From Writing to Speaking: Enhancing Conversation
by Nancy Kaye and Don Matson
In the natural process of learning a language, speaking usually precedes writing.
Furthermore, speaking and listening are often considered to be quite distinct from writing and
reading. It may be surprising, therefore, to consider an instructional progression from writing
to speaking.
Quality vs. Quantity
In order to become a better speaker of a foreign language (or even oneís own native
language), one must practice speaking it. 'The more you speak, the better a speaker you
become' is true, but it is a limited approach to teaching conversation in a foreign language.
We all know people who talk a lot and donít really communicate very much. What is often
overlooked in discussions of teaching foreign languages is that the quality of the message
plays an important but often neglected part in the process of language acquisition.
We would like to propose that it is just as important in teaching a foreign language to
emphasize the quality of the message as it is the fluency of the message. By quality we do
not refer to the grammatical correctness of the message but to its meaning. We hold that the
transmission of the content of the message is of greatest importance in the communication
process.
The quality of the message, in the sense that we are using the term, is often
overlooked by both teachers and students. Most of us who have acquired a second language
are aware at times of a strategy that we use semi-consciously when speaking in the new
language in which we ease the difficulty of expressing a particular idea or concept by
articulating the closest approximation to it that will allow us to maintain the flow of our
speech. In other words, we sacrifice some of the message for the sake of a fluent transmission
of the message.
Those who have not acquired a second language may note that we unconsciously use
the strategy of sacrificing the message even in our native language. We find ourselves
making compromises at times by articulating a somewhat simplified version of our intended
message and presenting it as though it were the message itself. Of course, if we never sent
these 'compromised' messages, conversations would not take place. Most conversational
contexts demand an immediate adequate reply. The problem is that many of us begin to
accept our 'compromises' as our actual intended messages. We allow ourselves these weak,
poorly articulated messages particularly in the second and third languages that we speak.
Often we even congratulate ourselves for being able to compose any kind of message at all.
As 'compromised' messages in a target language become habitual, we grow
accustomed to a lower quality of communication than we are actually capable of. We get by,
but we live with the vague awareness that what we say does not really represent what we
mean and who we are.
How is it possible to avoid this lapse into 'compromised' messages and instead stress
the quality of the message in teaching conversation in English? First of all, the importance of
quality communication needs to be recognized. We think of 'quality communication' as the
transmission of important, stimulating ideas and concepts in precise and powerful language.
Our advanced and high intermediate students of English have already acquired most of the
techniques of superficial conversation and often feel that they have reached a 'plateau.' They
feel they are no longer improving their conversational abilities at the rate that they did in the
earlier stages of their study. Just doing a lot of speaking, using the patterns and techniques
that they already know, has ceased to give them the feeling that they are learning.
Writing to Improve Speaking
Writing, we have found, can play a determining role in the advanced studentís
progress toward learning quality conversation. The act of writing is necessary at this stage to
improve speaking. Writing can temporarily 'freeze' the message during the process of its
transmission so that the writer is able to refine it and 'sculpt' it until it reflects the intended
meaning of the writer with a degree of precision far greater than that of the initial, more
spontaneous utterance. In fact, most writers are aware that they often 'discover' the intended
meanings of their discourse in the process of composing. The 'refining' and 'sculpting' are an
exploration that leads to meaning. The writing and the discovery of the meanings to be
communicated occur simultaneously.
Speaking, in contrast to writing, does not promote the same kind of exploration,
discovery, and precise articulation that writing does for a number of reasons. Often, the
social context of a conversation works against quality communication. The focus of a
conversation frequently shifts so there is little chance of exploring ideas in any depth or with
any degree of precision. Often speakers in conversation feel that it is more important to
convey an impression of confidence and self-assurance than to express important thoughts in
their complexity with grace and precision.
Quality conversation is an art, one that can be learned through writing. Of the various
modes of discourse, we find that narration and argumentation can be most helpful to the
student who wants to improve the quality of her or his conversation. Everyone has stories to
tell, opinions to share, and comments about life to make, but few people actually take the
time or have the occasion to articulate their ideas effectively. We have several successful
methods of presenting the students with occasions to express their views in depth and detail.
Games for Writing to Speaking
One approach is based on a game called the 'Ungame.' We use it with students at all
levels. The Ungame comes in number of versionsófor families, couples, kids. The couples
version, for example, consists of two decks of cards, one 'light' and the other more serious.
Each card in the deck asks the participant to comment on or answer a question about some
aspect of relationships or just life in general. Here are some of the 'light' couples cards: 'Make
a statement about your childhood,' 'Make any statement about love,' 'Do you think marriage
should be a fifty-fifty partnership?' These cards are designed to encourage people to express
their feelings and ideas about life, relationships, or themselves.
The game may be played by two to eight participants. It is called 'Ungame' because it
is not competitive and there are no losersóthe goal is communication. In many games the
players engage in the act of pretending, but the Ungame allows the participants to be
themselves.
When we use the this game as a basis for creating written texts that will be used to
improve the English conversational abilities of our students, we deviate from the suggested
'rules' in several respects. Most important is our use of the cards as writing prompts instead of
speaking prompts. Our students browse through the cards and choose one that they find
interesting. They copy the prompt on a piece of paper and take it home with them. Their
assignment is to think about the prompt for several hours and then write a response to it. The
students hand in their responses to the instructor, who reads them and arranges miniconferences
with the students to discuss them. The goal at this stage is to encourage the
students to develop the response in greater depth and detail.
The next assignment asks the students to continue the response, writing and/or
rewriting as suggested in the mini-conference with the goal of creating a more complete and
complex piece of communication. When the students hand in the results, the instructor meets
with them individually again. If the response has become a more effective piece of
communication, developing the ideas to a higher level of complexity, the instructor will give
the student feedback on the most important editing considerations including sentence
structure, diction, grammar, and style. The student then edits the response until the instructor
is satisfied that it is close to a response that would be made by a native English speaker.
The studentsí next task is to read over their responses a few times but not memorize
them. Then the students meet as a group and each tells the others his or her prompt and
response. They speak in their own words, usually using much of the text that they developed
as they have rewritten the response in increasingly complex and detailed form. The instructor
reminds them that they are to speak 'naturally' and that they should not attempt to recite their
written text but only to allow it to serve as an influence on their spoken presentations.
There is an Ungame rule that the group is to remain silent as each group member
speaks. We follow this rule during the first round of presentations, and we ask the listeners to
take notes and record their own version of each memberís response as accurately as they can.
A second round of presentations of the responses (and sometimes a third) is necessary for the
students to complete their written versions of their classmatesí ideas. Of course, the
presentations are not exactly the same each time, but this is an advantage rather than a
disadvantage.
When the students have completed their written versions of all of the responses, they
hand them in to the instructor, who notes any problems in language use and gives them back
to the students for editing. The students then read over their set of edited responses and
prepare to articulate each of them.
At the next stage in this conversational exercise, the group members present their own
responses again, after which the listeners ask questions or make comments that the author
must respond to and later integrate into the written response. The result is an enriched
message with this further increase in text complexity.
There is really no end to the stages of this exercise. Since all of the group members
have their own versions of all of the responses, they may present the response of any other
member and field the ensuing questions and comments. It should be emphasized that the
speakers are not memorizing these responses; they are articulating in their own target
language words the ideas that they have discussed and digested.
Free Writes from Personal Experiences
Another effective exercise has been 'free writing' from personal experiences. This can
be used with students at all levels. Students are instructed to write about a personal
experience but not to concern themselves with punctuation, grammar, spelling, sentence
structure, looking up words, what time it is, erasing, etc. This frees them to let the creative
ideas flow from their heads to their hands and on to the paper. Before writing begins, our
teachers discuss the topic ideas for a few minutes with students to awaken memory and add
color, texture, voice, tone, shape and form to the writing experience. The instructor says
'begin' and students write continuously for 20 to 30 minutes until prompted to stop.
When the free write is complete, students read their papers out loud and mistakes are
overlooked at this point. Active discussion ensues with questions from classmates. The
students each have a turn reading and discussing their writing. Papers are later corrected by
the instructor, and students create a final piece for a second round of discussion. This time
the conversation is enhanced because students have practiced and polished their language.
Create a Scene
Dialogue is particularly effective in teaching idiomatic English. We use the following
exercise with students at all levels. We pair up students for the first stage of writing dialogues
and ask them to 'create a scene.' They have a few days to think about their scene and to meet
with their partner out of class and brainstorm. After the period of preparation and incubation,
the pairs sit down and work out their dialogue along with its setting. They usually work
through several versions then hand in the final version to the instructor. The instructor then
gives feedback to the pairs in a mini-conference, focusing on idiomatic language use. The
students revise until their dialogues have an American ring to them and use some appropriate
American English idioms.
A second exercise asks the student pairs to 'produce' their scenes, casting their class
members as characters and perhaps putting together some simple props. Sometimes one class
will present its scenes to another class. We like to videotape these productions for use as
teaching tools. In general, we have found that writing dialogue before moving into the
speaking phase has many advantages and provides feedback from the instructor during the
process of creating the scene.
Autobiographies
High beginners and above enjoy another exercise we use in going from writing to
speaking: the autobiography. We have our students write their life stories and receive
feedback from the instructor before they tell their stories. They work on one chapter at a
time, focusing on the 'turning points' in their lives. We have found that once the students
have written a life story chapter, they are much more fluent and effective in their speech than
they would have been without the writing exercise. This exercise allows learners to find out
what they have in common with the other students. An added benefit is that they have a
permanent diary to take home with them to review and reflect on later. This exercise helps
strong bonds to develop among the students, some of whom become lifelong friends.
Argumentation
In another writing-to-speaking exercise, we have our high intermediate students and
above write arguments as preparation for debates. While the autobiographies encourage the
students to find what they have in common, writing arguments and debating highlight their
differences. In many conversational situations, people tend to avoid differences instead of
exploring them. However, when people are encouraged to develop their opinions in a
systematic manner in writing, they are able to present a reasonable and interesting position,
one that stimulates others to think about their own views on the issue in question.
We base our exercises in argumentation on Stephan Toulminís argument analysis, in
terms of 'claims,' 'grounds,' and 'warrants.' The Toulmin approach, in a simplified form, is
easy to learn and encourages students to explore their opinions systematically, in depth and
detail.
In these exercises, the instructor responds to student arguments in mini-conference,
first making suggestions to strengthen the argument then pointing out any problems in
language use. We then arrange debates. We find that the speech of the students taking part in
the debates is of a much higher quality than it would have been without the writing exercises.
As a result of these writing-to-speaking exercises, our students are able to increase
their active vocabulary rapidly, learning the words and constructions they need to express
their own particular views and experiences. In other words, these students are not just
learning 'new words,' they are learning the particular new words that allow them to express
their own ideas. Different people have different interests, opinions, and experiences, so they
need the vocabulary that will allow them to express their individual perspectives. We have
also discovered, that these exercises may be the first time an international student has been
asked to express an opinion or take a stand on an important issue.
Our students gain confidence with each exercise and attempt to express increasingly
complex ideas with precision. The focus on quality in communication encourages them to
overcome the common tendency to compromise a message. Instead of simplifying, they
strive to say precisely what they mean. In many cases, this involves 'discovering' what they
mean as they write in preparation for speaking.
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Nancy Kaye has taught ESL for many years. She currently manages the Global American
Language Institute (GALI) in San Diego, CA. Don Matson, Ph.D. (UCSD) is Director of
GALI and has taught ESL since 1960.
References
The Ungame. Rhea Zakich Talicor, Inc., Anaheim, CA.
Toulmin, Stephan. 1958. The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This article first appeared in the July/August 2000 issue of ESL Magazine
http://www.eslmag.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=11 (6/7/06)
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