On Three Elements in Productive Skills Teaching Chongqing Nanfang Translators College of SISU

LI Jie

【Abstract】Teaching productive skills are challenging components in English teaching.To explore proper methods to teach them，this essay will discuss a basic teaching model from the perspectives of three elements，tying to propose some advice for English teachers.

【Key words】Productive Skills； Stimulus； Purpose； Feedback

Introduction

The way the students are taught English can be divided into four skills namely reading，writing，speaking and listening.Reading and listening are called receptive skills which are main ways to receive input while speaking and writing are named productive skills that needs students to produce language by themselves （Harmer，2007：265）.Generally，what students say or write is primarily based on what they hear or see.In other words，speaking and writing are likely to be seen as the outcomes of a set of complicated cognitive processing of visual or auditory information，which contributes to the difficulty of learning these skills （Hedge，2000：261，303）.For English teachers，finding the appropriate methods to teach these skills is significant.According to Harmers study （2007：275），although speaking and writing are different，there is a basic model，including four steps—lead-in，set the task，monitor the task and give task feedback - for teaching them.However，this essay will focus on three elements，namely the stimulus in lead-in stage，the purpose in setting the task stage and the feedback in last phase to illustrate some main options to provide these elements for learners.

The Stimulus for Speaking and Writing

For many students，learning to speak not only means producing features of pronunciation，vocabulary and structure correctly but means applying these features in meaningful communication where delivery of meanings and negotiation of meanings need to be made clear （Hedge，2000：261，McDonough，Shaw，1993：154）.The speaking the essay talking about refers to the latter one，especially the conversation.Speaking teachers are likely to stimulate students with the topic despite there are two approaches namely indirect and direct approaches （Harmer，2007：275，Richards，1990：76-77）.There are various ways to present topics.For instance，if the topic is talking about breaking news，the teachers can use a photograph from the newspaper，a piece of audio news from BBC or VOA or a video from the news websites to engage students in discussion.There is no fixed ways to provide stimulus for learners but thinking about how to make learners closely involve with the stimulus heavily influences the ways to give them （McDonough，Shaw，1993：168），i.e.the stimulus should arouse students interest.In terms of writing，there are two different approaches to teach it，which impacts the ways to offer stimulus.One is the product approach that puts the focus on the ability to produce correct products （Richards，1990：106）.Since this approach emphasizes on form of written language and preventing students from making mistakes，the stimulus often tends to be a model for learners to simulate （Richards，1990：107）.Another one is the process approach that concentrates on meaning of the written texts.With this approach，students are given more opportunities to create their own meaningful writings with less teacher control （Richards，1990：110）.As students have relatively more freedom to produce their compositions，the stimulus the teacher provides can be relatively more open.The stimulus，like the one for speaking，can be a picture，a piece of music or even one question about the topic.

The Purpose for Speaking and Writing

In general，there are two kinds of spoken communicative interactions—one is transactional communication that focuses on the exchange of information； another is interactional communication that aims to establish and maintain social relations （Brown，Yule，1983）.How to provide purpose for speaking is likely to be affected by whether the speaking is based on transactional or interactional purpose （Richards，1990：68）.However，in communicative language teaching classroom，

transactional purpose of communication that emphasizes on negotiation and sharing information by students plays a predominant role and it can be realized by employing a wide range of activities （McDonough，Shaw，1993：162-164）.For example，in the information gap activity，the teacher can divide the students into several groups and each group has an information card that differs from other groups.To complete the activity successfully，each group needs to communicate with other groups orally to get the information they do not have.In this activity，getting the missing information is the purpose for speaking.Generally speaking，since the teacher tends to give clear instruction about what to do，how to do and why do it before each activity，the purpose of the activity tends to be noticeable in the instruction，which contributes to the importance of the clear instruction （Harmer，2007：275）.For writing，there are six main types of writing namely personal，institutional，public，creative，social and study writing （Hedge，1988：96）.No matter which type to write，deciding the purpose of writing is crucial （Hedge，2000：305）.In writing class，the teacher is likely to illustrate the type of writing and the background of the writing even the audience of the writing in instruction to facilitate students to identify the purpose of the writing （Scrivener，2005：201）.For instance，the teacher asks students to write a letter of complaint to the manager of the supermarket about its stale bread.In this way，it is easy for students to know that the purpose for writing is to make the complaint to the manager.Sometimes，the teachers may not give some detailed information，which enables students to have more freedom to write.

The Feedback for Speaking and Writing

The feedback can be very helpful for improving the speaking only when making the right decisions about the time and the ways to provide it （Harmer，2007：142）.These decisions are largely influenced by whether the focus of activity is on accuracy or fluency.In accuracy-based activity，‘teacher intervention that the teacher points out or corrects the mistakes the students make immediately tends to be employed since the emphasis is the correctness of the language use and there are two steps to conduct it—the first step is to show incorrectness by repeating，echoing，statement and questions，expression，hinting or reformulating； the second step is to get it right by giving the correct version or asking students correction but it is only carried out when the students cannot correct themselves in the first step.For fluency-based activity，the teacher is not likely to give feedback during students speaking since it tends to interrupt the students thinking about the content they are going to say.Instead，the teacher is likely to offer gentle correction when students need it or record the mistakes the students make and give the feedback by putting the mistakes on the broad and asking students to correct them or writing individual notes to students after they finish their speaking （Harmer，2007：142-147，Hedge，2000：291-292） The ways to provide feedback for writing tend to be based on the kind of the writing task.If the writing based on the form，the feedback is likely to focus on the correctness of vocabulary，grammar and punctuation by using correction codes while if it based on the meaning，the feedback may put emphasis on the content of it （Harmer，2007：147）.Also，the stages of which the writing is on affect the ways to provide it.According to Kehs study （1996：294-306），in general，the teacher tends to adopt peer feedback and conferences to give response to the writing during the writing process.Peer feedback is the way that the students share opinions about the writing to each other，which tends to give students a wide sense of audience and conferences enable the students and the teacher to have a active interaction to exchange the ideas about the writing.The written comment from the teacher is likely to be used when marking the final product since it is useful for indicating specific problems，for presenting possible reasons for them and giving suggestions.

Conclusion

Making students speak or write needs the stimulus and the purpose.How to stimulate students primarily depends on how to elicit the topic in appropriate ways by the teachers.There is no fixed ways to present topics.The purposes for speaking and writing are likely to be carried by instructions by which the teacher want students to understand what to do，how to do and why do it before each activity.After the activity，the feedback is needed to show how successful the performance has been made.Based on the focuses of the tasks，the times and the ways to provide feedback are different.For writing，the writing stages also influence the ways to give feedback.

Reference：

[1]Brown，G.and Yule，G.（1983） Teaching the Spoken Language.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[2]Harmer，J.（2007） The Practice of English Language Teaching.4th ed.Harlow：Pearson Education.

[3]Hedge，T.（1988） Writing.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[4]Hedge，T.（2000） Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[5]Keh，C.L.（1996） Feedback in the writing process：a model and methods for implementation.In：Hedge，T.and Whitney，N.ed.Power Pedagogy & Practice.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[6]McDonough，J.and Shaw，C.（1993） Materials and Methods in ELT.Oxford：Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

[7]Richards，J.C.（1990） The Language Teaching Matrix.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[8]Scrivener，J.（2005） Learning Teaching.2nd ed.Oxford： Macmillan Education.

作者簡介：李潔（1987—），女，重慶市江北區人，現任職于四川外國語大學重慶南方翻譯學院國際文化交流學院，英語教育專業，碩士，職稱助教，研究方向：英語教學法。