CC BY
132PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY AND SPOKEN GRAMMAR IN TEACHING SPONTANEOUS
SPEAKING SKILL
Askhatova A.
Master of Two Foreign Languages, University of International Business, Kazakhstan, Almaty
ABSTRACT
Spontaneous speech processing by non-native speaker is a challenging moment when it comes to second language acquirers with lower level. The first point to think in developing the spontaneous speech is to enhance the learner's ability in speaking the mastering language. Game-based learning tends to be one of the effective approaches that may enhance the prepared speaking abilities and create the foundation for developing the spontaneous speech of students. Another study showed the correlation between psychological confidence of the learner and spontaneous speech producing. The third researcher identified that the lack of proper knowledge tends to create barriers in speaking spontaneously. In the present paper learners of four different groups were expected to improve their spontaneous speaking abilities considering all the abovementioned moments. The main emphasis was on advancing the lexis and on helping use of compound-complex proper sentence structure of the students. The use of spoken grammar was also essential in developing spontaneous speech of learners. Successful results were shown by most of participants, due to the assumption that provision with necessary knowledge may cause the improvement of confidence. In the end, this experiment can be considered suitable both for linguistic and non-linguistic specialties.
Keywords: spontaneous speech, vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, spoken grammar.
Introduction
One of the main features which may demonstrate learners' proficiency in language is his speaking ability. Encouraging students to speak and improve speaking skills is vital and considered as one of the factors of "developing communicative competence and language proficiency level" (Mymrina, Abdrashitova and Zakh-arova, 2018). This statement can be supported by Za-remba (2006), who argued in favor of speaking skills considering it as essential and demanded in daily communication (as cited in Eiadeh, Sobh, Zoubi & Khasawneh, 2016, p. 182). However, since speaking skill may demonstrate its importance in context and communication, it is vital for learners to learn how to obtain spontaneous speaking ability. This also was claimed by the Eiadeh et al. (2016) that it is important to improve all skills including writing, reading and listening along with speaking one in order to achieve effective communication, but without proper developed speaking ability including improvisation by learner while communicating, - which also called as spontaneous speech of learner - communicator may suffer from own insufficient involvement into exchanging information (Eiadeh et al., 2016).
Learners of English language may face some difficulties in mastering the spontaneous speaking skill. From the beginning to learn English as a foreign language, learners tend to experience a certain kind of stress. This stress can be classified as the stress based on anxiety, nervousness and even fear of speaking in completely different language. Horwitz (1986) demonstrated three unrelated types of anxiety, taking place in the learning process of students, which are connected with "communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation" (as cited in Yalçin and inceçay, 2014, p. 2621). He described the "communication apprehension" as the fear to communicate with
others as well as the fear of speaking in front of other people.
Many researchers conducted number of investigations in order to reveal the approach to deal with this type of problem as it was stated above. Yalgin & incegay (2014) suggested using game-based learning, debates and role-plays for involving learners in spontaneous speech. It was also found out that game-based learning may lead to disappearance of familiarity, which in its turn may build the convenient atmosphere for learners to accomplish the speaking ability properly. Hwang, Ma, Shadiev, Shih & Chen (2014) also stated that collaboration of game elements with context may enhance students' motivation to speak in the target language more frequently (p. 198). However, the controversial results were illustrated in the investigation of Chen, Tsai and Chang (2019), where despite a range of advantages positively influencing on learners speaking skills, the criticisms on game-based learning also remain due to the assumption that this method tends to lead to addiction and may have uncertain results in learners' knowledge.
The other assumption may also take place in lack of knowledge in the experience of learner. Shortage of knowledge in expressive vocabulary, lack of wide information on various topics also can create challenges in producing spontaneous speech.
The core aim of the present study is to reveal how to improve proper spontaneous speech of students by advancing expressive vocabulary of participants and by making able them to construct proper sentence structures in their speech.
There are limitations which are related to the assumption that this study can be used considering culture, location and personal features of learners.
Dependent variables of the study tends to include advancement of expressive vocabulary and using
proper grammar structure while speaking by learners. Independent variables also present in this research and they include such factors as personal features of students, the usage of mother tongue by learners, anxiety of them and force major circumstances. These factors may affect both negatively and positively on the process of this study and may inhibit the course of the study, resulting in the final results which can be seen at the end of the research.
Reviewed literature
The importance of vocabulary in learning English was proved by many researchers. According to Nation (1999), Maximo (2000), Read (2000), Gu (2003), Marion (2008) and Nation (2011) and others vocabulary is important in producing spoken language and writings of students (as cited in Alqahtani, 2015). The important issue of significance of the vocabulary in learning L2 is that vocabulary range and spoken language of learner is interrelated conversely influencing each other. Alqahtani (2015) pointed out that advanced of vocabulary may provide learner with confidence in speaking. Necessity of paying attention to vocabulary use in learning L2 was claimed by Khan, Radzuan, Shahbaz, Ibrahim & Mustafa (2018), where the vocabulary improvement was seen as a fundamental issue promoting all four communicative skills to be enhanced. In their study, it also was clearly supported that vocabulary is vital for oral speech development.
Before using essential vocabulary in processing the spontaneous speech learner must be able to identify the strategy of learning vocabulary. One may say that it is vital to learn vocabulary based on topics associating with items, another may say that strategy can be seen in reviewing, memorizing and in reminding new words. Considering all, each learner must reveal own appropriate way of learning vocabulary (Astika, 2016).
The next important moment of learning producing spontaneous speech is proper grammar and sentence structure use in oral speech. It was argued by Hillard (2014) that written and spoken grammar differs from each other in terms of several moments. As usual, in spoken grammar ellipsis, heads, tails, fillers and backchannels and phrasal chunks are important, while also tend to be incorrect if they are used in writings (Hilli-ard, 2014). Basturkmen (2001) also argued that written and spoken languages are different and spoken language grammar may have own features to be taught students but many EFL teachers neglect teaching spoken language focusing on written language. On the other hand, Mumford (2008) reported on necessity of proper grammar structure in spoken language and offered approaches to its production.
In the process of acquiring the target language it is necessary to consider personal features of learners. It is obvious that participants may differ from each other and the tool which tends to be useful for one learner can also be considered as completely unhelpful for another participant. The effectiveness of which approach can be used for learners will be defined by deeply investigating independent variables of this study. One of those is the usage of learners' convenient language which may create extra obstacles and even create some barriers in acquiring the target language. The other main issue that
must be considered is the anxiety and fear of learners. Many researchers agreed that in the course of teaching the mistakes of students must not be corrected by teacher in front of other students (Yalgin and incegay, 2014, p. 2621). Psychologists believe that this action may lead to creation of barriers in acquiring speaking skills by learners due to the fear of being mistaken (La-sagabaster & Sierra, 2005). In the course of the present research the spontaneous speaking abilities of learners must be increased with the help of adopting several actions including learning vocabulary and improving spoken grammar of students. It is also necessary to consider the independent variables, due to the assumption that they cannot be eliminated but considering all it is possible to enhance students spontaneous speaking skills. The core of the present study is to find out if the game-based learning is useful to encourage students to speak without preparations and how effective they are in this issue.
Methodology
Participants
Participants of the present study were divided into several groups. First two groups were third year students of the University of International Business and were specialized in economics, law and marketing, which can also be determined as non-linguistic specialties. Other two groups were first year students of the Kazakh Ablaikhan University of International Relations and World Languages and were specialized in teaching English, translation studies, which can be determined as linguistic specialties. In order to avoid confusion four groups were renamed to A, B, C and D consequently.
Group A included nineteen students having A2 level. As it was mentioned above, these students were representatives of non-linguistic specialties, gaining the specialty in the field of Economics and Law. There were sixteen female and three male representatives. Their average age ranged between nineteen and twenty one. Despite the level of these students they had obstacles in producing spontaneous speech due to own reasons. However, in terms of reading and listening skills, they showed higher than average indicators.
Group B included twenty one students having in average the level A2 in English. As it was mentioned above, these students were included in the group of non-linguistic specialty. These students were gaining their major in the field of Economics and Management. There were thirteen women among students and eight male representatives. Their average age was between nineteen and twenty one. In spite of the level, these students had obstacles in transferring their thoughts to speech. Compared to the Group A these students showed higher results in pretesting the grammar skills.
Materials
The present study tends to use both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Pre-test and post-test interviews of students provided as the method of qualitative research, while during-the-experiment testing included data, stipulated to be quantitative method.
Pre-test interview included ten questions on various topics including general information about their hobbies, specialization and their attitude toward policy,
medicine and opinion about the current situation in the world.
Post-test interview included ten questions on the same topics as it was asked during the pre-test interview. In order to avoid confusion with data abuse, questions were changed, but the main aim of them remained the same.
Interviews and test dedicated to check the students' success are divided into particular topics and were subject to be passed by students after each activity, taken to improve spontaneous speaking skills of students. There were three activities and three testing consequently. One activity lasted two weeks during which the activity aimed at improving the speech of students taking into account their psychological features, using proper grammar in spontaneous speech and advancing the vocabulary.
Procedure
Seven weeks were provided to improve students' spontaneous speech. Each week covered three lessons, and each lesson lasts fifty minutes. First lesson was devoted for informing participants on the present study and on signing the consent form with accepting the Rules of the experiment. From the second lesson the experiment was expected to be started. During the second and third lessons students were pre-interviewed. Almost all participants were interviewed in these lessons however there were those who could not join the lesson due to certain reasons. Students' number who were absent in this day contained 3 participants from the Group A. Later, they were interviewed before the week 2. In this point the pre-testing was finished.
Week two is reported to cover assignments on the topic of "Me and myself'. Tasks of these assignments were to cover all information about the participant, making able him to broadly speak about himself. During the first lesson of the week two, students collected general information about their family, hobby and education. Grammar was expected to include Simple Tenses, infinitive and gerund use. Vocabulary was expected to be broaden for fifty new words. Students trained to speak about their family, hobby and education using new lexis and using complicated sentence structure. Second lesson is given to collect deep information about their specialization. Students had to gather such information as the emergence of their specialty, if it is expanded in their country and what they can do for their country being such specialist. Grammar tends to involve Past Tenses, Passive and Active Voices, relative pronouns. Vocabulary was advanced up to fifty new words. The third lesson was provided for students' speaking training about themselves. The aim of these assignments was to broaden participants' horizon by providing with extra information and make them ready to speak about all aspects of their life. In the end, participants had to tell about their opinion or attitude towards education in a whole and towards their specialties in particular. Then, teacher asked participants five various questions about their family, hobby and education, where students had not to simply answer the question, but support the conversation encouraging interlocutor to continue the theme.
Week three involved the next topic, during which the first lesson of the week students had to speak on the topic of "Policy of the modern world". The aim of assignments of this week was to encourage students to broaden their knowledge in this field. First assignment was to collect as many general information on the given topic as possible. Students also had to analyze advantages and disadvantages of political acts of the modern world and constructively provide with their thoughts according to the topic. Grammar must have covered ellipsis, heads and tails as it was mentioned in the study of Hilliard (2014), lexis must have advanced up to forty-fifty new words. During the fourth week this topic continued including new areas to speak by students. In the end, teacher asked each participant five different questions about policy. Similar to the week two, participants had to answer these questions including supporting arguments by encouraging the interlocutor to support the theme.
Week five and six covered the topic "Business and digitalization" where students had to collect the information about business and digitalization, their correlation and be able to juxtapose the business of the previous decade with the business of the modern world, including the effect of digitalization on business enhancement. The aim of assignments of this topic is to broaden students' knowledge in the field of business, help them make a correlation, make them able to find similarities and differences. At the end of this week, students had to be able to analyze and provide with own thoughts about the topic using correlation, comparison and contrast. Grammar must be clear, without mistakes in Tenses, sentence structure must be complex-compound, lexis must be advanced for forty new items. In the end, teacher ask five different questions about the topic. Similar to the previous weeks, participants had to answer these questions including supporting arguments by encouraging the interlocutor to continue the theme.
Week seven was dedicated for conduction of the post-test interview.
Results
The present study aimed at improving proper spontaneous speaking skills of students. Pre-testing showed that Group A challenged in producing spontaneous speech due to thinking of the proper sentence structure and proper grammar use. In addition, pre-test-ing showed quite good vocabulary range, but most lexis, that they were able to understand in reading and listening were challenging to be used in speaking. Testing, conducted during the investigation, showed that ninety three percent of all participants of this group learned half of the given vocabulary, but used only quarter of the given lexis in speech. Post- testing determined as a final result, showed that Group A successfully destroyed their barriers of grammar usage in speaking. Of the provided one hundred and fifty words, almost all students were able to use more than half in their final interview. The highest results were shown by Saurambai Nurila and Toktagan Kymbat, who could use seventy five percent of the given lexis in their speech. Besides that, these two students showed less Tense confusion in their speech, when they tried to use more compound-complex sentence structures.
Pre-testing of the Group B showed vague results. More than half of these participants were able to use Tense properly, but almost all students confused with using advanced vocabulary. Similar to the group A, they were able to understand most lexis by reading, but had troubles in using them in their speech. Listening was not challenging for these participants, but due to lack of knowledge in proper pronunciation of words, they were unable to comprehend most vocabulary that they seemed to know in reading. On the other hand, testing conducted during the experiment identified that most of the provided lexis were known by thirty percent of students, although they had troubles with their usage in daily speaking. These assignments helped them to utilize new lexis including their receptive vocabulary. Final test, precisely the post-testing identified shifting of almost all passive vocabulary from the given lexis to expressive vocabulary. Since this group initially did not have challenges in using proper Tenses and did less grammar, final result showed usage of their passive vocabulary in speech as well as good results in using compound complex sentence structure.
Discussion and conclusion
Spontaneous speech learning is not only learning how to correctly speak. The main difference between teaching speaking skills and teaching spontaneous speaking ability of student is in the fact that student is supposed to be confident in own knowledge, destroying barriers that tend to be constructed by psychological features of the student. This study claims that ensured with the proper knowledge in various topics as well as providing with helpful knowledge in the field of English language may cause the improvement of student's proper spontaneous speech processing.
On the other hand, as it was discussed above, teaching speaking and teaching spoken language is distinctive. According to researchers as Hilliard (2014), Mumford (2008), Basturkmen (2001) spoken language has little different grammar and it has not been shown in traditional English textbooks. Thus Hilliard (2014), claimed the importance of spoken grammar, teaching spoken grammar cannot cancel the importance of traditional grammar use in speaking and this study may
show that teaching both is helpful for learners to accept and not to be anxious due to grammar mistakes in their spoken language.
References
1. Al- Eiadeh, A., Al.Sobh, M., Al-Zoubi, S., & Al-Khasawneh, F. (2016). Improving English Language Speaking Skills of Ajloun National University Students. International Journal of English And Education, 5(3), 181-195. Retrieved from https://www.re-searchgate.net/publication/306079718
2. Basturkmen, H. (2001). Descriptions of spoken language for higher level learners: the example of questioning. ELT Journal, 55(1), 4-13. doi: 10.1093/elt/55.1.4
3. Chen, M., Tsai, S., & Chang, C. (2019). Effects of Game-Based Instruction on the Results of Primary School Children Taking a Natural Science Course. Education Sciences, 9(2), 1-15. doi: 10.3390/educsci9020079
4. Hilliard, A. (2014). Spoken Grammar and Its Role in the English Language Classroom. English Teaching Forum, 4, 2-13.
5. Hwang, W., Ma, Z., Shadiev, R., Shih, T., & Chen, S. (2014). Facilitating Listening and Speaking with Game-Based Learning Activities in Situational Context. Emerging Issues in Smart Learning, 193-200. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-44188-6_27
6. Mymrina, D., Abdrashitova, M., & Zakha-rova, E. (2018). Developing foreign language communicative competence of the academic staff at a technical university. Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin, (6), 171-175. doi: 10.23951/1609-624x-2018-6-171-175
7. Mumford, S. (2008). An analysis of spoken grammar: the case for production. ELT Journal, 63(2), 137-144. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccn020
8. Yalgin, O. & incegay, V. (2014). Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety: The case of Spontaneous Speaking Activities. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 2620-2624. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.623
1СТОРИЧН1 ОСОБЛИВОСТ1 ЩДГОТОВКИ МАЙБУТН1Х УЧИТЕЛ1В ДО ПРОФЕСШНО1
ОР1СНТАЦП (60-Т1 - 90-Т1 РОКИ XX СТ.)
Зтченко В.П.
Кандидат педагоггчних наук, Доцент кафедри педагогжи та менеджменту oceimu Глухгвський нацiональний nедагогiчний ymiверситет iменi Олександра Довженка,
ORCID ID 0000-0002-2101-903X
HISTORICAL FEATURES OF PREPARING TEACHERS FOR PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION (60TH - 90-TH OF THE 20-TH CENTURY)
Zinchenko V.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Educational Management Department (Hlukhiv, Ukraine)
Oleksandr Dovzhenko Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University,
ORCID ID 0000-0002-2101-903X
