Studies in Philosophy and Education 20: 267274, 2001.

2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

267
Entitled to Speak: Talk in the Classroom
CHRISTINE DODDINGTON
Homerton College, Cambridge, UK
Abstract. For young children, learning begins in conversation contexts such as schools. The author
of this paper contends that talk activities are fundamental to future knowledge and understanding.
Implicit is critique of a current British model that values the practice of speaking through effective
talk. This view is contrasted to one centered on expressive speech and authentic listening.
Key words: authenticity, oracy, pupil voice, teaching talk
Introduction
There is a current view that growth in human understanding and knowledge may
be best conceived through the metaphor of conversation. Learning and acquiring
understanding happens in essence through engagement in dialogue with the other.
Philosopher Richard Bernstein writes,
when we are engaged in dialogue, whether it be with another partner, a text, or
a tradition, there is always something other to which we are being responsive,
that speaks to us and constrains us. There is a genuine to-and-fro movement
that enables us to constitute a we that is more than a projection of my own
idiosyncratic desires and beliefs (Bernstein, 1991, p. 248).
For young children, it might be that the dialogue of learning begins literally in the
contexts of conversation in which they rst nd themselves. This means that the
educational design of talk activities are fundamental to an entitlement for future
knowledge and understanding as well as the capacity to have freedom of speech.
The current British model of progression in Speaking and Listening stresses
effective talk and rests on assumptions of how speech operates and the value
attached to the practice of speaking. In the paper, this view is contrasted with
an alternative view centered around personally expressive speech and authentic
listening and the implications for communities where free speech is valued in both
theory and in practice.
268 CHRISTINE DODDINGTON
Speaking
Freedom to speak is one of the most passionately defended or desired entitlements
across the globe. Adults often regard it as a fundamental right and yet within educa-
tion and from a childs perspective, speaking can be one of the most controlled
aspects of behavior. This happens not just in terms of advocating that children
should be seen and not heard or about limiting noise level, but also in terms of the
kind of speaking that is endorsed and promoted within the classroom.
While learning to speak is generally acknowledged as among the most signi-
cant achievements of the young child, the capacity to do this well into adulthood
continues to be valued in a variety of ways. People applaud a rousing speech or a
stimulating live talk in different forms. The good priest, teacher, manager, or doctor
who attend and communicate appropriately and effectively are valued. Praise is
also given those who seem able to form good relationships in their personal and
public lives because they express themselves well or are good listeners. A signi-
cant question is this: What role should education play in enhancing the passage
from baby babbling to levels of spoken language such as these?
A brief reection on everyday speech situations offers a starting point. A spoken
account is judged correct or accurate if it corresponds to the truth. However the
quality of truthfulness depends on truthful perception in the rst place and in
certain circumstances, (such as the speech of a journalist or politician) it might
be more appropriate to think in terms of interpretation. Here, successful speaking
is measured in part by how effectively the spoken words communicate what is
meant. Effectiveness and clarity of purpose in ways of speaking therefore seem
more realistic objectives to which education might contribute.
One measure of how effective a speaker is will be the degree to which her or
his audience receives the meaning intended. The speaker is therefore charged to
attend to the needs of the audience. Numerous business or workplace-oriented
courses hail effective communication as an empowering skill. Persons who speak,
listen and are aware of the effect they have in different situations are undoubtedly
more powerful than those who do not perceive this. In the current British National
Curriculum, there is a particular stress on adapting to purpose, effectiveness and
audience. Here are specics from the curriculum.
To develop effective speaking and listening pupils should be taught to
use the vocabulary and grammar of standard English;
formulate, clarify and express their ideas;
adapt their speech to a widening range of circumstances and demands;
listen, understand and respond appropriately to others (DFE 1995, p. 2).
In more detail,
Pupils should be given opportunities to consider how talk is inuenced by the
purpose and by the intended audience (1995, p. 4).
ENTITLED TO SPEAK: TALK IN THE CLASSROOM 269
Learning to speak (and listen well) requires a heightened consciousness, a
degree of objectivity or calculation in order to achieve the desired effect. Therefore
education should make children more conscious of how they talk and how the
audience responds. The curriculum continues,
pupils should be taught the importance of language that is clear, uent and
interesting . . . pupils should be encouraged to speak with condence, making
themselves clear through organising what they say and choosing words with
precision . . . [and] taking into account the needs of their listeners (p. 4).
The assumption made is that talk is best seen as a conscious tool that one learns
to use skillfully. The analogy of a craft is helpful here. An effective speaker
selects words and phrases that might best achieve an intended purpose. The effect is
chosen or pre-determined and practiced, or exercised and therefore skills and the
ability to speak well are strengthened. Effect as one of the main criteria of valu-
able talk implies that language and human behaviour is predominantly systematic
and that it is therefore this aspect of speaking and listening that children have as
an educational right. The question this raises is whether the full story of the central
role language plays in being human and becoming educated is encapsulated by the
story above from the curriculum. Freedom to speak may be signicant for more
than the value attached to reporting or calculating effect. If this is so, then children
might be entitled to an education which offers more than the model of skilled or
effective speech sketched above.
An Alternative View
Reection on everyday speaking or listening experiences that seem signicant
or worthy of comment helps to open up an alternative view. Many instances of
speaking and listening soak invisibly into the fabric of day to day lives. Everyday
speech is often instrumental or provoked by straightforward purpose and when
woven smoothly with actions and behaviour, stories are told, inquiries made
or questions answered, and persons are barely conscious of processes involved.
However, there are other incidences of speaking that are more signicant and carry
more weight. At these times persons become aware of the real power of speech
either because it is successful or when words fail. In the latter there is struggle:
I was so excited I just couldnt take in all of what was said; It left me lost
for words I just didnt know what to say.
Awareness of the power of speaking effects change that is signicant:
Once she had talked me through it, I really understood it; His story really
moved me; As I tried to explain the problem, it suddenly fell into place it
all became clear to me.
Supercially, these examples can simply be classed as talk that is either effective
or not. However there are a number of features that do not t comfortably with an
270 CHRISTINE DODDINGTON
emphasis on calculated efciency implied by the earlier model. The effective
examples do not all depend on pre-meditation and selection. In particular the rst
just above, and especially the third, highlight the value of interaction or process that
cannot be fully predetermined. They describe events of enlightenment that signal
an important general point. As Joseph Dunne explains,
One cannot determine in advance the efcacy of ones words and deeds.
Efcacy turns out to be a form of inuence; it lies not so much in ones
own operation as in the co-operation of others. The nature and extent of this
co-operation cannot be counted on beforehand and even afterwards one cannot
be sure just what it has been (Dunne, 1995, p. 359).
This indetermination is endorsed further by reecting on the statement His story
really moved me. Here, speech is powerful but the idea that someone should set
out to move those listening may be appropriate in a theatrical context but rings
untrue in real life. If the idea of deciding the end and choosing the means were
retained in this instance, suspicion of manipulation and accusations of a lack of
sincerity might follow. To complete the point, it seems absurd to claim that the
examples offered where speaking and listening have failed are rehearsed or are
rational pre-selections.
The argument rests on analysis of particular statements but these could of course
be placed within variable contexts that considerably alters their meaning. This
draws attention to another aw in the idea that speech is exercised as if it were
simply a pre-set rule-governed activity. Human interaction is generally unpredict-
able and it is impossible to articulate the rules of using language that are effectively
applicable for every situation. Judgements and choices about what it is appropriate
to say require a quality of perception, a close listening and reading of each situ-
ation; therefore effective speaking must inevitably be locked into the particularities
of each conversation. Individuals who try to operate from generalised rules without
close attention to a situation speak and listen in ways that appear wooden or unre-
sponsive. In this context someone is judged unfavourably for appearing rehearsed
or insincere.
This point leads to a third feature of the examples cited for they are based on
judgements that are not made by reference to an audience, but to oneself. There
is no need to seek public agreement in order to determine what moves others or
oneself. Whether one understands or not is partially a personal judgement. This is
not to say that discussion does not help this process, but there is an important sense
in which speaking must be self-determined. Speech has to express what one wants
to say. Care and attention to ones own sense of what is right rather than what
appeals to an audience is not an unusual idea. For instance, King Lear explores
the ramications of tempering speech to the audience in the closing words of
the play: Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say highlights a sense of
authenticity that many consider vital to personal life.
It might be argued that speech seen as expression of feeling is perhaps not
relevant to education. Indeed where talk is seen as a system of communication
ENTITLED TO SPEAK: TALK IN THE CLASSROOM 271
employed to satisfy an audience, then expression is largely considered only as a
cosmetic technique to be employed. But there is more as the curriculum indicates:
(Pupils) talk engages the interest of the listener as they begin to vary their
expression and vocabulary (DFE, 1995, p. 26).
Indeed expression has a far more signicant meaning in relation to speech
according to philosopher R.G. Collingwood. In The Principles of Art (1938) the
realm of expression as fundamental to human communication is posited as the
language of total bodily gesture. Collingwood claims that language as a full
bodily activity is linked inextricably with imaginative experience of mind or
consciousness and that expression is needed to consolidate and make experiences
conscious. He puts it that [formal] or linguistic expression is a necessary element
in the consolidation of experience at the level of consciousness (1938, p. 234).
Without some form of expression, experiences cannot be consciously felt or under-
stood. More specically, an emotion cannot come into consciousness unless it is
expressed in some form only then can feelings be known. Here is Collingwood
again: Expression of emotion is not, as it were, a dress made to t an emotion
already existing but is an activity without which the experience of that emotion
cannot exist (p. 244).
Examples assist in understanding. What is felt initially as indiscriminate anger
is revealed as a more complex sense of betrayal, hurt pride, indignation or jealousy
in attempts to express to others or even to oneself what has occurred. Although a
spoken form is only one kind of expression it is one of the most frequently used.
The argument runs that speech is one form of human action through which an
emotion is rened and constituted.
In general, speech on this view has the potential to bring thought into being
rather than naming pre-existing states. Philosopher Charles Taylor follows similar
lines when he considers ideas on the origin of language developed by the German
historian Herder. In Taylor, the echoes from Collingwood are clear: Speech is
the expression of thought. But it isnt simply an outer clothing for what could
exist independently. It is constitutive of . . . thought that deals with its objects in
the linguistic dimension. In its origins it is close to and interwoven with gesture
(Taylor, 1991, p. 55). Taylor further argues for adequate consideration of situated-
ness and background to fully understand how language is used and acquired. The
salient feature is that speech at its most valuable is a vital form of activity, through
which reection is realised. Taylor summarises,
[Language] is . . . something in the nature of a web; a web, which to complicate
the image, is present as a whole in any one of its parts . . . . Because the words
we use have sense only through their place in the whole web, we can never
in principle have a clear oversight of the implications of what we say at any
moment. Our language is always more than we can encompass; it is in a sense
inexhaustible (p. 59).
Dunne adds interpretation to Taylors use of Herder:
272 CHRISTINE DODDINGTON
No one really uses language, no one, that is, constructs thoughts within his or
her subjectivity and then employs words which can best convey these thoughts
to a public. Rather thinking itself is already within language, even when, as a
creative or radical thinking, it does not fell into the obvious pathways of the
language . . . but strains to cut fresh paths (Dunne, 1995, p. 360).
The focus here is obviously not all on speaking. It seems from these writers
that personally expressive talk may not merely serve to articulate the emotional
and reective life, but actually constitute it. Furthermore, the potential value of
language which articulates an emotional life may be best understood in terms of
what characterises a central aspect of humanity. Returning to Taylor,
If language serves to express/realise a new kind of awareness, then it may not
only make possible a new awareness of things, an ability to describe them. It
may also open new ways of responding to things, of feeling. If in expressing our
thoughts about things, we can come to have new thoughts, then in expressing
our feelings, we can come to have transformed feelings (Taylor, 1991, p. 60).
This view is shared and extended by writers who offer signicant claims that
language is the means by which both personal and cultural identity is forged.
Such identity is constituted not only of what makes each unique but also in what
ways one is interdependent with others. This means that an additional element is
crucial. This is the importance of listening that is often neglected even in theories
of expressive speaking.
This neglect of listening as an essential ingredient of learning to speak is partic-
ularly signicant for education. Implicit in what has been presented thus far is a
particular dialogic form of listening, one in contrast to a form of listening which
is intent only on critique and scrutiny that reduces what can be heard. Philosopher
Hans Georg Gadamer writes of the importance of being open:
the important thing . . . is to listen to what (the Thou) has to say to us. To this
end, openness is necessary. But this openness exists ultimately not only for the
person to whom one listens, but rather anyone who listens is fundamentally
open. Without this kind of openness to one another there is no genuine human
relationship (Gadamer, 1979, p. 324).
Returning to education, if teachers encourage authentic speech then the way in
which they receive and respond to childrens talk is important. At the same time,
teaching children what is involved in listening is also vital and yet is commonly
taken for granted with simple directives Listen carefully.
1
The qualities involved in being genuinely open to anothers ideas through
listening is an area that philosophy has neglected as G. Corradi Fiumara has pointed
out.
2
Returning again to the realm of Collingwood, the notion of attending and
contemplating in a receptive rather than in pre-determined, judgemental fashion
is familiar to those who try to explain the ways in which objects or perform-
ances of art work. In contrast, language in the classroom is frequently seen
as most legitimate when it revolves around questions and answers. However, by
ENTITLED TO SPEAK: TALK IN THE CLASSROOM 273
showing children that utterances can be food for thought rather than prompts
for interrogation, teachers could well encourage a richer form of learning to
speak.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have suggested that in the familiar world of a child, where talk as
total bodily gesture looms large, constraint or exclusion of personally expressive
conversation denies a basic opportunity by which emotions are felt and come
into being. This may also neglect the very basis by which children can begin to
deepen and extend their sensibility, humanity and identity. These views need closer
analysis than I can give them here but they do seem sharply at odds with talk seen
as a means to pre-determined ends. If speaking and genuine hearing enables me to
have ideas, to nd out what I want to say, as I say it, if it involves the expression
and sharing of thoughts and emotions and the interpretation of others expression,
it is indispensable for personal meaning, human interaction and thought.
Put together, these ideas alert educators to vital qualities of speaking and
listening that are neglected in an overly systematised view of language. Talking
is a fundamental form of expression for each individual located between persons
as conversation. It is the basic vehicle for personal engagement with others and
serves to develop thought and identity. This implies that educational practice in
speaking and listening should support and give opportunity for talk and oppor-
tunity to listen in ways that are authentic rather than contrived. Each speech event
relates to the particularity in which it is embedded; the objective of classroom talk
should enable speakers to become perceptive listeners, interpreters and versatile
participants rather than to be programmed. Speech is not internal to the individual
nor developed through simple rehearsal in a rule- governed social action. The
basic assumption that talk as simply a process which can be engineered towards
predetermined ends is therefore lamentably inadequate.
Note
1
Some teachers who have recognised the importance of listening to language development have
made behaviours explicit to help very young children know what they should do when listening such
as Sit still, look, think. See Powers Hall Infant School, Speech and Language Unit.
2
See Corradi Fiumara (1990).
References
Bernstein, R.: 1991, The New Constellation, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Collingwood, R.G.: 1938, The Principles of Art, Clarendon, London.
Corradi Fiumara, G.: 1990, The Other Side of Language, Routledge, London.
D.F.E.: 1995, English in the National Curriculum, HMSO, London.
Dunne, J.: 1995, Back to the Rough Ground, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN.
Gadamer, H.G.: 1979, Truth and Method, Sheed & Ward, London.
274 CHRISTINE DODDINGTON
Powers Hall Infant School, Speech and Language Unit, Witham, Essex.
Taylor, C.: 1991, The Importance of Herder, in E. Ullmann-Margalit and A. Margalit (eds.), Isaiah
Berlin: A Celebration, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Address for correspondence: Christine Doddington, Homerton College, Hills Road, Cambridge,
CB2 2PH, UK (E-mail: cd236@cam.ac.uk)