Goh, Christine Chuen Meng

Decontextualized oral language skills enable individuals to communicate clearly and explicitly with interlocutors who share limited background knowledge (Snow, 1991). It is a linguistic ability that is valued highly in formal education systems. Some researchers have argued that preschoolers’ ability to use decontextualized oral language can provide an indication of their potential success in school (Snow, Tabors, Nicolson, & Kurland, 1995). This chapter reports a study that examined decontextualized oral language skills of three preschoolers when performing two oral tasks in English – picture description and story narration. These skills are examined according to three criteria: grammatical accuracy, cohesion and coherence, and vocabulary. The study also explored whether oral interaction between parent and child during shared book reading was a factor in the children’s decontextualized language abilities. The results showed that the three children, who came from similar socio-economic and language backgrounds, had rather different abilities. Their acquisition of Standard English syntax was also observed to lag behind English children of a similar age-group in English monolingual contexts. The study gave some preliminary indications that parent-child oral interaction during shared book reading lacked the type of talk that could promote the development of decontextualized oral language in children. Furthermore, it was observed that all three parents used a non-standard variety of English when talking to their children. These results are discussed with reference to the Singaporean context where preschool children usually have multiple caregivers and non-standard English is used frequently in many situations at home and even in schools.

The strategy approach is by now familiar to many teachers. While it emphasizes the use of various techniques to facilitate comprehension, strategy training alone does not go far enough in addressing learners’ cognitive, affective and social needs that can influence second language listening development. The aim of this chapter is to provide a theoretical framework that takes account of these needs and suggest practical ideas for developing learners’ ability to facilitate and improve their own listening development. Grounded in the concept of metacognition which encompasses both knowledge about and control over learning processes, the activities and materials I am proposing can help learners become more aware about themselves as L2 listeners, as well as better understand the cognitive, linguistic and social demands of L2 listening. The first kind of activities – integrated experiential learning tasks – can be used with existing listening tasks in a language course, whereas the second – guided reflections on listening – can be carried out before or after listening tasks to help direct learners’ efforts at planning, monitoring and evaluating their listening and learning experiences. By using materials based on a principled and systematic metacognitive approach, we are enabling learners to comprehend listening texts better while at the same time guiding them in taking greater control over their listening development.

The value of listening and speaking (oracy) competence for English language learners is not limited to day-to-day communication. L2 oracy is essential for academic learning, creative and critical thinking, collaboration and innovation in our globalised world of the 21st century. At a more fundamental level, listening and speaking are essential to the process of language acquisition, as they strengthen language learners’ overall development of the English language regardless of their age or learning circumstances. In this article, I suggest that we should review approaches to listening and speaking instruction and call for it to be reconceptualised so that language learners can be personally involved in understanding, enhancing and managing their learning processes in a holistic manner. I also propose including more direct teaching of L2 listening and speaking through well-structured lessons and metacognitive activities to enable learners to observe their learning processes and examine elements of language and discourse required for successful completion of oracy learning tasks. This enhanced conception of L2 oracy instruction will rely heavily on teachers’ ability and commitment to make teaching explicit and scaffold processes of learning. Underpinning my discussion is the key role of metacognition in language learning.

The National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore, is an institution within the Nanyang Technological University. It has been the only teacher education institution in Singapore for seventy years. The students enrolled in initial teacher preparation programmes are mainly recruited by the Ministry of Education. The programmes offered are the Diplomain-Education (1 or 2 year programme), Bachelor of Arts/Science (Education) (4-year programme) and Post-graduate Diploma-in-Education (16-month programme). NIE also runs Master’s degree and Doctoral programmes. The students enrolled in these programmes come from diverse backgrounds; some are international students too. In addition, NIE supports teachers, school leaders and other educational professionals by offering professional and leadership development programmes and courses. This article will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on our work in initial teacher preparation programmes.

In this paper, I discuss the development of oracy in learning environments that focus heavily on the teaching of reading and writing. Working from Wilkinson’s (1965) concept of oracy and extended contexts of oracy (e.g. Barnes 1988, 1992; Haworth, 2001; Norman, 1992), I review the contribution of speaking and listening to language and cognitive development, and learning in schools. I will also discuss the implications of students’ oracy development for engagement with the world and wider communication. I consider the interrelatedness of oracy and literacy, and argue that these two sets of language abilities have mutually supportive roles in school students’ language learning and use. Drawing on a study recently completed, I show evidence of the continual privileging of reading and writing in English lessons in Singapore’s schools, often at the expense of the spoken language. I conclude by asserting the importance of developing oracy competence in English lessons and its relation to successful learning across the curriculum.