CAPES 6 : Four Skills - Speaking

When Asher developed the technique known as Total Physical Response, he believed that people who learned languages in natural situations all went through a 'silent period', during which they would not speak, or spoke only with great reluctance and difficulty. This, he believed, was similar to what happens with little children acquiring their first language - they do not speak because they are busy assimilating the language, listening to it, and trying to make sense of it.

But very young children do not speak in great part because they are physically unable to do so. In fact, they are, almost from the start, very active vocally, but do not yet posses the fully developed vocal apparatus that would permit them to pronounce comprehensible sounds (see Boysson-Bardies). So they babble, and they coo, practicing the sounds of the language which they hear around them, and very quickly attempting - vainly at first - to make some kind of sense.

Adults and adolescents who learn a foreign language are not in the same position at all. Some of them are silent at first, but this is not for the same reasons as those of the child. It may be because they are shy. It may be because they feel incapable of saying the kinds of things that adults and adolescents want to say - which may be more complex than those a one or two-year old does. It may be because the sounds of the language are difficult for them to pronounce - French learners may feel intimidated by the 'th' or by diphthongs.

Other learners are not put off by this, but wish to plunge into the language straight away. Language teachers must be able to put the silent learner at his ease, and encourage him to work on his difficulties, and must be able to slow the eager speaker down and ensure that she pays full attention to her errors.

(If you have a question of a comment, write to me at tmason@timothyjpmason.com)