What should we teach about the spoken language?

Abstract

Abstract This paper sets out to address the problem of just what, from the vast amount of research now available into the spoken language, can and ought to form part of the oral component of a second or foreign language course. Exemplification is principally based on spoken English from the British Isles, but reference is made, where appropriate, to other modern languages. Structural, interactive, generic and contextual constraints are discussed in terms of their implications for teaching, and a core set of features are highlighted. Some results of discourse analysis and conversation analysis are argued as better treated within the domain of cross-cultural studies, and other features of spoken language usually considered within the domain of discourse analysis are proposed for inclusion within the lexico-grammatical areas of the syllabus. Methodological implications are discussed in the final section, where it is argued that traditional ‘presentational’ approaches to language teaching need to be rethought and supplemented by more inductive- and language awareness based activities.