1. LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION: ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

FACTORS THAT
DEFINE A COMMUNICATIVE SITUATION: SENDER, RECEIVER, FUNCTIONALITY AND
CONTEXT.

Outline

1. Introduction

2. Language as communication

2.1. Language and the linguistic sign

3. Oral and written language

3.1. Oral language

3.1.1. Stages of oral language development

3.1.2. Oral language strategies for an EFL teacher

3.2. Written language

3.2.1. Stages of written language development

3.2.2. Written language strategies for an EFL teacher

4. Factors that define a communicative process. Functionality.

5. Language development and the communicative approach to FLT

5.1. Communicative Competence

5.2. The Communicative Approach

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography
1. INTRODUCTION

“To effectively communicate, we must realise that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and
use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others” Anthony Robbins

Language is considered as the hallmark of human intelligence, being more than just a way to
communicate. It influences our culture and even our thought processes. The linguists and anthropologists
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf said that language predetermines what we see in the world around us. In
other words, we only see the reality in the categories of our language.

The terminology used by a culture reflects that culture´s interests and concerns. For instance, people
living in the North Pole have more than thirteen terms to differentiate the types of snow. However, people
living in the Sahara desert may not even know what snow is. It is because the distinction between the
different kinds of snow is not relevant to everyday life in the Sahara desert but it is in the North Pole.

The number of terms used for a particular topic also depends on gender. Women generally make more
colour distinctions than men do. That´s why colour differences are important factors for daily activities such
as makeup and clothing. The cultural environment in which people bring up can have surprising effects on
how people interpret the world around us.

2. LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION

It is important to investigate how linguistic communication has evolved over the years, and one of the
major driving forces for language evolution is often considered to be language acquisition. It has been
claimed that the stages of children´s language acquisition mirrors the stages of language evolution.

2.1. LANGUAGE AND THE LINGUISTIC SIGN

Despite there are many definitions of language, there are some common criterions shared:

- Language as a sign or symbol system. - Language as a way of communication.

- Language as a social phenomenon. - Language as an instrument.
- Language as an exclusive human phenomenon.

Many animals and plants are able to communicate with each other due to biological inheritance,
but it is the human language the unique in being a symbolic communication system that is learnt. In
other words, the verbal language is what is exclusively human. Human language has also the
capability for the transmission of our past experience or the social exchange.

The linguistic sign was first described by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. He claimed
that words are not the things they attempt to represent. Language is a relatively independent system
with its own rules. The signs themselves are composed of two parts: the signifier (the letters or
sounds that form a sign) and the signified (the concept that appears in our brain when we hear or read
the signifier). The referent is what the signifier is trying to evoke depending on the context.

According to Saussure, the linguistic sign is arbitrary (there is not intrinsic connection between
the signifier and the signified), conventional (users of a language have agreed that determined letters
or sounds mean certain thing) and differential (a set of letters or sounds mean a determined thing but
not other, making a difference from the rest of meanings).

Related to Saussure assumptions, we can deduce that human language is an infinitely flexible
system. Meanings can be changed and new symbols created.
3. ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE

3.1. ORAL LANGUAGE.

We could highlight the main features of oral language:

- It´s the most universal, spontaneous and natural form of human communication.
- It was the first form of communication. It precedes written language in more than 500.000 years.
- Communication in society is mainly oral, although written language is rising as consequence of
internet, chats, text messages... Written language appeared to represent oral language.
- Every oral communication act involves psychological, neurological, phonetic and articulation
mechanisms. Moreover, it is necessary the presence of two interlocutors doing the basic
functions of communication: speaking and listening.
- The context, in which oral language takes place, includes a lot of information (cultural
knowledge, social background...) and non-verbal communication that helps us in the
understanding.
- Oral language permits colloquial language and errors could appear more often than in written
language such as repetitions or interruptions.

3.1.1. STAGES OF ORAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT.

Steps a child takes when acquiring her/his oral L1, to be considered in TEFL:

- Stage 1: Infant. A child smiles, cries, play with sounds and repeats some syllables.
- Stage 2: from 18 months to 2 years old. A child starts using two-word sentences.
- Stage 3: from 2 to 3 years old. A child begins using the word ‘no’, prepositions and
pronouns.
- Stage 4: from 3 to 4 years old. A child starts true conversations and asks questions.
- Stage 5: from 4 to 5 years old. A child uses from 4 to 8 words sentences and experiments
with the language.

3.1.2. ORAL LANGUAGE STRATEGIES FOR AN EFL TEACHER.

There are some very useful strategies to promote oral language development in children.

- Finger puppets for retellings, creating stories.

- Songs and poems that are fun to sing and say.
- Activities that help children understand the world in and out of the classroom.
- Games and other activities that involve talking, listening and following directions.
3.2. WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

The main features of written language are:

- It´s not as universal as oral language (just the 10% of the languages spoken in the world, can be
written )
- Our own psychological development allows us to speak before writing.
- The written language is restricted to some signs to represent the complexity of oral language.
- We shouldn´t use colloquial language in written documents. Complex-vocabulary and varied
sentence structures are used instead. It is more carefully and logically structured.
- Errors are not allowed in written language: we have time to think about what to write and how.
- Nowadays, the written information exchange, for instance, in chats, is almost as quick as the
oral communication.
- Written language is permanent and it´s conveyed by written symbols.
- It is not context-dependent and it has a higher status is society.

3.2.1. STAGES OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

The steps we follow when learning to write our mother tongue are:

- Stage 1: random scribing (from 2 to 3 years old) with little muscular control.
- Stage 2: controlled scribing (3 years old). Children repeat patterns.
- Stage 3: letters like forms (from 3 to 4 years old). Children separate writing from drawing.
- Stage 4: letter and symbol relationship (4 years old). They can write their names and copy
words.
- Stage 5: invented spelling (from 4 to 5 years old). Children understand that letters are
related to sounds. Some punctuation appears.
- Stage 6: standard spelling (from 5 to 7 years old). Children move from left to right when
writing and from the top to the bottom of the page. They use spaces between words and
most words are written correctly.

3.2.2. Written language strategies for an EFL teacher

Some good techniques for developing our pupil´s writing in the target language are:

- Activities that emphasise the understanding, use and production of print found in
classroom signs, label, notes, posters and calendars.
- Daily sessions for independent and supported reading with attention to both fluency and
accuracy.
- Activities that promote discussions about what is being read and how ideas can be linked
(e.g. to draw conclusions).
- Early support of letter knowledge and phonemic awareness.
4. FACTORS THAT DEFINE A COMMUNICATION PROCESS. FUNCTIONALITY

The human communication is a complex and dynamic act. According to Jacobson´s proposals,
communication is the transmission of information (message) from sender to receiver through a channel, with
a certain code and within a context.

In any communication act we can find three phases: encoding (the sender elaborates a message in a
determine code), transmission (the message is passed through a specific channel) and decoding (the receiver,
taking into account the context, decodes the message from sound to words, and then to concepts).

The factors that take part in a communicative situation can be defined as follows:

- Sender: the author of the message.

- Receiver: the person to whom the message is addressed.

- Context: the text that accompanies the particular sentence or utterance (linguistic context) and the
time and the place where the communicative act is developed (situational context).

- Purpose: the intention of the message.

- Topic: the matter about which the interaction develops.

- Medium: the means by which a message is transmitted: speech or writing.

- Channel: the technical means of transmission (telephone, radio...).

- Code: the communication system shared by sender and receiver.

- Register: it relates to the factors entering in a communication act. We distinguish among formal,
consultative, casual, intimate or frozen.
Related to the factors entering in a communicative act, Jacobson proposes six functions of language.

- Expressive or emotive function (sender) through which thoughts and feelings are expressed.

- Conative function (receiver). The sender is, somehow, trying to influence the receiver.

- Representative function (topic, context). It has to do with the way we perceive and represent
reality within a context.

- Poetic function (message): aesthetic function.

- Phatic function: it´s used to check if the channel works.

- Metalingual function (code). When we use the language to talk about language.

5. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO FLT

Language is the most important component of culture because most of it is normally transmitted orally.
Young children have a genetic propensity to learn language. Initially, they imitate the phonemes. Later, they
begin to learn grammar by imitation as well. There is a very rapid learning of language in the early years of
life. At this age, children may start by creating a vocabulary and grammar of their own construction. They
are trying to systematise and regularise their own simple speech. They also tend to over regularise grammar
they learn. For all these previous reasons, learning a second language is easier in early childhood. It is
particularly important to learn correct pronunciation at this period.
 The fastest and best way to learn a language is to be immersed in the culture and surrounded by native
speakers. It is an effective way of getting the new language patterns into long term memory. In addition,
there is usually a linguistic interference. That´s why to learn a second language can be affected by the
patterns of the first language.

5.1. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.

Chomsky was the first linguist who distinguished between competence and performance.
Competence is the native speaker´s idealised knowledge of the abstract system of rules of a language.
This knowledge provides human beings with the capability to produce and understand an infinite
number of sentences. And performance is the actual use of that knowledge in concrete situations.

Hymes then introduced the idea of communicative competence; it is the relationship and
interaction between native speaker´s grammatical competence (knowledge of the rules of the
language) and sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of the rules of the language in a social
context).

Then, Canale and Swain broke the concept of communicative competence down into four sub-
competences: linguistic competence (what had previously been named as grammatical competence,
Hymes, and competence by Chomsky), sociolinguistic competence named before by Hymes,
discourse competence (knowing how to use the different kinds of discourse and organise them) and,
finally, strategic competence (knowing how to recognise and repair communication breakdowns).

Underwood describes communicative methodology as emphasizing fluency before accuracy.

Meaningful rather than mechanical practice, emphasize on listening and speaking, exclusive use of
target language, implicit rather than explicit grammar, modelling instead of correction and creation of
a low anxiety classroom.

5.2. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

The Communicative Approach is based on the idea that language learning successfully comes
through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication,
their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to
use the language. There are few key points which will lead to a successful communicative method:

- Language as a medium of communication where everyone has something to say or find out.
- Use of target language for instructions and management at all time.
- Provide opportunities for the use of real language (e.g. role-plays, surveys) to produce
meaningful and real communication at all levels.
- Learner-centred: students' motivation to learn comes from the desire to communicate in
meaningful ways about meaningful topics.
- Primacy of oral and listening skills and developing reading and writing skills to promote
pupil´s confidence.
- Grammar should be taught inductively.
- Use of authentic, motivating and interesting resources for the students (tickets or recipes).
- Use of visual stimuli to provoke practical communicative language.

Furthermore, any communicative activity must be unpredictable, interactive, realistic and

within a context.
6. CONCLUSION

The human communication process is more complex than it initially seems. Communication with people
from other societies is in danger of misunderstanding of their culture and paralanguage is unknown.

It is fascinating how children communicate. They exhibit a vivacity in communicating and learning that
can be seen as a model for everyone.

We, as teachers, must take advantage of it. Kids are more interested (and probably learn more) while
playing. Children play with sounds, with putting words together and creating and re-creating events of the
day. They seem to create because the act of creation is a delightful experience.

Finally, we must remember that the aim of every FL teacher should be to promote students´
communicative competence by helping them make appropriate linguistic choices in the realisation of
communicative intentions in the classroom. A focus on grammatical competence does not lead to
communicative competence and often leads to serious failure.