Tema-1 “ LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION: ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. FACTORS DEFINING A COMMUNICAT COMMUNICATIVE IVE SITUATION: LISTENER, CODE, FUNCTIONALITY AND CONTEXT “
In this unit we are going to study language and its major functions: * We will show how Comm!"#a$"o! is one of these F!#$"o!%. * We will show how learning a language is not only a grammatical process but also a So#"a& '(o#e%%.
between W("$"!) a! S+ee# . * We will also analyse the differences between * We will discuss some important Comm!"#a$"e Teo( defining their key factors. * Finally, we will show how important it is to create Rea& Comm!"#a$"o! S"$a$"o!% in our C&a%%(oom% in order to improve language teaching.
A conclusion conclusion summing summing up what has been said throught the unit will follow, ending up with the bibliography bibliography used used for the elaboration of this discussion.
I!"#$%&!I# We must point point out that language language is not not just a 'subject( in the sense of a package of knowledge. It is not just a set of information and insights. It is a fundamental part of being human. !raditional approaches used to treat a language as if it were a free)standing free)standing package of knowledge by analysing and observing it. *any of us learnt a language that way. +ut this process is a very abstract one and eperience has shown that it does not appeal to everyone. !o learn to use a language at all well for ourselves rather than for tetbook purposes, most of us have to become involved in it as an eperience. We have to make it a human event not just a set of information. We do this by using it for real communication, for genuine giving and receiving of messages.
* ow that we have introduced this particular topic we are going to deal with the study of language as Comm!"#a$"o!, its functions and the concept of communicative competence.
!he word language has prompted many definitions . For eampleapir said that ' language is a purely human and non instinctive method of commicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols '. /all defined language as ' the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral)auditory symbols '
As we can see with these two definitions it is difficult to make a precise and comprehensive statement about formal and functional universal properties of language, so some linguists have tried to identify the various properties that are thought to be its essential defining characteristics. !he most widely acknowledged comparative approach has been that proposed by &harles /ockett. !his set of 01 design features of communication using spoken language are as follows: 0. Auditory)vocal channel: sound is used between mouth and ear. 2. +roadcast transmission and directional reception: a signal can be heard by any auditory system within earshot and the source can be located using the ear3s direction finding. 1. "apid fading: auditory signals are transitory. 4. Interchangeability: speakers of a language can reproduce any linguistic message they can understand. 5. !otal feedback: speakers hear and can reflect upon everything they say.
6. peciali7ation: the sound waves of speech have no other functions than to signal meaning. 8. emanticity: the elements of the signal convey meaning through their stable association with real world situations. 9. Arbitrariness: there is no depency between the element of the signal and the nature of the reality to which it refers. . $iscreetness: speech uses a small set of found elements that clearly contrast with each other. 0;. $isplacement: it is possible to talk about events remote in space or time from the situation of the speaker. 00.
* After having studied the main properties of language, and communication, we will now see how the learning of a language involves a So#"a& '(o#e%%. !he most usual answer to the =uestion of ' why we use language ( is to communicate our ideas, and this ability to communicate or communicative competence will be studied in the net part. +ut it would be wrong to think of communicating our ideas as the only aim for which language is used. everal other functions may be identified where the communications of ideas has a marginal or irrelevant consideration.
#ne of the most common uses of language, the epressive or emotional one, is a means of getting rid of our nervous energy when we are under stress, when we are angry, afraid, etc. We do not try to communicate because we can use language in this way whether we are alone or not. *alinowski termed the third use of language we are studying
!he +ritish linguist /alliday grouped all these functions into three *etafunctions, which are the manifestations in the linguistic system of the two uni=ue manifestation purposes which underline all uses of language, combined with the third component >tetual? which breathes relevance into the other two. 0? !he Idealistic Funtion: is to organise the speaker3s or writer3s eperience of the real or imaginary world.
2? !he Interpersonal Function: is to indicate, establish or maintain social relationships between people. 1? !he !etual Function: which serves to create written or spoken tets which cohere within themselves and which fit the particular situation in which they are used.
ow we shall study the function of communication or what is named Comm!"#a$"e Com+e$e!#e . &homsky defined language as a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. An able speaker has a subconcious knowledge of the grammer rules of his language which allows him to make sentences in that language. /owever, $ell /ymes thought that &homsky had missed out some very important information: !he "ules #f %se. When a native speaks, he does not only utter grammatically correct forms, he also knows where and when to use the sentences and to whom. For /ymes the Comm!"#a$"e Com+e$e!#e had four aspects: 0? ystematic
!his means that a native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language.
!hese four categories have been adapted for teaching purposes. !hus, Rea& De#(e$o 1//01221 of 04th @une, which establishes the teaching re=uirements for
43 So#"o&"!)"%$"# Com+e$e!#e. !he ability to produce appropriate utterances in different sociolinguistic contets depending on contetual factors such as status of participants, purpose of the interaction.... 53 So#"o#&$(a& Com+e$e!#e. !his is understood to be the knowledge of the social and cultural contet in which the language is used.
63 D"%#o(%e Com+e$e!#e. !he ability to produce unified written or spoken discourse that shows coherence and cohesion in different types of tets. 73 S$(a$e)"# Com+e$e!#e. !he ability to use verbal and non)verbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication, or to improve the effectiveness of communication, as for eample, the use of paraphrase, tone of voices or gestures.
#n the other hand, &anale defined D"%#o(%e Com+e$e!#e as the aspect of communicative competence which describes the ability to produce unified
written or spoken discourse that shows coherence and cohesion and which conforms to the norms of different genres.
* %p to this point we have studied the concept of language as means of communication, amongst other functions. ow, let us move onto another important aspect of this unit, which deals with the main differences between 8("$"!) a! %+ee# .
+efore summarising the main differences between spoken and written language we will outline their main features independantly. #n the one hand we have spoken language, which is the most obvious aspect of language. peech is not essential to the definition of an infinitely productive communication system, such as is constituted by language. +ut, in fact, speech is the universal material of language. *an has almost certainly been a speaking animal. !he earliest known systems of writing go back perhaps some 5;;; years. !his means that for many hundreds of thousands of years human languages have been transmitted and developed entirely as a spoken means of communication. !he description and classification of speech sounds is the main aim of phonetics. ounds may be identified with reference to their production, their transmission and their reception. !hese three activities occur at the physiological level, which implies the action of muscles and nerves. !he motor nerves that link the speaker3s brain with his speech mechanism activate the corresponding muscles. !he movements of the tongue, lips, vocal chords, etc, constitute the articulatory stage of the speech chain, and the area of phonetics that deals with it is articulatory phonetics. !he movement of the articulation produces disturbances in the air pressure called sound waves which are physical manifestations. !his is the acoustic stage of the chain, during which the sound waves travel towards the listener3s ear. !hese sound waves activate the listener3s ear drum.
#n the other hand we have written language which evolved independently at different times in several parts of the world. We can classify writing systems into two types: 0? on)
In a syllabic system each grapheme corresponds to a spoken syllable. Alphabetic writing establishes a direct correspondance between graphemes and phonemes. In a perfect regular system there is one grapheme for each morpheme. /owever, most alphabets in present day use fail to meet this criteria. At one etreme we find such languages as panish, which has a very regular systemat the other we find such cases as nglish and Baelic where there is a marked tendency to irregularity. ow let3s study the main differences between writing and speech. !he most obvious is the contrast in physical form. peech uses phonic substance typically in the form of air)pressure movements, whereas writing uses graphic substance, typically in the form of marks on a surface. As writing can only occasionally be thought of as an interaction, we can establish the following points of contrast: 0? !he permanence of writing allows repeated reading and close analysis. !he spontaneity and rapidity of speech minimises the chance of comple pre) planning, and promotes features that assisst speakers to think standing up. 2? !he participants in written interaction cannot usually see each other, so they cannot make clear what they mean. /owever, in speech interactions feedback is possible.
1? !he majority of graphic features presents a system of contrasts that has no speech e=uivalent. *any genres of written language, such as tables, graphs and comple formulae, cannot be conveyed by reading aloud. 4? ome contructions may only be found in writing, others only occur in speech, such as in slang and swear words. 5? Finally we can say that writing tends to be more formal and so it is more likely to provide the standard that society values. Its performance provides it with a special status.
$espite these differences, the written and spoken language have mutually interacted in many respects. We normally use the written language in order to improve our command of vocabulary, active or passive, spoken or written. Coan words may come into a country in a written form, and sometimes everything we know about a language is from its written form eg: Catin. It is true that writing has derived from speech in an historical sense, but nowadays their independance is mutual.
* ow we have eamined the differences between speech and written language we shall concentrate on the $eo( of communication, and those factors defining a communicative act.
According to Ivor Armstrong "ichards, 'communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another mind is influenced, and in that other mind an eperience occurs which is like the eperience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that eperience.( From this definition we can conclude that any communicative act necessarily happens among persons or between a person who acts as a speaker and a
listener or between various people who act as receivers. +esides these people there are other elements in a communicative act: D !he *essage !he content of information that the speaker sends to the listener. D !he &hannel !he place through which the message flows. D !he &ode A limited and moderately wide group of signs which combine according to certain rules known by the speaker and by the listener. D !he &ontet !he situation in which the speaker and the listener are in, which sometimes helps to interpret the message.
* As we have seen communication is the echange of meanings through a common system of symbols. ow it is time to ask ourselves: 'What does communication in the #&a%%(oom imply E(
*any studies of classroom language have shown that in most native speaker E is used for function rather than for direct teaching. !hese etra functions include: greetings, discussion, health, attendance,the weather and so on.
+arnes >06?, in his description of classroom language, labelled these functions 'social(. ocial interaction also takes placein foreign language and 2nd language classrooms, but in many such classrooms native language is used for this purpose. Fanselow >088? attempted to set up a system for observing and recording different types of communication in the language classroom. /e established five headings in the form of =uestions:
0? Who communicates E 2? What is the pedagological purpose of the communication E 1? What mediums are used to communicate content E 4? /ow are the mediums used E 5? What areas of content are communicated E
All of these =uestions are useful in thinking how language is used in the classroom. !he first of these areas, Canguage, concerns those times when a teacher is eplaining or illustrating the language, or when the pupils are asking =uestions about the language, or practising pronunciation or structures. In most nglish language classes, this part of the lesson is conducted in nglish. !he second,
!hus, for eample, if the teacher directs a particular student to 'open the window( or asks another who has nothing to write on 'Where is your notebookE( , or genuinely asks another 'Is your brother in the football match on aturdayE( , then heshe is using language about the real world that is part of the learner3s direct eperience. !his is a great opportunity for real communication in the nglish classroom through nglish. When speaking to children in nglish, it is important, as it is when they are learning their first language, to support communication through the use of gesture, facial epression and action because this gives children clues to the meaning of what they hear and so draws their attention to and helps them to become familiar with the sounds, rhythm and stress of the second language. trategies that parents use intuitively to draw children into the use of the first language must be used deliberately by the teachers to draw children into using the second language. "esearch has shown that parents generally speak more slowly, articulate more carefully, and use gesture, facial epression and tone when talking to young children to aid their understanding and to encourage them to produce.
&#&C%I# !o conclude, we could bear in mind that an important aspect of interaction in the nglish classroom is that it must be managed by the learners as well as by the teacher. !hat is to say that learners must be confident enough to initiate communication in nglish, and not merely respond when they are addressed by the teacher. A pupil that has something to say, an apology or a re=uest to make, a =uestion to ask, a greeting to give, should be encouraged to epress himherself in nglish. If resources are not to be wanted and opportunities to be missed, children must learn nglish in the same way they learnt their mother tongue, as a living language that can be used for active communication as much as for establishing personal relationships.
+I+CI#B"A
!he bibliography used for the elaboration of this topic is as follows: D '!eaching the poken Canguage( by Billian +rown and Beorge Gule &.%.<. 08. D '!eaching Anglish to &hildren( by &hristopher +rumfit, @ayne *oon and "ay !ongue. Congman 02. D '!eaching Anglish in the
