Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo

Oral Communication
Professor Dr. Aurlia Leal Lima Lyrio
Francyne Gonalves, Vanessa Gomes Alves de Oliveira

Chapter I Conceptual and historical background- Summary


This chapter discusses the status of speaking in society at different point in
time and in linguistic theory and practice in particular. The skill of speaking
has one central difficulty, which is the fact that it overlaps with a number of
other areas and disciplines. The book attempts to conquer a niche for
speaking in its own rights while relating it to three different areas: the global
or discourse level, the structural level and the speech production level.
When teaching speaking, the teacher should be aware that there has to be
other aims for the activity. Speaking is not easily separated from other
objectives, such as the practice of some linguistic knowledge (learning how to
use a specific grammar point). A good question to ask is if the teacher is
teaching the spoken form of a language or teaching a language through
speaking. Teaching other skills of language, such as writing or reading, can be
easier than to teach speaking. The skill of speaking is related to the culture,
to context, and it depends of what English you are teaching, because it
English has its own cultural value.
The objectives in the speaking classroom may change over the years, since
the language is also changing as well. Every time a new expression, or even
the usage of a word, may change. When learning a new language, speakers
should be aware of the details that surround the latter, which are much more
than just speaking it. The learner should get a new voice, one that fits to the
language being learn.
The spoken form of a language is different from the written form. While in
the written, a word depends on the context its inserted, and it may have only
one meaning, in the spoken form, besides depending on the context, it also
depends on the culture and the place its being said. For example, the word
water is water in any English. It has the same meaning. However, in
speaking, water can change depending on the place it is pronounced. If it is
in India, water will be pronounced in a way, and if it is in Australia, it will be
pronounced in another way, maybe completely different from the one in
India. This is an aspect related to the culture of the place and the English
spoken in this place. Although written form is different from the spoken
form, it depends on the spoken form. One of the reasons for that is that
people knew how to speak, but writing came after it. In addition, one of the
aims of learning a new language is be able to speak it fluently.
In the 60s, Noam Chomsky, suggests that, since the humans brain is not
infinite and cant recognize or process all examples of a language, there must
be a more basic language capacity which could generate infinite sentences,
but its simple enough to be within finite human abilities. This language
faculty is referred as competence, the innate language potentials. On the
other hand, there is the performance, which is the results of the
competence.
Many different researches were made concerning the abilities of the brain,
and it relation with the language learning. There were different schools of
thought, such as the empiric and the rationalist. For the empiric school, for
example, its fundamental that samples of language and Language itself are
linked. For the rationalist school, its suggested that we look inside the brain
so we can investigate the Language.