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Cambridge Language Education
Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach
This book provides theoretical and pedagogical perspectives on teaching speaking within a coherent methodological framework. Teaching Speaking A Holistic Approach brings together theoretical and pedagogical perspectives on teaching speaking within a coherent methodological framework. The framework combines understandings derived from several areas of speaking research and instruction. By explaining, interpreting, evaluating, and synthesizing these diverse perspectives from linguistics and language learning, the text offers a comprehensive and versatile approach for teaching speaking. Different types of learning tasks are explained and illustrated with examples, and each chapter includes short tasks and ends with a number of tasks that enable readers to extend their ideas.
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2012
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April 29, 2017
Goh and Burns’ 2012 textbook Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach attempts to present a unified approach to teaching speaking. This approach is offered as an alternative to what the authors characterize as a common practice in which speaking occurs in class, but is not explicitly taught. The authors present a methodological framework for developing lessons, as well as suggestions for assessment and course development. The authors describe their approach to language learning as “socio-cognitive” (Goh & Burns, 2012, p. 4), meaning that it seeks to account for both cognitive and social factors in second language learning.
The text is divided into four parts. Part 1 sets out in three chapters the theoretical foundations of the approach, with a focus on the authors’ assumptions about the psycholinguistic processes underlying language production. Chapter 1 discusses the role speaking can play in second language acquisition as a whole, and affective factors that can limit learners’ willingness to speak. Chapter 2 deals with the cognitive mechanisms underlying speech. In the third chapter of this section a model of second language speaking competence is proposed. Part 2 examines the features of speech and differences between spoken and written discourse, with Chapter 4 focusing on grammar and pronunciation, and Chapter 5 dealing with broader areas of communicative competence such as knowledge of discourse features, turn-taking, and speech genres. Part 3 lays out the authors’ approach and its guiding principles in more detail: Chapter 6 describes their proposed methodological framework, and the following chapter illustrates how this framework can be applied using a 7-step “pedagogical cycle.” This section concludes with a chapter on course development. Finally, Part 4 provides tasks and activities: Chapter 9 focuses on task-based teaching, Chapter 10 discusses activities for promoting noticing, Chapter 11 reviews strategies for raising metacognitive awareness, and the final chapter focuses on assessment.
The textbook is an excellent resource for introducing teachers in training to the complexity of the task of speaking, and is especially rich in its description of spoken discourse and the features of spoken genres. This focus may be especially helpful to teachers in that it addresses a gap in many standard pedagogical grammars. Teaching Speaking makes sound proposals for classroom practices and relates them to a coherent set of theoretical premises. Aside from the merit of the proposals, this textbook also models reflective, theoretically informed pedagogy at every step of the class development process, from syllabus design to student assessment and course evaluation.
Some of the more puzzling aspects of the book include its selective attention to major constructs and proposals within the field of second language acquisition. Although Swain’s Output Hypothesis and Skehan’s cognitive resources model are well represented, other major proposals are not addressed. Other striking absences include findings from Ellis and colleagues’ research on the interface issue, and Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis, an alternative to Skehan’s model that makes different predictions about how accuracy, complexity, and fluency are affected by the cognitive complexity of tasks (Ellis & Shintani, 2014). Since manipulating cognitive complexity is a major aspect of the proposed approach, it would be reasonable to address Robinson’s claims. Finally, although an entire chapter is devoted to types of tasks, Long’s extensive research on task-based language teaching is not addressed.
Despite these gaps, I believe that this textbook could serve provide a sound basis for training ESL teachers in developing and teaching speaking courses, especially if were supplemented with additional articles by, for instance, Robinson, Ellis, and Long.
References
Ellis, R., & Shintani, N. (2014). Exploring language pedagogy through second language. New
York: Routledge.
Goh, C. & Burns, A. Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach. New York: Cambridge.
The text is divided into four parts. Part 1 sets out in three chapters the theoretical foundations of the approach, with a focus on the authors’ assumptions about the psycholinguistic processes underlying language production. Chapter 1 discusses the role speaking can play in second language acquisition as a whole, and affective factors that can limit learners’ willingness to speak. Chapter 2 deals with the cognitive mechanisms underlying speech. In the third chapter of this section a model of second language speaking competence is proposed. Part 2 examines the features of speech and differences between spoken and written discourse, with Chapter 4 focusing on grammar and pronunciation, and Chapter 5 dealing with broader areas of communicative competence such as knowledge of discourse features, turn-taking, and speech genres. Part 3 lays out the authors’ approach and its guiding principles in more detail: Chapter 6 describes their proposed methodological framework, and the following chapter illustrates how this framework can be applied using a 7-step “pedagogical cycle.” This section concludes with a chapter on course development. Finally, Part 4 provides tasks and activities: Chapter 9 focuses on task-based teaching, Chapter 10 discusses activities for promoting noticing, Chapter 11 reviews strategies for raising metacognitive awareness, and the final chapter focuses on assessment.
The textbook is an excellent resource for introducing teachers in training to the complexity of the task of speaking, and is especially rich in its description of spoken discourse and the features of spoken genres. This focus may be especially helpful to teachers in that it addresses a gap in many standard pedagogical grammars. Teaching Speaking makes sound proposals for classroom practices and relates them to a coherent set of theoretical premises. Aside from the merit of the proposals, this textbook also models reflective, theoretically informed pedagogy at every step of the class development process, from syllabus design to student assessment and course evaluation.
Some of the more puzzling aspects of the book include its selective attention to major constructs and proposals within the field of second language acquisition. Although Swain’s Output Hypothesis and Skehan’s cognitive resources model are well represented, other major proposals are not addressed. Other striking absences include findings from Ellis and colleagues’ research on the interface issue, and Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis, an alternative to Skehan’s model that makes different predictions about how accuracy, complexity, and fluency are affected by the cognitive complexity of tasks (Ellis & Shintani, 2014). Since manipulating cognitive complexity is a major aspect of the proposed approach, it would be reasonable to address Robinson’s claims. Finally, although an entire chapter is devoted to types of tasks, Long’s extensive research on task-based language teaching is not addressed.
Despite these gaps, I believe that this textbook could serve provide a sound basis for training ESL teachers in developing and teaching speaking courses, especially if were supplemented with additional articles by, for instance, Robinson, Ellis, and Long.
References
Ellis, R., & Shintani, N. (2014). Exploring language pedagogy through second language. New
York: Routledge.
Goh, C. & Burns, A. Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach. New York: Cambridge.
May 2, 2017
This book has some activities that can be used in class. It talks a lot about theories and what you should incorporate in lessons. Chapter five's topic was about conversation discourse. I thought that was interesting along with the last few chapter about ideas for teaching speaking class to efl students. Though the book has two chapters dedicated to lesson examples, I wish it would of included more ideas and activities.
January 2, 2021
It'll do.
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