Learning Spoken Language

The next literary review will be focused on the learning spoken language which shows how

important the acquisition of a foreign language is through the interaction in a determined period.

Also, the next topic will show how this can contribute in the development of knowledge and

communication in the students during their scholar period focused on children as childhood as

adolescence.

According to the next ascertainments related to this topic (Learning Spoken Language)1, we must

consider that the development of teaching and learning language process is necessary the

implementation of two guiding principles: Meaning and Discourse Skills2. Meaning is a main aspect

for learning in every language because of understanding acquisition, while Discourse Skills are the

expressions from discourse to communicate our ideas to the all of people through organization and

structures such as texts and sentences. The process of acquisition of a new language will depend

as the technique of teaching and applied methods as contents in depth (activities, motivation, grade

and level of students and else). Students must find out the meaning according to the expression of

the ideas what they are trying to communicate. However, we must separate the advance of learning

achieved and certain details according to components which structure the communication. For the

beginners (kids at four and six years) who are into a new language learning process, the main

aspect that must be considered the intention to express in English without taking into account the

aspects of grammar, punctuation, stress and else. Many times, students who are regulated by their

1
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Retrieved November 05th, 2018, from:

https://es.scribd.com/document/210408460/Teaching-Languages-to-Young-Learners

2
Barbara Zurer Pearson, (2005). Language Acquisition: Discourse, Narrative and Pragmatics. Retrieved November 05th,

2018, from: https://www.umass.edu/aae/Discourse_Pearson_pdeV_ELL2_2005_notfinal.pdf

teachers in relation to the contents, goals and statements imposed by ministry of education are

focused on getting academic results, but not communicative practice of new language. This often

happens during speaking skill where pupils are not able to express clear enough because the main

axes are focused on details mentioned before.

The task to reach an appropriated communication has to be concentrated on how the students can

share their thoughts and opinions whose meaning can be understood without mattering some

mistakes and errors at the moment. Thus, the sense of communication is the most important and

teachers have to check how our children are working during the learning process by the

construction and exchange of ideas in a new language. Some communicative expression such as

gestures, expressions, body language and intonation can be a good way to express the sense of

meaning during the communication.

During the process of English learning that is close related to the level and growth, we must

observe the application of knowledge. It is very important this because we can realize if they are

able to communicate and share some information about a specific topic or theme. A clear example

of this is when children talk about animals. Each of them describes their characteristics like colours,

sizes, shapes, habitat, and else. The idea of this is to identify their level of knowledge according to

the use of vocabulary and concepts applied during the class which shows a progressive advance

and a grade of understanding about the use of English for kids during learning and teaching

process. Also, it allows recognize some troubles presented during the communication. So, it will be

a great help to improve on teaching and learning of students.

According to Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development3, children knowledge capacity depends on

the age and the interaction with the society where they live. This is because of maturation of brain

during childhood. Taking responsibility how other people understand what people say and for

making sure children understand them is something that develops with age. The maturation of

social and cognitive understandings over the five to twelve ages ranges have implications for

foreign language use and learning.

Taking social and biological aspects, children present an apt condition to get a developing

children’s discourse repertoirs. Children who are learning a new language (in this case English) will

increase their repertoire of discourse skills and types. They will interact conversationally with an

increasing range of people, and different situations, with different goals and on different topics,

moving from familiar situations to situations in the wider world. For this reason, it is a good idea to

associate the use of English language to the aspects of common life such as daily routines,

questions about you (what’s your name?, how are you?, how old are you), about your hobbies.

Also, this can be complemented with use of technology, entertainment for kids such as video

games, sports, cartoons, films, movies, songs, arts or music where it exits infinity of vocabulary to

assemble dialogues and communication.

During this process, kids develop skills to produce different types of talk and increasingly long

stretch of talk such as: narrative, description, instruction, arguments and opinions. However, we can

say that narrative and description are most important and even involved the rest of ones because

they are the part of the structure and composition of them. Narrative consists in the organisation of

events in time of a dialogue through the scheme, beginning, end, cause, effect and a set of

sentences with an intentional action of participants. Instead, description is a derivation form a

3
Kay C. Wood, Harlan Smith, Daurice Grossniklaus, (2011). Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development. Retrieved

November 05th, 2018, from: https://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/psych406-5.3.2.pdf

pragmatic organisation without taking importance to the order of events expressed in the

communication. For these types of talk, it can be possible develop and improve the use of English

through many activities during the class which depend on interaction and motivation from teacher to

kids such as games and short activities for learning the spoken language. A good tool for this is the

use of Total Physical Response (TPR) 4 which allows illustrating the characteristic of the objects on

study through expressions such as gestures, body language. This allows remembering, recognizing

and relating the vocabulary and the meaning of certain words.

Besides, children can develop certain skills to reproduce conversations using the interaction with

adults as a tool to express dialogues in the communication. As well, the time that we dedicate for a

new language will be determinant. If every student has English class around five or six hour per

week, it would be possible to get a growth in English learning process. The more time we practice,

the more English we lean. On the other hand, we must consider that children usually can use some

expressions or words which are not used correctly in relation to the context of the dialogue.

Sometimes this happens because kids have ever listened to those expressions from an adult like

parents, uncles or aunts and repeat them without comprehending their meaning and the use of their

contexts. An example is the use of adverbs of time such as: yesterday, tomorrow and today, whose

meanings are expressed in an unappropriated context (eg: “I will travel yesterday” than “I will travel

tomorrow”). For this aspect, teacher and adults who are teaching a new language must pay

attention and correct these kinds of mistakes.

In conclusion, the importance of learning spoken language will be useful according to the methods

and tools applied during the teaching and learning process for kids. Also, it is important to consider

the social, biological and time aspects to construct a good environment in relation to how teacher

4
James J. Asher ,(1968). The Total Physical Response Method for Second Language Learning. Retrieved November 05th,

2018, from: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/674868.pdf

must develop a good teaching of a new language for kids. Also, all of this will depend on the apt

construction of meaning, context and use of language for kids through types of talks such as

narrative and description; elementary tools to reach communication. On the other hand, teaching

and learning process not only must be focused on the specific aspects deeply. We should allow that

students can communicate simply without focusing on details deeply. For this reason, teachers

must know the stages of cognitive development in order to set realistic goals and they must

generate a motivating environment during the teaching process. So, students will learn how to

communicate using more complex functions, according to what they can actually do.

Diego Rosas S.

November 05th, 2018