The first chapter discussed of the background, aims and objectives of the present study. This chapter deals with the review of literature. The purpose of the study of research works done in the same field is to understand what type of study has been done and what exactly has been explored before the present research work started.
Second Language Acquisition
According to second language acquisition theory, language is acquired when we understand what is said or written, rather than how it is expressed. Language acquisition takes place when we focus on meaning and not on form (Stevick 1976). Learners succeed when they actively participate in their own learning. Stevick further says that the learners may only succeed in formulating few language utterances when they are actively involved interaction. Therefore, interaction plays a vital role in the second language acquisition process.
The main objective of the second language is to enable the speaker for wider participation in society and the nation leading to secondary socialization. Further, second language plays a crucial role in maintaining social relationship among the people of the same and also different linguistic communities and of the various cultures, customs and beliefs. Hence it is important to know the theories of SLA which talk about the acquisition/learning process if L2 in different ways. Some of the important theories are short listed as follows.
Contrastive Theory
Contrastive analysis contrasts the structures of L2 with L1 of the learner. Those structures, of the Second language that coincide with corresponding structure of the first language are assimilated with great ease as a result of 'positive transfer'. Contrasting structures on the other hand, present considerable difficulty and give rise to errors as a result of 'negative transfer or 'interference'.
Identity theory is contrasted with the contrastive theory which asserts that the acquisition or availability of language has little of no influence on the acquisition of another language. Thus, in other words, first and second language learning are basically one and the same process governed by the same law.
Acculturation Theory and SLA
Acculturation is the process of exchange of cultural features by two different identities belonging to different cultures The effect of acculturation is widely seen in case of acquiring second language. As the language is the inherent part of culture, it becomes important for the learner to understand and feel the beliefs, history and other cultural aspects of the second language. During the process of language acquisition, the learner feels to be the part of both cultures. As a result of acculturation, the learner soon adopts the culture of second language and feels to be the part of second culture. The social and psychological factors play major role in the process of acquiring/learning of L2.
The Monitor Theory and SLA
The monitor model acquired a significant place is SLA research as it is most comprehensive among the existing theories. According to the monitor theory, the learner gains proficiency in second language in two ways 'Subconscious acquisition' and 'conscious learning'. The subconscious acquisition focuses on only meaning not the form. Where as the conscious learning refers to the internalization of explicit rule under conscious control. The most crucial factor here is that learning is always affected through a monitor to control and self-correct it whenever necessary.
The model consists of fire central hypothesis, which are as follows:
The acquisition learning hypothesis
The natural order hypothesis
The monitor hypothesis
The input hypothesis
The affective filter hypothesis
Each of the above components relates to different aspects of the language learning process.
Error Analysis
The prominent theory regarding the issue of second language learning was behaviouristic, which suggested that the learning was largely a question of acquiring a set of new language habits. Therefore, errors were considered as being the result of the persistence of existing mother tongue habits in the new language. Consequently, this idea made the researchers of applied linguistics devote their studies largely to the comparison of the native and the target language in order to make predictions and explanations about errors.
The studies regarding errors are carried out in order to
Identify strategies which learners use in language teaching,
Identify the causes of learner errors, and
Obtain information on common difficulties in language learning as an aid to teaching or in development of teaching materials (Richards, 1992).
Hence, the implication of error analysis of language teaching can be viewed from the aspect of language teachers and syllabus designers.
Methods of Teaching English As A Second Language
The history of language teaching presents a fascinating variety of methods. But, there is no single method that is to be considered effective and accepted by all. Different methods may be appropriate to different contexts.
A methodology is systematic and scientific way of teaching any subject. It guides teacher, 'how to teach and how his/her teaching may be effective'. It is very necessary for teacher to know various types of methods and techniques of teaching English.
Method may also be defined as: "The process of planning, selection and grading language materials and items, techniques of teaching, etc".
The following are some of the important methods to teach English as a second language.
The Grammar Translation Method
The grammar translation method instructs students to grammar, and provides vocabulary with direct translations to memorize; It was the predominant method in Europe in the 19th century.
"This method emphasizes reading, writing, translation and conscious learning of grammatical rules. Its primary goal is to develop literary mastery of the second language. Memorization is the main learning instead of talking in the language. The curriculum requires the memorization of paradigms, patterns, and vocabulary, with translation being used to test the acquired knowledge. Consequently, the role of L1 (i.e. mother tongue or native language) is quite prominent"(O Grady, et al.1993).
This method favours to teach English by rules not by use. Language learning means speaking and reading but translation in mother tongue prevents students to read and speak in English. Students get no opportunities to participate in the discussions of the unit. Translations into mother tongue affect the originality of the words. It prevents students to think directly in English. Thus, it prevents establishing of direct bond between thought and expression.
Most of the instructions acknowledge that this method is ineffective by itself. This method does not enhance the students' communicative ability in the foreign language.
The Direct Method
This approach was developed initially as reaction to the grammar-translation method in an attempt to integrate more use of the target language in instruction.
Lessons began with a dialogue using a modern conversational style in the target language. Material is first presented orally with actions or pictures. The mother tongue is never used. There is no translation. Grammar is taught inductively-rules are generalized from the practice and experience with the target language. Verbs are used first and systematically conjugated only much later after some oral mastery of the target language. The culture associated with the target language is also taught inductively.
In this method the teaching is done entirely in the target language. The learner is not allowed to use his or her mother tongue.
The direct method enjoyed great popularity at the end of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century but it was difficult to use, mainly because of the constraints of budget, time, audio visual aids, and classroom size. Yet, after a period of decline, their method has been revived, leading to the emergence of the audio-lingual method.
The Audio-Lingual Method (ALM)
During First World War, the American army began intensive oral/aural courses known as the 'Army specialized Training Programme' (ASTP) and were later adopted by educational institutions as the audio lingual method (Brown, 2000.74).
This method is based on the principle that language learning is habit formation; the method fosters dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning. Structures are sequenced and taught once at a time. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills. Little or no grammatical explanations are provided, grammar is taught inductively. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context. Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysis between L1 and L2. Great importance is given to precise native-like pronunciation. Use of mother tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged by the learners. There is a tendency to focus on manipulation of the target language and to disregard content and meaning.
The audio-lingual method began to decline as students failed to achieve long-term communicative capability. It was realized that habit formation, over learning and avoidance of errors was not the best way to learn a second language (Brown, 2000.75). Although, this method provided potentially good tools for SLA, its lack of concentration on meaning and fluency detracted from its success.
The Bilingual Method
This method was developed by Dr.C.J.Dadson. As the name suggests, the method makes use of two languages- the mother tongue and the target language.
There is drilling of the pattern to enable learners to master basic required sentence pattern which is effective practice of this method. In this method, the mother tongue is used only to explain the meanings of difficult words. Mother tongue equivalent of English words are given and the use of the mother tongue is gradually dropped as the students' progress in learning the language. Thus the Bilingual method recommended a restricted use of the mother tongue only by the teacher and not by the pupils. It also provided for intensive practice of patterns in English, helping the formation of correct language habits.
Later it was evaluated that this method cannot claim to be innovative because its procedures are not much different from earlier methods. The students became dependent on their native tongue for understanding the structure of the target language. The focus is on the grammatical structures rather than on how those structures are used in every day conversation. It places unusual demand on the teachers as they are to be proficient in the two languages -L1 and L2. It does not seem to follow any set theory in language teaching and learning.
The S-O-S Approach/Method
An eclectic approach evolved through the combination of certain aspects of the direct method, the oral approach and audio lingualism came to be known S-O-S (Structural-Oral-Situational Approach) in India.
This approach is based on the structural view of language. In this approach speech is emphasized as the basis of the language and structure is very important for developing speaking ability. In this method, there is direct bond between speech and expression. This approach suggests to present different structures in meaningful situations. Learners are to know the situation in which different structures are used for transmitting message or expressing ideas.
It has the following drawbacks:
The situations are not real life situations. They are structural drills in which objects, pictures and realia are used.
The approach is found to be suitable only at the elementary level not at the higher classes.
For teaching prose, poetry and composition, the approach has been found inadequate and ineffective.
As they were based on behaviourist psychology, the Audio-method and Oral-situational approach were limited by their neglect of cognitive learning.
Communicative Approach
The communicative approach is the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audio lingual and grammar translation methods of foreign language instruction.
The communicative approach is a learner centered approach. This approach gives the learner not only grammatical competence but also a social skill as to what to say, how to say, when to say and where, in order to satisfy his/her daily needs as larger aim.
Communicative language teaching makes use of real life situations that students are likely to encounter in real life. The real life simulations change from day to day students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.
Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching
Language is primarily a tool of communication, learning a language means learning to perform communicative speech acts with it.
In CLT communication means using language to make request, give advice, agree and disagree, complain, praise, to try to persuade people to do things and so on. The focus should be on meaning not on form.
Communication goals can be specified. We can accurately describe what learners should have learned and be able to do with language at the end of the lesson. e.g. Students will be able to
Talk about their own jobs, and ask classmates about theirs.
Use the present simple accurately and fluently in this context.
Good communicative teaching is learners centered, not teacher centered.
The classroom and the behaviour of teachers and learners in the classroom should be as similar as possible to the behaviour of people in the real-world outside the classroom.
Benefits of CLT
Main function of communicative approach is to develop communication competences, so they are provided with optimum opportunities to use the language
This approach creates communicative environment among learners, teachers and society. They are motivated to from the bridge of communication and to make use of real life language, in other words language in use.
This approach is learner centered. So it is very scientific. All the teaching materials are prepared according to mentality and interest of the students.
In this approach, the modern methods are used to make teaching very effective and interested.
In this approach, every learner is active during teaching because there are interactions among learners and teacher. They communicate verbally and non-verbally to each other, so every student is active.
This approach provides sufficient opportunity to students for practice of communication with other students' ore people outside the classroom.
The Lexical Approach
A lexical approach is language teaching refers to one derived from the belief that the building blocks of language learning and communication are not grammar, functions, notions or some other unit of planning and teaching but lexis, i.e. words and word combinations. Lexical approach is language teaching reflects a belief in the centrality of the lexicon to language structure, second language learning and language use, and in particular to multiword lexical units or "Chunks" that are learned and used as single items. Linguistic theory has also recognized a more central role for vocabulary in linguistic description. Linguistic theory has also recognized more central role for vocabulary in linguistic description.
Lexical approach in language teaching seek to develop proposals for syllabus design and language teaching founded on a view of language in which lexis plays the central role.
Willis stresses, "The lexical syllabus not only subsumes structural syllabus, it also indicates how the structures which make up syllabus should be exemplified "since the computer corpus reveals the commonest structural patterns in which words are used (Cullis, 1990: vi).
Specific roles for teachers and learners are also assumed in a lexical approach. The status of lexis in language teaching has been considerably enhanced by development in lexical and linguistic theory, by work in corpus analysis, by recognition of the role of multiword units in language learning and communication.
The Need for an Eclectic Approach
The Eclectic approach was proposed as a reaction to the profession of teaching methods in the 1970's and 1980's and the dogmatism often found in the application of these methods. The idea of choosing from different methods to suit for ones teaching purposes and situations is not a new one.
According to Rivers (1981-55), an a eclectic approach allows language teachers "to absorb the best techniques of all the well-known language teaching methods into their classroom procedures, using them for the purpose for which they are most appropriate." This is necessary and important because teachers "faced with the daily task of helping students to learn a new language cannot afford the luxury of complete dedication to each new method or approach that comes into vogue" (1981.54)
At present, teachers of English around the world prefer some form of communicative teaching and learning. It is important that the students are given ample opportunities to practice English in the class as well as outside the classroom, even as it is important for them to have time and freedom to digest, reflect and analyze what has been exposed to the. Internalization of the linguistic structure and their ready and easy retrieval for communication are achieved in many ways.
The main criticism of eclecticism is that "it does not offer any guidance on what basis and by what principle aspects of different methods can be selected and combined." (Stern, 1983.512)
Content Based Instruction (CBI)
Content based instruction (CBI) refers to an approach t second language teaching in which teaching is organized around the context or information that students acquire, rather than around a linguistic or other type of syllabus.
Content based instruction is grounded on the following two central principles:
People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather then as an end in itself.
Context based instruction better reflects learners' needs for learning a second language.
Language is used for specific purposes. The purpose may be academic, vocational, social or recreational but it gives direction, shape and ultimately meaning to discourse and text. When learners focus on the language samples, they are exposed to, they become engaged in following through and seeing if the purpose is attained and how their own interests relate to this purpose.
Many CBI practitioners recommend the use of realia such as tourist guide books, technical journals, railway timetables, news paper ads, radio and TV broadcasts and so on.
Critics have noted that most language teachers have been trained to teach language as a skill rather than as a content subject. Thus, language teachers may be insufficiently grounded to teach subject matter in which they have not been trained. As CBI is based on a set of broad principles that can be applied in many different ways and is widely used as the basis for many different kinds of successful language programmers, we can expect to see CBI continues as one of the leading curricular approaches in language teaching.
Activity Based Learning (ABL Method)
Learning through activity is a new approach in the teaching of English language. This system of learning not only simplifies the process of teaching and learning but also makes it more logical and natural.
Learning involves listening, speaking, reading and writing. This is something like supporting a huge structure on four pillars. Absence of a single pillar will cause much damage to the structure itself. Likewise negligence of any one of the four processes of learning will result in irreparable damage to the learning process. So the utmost care is taken to strengthen the process of learning.
In this method evaluation is a continuous process. To test the level of achievement of the children test cards are provided. Pictures are drawn in the test cards to invigorate the children and to make them feel and believe that evaluation is not a burden but a lively and interesting activity. Further it is done then and there.
Active learning shifts the focus from the teacher to the student and from delivery of subject content by teacher to active engagement with the material by the student. Through appropriate inputs from the teacher, students learn and practice how to apprehend knowledge and use them meaningfully.
Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)
Task-Based language teaching (TBLT) refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the care unit of planning and instruction in language teaching tasks are proposed as useful vehicles for applying these principles.
The role of tasks has received further support from some researchers in second language acquisition, who are interested in developing pedagogical applications of second language acquisition theory (e.g. Ling and Crookes, 1993).
Task-based language teaching proposes the notions of "task" as a central unit of planning and teaching.
In recent years, vocabulary has been considered to play a more central role in second language learning than was traditionally assumed. Vocabulary is here used to include the consideration of lexical phrases, sentence stems, prefabricated routines and collocations and not only words as significant units of linguistic lexical analysis and language pedagogy.
Later, as set of role-play activities was then developed focusing on situations students would encounter in the community and transactions they would have to carry out in English.
Task-based language teaching provides for a more effective basis for teaching than other language teaching approaches-remarks in the domain of ideology rather than fact.
Cooperative Language Learning (CLL)
Cooperative language learning is part of a more general instructional approach also known as collaborative learning (CL). Cooperative learning is an approach to teaching that makes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small groups of learner in the classroom.
It has been defined as:
"Cooperative learning is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others"(Olsur and Kagan, 1992.8).
In second language teaching, CLL has been embraced as a way of promoting communicative interaction in the classroom and is seen as an extension of the principles of cooperative language teaching.
CLL is designed to develop critical thinking skills and also to develop communication competence through socially structural interaction activities. During this process, the teacher monitors the pairs, intervening when appropriate to help the students master the needed writing and cooperative skills.
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
In this age of information technology, there is hardly any sphere of human activity that has been left untouched by computers. Computers have revolutionized data storage and retrieval and have added a new dimension to educational technology.
Technology cannot replace the teacher in the classroom, but can land assistance to facilitate learning.
Computer lessons address all the skill areas-listening, speaking, reading and writing. It also makes distance learning possible as well as convenient.
The language laboratories can set up with equipment that provides individual learners with a headsets and a teacher's console.
The advantages of computers in language teaching are:
It can control presentation. It can combine visual and graphic information with text It can highlight features using colour and movement.
It can provide novel and creative stimuli for learning. New language can be created in as interactive mode.
It provides immediate feedback. And this can be used for error correction. It can also help in error-analysis.
Its adaptability helps teachers to adopt instructional materials to suit the needs of the students.
Conclusion
The description of the basic principles and procedures of the most recognized methods for teaching a second or foreign language is given. The Grammar-translation method gave way to direct and oral methods. Both poles have proposed an eclectic solution based on the learners' needs, as the Reading method claimed. Technological and scientific advances in linguistic and psychological studies provided new tools with which the Audio-lingual and Audiovisual methods have contributed. Cognitive code learning, as a reaction to Audiolingualism, started to recognize learning as a creative process, and looked for the universal features underlying all languages. The view of the language as a social process, led to Communicative Language Teaching with its emphasis on meaning, fluency, and real life communication, which then became the recognized approach to language teaching.
We accept with Mitchell and Myles (2004.261) "there can be no one best method…..which applies at all times and in all situations, with every type of learner", We recognize that the diversity of contexts requires an informed, eclectic approach. To quote Numan: It has been realized that there never was and probably never will be a method for all, and the focus in recent years has been on the development of classroom tasks and activities which are consonant with what we know about second language acquisition, and which are also in keeping with the dynamics of the classroom itself (Numan 1991.228).
Language Skills
The main purpose of any classroom teaching in English is to improve the communicative abilities of the learners. To improve the communicative abilities, the classroom teaching has to be necessarily skill oriented. English language is widely used for communication purposes and so competence in language skills has become necessary to improve the communicative abilities specially listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW).
Among these four skills, both listening and reading are called as receptive skills of passive skills and the other two skills, namely speaking and writing are called as productive skills or active skills. It is important to note that these skills are interconnected in order to achieve the overall objectives of communication. Every thing takes place and develops within the linguistic, cultural and social boundaries of the concerned society in which the particular language is spoken. It is the curriculum, syllabus; text book, teaching methodologies under the efficient functioning of the teacher in the classroom, those students are shaped in communicative competence.
Listening Skills
Listening is the capacity to process information coming from an aural source. Such information is first filtered by the perceptual processes of the listener and absorbed into the short-term memory. Selected information is then stored into the long-term memory for retrieval at a later stage, if and when required.
Listening is the first and foremost language mode that children acquire which provides the basis for the over language arts (Lundsteen, 1979).
The activity of listening plays an important role in the process of acquiring/learning language whether it is first or second language.
The linguistic items like phonemes, morphemes, lexical items, grammatical items, syntax and semantics are taught to listen in order to develop other modes of language - viz; speaking, reading and writing.
Listening is a conscious act. It is a complex, multi step process by which spoken language is converted into meaning in the mind (Lundsteen, 1979.1) Wolvin and Coakly (1985) have identified three steps in the process of listening which are receiving, attending and assigning meaning. In the first step, listeners receive the aural stimuli or the combined aural and visual stimuli presented by the speaker. In the second step, listeners focus on or attend to select stimuli while ignoring other distracting stimuli in the classroom. In the third step, listeners assign meaning to or understand the speaker's message.
The Process of Encoding and Decoding
An act of communication requires encodes- the speaker and decoder- the listener. The speaker encodes the concept or message through a set of code. The listener decodes the concept or message from the set of code used by the speaker. That is, on the one hand, the act of encoding involves cheering the sounds into words, words into sentences, sentences into discourses. On the other hand, the act of decoding involves identifying the sounds, understanding the utterances and their meanings, and recognizing the prosodic features like tone, intonation, pitch, stress etc. used by the speaker.
Listening comprehensive process
Richards (1990) draws two way process of listening comprehension; top-down and bottom-up processing. In top-down processing, the listener listener's schemata allow him/her to have appropriate expectations of what he/she is going to come across. In bottom-up processing, on the other hand the listener focuses on individual words and phrases and achieves understanding by putting the detailed elements together to build up a whole (Harmer 2001). According to Harmer it is useful to see acts of listening texts as interactions between top-down and bottom-up processing.
The Speaker-Listener Polarity
For the effective exchange of information, both the speaker and the listener are expected to be equipped with the competence of the language which is used. That is, the same level of competence is expected from the listener and the speaker as well. Any short coming in the linguistic competence of the listener or the speaker, would affect the communication. So, both the polarities should be more or less equally equipped with the linguistic competence of that language for effective and efficient communication.
Types of Listening
Cralvin (1985) (as cited by Chidambaram, (2005) has identified eight categories of listening with due general purpose.
Translational listening-learning new information (speeches, debates, political conventions).
International listening-recognizing personal component of message (new pieces of speech, report).
Critical listening- evaluating reasoning and evidence (news broadcast).
Recreational listening- approaching random or integrated aspects or event.
Listening for appreciation- information, making critical discriminations or selection.
Selective listening- Selecting certain features at a time (phonetic features)
Intensive listening- for details (vocabulary, grammar)
Extensive listening- (general idea stories, rhymes, songs).
Relationship between Speaking and Listening
Speaking and listening are interdependent process. The activity of speaking requires at least a listener, an individual or an audience. The speaker speaks keeping certain objectives in his or her mind. That is, speaking involves conveying meaning using a code and listening involves understanding the meaning with the help of code what the speaker used. If it is a transaction, one way listening, the speaker does not receive feedback, but if it is interaction, two way listening the speaker receives feedback for the listener. In transactional or conversational discourse, sending-receiving and receiving-sending are an alternative phenomenon.
Purpose of Listening
While listening to various texts, one applies different skills to process the text, depending on the purposes for which one is listening.
Listening is the only medium through which one access the sounds of a language and all the supra segmental features of the language, such as time, pitch, stress, pause, etc. Hence, listening is a pre-requisite for speaking and at a later stage, for reading.
Without knowing how a language sounds, one cannot engage confidently in speaking in the language, and without knowing how the sound patterns of the language function, reading its graphics serves little purpose. Teaching discriminative listening helps the learner to comprehend the language.
Listening can be a major source of pleasure and relaxation. Listening to the sounds in nature can be very soothing. Listening to someone reading stories aloud or poem is a pleasurable activity.
Listening is also an important social skill. People listen to allow a speaker to talk through a problem. Children, as well as adults, serve as a systematic listener for friends and family members.
Sub-Skills of Listening
Each skill of language comprises a large number of sub skills, whose value and relevance vary from one situation to another. Rosts (1990) has distinguished two kinds of clusters of micro skills of listening. 'Enabling skills' (those employed in order to perceive what the speaker is saying and to interpret what they intended to mean) and 'Enacting skills (those employed to respond appropriately to the message).
Enabling Skills
Perception
Recognizing prominence within utterances, including:
Discriminating sounds in words, especially phonemic contrasts.
Discriminating strong and weak forms, phonetic change at word boundaries.
Identifying use of stress and pitch (information units, emphasis, etc).
Interpretation
Formulating content sense of utterance, including:
Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Inferring implicit information.
Inferring links between propositions.
Enacting Skills
Making an appropriate response including:
Transcoding information into written form.
Identifying which points need classification.
Integrating information with other sources.
Providing appropriate feedback to the speaker (Adapted from Rost, 1990. 152 - 153). (As cited by Chidambaram, 2005).
Difficulty Factors in Listening
There are five major factors that researchers believe affect listening comprehension.
Text characteristics (Variation in a listening passage / text or associated visual support.
Interlocutor characteristics (Variation in the speaker's personal characteristics.
Task Characteristics (Variation in the purpose for listening and associated response).
Listener Characteristics (Variation in the listener's cognitive activities and in the nature of the interaction between speaker and listener).
Teaching Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension involves a number of language skills, though the listening may be the specific focus. Teaching listening can be categorized into two modes. The first one is teaching linguistic nuances like phonemic variations, discrimination of similar sounds in words, recognizing word boundaries, recognizing morphemes, distinguishing grammatical and lexical items in a sentence, etc. The second one is teaching how to listen a context, how to deduce meaning for an unfamiliar word, how to recognize them over a discourse. These two modes are important and inseparable for teaching of listening comprehension. If any shortcoming is found in teaching of either of this mode, its consequences will be seen in other skills of language.
Testing listening skills
Listening tasks should aim at helping students arrive at the meaning of words and provoking an examination of the given material. The test items include: Dialogue, news, railway announcement, sentence, words, word pairs, number, telephone numbers, years, days were used to test listening comprehension of the students understudy. These test items aim at evaluating the ability and skills of listening such as: predicting text based information, deducing meaning of unfamiliar words, recognizing prominence with in utterance including: Discriminating sounds in words especially phonemic contrasts, phonetic changes, deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words, recognizing grammatical errors in sentences, recognizing word boundaries, etc,.
Conclusion
Here, the emphasis is on the importance of addressing the differences between spoken and written texts in the teaching of listening skills. It is only when learners are aware of the unique characteristics of authentic listening input that can be equipped with the skills to handle real life communication.
Speaking Skills
Language is the basic form of communication between human beings and in a society. As a human being, we always need communication to express our ideas to do everything; what's more as students or learners they have to speak to their teacher as long as in learning process to express their idea.
Speech is the first and foremost form of communication. It occupies a predominant position in enlightening the minds of the people. Information is understood and processed easily through speech rather than writing. Speech is a biological endowed behaviour of human beings.
Spoken language has wider range of functions to perform than the written language. They start from casual spontaneous conversations ending with formal speeches and so on. Written language tends to save rather specialized functions at the formal level.
The process of learning spoken mode of second language, learner encounters difficulties because of inter and intra-lingual factors, language shock, cultural shock and so on. However, difficulties and problems are inevitable in the process of learning spoken or written mode of the L2.
Process of Communication
Communication is a process of exchanging verbal and non-verbal messages. It is continuous process. This process can be termed as human communication or oral communication. The activities of the communication maintain eco-balance, co-operation, and tolerance and bring the people in a common line.
The complete communication process is the hierarchical arrangement of the various components of communication. They are as follows:
Intended message.
Encode.
Signals.
Decoder.
The received message.
Feedback.
Message is the key idea that the sender wants to communicate. Messages can be abstract ideas and feelings of speaker who wishes to communicate. Encoder is a person who sends the message in the form of words and gestures. Signal is a means used to exchange or transmit the message in the form of the mechanical impulse. Channel is the medium through which a signal travels. Decoder is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed. Decoder receives communication signals into meaning and ideas. Received message is the result of decoding communication signals. Feedback helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of message by the decoder. Psychologically speaking after receiving the message, the nervous system of the receiver is activated and subsequently interpreted and appropriate meanings are assigned to the received codes to make the communication process complete.
Communicative Competence
The term communicative competence is coined by the anthropological linguist Dell Hymes (1967, 1972), Light (1997. 63 ) has described communicative competence as "Being able to meet the changing demands and to fulfill one's communication goals across the life span - Communication competence is the ability to send messages which promote attainment of goals while maintaining social acceptability
The term 'All modes communication'(Hymes, 1962) can further be explained as the language competence that has total comprehension, and total verbal exposition in all modes of society, which includes group interactions - inter-personal interaction involving different dialectal areas. As it is evident from the above, one think of two different types of competence, namely grammatical competence and communicative competence.
Grammatical competence is the ability to recognize and to produce distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication. Whereas, the communicative competence can be achieved by exposing oneself both to the structure of the language as well as the social behaviour which pivots around certain conventional rules as put forth by the society.
Teaching / Learning Speaking
Effective communication depends on one's ability to express oneself in speech clearly, accurately and fluently. The development of spoken language involves the development of pragmatic usage in addition to the development of pronunciation, constructing words, phrases, sentences and discourses. Discourse in learning of second language.
Plays a vital role
The stages of the learning the speaking skills of L2 are same as learning of speaking L1. The problems encountered by the learners in the process of learning subtle, and detailed knowledge, show the gradual development of spoken language. The purpose of the learning second language fulfills when the learners use language with the real people for real purpose.
Communication Strategy
Zheng(2004) suggests that communication strategies are feasible and to some extent inevitable for language learners to use in their oral communication. These strategies can enhance language learners' confidence, flexibility and effectiveness in oral communication.
Tarone(1980. 420; 1983.65) defines communication strategies as a "mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations where requisite meaning structures do not seem to be shared".
In addition, Cauale (1983) and Bygate(2000) argues that communication strategies are used not only to cope with any language related problems of which the speaker is aware during the course of communication, but also to enhance the effectiveness of communication even if there is no problem or difficulty involved in an oral communication. Thus, it can be said that communication strategies are commonly used not only to bridge the gaps between the linguistic and sociolinguistic knowledge of the second language learners and those of the interlocutors in any communication situation but also to keep their talk flowing within their available linguistic knowledge, and eventually manage their oral communication. And also the learners adopt the strategies wherever they encounter problems at all the levels of language like phonological, morphological, syntactical and discourse.
Cook (2001) says communication strategy of L2 learners will enhance the learning; and the learners' strategy indicates that the learners are encountering the linguistic problems in the process of learning. The learners knowingly or unknowingly use the intra and inter lingual strategies to convey their message to others. By using the strategy they get satisfaction, assuring that they have conveyed the meaning completely to the questions by the researcher.
Learning Strategy
Learning strategies are defined by Oxford and Crookall as "Steps taken by the learners to aid the acquisition, storage and retrieval of information (404).
Strategic competence is 'the way learners manipulate language in order to meet communicative goals' (Brown, 1994, 228). It is the ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and discourse rules (Berns, 1990). Cvik reference to speaking, strategic competence refers to the ability to know when and how to take the floor, how to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the conversation, and how to clear up communication breakdown as well as comprehension problems.
The strategy of learning differs from learner to learner. However malley and chemot (1990) have defined three types of strategy used by L2 students:
Meta cognitive strategies involve planning and thinking about learning, such as planning one's learning, monitoring one's own speech or writing and evaluating how well one has done.
Cognitive strategies involve conscious ways of tackling learning, such as note taking, resourcing (using dictionaries and other resources) and elaboration (relating new information to old).
Social strategies mean learning by interacting with others. Such as working with fellow students or asking the teacher's help.
Strategy - process
Language processing involves the retrieval of words and phrases from memory and their assembly into syntactically and propositionally appropriate sequences. Effective speakers need to be able to process language in their heads and put in coherent order so that it comes out in forms that are comprehensible and convey intended meaning.
Process being used with reference to the systematic series of steps by which the learner arrives at the same usage overtime. Bialy Stock (1978) distinguishes process from strategies by the criteria obligatory/optional. Process being obligatory, strategies, and optional mental activities. Similar criteria are used by Fravefelder and Porqurer (1979) who classify process as universal, strategies as optional mechanism employed by individual L2 learners. Other researchers also defined process as continuing development involving a number of changes.
Testing Speaking
In second language research, a great deal of attention has been paid to related area of communicative behaviour. So, this part of the chapter concentrates on communication strategies of the L2 learners. Here, it is a tactic followed by the learners to conceal a gap in their communication. Hence, it is a test given to identify when and how the learners make use of such strategies in speech.
Reading Skills
However existence has centered on the development of oral traditions and over the years, spoken language as a tool communication has gained our importance. However, with the vast amount of information growing around, reading as a skill and the ability to read for different purposes has taken great importance.
Reading is an indispensable skill and as a means of communication, it is as important as speaking. More than simply using any reading material as a tool for constructing knowledge, it is importance to know how it is used. The students have to be trained to learn with the texts- a process via which students interact with the texts as they build their own meaning and knowledge.
Education of a child is incomplete unless he/she is equipped with the ability to read, to decipher, to interpret and to understand properly the content of a reading material. The intellectual advancement of a child is strictly limited, if he/she is unable to read (Yadov, 2002.45). Reading plays a crucial role in language learning/teaching because of its ability to feed one's existing knowledge in different ways.
Definitions of Reading
Reading is a complex skill and conscious activity using the writers' symbols meaning and ideas are obtained. However, the readers background knowledge is necessary for complete understand of a text.
Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information. (Anderson et al., 1985).
Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among: (i) the reader's existing knowledge; (ii) the information suggested by the text being read; and (iii) the context of the reading situation (Wixson, Peters, Weber & Roeber, 1987).
Reading is a complex process by which a reader reconstructs, to some degree, a message encoded by a writer in a graphic language (Goodman, 1970).
From the above definitions, it is clear that reading is a tool. It is comprehending, interpreting and applying textual material.
Importance of Reading
People read for different reasons and purposes. Reading is about the reader's attempt to discover what the writer has produced and showcased in his or her text.
Reading is perceived as a way to improve one's mind and thinking. Texts can instruct, inform, entertain, motivate and inspire.
Widdowson (1979) says that "reading is the process of getting linguistic information "via print' through reading; the information conveyed by the writer through the print medium is retrieved by the reader." Cvaitter text not only provides linguistic meaning but also contextual meaning. Linguistic meaning involves represented information and this is called literal. Contextual includes the socio-cultural and intentional meaning incorporated in the text. The efficient reader can only retrieve both his/her literal and pragmatic meanings from a text.
Psycho linguists and sociolinguists views of Reading
Reading activity includes perception, recognition, association, understanding, organization and finding meaning in the text, so the process of reading is complex in nature and related to mental ability of the reader. Hence, reading is a psycholinguistic process. It starts with a linguistic representation encoded by a writer and ends up with meaning, which a reader constructs. Thus, it is an interaction between the language and thought. The writer encodes thought in the form of language through the words.
According to sociolinguists' views, the experience of the reader, interest and efforts play a role in decoding process. When a reader starts to read, he feels comfortable, and he/she easily understands the meaning.
The Reading Process
Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. It is process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring critical and creative thinking processes to pull together a number of interrelated sources of information.
Reading is a transactive process in which readers negotiate meaning or interpretation. During reading, the meaning does not go from the page to the reader; instead, it is a complex negotiation between the text and the reader that is shaped by the immediate situational context and broader socio linguistic contexts (Weave, 1988). The immediate situational context includes the reader's knowledge about the topic, the reader's purpose for reading, and other factors related to the situation.
Bottom up and Top down Processing in Reading
In the case of reading, as with other cognitive process, Psychologists have distinguished two kinds of processing. They are bottom up and top down processes. Bottom up processes are those that take in stimuli from the outside world-letters and words, for reading and deal with that information little recourse to higher level knowledge. With top down processes, as the other hand, the update of information is guided by an individual's prior knowledge and expectations. Terinan (2001) says that in most situations bottom up and down processes work together to ensure the accurate and rapid processing of information.
Reading and Reading Skill
In the process of reading, the reader employs his/her reading skill. The degree of reading skill varies from person to person according to the linguistic competence and background knowledge he/she possesses.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the act of understanding what one is reading. It is incredibly complex and multifaceted. Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing. Reading is not only a cognitive psycholinguistic activity but also a social activity. In the process of reading comprehension, the printed words are not just decoded as it is, but it decoded by a reader using his linguistic competence, socio linguistic and existing knowledge about the topic.
Effective Reading
A successful reader is a person who can handle large amount of written material; the following are the characteristics of a successful or effective reader Berg, (1971.78). A reader is one who
Has purpose
Can concentrate
Comprehend what he/she reads
………..what he/she reads
Has a good vocabulary, and
Can read rapidly, but with rate depending on the material.
Poor Reading
One's reading capacity normally fails due to his/her inability of recognizing words and deducing its meanings. Apart from word recognition, the knowledge about the subject of the writers matter also controls the reading ability of the reader. Berg (1971. 5 - 7) says that the following are the causes of poor reading habits:
Lack of effective techniques
Lack of effective practice
Insufficient background
Technical details which demand a slower reading and
Visual problems.
Teaching / Learning Reading
They cannot become an effective or fluent reader as soon as he / she enter into the school. The desire and ability to learn to read after grow out of a child's initial curiosity about how to write letters and words. Consequently, the child has to pass through several stages to become an effective reader. Generally the stages of learning of reading are categorized that at the first stage, the learner learns to read the alphabetic orders ABC upto XYZ. There he/she learns to read its combinations (like h.e, s.h.e). In the third stage, the learner learns to read the words and its combinations with other words in a sentence and understand its meaning. In the fourth stage he/she extends his/her reading ability at the sentence level. In the fifth stage, he/she begins to comprehend the discourses. Only at this stage, they use both linguistic and socio linguistic knowledge for complete understanding of the text.
Testing Reading Comprehension
As we know, the reading act itself stands at the very core of any learning process; test for the reading comprehension ability is given. The items include incomplete sentences, tabular, narrative, passage, word and telegraphic form.
Broadly two types of questions are asked. They are text based questions and knowledge or competence based questions. Text based questions expected from the students' answers of different types:
Selection of appropriate from the given answers.
Deciding the statements given is true or false.
Framing the questions from the given text.
Knowledge based questions required the subject to recognize the parts of the sentences, to complete the in couple sentences and recalling vocabularies and grammatical information from their memory.
Conclusion
The benefits of effective reading are manifold. It is important for teachers to reinforce this skill every. Reading skill is not only bound to the English class, but also it is a skill that every human being needs beyond the confinement of the class in his/her real life. The learners need to achieve both academic goals and obtain self-fulfillment as members of a society where the capacity to read is fundamental standard of social integration.
Writing Skills
Writing is an important medium for language and it is used for many different purposes. It performs many important functions in a person's day to day life in different areas life official, academic, media and even social and personal settings.
The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill, it is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of practices in formal instructional settings other environments. Hence, learning writing of L2 one requires to learn deliberately and consciously each and every linguistic element through instruction or proper guidance. Further, the learning experience of L1 is different from that of L2. In the process of learning L2 writing, previous experience (i.e.L1) gets the way of learning of writing in all the levels of L2. But for learning of L1 writing there is no such experience.
Definition of Writing
Writing is a skill and, like other skills, has to be learnt. Applied linguists inherited the view of language as speech and writing as an orthographic. Writing is an inaccurate presentation of speech. Widdoson (1979) describes writing as the use of the visual medium to manifest the graphological and grammatical system of the language.
Elbow (1981.369) puts "writing as a kind of magic' that can be performed by any one who is involved in and believes in his tale." It implies the fact that the mental representation by means of lexical manipulation is given in the form of script or marks in the process of writing. The process of translating the abstract ideas into a concrete form is the act of writing.
This takes place in the process of transforming the abstract sounds into concrete scripts. Therefore it is an enigmatic one, which is otherwise called as magic.
Peacock (1986) opines, that writing has been described as a struggle to compose ideas in the dead and construct a visible and tangible form out of the models and images that are stored and organized in the mind'. In this regard Raines (1983) says that teaching writing helps to reinforce the grammatical structures, vocabulary, syntax, idioms, etc., which are taught to the learners.
Language is a storehouse of knowledge having many dimensions of production and reception, So a standard system is needed to record a language in coded form. Writing is a form of encoded symbols in the form of print or impression.
The Nature of Writing and the Skill of Writing
Writing is considered to be the most difficult of the language skills as it involves a conscious effort by the writer to produce an accurate piece of writing. The emphasis is, invariably, on form, content and fluency of written expression. One of the methods suggested was a method of teaching which focuses on active intellectualization. The students are to be aware of the cognitive methods they are utilizing and be able to identify them. Their focus would be on writing which is semantic and cognitive.
Since writing helps in advancing analytic thinking and communication skills, developing writing skills assumes a great role in education. Writing is a significant kind of thinking in which symbols of language assume a purpose of their own and instruct the writer during the composing process. Hence, writing is our outeme writing skill which refers to the writer's linguistic ability in making use of the mechanics of writing.
The writing skill includes a number of sub skills. The sub skills are (Sobana, 2003.26):
Mechanics - handwriting, spelling, punctuation.
Word selection - Vocabulary, idioms, tone.
Organization - paragraphs, topic and support, cohesion and unit.
Syntax - Sentence structure, sentence boundaries, stylistics, etc.
Grammar - rules of verbs, agreement, articles, pronouns, etc.
Content - relevance, charity, originality, logic etc.
The writing process - getting ideas, getting started writing drafts, revising, etc.
Purpose - the reason for writing, justification.
Learning Process of Writing
Learning of writing is not just transcribing language into written symbols - it is thinking process. White and Arnolt (1991.3) say, " it is a form of problem solving which involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a 'voice' with which to write, planning goal setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to be written as well as what has been written and search for language with which to express exact meanings."
Lado (1971.143-47) says that learning to write a foreign language is learning to put down at a speed greater than that of drawing the conventional symbols of the writing system that represent the utterances one has in mind. Further, he has divided the learning process of writing into five stages as:
Prewriting,
Coping read texts,
Transcribing,
Composition and
Literature
Prewriting
The task of preparing students to learn to write in a foreign language varies according to what the students know from their native language writing. Being sufficiently prepared involves knowing the symbols that will represent the utterances they have in their mind and how to put them down.
The Writing Process
Writing requires and combines more basic skills them any other subject area. After writing down one's inner speech on paper, it has to be polished properly. Topkins and Hoskisson (1995.211-22) provide five stages of writing process. They are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.
The first step is prewriting. This is the planning step. During this step the writer needs to choose a subject, gather details about the subject using a graphic organizer and decide what one wants to tell one's audience. The second stage, drafting stage is the time to pour out ideas with little concern about, Spelling, Punctuation, and other mechanical errors. The third stage is revising. This is a true to improve one's writing. During this step the writer needs to read and review one's draft, show the draft to the other classmates and the teacher and get ideas on how to improve one's writing and make necessary charges. Next, the editing stage is the state of putting the piece of writing into the final form. The writer moves through there activities in this stage: getting distance from the composition, proof reading to locate the errors and correcting errors. The final stage is the publishing. In this stage, a young writer brings his compositions to life by publishing them.
Mechanics of Writing
Mechanics of writing play an important role in the productive skill of writing. Mechanics of writing involves the following activities:
Ability to shape the letters (graphics),
Knowledge of right combination of letters (spelling),
Skill of cohering words (sentence),
Skill of composing sentences (discourse) and
Control over punctuation (stop, semicolon, colon, comma, etc)
Types of Writing
In one's daily transactions of life he/she makes use of English in the written form for various types of communication. According to the purpose, the writing methods vary. Further, depending upon the time and space, the same matter by the same author may be presented in different forms to the audience. Some of the frequently used types of writing are:
Letter writing,
Essay writing,
Descriptive writing,
Narrative writing,
Informative writing
Report writing.
Greetings, etc.
There are certain rules and formal regulations to be observed in many written correspondences. Thus, the conventional rules have to be followed in determining the type of expression employed.
Errors in Writing
Errors are real indicators of the problem encountered by the learners. By identifying the errors committed by the learners, the researchers can easily point out such areas which need to be focused more. It is generally regarded that the students commit errors in all the areas of language. They are
Graphological level,
Morphological level, and
Grammatical level.
Generally students commit errors while creating a piece of writing due to some of the following reasons and also the complexity of the target language rule.
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