[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now. I want you to think about your brain. Your brain is a fascinating machine. From the moment you were born, until the moment you die, it never stops thinking. At least until you have to get up and speak in front of people. You know what I’m talking about? Let’s be clear speaking is hard. Some theorists such as Bailey and Savage suggest that speaking has long been viewed, in our profession at least, as the most demanding of the four skills. We discussed in modules one and two all the demands put on a listener. Reduced forms, contractions, elisions, slang, stress, and rhythm, and how a listener has to look out for and listen for those elements. In contrast, in order to speak, you don't have to listen for all those features you have to actually produce them. You have to produce slaying, stress, rhythm, and reduce forms. On top of that you have to monitor your own speech. Modify according to your listener. Pay attention to your grammar. And even watch your teacher frown at you from the corner of your eye. Let's face it, that's a lot of demands placed on the speaker, that's not all. In addition to the nine concepts you learned about in module one, all of which can apply to speaking. We want to introduce you to nine more concepts that makes speaking hard on learners in classroom setting. Let's group two features together right away. These two features classroom size and the five hour problem are interrelated because they limit interaction in a classroom. We've discussed the five hour problem previously but in short it simply means that five hours a week. This standard format for which language classes are often given is simply not a lot of exposure to language. And thus students often don't get a lot of opportunities to speak. On top of that, imagine what happens when 30 or 40 students are in the same class. While having enough students so that student could get into pairs or groups is good. There are also problems that occur when there are too many students in a class. In short, each time you add another student in the classroom, the ability for anyone individual student to learn, specially through interacting with the teacher can diminish. Large class sizes and traditional classrooms wherein a teacher controls most conversations. Can be particularly troubling because of large class size affects on student talk time. We have also made reference to students talk time previously but let's review. Student talk time refers to the amount of time students are given to speak within a classroom. Would you be surprise if I told you that, for example, in one five-hour language program that I researched. Student spoke only seven minutes of the target language for the whole week. And when I told teachers at that school how much learners were actually speaking in their class, teachers were certain I was making things up. They were positive that students were talking in their classes all the time. This is, at least in part, due to the illusion of interactivity. Think of it this way. Imagine a teacher of 15 students, directing a class discussion, without breaking into pairs or groups. The teacher, who decides to speak only half the time continues to ask questions and gets students involved. The teacher asks the question and Johnny speaks for two minutes. The teacher asks another question and Sarah speaks for two minutes and so forth until each student speaks. The teacher has now asked 15 questions, one for each student and in turn each student has spoken in class. So what do you see here? Well, from the view of the teacher, there's a lot of student talk time. Half of the class in fact. But because of the class size and this illusion of interactivity, individually, that number is drastically reduced to an average of two minutes per student. Now, let's group three more items by talking about affective factors and the interaction and interlocutor effects. We group these three together because they all have a powerful influence on how students feel and behave. To begin, affective factors are positive or negative emotions which influence your ability to speak. These might range from environmental considerations such as, not eating lunch, having a fight with a good friend. Or forgetting your visual aid when giving a presentation, to linguistic and academic factors. Such as, forgetting to study or not knowing how to pronounce a particular word. We humans are easily upset and often the smallest things can make a difference in changing how we feel and as a result how we behave? Take the interlocutor effect for example, the interlocutor effect means that who you are speaking with can affect how you speak. In other words, some people can make you more nervous, more relaxed, more formal or more informal. Do you know a teacher that made you more willing to talk? Did you know a teacher that made you less willing to talk? What made the difference? Anyway it's something to think about. Now let's talk about another socio-cultural factor by discussing another affect this one is called the interaction affect. The interaction affect has to do how you change, how and what you say because of the real time questions and thoughts the other person or people who will share information back at you half. Have you ever lost your train of thought because someone said something right in the middle of your thought? That made you think of something else? That is the interaction affect, it is changing what and how you speak not only do you have to pay attention to your thinking. But when you interact with others you have to pay attention to what they're thinking as well. Now, let's talk about four different types of speaking that often confuse learners, because each type has its own sets of rules and expectations, especially in a classroom. Imitative speaking is perhaps the simplest. In this mode of learning, students are asked to listen carefully and simply imitate a speaker, usually the teacher. Students are generally not asked to think about meaning and are focused on the form. This means that they may be asked to look at grammatical structures and pronunciation more than truly communicate. Intensive speaking is also a type of speaking generally associated with the classroom. In intensive speaking environments, speakers are required to produce short segments of language that demonstrates grammatical, lexical or phonological accuracy. In other words, intensive speaking is an opportunity for a teacher to watch how you speak carefully? And you in turn what's yourself and how you speak carefully. Responsive speaking is another type of common teacher fronted version of speaking. They require students to respond to a question. This type of speaking is also often done for assessment purposes. The toefl test for example will often ask a questions to give students time to prepare a response and then ask them to respond. A perfect example of a responsive speaking activity. Question 2. Agree or disagree having a school uniform is better than the freedom to choose whatever you want to wear. You have 15 seconds to prepare and 45 seconds to speak. Begin speaking after the beep. [SOUND] [LAUGH] That's scary. Finally, there is interactive speaking. Interactive speaking is well, a more free kind of speaking where learners can speak in varied lengths and converse with one another in a more naturalistic way. However, just because it falls under the rules of natural discourse does not mean it is necessarily easier. While it does provide certain freedoms, it also involves other features such as turn-taking, interrupting, social cues such as politeness. And is subject to those pesky, effective, and socio-cultural factors we discussed such as the interlocutor and interactive effects. So, there you have it. Speaking is hard. In some ways, perhaps the hardest linguistic skill there is, because of the limited cognitive resources you have to perform in real time. But it is also what many people think of when it comes to mastering a language. And how you are often judge by native speakers when you attempt to show off your language skills. Speaking of showing off, can you remember all nine of our items? I sure hope so, because we will testing you shortly. [MUSIC]
