English Audio-Video-Speaking: Selection and Use of Teaching Materials Jin DAI English Dept., Foreign Languages School, Tongji University

Opening Remarks Course goal as the point of departure: developing students’ spoken English communication ability, specifically their English listening and speaking proficiency Issues to be addressed selection of teaching materials use of teaching materials Related theories second language teaching & learning (Nunan, 1999), comprehensible input hypothesis (Krashen,1994), output hypothesis (Swain, 2000), task-based language teaching (Ellis, 2003)

II. Selection of Teaching Materials Some criteria 1) authentic: authenticity: the degree to which teaching materials have the quality of natural speech An authentic material is …… “any material which has not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching.” (Nunan, 1998) Reasons for selecting authentic materials

2) Linguistically challenging Krashen’s comprehensible input hypothesis [i+1] (1994) pronunciation, speech rate, accent vocabulary (slang, colloquialisms, etc) syntax (ellipsis, incomplete sentences) discourse structure (extended stretches of utterances) 3) Motivating contents and topics: interesting, educational, entertaining personalities: interesting and inspiring communication skills: worthy of learning & emulation

4) Manageable Duration Classroom management Selected materials should be manageable in terms of duration, content, etc. 5) Multimodal Audio Video Captioned/subtitled video

2. Teaching Materials: Text Classification Texts classification: a fiction-nonfiction distinction 1) Fiction materials: those about the imaginary world: movies, TV plays, radio drama, etc. 2) Nonfiction materials: those about the real world (or: supposedly real world): radio and TV reports, TV documentaries, TV interviews, etc.

3. Instructional value: fiction vs. nonfiction materials Nonfiction materials are of much more instructional value that fiction ones. Maximum use of nonfiction materials and minimum use of fiction ones in AVS classroom instruction. a. “really authentic” b. more varied in genre c. classroom management friendly 4. Some further thoughts

III. Use of Teaching Materials A best way to use teaching materials is through the integration of listening and speaking tasks. 1. The listening-speaking relationship 1) in native language acquisition: a normal child’s language acquisition: a good example the term “deaf and mute”: a sad example 2) in spoken communication: listening and speaking are interdependent and highly related to each other; 3) in L2 acquisition theory: the output hypothesis (Swain, 2000) output a. promotes noticing; b. serves as a metalinguistic function for language learners; c. serves the second language learning process through hypothesis testing.

2. Listening-speaking integration 1)Defining listening-speaking integration: linking together listening and speaking practice in such a way that what has been acquired through the practice of one skill is reinforced through the use and practice of the other, i.e. improvement in listening may lead to improvement in speaking, and vice versa. 2)Implementing listening-speaking integration through interactive tasks Interactive tasks (2) Three types of interactive tasks (Ellis, 2003) a. information gap tasks b. opinion gap tasks c. reasoning gap tasks 3. Case illustrations & discussion IV. Closing Remarks and Q&A

References Anthony, A. 2008. Output strategies for English-language learners. Reading Teacher, 61 (6). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Ellis, R. 2003. Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: OUP. Krashen, S. 1994. The Input Hypothesis and Its Rivals. Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages. London: Academic Press. Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000. Teaching and principles in language teaching. Oxford: OUP. Nunan, D. 1999. Second language teaching and learning. Boston, Massachusetts: Heinle and Heinle Publishers Swain, M. 2000. The output hypothesis and beyond: mediating acquisition through collaborative discourse. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Socio-cultural theory and second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.