Developing spoken language through remote playscripts
Speaking in a second language is something which many learners find challenging. Unlike the other productive skill of writing, which is accessed in the time frame of the reader, speech exists in the time frame of the person producing the language. This means that, almost as soon as spoken language is articulated, it disappears without a trace, making it particularly difficult for the listener to notice aspects of how it is formed. And, because spoken language needs to be fast, concise and fluent to sustain the attention of the listener, speakers normally have limited opportunities to reflect on how they are speaking, and to make the necessary improvements in order for language development to occur.
These factors make speaking the most complex skill for teachers and exam boards to assess, and arguably the hardest to teach. And yet for most learners and teachers the ability to communicate through speaking is the number one priority. We tend to say ‘Which languages do you speak?’ as opposed to read, write or understand, because speaking shows a level of language ownership which is not present in other skills. As humans we are social beings, and speech is the main way that we present ourselves and make sense of the world around us. It follows that teaching learners to speak in the language they are learning should be of high importance for most teachers.
So how can we teach learners to actually develop their speaking skills? In many classrooms all over the world, a ‘sink or swim’ approach to speaking skills is used, where speaking isn’t so much taught, as rather practised. If learners have any opportunities to speak in the language they are learning at all (which in some contexts are few and far between), at best they may simply be practising what they can already do; as the level of challenge necessary in order for the learners to develop is simply not there. At worst, the level of challenge may be so much that they may break into the mother tongue and avoid the target language all together.
This is not to say of course that spontaneous speaking activities aren't useful (we've devoted the whole of the next chapter to them in case anyone was in doubt!) but we feel that they're more about activating language which learners already know rather than developing an ability to speak more accurately, more clearly, or more precisely. For this reason, many language teaching methodologists talk about the importance of some form of controlled practice activities in order for development to take place. These are opportunities to use specific areas of language in form focussed activities. The idea being that by doing this, learners will later be able to use these areas of language in freer, and more personalised ways, and eventually spontaneously and fully automatically, so that they don't need to think consciously about the form at all.
A commonly used example of a controlled practice activity focused on developing speaking might be a drill. These could range from the highly controlled, repetition drill (eg T: She went to the bank SS: She went to the bank) to a semi-controlled, personalised drill (eg T: Where did you go yesterday? S1- I went to the supermarket S2 - I went to the park etc) These type of activities may help learners to get their heads (and their tongues) around particular features of grammar, vocabulary, and particularly pronunciation. However, they are very dependent on the teacher to provide correction, and it's not always easy to know how or when to do this so that it has impact. Drills also often lack a meaningful context so the language areas may not be very memorable, and there's little incentive to 'get it right' other than praise from the teacher.
Contrast this with practising, rehearsing and performing the lines of a play. We consider this the ultimate controlled practice activity for developing speaking for the following reasons:-
1) Play scripts are ready-made coherent and cohesive texts, where language is used meaningfully and in context. In the script for ‘Juha and the meat’, (available for free download here) for example, grammar, vocabulary and chunks of language related to the theme of food occur naturally, and in relation to each other (I’d like a.., shopkeeper, spices, delicious etc). Research into language retention (see for example Folse 2004) suggests that language presented in this way is more memorable than in cases where lots of examples of words within the same lexical set are presented together (colours or adjectives to describe people etc) The latter way is of course how language tends to be presented in drills and in most coursebooks.
2) As noted earlier, whereas written language can be accessed in the time frame of the reader, the listener has no such control over speech; once words have been spoken, unless they are recorded in some way, they simply disappear. So, it’s notoriously difficult for learners to notice the features of spoken language, even in a short drill. Because scripts are effectively spoken language written down, they provide the best of both worlds; students can explore and analyse the grammar, spellings, collocations etc of spoken language in their own time. The written form also serves as a memory aid so that the features can be recalled later.
3) Of course, we express ourselves and our ideas not just through the words that we use. Communication is an embodied experience (Thornbury 2013) and we also create meanings with facial expressions, with gestures and with physical movements. This isn't usually built into a drill of course but, when performing a remote play it’s important to include all of these features (alongside and in conjunction with language) in order to make the play realistic. Incorporating physicality helps us to remember the lines for performing the play, but it also helps the language to stick in long term memory, long after the play has taken place.
4) It’s not what you say it’s the way that you say it! A lot of meaning is carried through pronunciation, but it’s hard to get this point across to learners when spoken language is practised in isolation, and without a wider context (as in a drill for instance). When practising the lines of a play, as teachers we can discuss with the learners different ways of saying the lines and the impact that this has. More importantly they can feel it themselves through other people’s reactions to what they say.
5) Practising and performing a play provides the perfect combination of very controlled and very free language use. Learning the lines involves lots of repetition of a model of natural English, but at the same time there is the potential for plenty of freer discussion around how to say the lines, how to block the scene, the use of costumes etc. Both of these types of language use can help to develop fluency. As well as this it can be very useful to involve an element of improvisation into the process of learning lines. If the script is sometimes taken away and learners improvise using whatever language they have available to them it helps them to both remember the lines and to personalise them.
6) In order to learn any new word, chunk of language or grammatical structure, learners need to practice it lots of times. A few hours of English a week isn’t really enough time for this practice to be effective, so learners need to take it away with them and do it in their own time. As teachers we want them to be turning new language over in their minds at any opportune moment. Getting ready to perform a play can provide the level of practice needed in a much more meaningful way than a drill or the coursebook can usually offer – practice out loud but also in your head when you're on the bus or in the shower, and not just practice for the sake of it either, but practise to make the most accomplished performance possible.
7) Sometimes in ELT methodology we tend to shy away from the idea of performance. We avoid putting learners on the spot and incorporate lots of pair and group work so that learners feel safe and unthreatened. When students repeat the words in a drill they often do this with the whole class repeating in unison. This may be 'safe' but is anyone actually learning anything? This is not to say that preparation isn't necessary of course; there is a big difference between performing something when you are unprepared, and performing when you’ve got to the point where you feel comfortable about what you are doing. It's important to emphasise however that for many learners it is the performance stage which provides the push they need in order to make real progress.
