Introduction

Speaking in a second language (L2) involves the development of a particular type of communication skill. Oral language, because of its circumstances of production, tends to differ from written language in its typical grammatical, lexical and discourse patterns. In addition, some of the processing skills needed in speaking differ from those involved in reading and writing. This chapter outlines the place of speaking in oral methodology, the conceptual issues involved in oral language pedagogy, and it reviews relevant research and pedagogical implications.

Background

Speaking in an L2 has occupied a peculiar position throughout much of the history of language teaching, and only in the last two decades has it begun to emerge as a branch of teaching, learning and testing in its own right, rarely focusing on the production of spoken discourse. There are three main reasons for this. The first is tradition: grammar–translation approaches to language teaching still have a huge influence in language teaching, marginalising the teaching of communication skills. The second is technology: only since the mid-1970s has tape-recording been sufficiently cheap and practical to enable the widespread study of talk – whether native speaker talk (Carter and McCarthy 1997: 7) or learner talk – and use of tape recorders in the language classroom. Due to the difficulty of studying talk, it was easier for teachers, methodologists, applied linguists and linguists to focus on written language than spoken language (for nearly 20 years the TESOL convention has run annual colloquia on the teaching of reading and writing, but not on speaking or listening).