Continue exposure to native English speakers both face to face communication and audio visual means will help in fostering the skill of listening.

DEVELOPMENT OF SPEAKING SKILL

Introduction

Views Regarding the skill of Speaking and Pronunciation

Aims of Teaching Speaking English and Pronunciation

Causes of Defective Pronunciation in India

Methods to improve the skill of Speaking and pronunciation

Imitation Method

Advantages of Imitation Method

Phonetic Method

Aids used in this method

Advantages of Phonetic Method

Disadvantages of Phonetic Method

Imitation Method

Suggestions to improve the skill of Speaking and pronunciation

Conclusion

Development of Speaking Skill

 

“The speech is the language”

Introduction: Speech is one of the most manifestations of language. It is an active command of expression skill and it is the basis of good learning of a language. A student who is good in oral work is automatically good in reading and writing of the language. The basic of the language is speech. F. L. French has rightly pointed out, “Speech is the ground work, all the rest are build up from it. Through speech, the pupil learns to make the direct connection between the English word or phrases and the object. Action or idea it bears. He learns the habit of using words in the correct sentence patterns and phrase patterns and he can learn this in no other way.” So speaking is fundamental to English learning. The first duty of the teacher is to reach the pupil to speak English. The effective communication ability will be developed if the pupils express their speech in an effective way. Many researches in the teaching of English language have claimed that in the class room the teacher speaks for 2/3^rd of the time while the students remain passive listener. so, there is also the  need for the inclusion of teaching of conversation in the primary and middle school. Listening and speaking are not only important in throughout. Speaking is the necessary ground for every stage of learning English. 

Views Regarding the skill of Speaking and Pronunciation: There are some views propagated by eminent scholars regarding the skill of speaking and pronunciation.

 

 “The task of pronunciation teaching……. is to establish models for guidance, not norms for imitation”.                                                                         

Dalton and Seidlhofor

“We are ever liable to forget that language is first and foremost a spoken thing, not a written thing. It appeal is to the ear, not to the eye”.

Dr. B.B. Ballard

“Writing is not language, but merely a way of recording language by means of visible marks”.

Bloom Field

 

“Good pronunciation is a hallmark of culture”.

Menon and Patel

 “The first duty of the teacher is to teach the pupil to speak English. In other words, in the oral teaching of English, it is the duty of the teacher to see that the pupils pronounce English word correctly”.

Champion

 Aims of Teaching Speaking English and Pronunciation: The following are the aims of teaching Speaking English pronunciation-:

v  To acquire a correct pronunciation.

v  To develop the skill of expression.

v  To develop the confidence of the students.

v  To give a true description of the sounds of English and how they are made.

v  To differentiable sounds of English from those of the mother tongue.

v  To develop the personality of the students.

v  To recognize the characteristics of the English speech.

v  To provide knowledge of phonology.

v  To develop a good speech manner.

v  To provide understanding of meaning of spoken words.

 Causes of Defective Pronunciation in India: We have noted that Indian pronunciation is peculiar in nature which is, to a great degree, governed by the nature of the native language where words are pronounced more in accordance with the written word than its sound. However, the English language is different in speech and writing. A single alphabet can sound differently in different words: compare the sounds of ‘S’ in Snake, Sing, Sure and Wise. In Indian context, the causes of defects in the pronunciation of the language are of the followings-:

v  Physical disability of the child-: Physical disability of speech organs of the learner is one of the causes in the retardation of speech.

v  Lack of phonetic knowledge.

v  Lack of speaking opportunity.

v  Lack of talented teacher.

v  Lack in knowledge in intonation.

v  Clipping of sound-: when one tries to read the sentence quickly the mistake one commits is that they do not till their lungs before reading a sentence and run out of breath before finishing it. This is known as clipping sounds.

v  Maximum importance on writing, no more importance on speaking is one of the major causes for defective pronunciation.

v  No firm rules for pronunciation.

v  Lack of attention to pronunciation.

v  Slurring over sounds: A common mistake is slurring over sounds while speaking. For Example-: Which is pronounced as wich and Length is pronounced as Lenth etc.

v  Substituting sound from mother tongue: Sounds in Indian language differ from that of English language. Indian children substitute their language sounds for the sounds of English word. For Example-: Considered the sounds of‘t’, ‘th’, ‘d’ of these three we defined equivalent for ‘t’ and ‘d’ in Indian languages but not for ‘th’ sounds. This ‘th’ sound is then placed by Indian listeners in one of the boxes as illustrated below-:

 

 

v  Ignorance of sound.

v  Shortage of books on pronunciation.

v  Lack of practice and drill.

v  Medium of Education: In most of the Indian schools, maximum priority is given on Hindi Medium and most of the students learn English only by pressure. They just interested to pass in English with minimum mark. They ignore English totally as compare with other subject.

v  Different cultures are also one of the causes of defective pronunciation as per Example-: The pronunciation of south Indian People is far different from the pronunciation of Northern Indian people.

 

Methods to improve the skill of Speaking and pronunciation: There are some methods which can be implemented for the development of skills of speaking and pronunciation. They are-:

 (i) Imitation Method

(ii) Phonetic Method

(iii)Subsidiary Method

 

(i)        Imitation Method: This method helps in teaching the different aspects of pronunciation like stress, intonation, pause, Rhythm and fluency. There are four steps used in this method i.e. (a) Perception, (b) Imitation, (c) Feedback and (d) Drill. In this method the English teacher writes the words or sentence on the black board and gives a model pronunciation. Pupils are encouraged to pronounce the word or sentence exactly by imitation. If the teacher finds that the pronunciation is not correct, he gives feedback. At the last stage the teacher may go through individual or group drill to correct the pronunciation of the students. In this method Lingua phone should be used for model pronunciation and there will be two kinds of recording can be done: (i) Formal Recording, (ii) Informal Recording. In formal recording the teacher records the model texts and play it before students and in informal recording the students repeats the pronunciation which is recorded and later played to point out their mistakes.

 

Advantages of Imitation Method: This method has the following advantages which are as given below-:

v  This method is based on Psychological Principles.

v  It is an economical method as it saves time and energy.

v  Learning is permanent by this method.

v  It lays emphasis on drill and practice as we know that practice makes a man perfect.

v  All the students are benefitted by this method.

v  Individual attention is given by this method.

v  Retarded children are also benefitted by this method.

 

(ii)    Phonetic Method: This method is based on scientific principles of Phonetics. In this method the teacher tell his students about all the 45 sounds of 26 English letters. He also tells them about how these sounds are produced by different speech organs. He explains all the rules of producing sounds. There are five steps which are followed by this method.

(a)     Recognition of various speech sounds.

(b)Making these sounds by the pupils.

(c)          Using these sounds in their proper places in connected speech.

(d)         Learning these sounds in the usages of “Sound Attributes” or “Prosodies” (especially length, stress, and voice pitch).

(e)     Learn to join each sound of a sequence on to the next and to pronounce the complete sequence rapidly and without stumbling.

Aids used in this method:  In this method the teacher can use the following material aids in teaching pronunciation:

·         Charts of speech organs.

·         Position of speech organs during produce different sounds.

·         Lingua Phone and Gramophone. 

Advantages of Phonetic Method: Phonetic Method has the following advantages-:

v  It is based on the scientific principles of the phonetics.

v  The learner can evaluate himself about the correctness of his pronunciation.

v  It develops the feeling of self-dependency.

v  There are no chances of distorted pronunciation.

Disadvantages of Phonetic Method: Phonetic Method has the following disadvantages-:

v       It is not based on Psychological principles.

v       It is not proper method for abnormal children having disability.

v  It compels students to cram because for many students it becomes hard to understand.

v       Students are uninterested by this method.

v       Teachers find this method tedious.

v  It has been found that even after understanding the sound system of English; many persons are unable to pronounce properly.

v       No importance on practice.

v  It cannot be used at early stage. It can be only used successfully with adult students.

v       It is time consuming.

v       Lack of well-trained teacher.

v       Audio visual aids are needed.

(iii) Imitation Method: There are many subsidiary methods, which can be used for teaching correct pronunciation. This method helps in developing speaking habits of the students. These methods are as follows-:

• Question answer method
• Debates and Discussion Method
• Dramatization Method
• Recitation of poems
• Song Method
• Sound analysis
• Language game
• Inductive and Deductive techniques
• Loud Reading
• Dialogue
• Analysis of difficult words and sentence.

Suggestions to improve the skill of Speaking and pronunciation: There are some suggestions which can be taken into consideration for the development of skills of speaking and pronunciation.

v  Oral training of English language.

v  By using Question answer method.

v  Role playing method.

v  By performing action.

v  By showing picture or a chart.

v  By giving an outline of a story.

v  Use of proper stress, sounds, intonation, and pause.

v  Pronunciation drill and practice.

v  By using various audio visual aids.

v  English teacher himself an ideal model of intelligible pronunciation.

v  By improving comprehension ability.

v  Ear training, comparison, coordination, use of technology is some of the ways of teaching pronunciation.

v  Maximum use of language lab, lingua phone etc.

v  Listening and imitation.

v  Prompt correction.

v  Individual attention.

v  Dictation.

v  Oral activities and Drill.

v  Pupil’s spelling books.

v  Analysis of difficult words.

v  Habit to speak slowly and correctly.

v  Explanation of English sounds.

v  Knowledge of phonetics.

Conclusion: Language is the heart of communication but Speech is the part of communication. In teaching learning process the teacher is liked by all the students if the teacher is more efficient in the skill of speaking. If the teacher has no good speaking skill, then it may be very difficult for him to interact with students in an effective way. In the process of communication the skill of speaking and pronunciation occupies an important role. In next chapter we are going to discuss about the Components of speech, Speech mechanism and Elementary sounds in English.

 COMPONENTS OF SPEECH

Stress

Rhythm

Intonation

Juncture

Pause

Fluency

Some tips for Developing Pronunciation skill

Conclusion

Components of Speech: Pronouncing with sound correctly is not sufficient. When we speak, we do not speak in single word but in group of words spoken continuously. This is called components of speech or stream of speech. The component of speech includes-:   

v  Stress

v  Rhythm

v  Intonation

v  Pause

v  Fluency

 

Stress : Stress is a vital element in a correct pronunciation and it is an important feature of every language. According to P. Christopherson, “A characteristic feature of English is compared with many African language is the use of stress”. The word stress means emphasis. If we make a sound with more energy, the sound will come out with force. If we make a sound with less energy, the sound will come out with less force. This indicates that there are degrees of stress. Regarding the importance of stress it has been said, “Language spoken without stress, sounds to be flat dull language”. To make the students efficient and exact in pronunciation, the fittest of thing for the language teachers is that they should be accurate and exact in their pronunciation. Before going to the classroom the teacher should learn deeply about stress. His appropriateness and exactness make his students accurate in pronunciation. We stress the letters, words, phrases, and idioms that appear important to us. Stress is of three kinds-:

(i)         Syllable Stress

(ii)         Word Stress

(iii)          Sentence Stress

(i)        Syllable  Stress: In English there is variation in syllable stress as given below-:

v  There may be words of two syllables with stress on the first e.g SIS/TER, DOC/TER etc.

v  There may be words of two syllables with stress on the second i.g.  BE/LIEVE, A/GAIN, MIS/TAKE, CON/DUCT etc.

v  There may be words of two syllables and each syllable may be stressed i.g SIX/TEEN, UP/STAIR, UN/KNOWN etc.

v  Words of three syllables with stress on the first syllable, i.g. PHO/TO/GRAPHY, HO/LI/DAYS etc.

v  Three syllable stress with words on the second syllable i.g. DIC/TA/TION, TO/MO/RROW etc.

v  Three syllable words with stress on the third syllable i.g. AF/TER/NOON, UN/DER/STAND etc.

v  Words of four syllable have usually stress on the last syllable but one, and a secondary stress earlier in the word i.g PRO/NUN/CIA/TION, CON/VER/SA/TION, E/DU/CA/TION etc.

(ii)                              Word Stress: (a) connected words are stressed and structural words are not stressed. (b) Noun, Main Verb, and Adverbs are stressed, whereas articles, auxiliary verbs, Prepositions and Conjunctions are not stressed.

(iii)                            Sentence Stress: In a sentence, important words are stressed which leads to differences in the meaning. For Example-:

·         He is my uncle (not anyone else).

·         He is’ mu uncle (not anybody else)

·         He’ is my uncle (why do you doubt?)

·         He is my uncle (not father).

Rhythm : Rhythm is an important feature of English speech. Rhythm is the musical aspect of language and makes pronunciation more appealing than it would otherwise be. According to Robert Lado; “The first exercise in pronunciation should deal with intonationand Rhthm”. and According to Oxford Dictionary, “Rhythm is the metrical effect produced in verse, prose, music or motion by the relations in quantity, stress, time or energy between the syllables, words, notes or movements that succeeded each other” . Rhythm is the beat of a language, when a persom plays upon a harmonium, his fingers of hands move, from one note to the other at a regular interval. This is Rhythm in music. English has stressed syllables may come in between. For Example-:

Jack and ‘Jill went’ up the hill

To ‘fetch a ‘pail of ‘water.

 

Intonation

A.W. Fribsy pointed out, “Much of the meaning of the spoken language is conveyed by the tune to which it is said”.  Intonation means modulation of voice or the variation in pitch. It is another form of quality of a fluent speech. It can be defined as “the rise and fall of the pitch of voice when we speak. Some degree of intonations is brought in by every ordinary being. To reach its height a regular practice is required but the tragedy is that, at school level, where students develop these linguistic and phonic habits, this most important feature of continuous speech in english has been neglected by the language teacher. This result in flat speeking of students. If the language teacher is really wanted to train their students in correct spoken english, they have to play a vital role. They have to make efforts to become good models for their students. There are two major intonational tone of spoken language.

(a) Falling Tone

(b) Rising Tone 

Falling Tone: In this type of intonational tone the pitch in voice is at a high level and falls down towards the end. The falling pitch is shown by the down arrow sign........

Juncture : Juncture, Exigency, Emergency, Contingency, Pinch, Straits, and Crisis mean a critical or crucial state of affairs. Juncture stresses the significant concurrence or convergence of events. Juncture means the act of joining or the condition of being joined. Generally juncture is a place where two things are joined. Juncture is the slight pause to indicate syllable break in the chain of speed sound.. It separates near identical group of words or two near sequence of phonemes. Juncture is represented by the mark   ( + )

 

For Example-:     Whenever              when+ever

                              Always                  all+ways

                           Welcome                 wel+come

                              Mangoes               man+goes

We should carefully use the juncture because putting the juncture in a wrong place may change the meaning of an utterance or ever turn it into an utterance that might not be understood.

 

Pause: Pause means to stop for a while after comma, full stop etc. The pause can change the entire meaning of a sentence. For Example-: Geeta come here

                                                           Geeta, come here

Fluency: Fluency means the uttering if words and sentences will no gaps or hesitations in the middle. Good spoken English is one in which words are spoken without shuttering and stumbling over sound or sequence of sounds.

Some tips for Developing Pronunciation skill: Many teachers would like to offer their learner more help and support with pronunciation, but feel that they lack the necessary knowledge and skill, or that own pronunciation is not sufficiently good. In other words, pronunciation is an area where teachers as well as learners often suffer from lack of confidence. There are some tips by which we can develop the skill of pronunciation. These are of the followings-:

v  By creating an English environment.

v  Speak English like a native speaker.

v  Focus on listening.

v  Speak English slowly at first time.

v  Continuous practice and drill.

v  Speak out loud.

v  Record yourself speaking English.

v  Speak English with your friends.

v  Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

v  Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

v  listen to the music of English

v  Use the dictionary.

v  Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

v  Buy books on tape.

v  Pronounce the ending of each word correctly.

v  Read aloud in English for 20-30 minutes every day.

v  Be patient because you can change the way you speak but it would not happen overnight.

v  Watch the English news on television channels like STARWORLD, CNN, BBC and English movies on STAR MOVIES and HBO.

v  Listen to and sing English poems.

v  Speak yourself in free time because it will help in developing the confidence in expression.

v  Do mental exercise and think anything in English.

v  Open your mouth properly while speaking.

v  Group discussion.

v  Maximum use of audio visual aids.

v  Make a habit of reading English newspaper.

v  Use of language lab and lingua phone etc. 

Conclusion: In India it is very difficult for learner to achieve a pronunciation that sounds like a native speaker. Discussion of the pronunciation of English as an international language have emphasized the fact that native like pronunciation is also necessary for many learners, and may indeed not be wanted. It has been suggested that intelligibility is a more appropriate objective than conformity to any preexisting model. Proposals have been made for an agenda of high priority features which are particularly important for intelligibility. These include consonant sounds, consonant clusters, contrasts between lung and short vowels and tonic stress. The skill of pronunciation can be easily developed, if the learners have aspiration and a wish to achieve a native like pronunciation.

 

 

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