Developing aural/oral skills in the students
How can we develop aural and oral skills in our students? This could be the one-million shekels question, and it has been undoubtedly being asked for years by all language and music teachers. Music teachers involved in developing oral skills? Yes, and also in developing aural skills indeed. Have you ever thought in asking the help of a musician to enhance your own aural skills? Search one and do it. Let’s hear with our hands (it reminds me that great and beautiful lady named Helen Keller, deafblind since birth. I invite you to watch the film “"Land of Silence and Darkness", 1971, directed by Werner Herzog). We speak by imitation, and babies look at interlocutor lips when trying to reproduce sounds and words. If we ask a singer, be he or she a folk one or a bel canto diva to speak our own language, a beautiful intonation we will hear. If we ask the singer to sing and put one of our hands in his/her throat we will feel vibrations. Let’s do it in our own throat and ask our students to do the same, themselves and with each other. Perceiving those vibrations will give us an idea of how good is our pronunciation. This is a simple way to begin improving our listening skills.
Our oral skills will develop without problem (considering our phonological apparatus is in good shape) if we practice reading in silence. Reading exactly as you have just read this words: in silence. All elements included in uttering sounds will automatically position to actually reproduce the sound or word we are reading. What we have to do, then is actually producing those sound and words we read. If we do this in our own language, and reading with the characteristics we should (e.g. pause, stress, intonation) we are practicing in our own language and daily improving our oral skills. Have we ever asked our ESL students either in beginners or advanced level to read in silence? I am almost sure you have not, because we think it is unnecessary; what we want is to listen them speaking the foreign language… and speaking it aloud. Own experience has demonstrated that good listeners are good speakers, and good speakers are good readers, everything in a cycle. The more developed are our aural/oral skills in our own language, the better will be in another one.
Foreign accent? Of course, except we begin learning several languages since our birth… and even so, the accent we listen more frequently (mother, father, nanny, uncle, etc.) will predominate in us.
The tools and strategies we have learnt about this week do help to improve our oral/aural skills, and those of our students. Using them and sharing experiences from colleague teachers all over the world will certainly improve those skills, including mine.
Fernando
I just wanted to say: what a wonderful insight!! Fernando. Your students are really lucky to have you as a mentor.
ReplyDeleteSaturday, May 5th, 2012
DeleteHello Julio,
Thank you again for your very kind words.
All of our colleague-teachers’ students are lucky because their mentors are studying this great course with a very experienced guide that Janine is.
I am sorry for the delay in replying your comment.
Regards,
Fernando
hi Fernando!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with Julio, you presented some great reflections on developing aural / oral skills. I have no doubt that it is easier for musicians to learn a foreign language easier than others because of their ability to 'listen' better than ordinary people can. And you also mentioned babies and their ability to learn by imitating. They develop the listening skill first and, then, just reproduce what they hear. I have a little daughter who is 2 now, and she still can't talk (except for several separate words, but I noticed that she understands lots of things that we tell her (I tell her to bring her shoes, or close the door, or go out, or many other things, and she does that. So, developing listening skill is the first step in acquiring a language naturally, so I believe that we should also copy 'nature' here, as we do with many other things, and pay much more attention to listening - comprehension.
Best regards from Bosnia, Dzemal
Saturday, May 5th, 2012
DeleteHello Dzemal,
Thank you for your gentle comment.
No doubt what you say is true: as far as I know, most of musicians learn other languages more easily than we —or at least me— simple mortals do. And I do not only refer to opera singers, who have to learn a nice, tonal and beautiful pronunciation.
Babies do understand, but not all phonological elements grow and develop at the same age in all children. I know a she baby –now a great lady, that began to sing a song with simple la la la before speaking. She learnt to read and write before five, and at 19 she managed four languages. There are thousands like she, but in this special example she and her family had not what we might say a socioeconomically good position. What I think helped in this example is that she was taken very frequently to classical music concerts.
I’m sorry, Dzemal, for my delay in replying your comment.
Regards,
Fernando
Hello Fernando!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the music is a great resource to develop oral skills. In fact most students learn English for that resource. moreover they improve speaking skill. In my experience the students feel atracctive fo music, and more in foreing language.
Regards from mexico
Erika
Saturday, May 5th, 2012
DeleteHello Erika,
Thank you for your comment.
Music helps, as you mention, developing oral skills, an also do with speaking and pronunciation ones. If we ask our students to repeat and sing songs they will be exercising both skills. We may later to ask them to write what they sing and so on. When people is attracted to music —I think 99% of people all over the world is— may advantages will arise. In the case of oral songs —there is a musical piece “Song without words”; have you listened to it?— unfortunately many people sings or try to sing them but do not understand the meaning.
Sorry for my delay in replying your comment.
Kind regards form this beautiful and peaceful Ciudad Juarez,
Fernando