Communication

1. Communication “The imparting or exchange of information, ideas or feelings” Roger Hunt International House Barcelona Conference 2008

2. Grammar A: Have you ever been to Egypt? B: No, I haven’t. A: Would you like a coffee? B: Yes, I would.

3. Discourse A: You ever been to Egypt? B: No actually. Love to go though. A: Like a coffee? B: Yes, love one actually. Thanks Ellipsis, lubricators, phatic language?

4. Concentrating on grammar A: How long have you been living here? B: I have been living here for two years. A: Do you like living here? B: Yes, I do. A: What do you like most about living here? B: I like the weather. A: What do you like least about living here? B: I do not like the food.

5. Concentrating on communication A: Um, been here long? B: Well, um, no not really. Um, about er two years more or less. A: Oh yeah. You like it here? B: Er, yeah, yeah, it’s um fine. Yeah. A. Uh hu. And so, er, what do you like most about it? B: Er, well, um, the weather I suppose A: Yeah, me too. Yeah. Er, um, and the least? B: Ha! Yes! Well, er, that’s got to be the food, hasn’t it!

6. The twenty most frequent word-forms in spoken and written texts S W 1 The The 2 I To 3 And And 4 You Of 5 It A 6 To In 7 A Was 8Yeah It 9 That I 10 Of He 11 In That 12 Was She 13 It’s For 14 know On 15 Is Her 16Mm You 17Er Is 18 But With 19 So His 20 they had

7. Rules or fallacies? • Any bus goes to the beach from that stop • I can see you any day next week • Any child over five knows that • Have you got some sugar?

8. Form and meaning A: Can you give me a hand? B: Yes, once I’ve finished this. A: Were your parents strict when you were a kid. B: They certainly were. Dad would lock us in the cellar if we were naughty.

9. Prescription and description • Well, if you’re going to buy a house, you’re going to need a lot of money. • If you would take a seat I’ll call the doctor. • If you hadn’t been such a twerp we wouldn’t be in this bloody mess now! • If he has left he should be arriving soon.

10. It • It’s raining • It’s time to go • She made it very clear that she wasn’t interested in him • It can’t be that bad! • She said it wasn’t important.

11. More its from: www.lextutor.ca • In any case it is by no means clear that formally structure • It is difficult to be certain how the • In 1961, it is estimated that multiple unit dwellings bill is now in the House Rules Committee. • It is expected to be reported • it is far more fun to create shades in the • It is hard to blame them for this. • It is impossible to get a fair trial

12. adjacency a. How’s the bad leg? 1. Well, actually I’m from Canada. b. Lovely day, isn’t it? 2. I’m on a diet actually. c. You’re from the States, aren’t you? 3. Yes, it’s been ages, hasn’t it? d. Like a chocolate? 4. Not so bad thanks. e. Gosh! I haven’t seen you for years! 5. Yes, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

13. adjacency & association a. How’s the bad leg? 4. Not so bad thanks. b. Lovely day, isn’t it? 5. Yes, it’s absolutely gorgeous c. You’re from the States, aren’t you? 1. Well, actually I’m from Canada d. Like a chocolate? 2. I’m on a diet actually. e. Gosh! I haven’t seen you for years! 3. Yes, it’s been ages, hasn’t it?

14. Adjacency in class - rationale Text coherence Students see how text logically flows from one utterance and idea to another that links to it in some way. Prediction Students learn to anticipate likely responses and patterns – this can be particularly useful for the listening skill. New language Students learn new expressions/vocabulary etc eg: ‘Not so bad thanks’ Language in context Students see how language points work in context which helps them infer meaning (eg: ‘actually’ in these dialogues)

15. John Smith, a bricklayer from Worthing, was arrested last night on suspicion of theft when he was found to have bought a £200,000 Lamborghini, a pent-house flat in Marbella and a diamond encrusted Rolex. When questioned by police he said he had been saving. Direct reference: Where is he from? What is his job? When was he arrested? What did he buy? Where is his flat? What did he say to the police? Inferential: Why did the police think he was a thief? Direct reference and inference

16. Inference and ‘unpackaging’ “I became so nervous that I even briefly entertained the idea of diving into the nearest bar for a quick shot…” • What is the significance of ‘nervous’ and ‘bar’? How do these two wordshelp you decipher the sentence? • Did the speaker have a drink?

17. CEF – inference C1 and C2 • Is skilled at using contextual, grammatical and lexical cues to inferattitude, mood and intentions and anticipate what will come next. B2 • Can use a variety of strategies to achieve comprehension, including reading for main points; checking comprehension by using contextual clues. B1 • Can identify unfamiliar words from the context on topics related to his/her field and interests. • Can extrapolate the meaning of occasional unknown words from the context and deduce sentence meaning provided the topic discussed is familiar. A2 • Can use an idea of the overall meaning of short texts and utterances on everyday topics of a concrete type to derive the probable meaning of unknown words from the context.

18. Communicative competence (CEF) Linguistic Lexical Phonological Syntactical knowledge Sociolinguistic Social conventions Politeness Class Social groups Pragmatic Discourse Coherence Cohesion Interlocutor affect/effect

19. Implications and applications • Don’t start with grammar? • Start with discourse? • Start with both together? (Language in context) • Reception precedes production • Help students notice (listening and reading) • Help them use these features (speaking and writing)?

20. The end! Thank you for your kind attention See you next year! rhunt@bcn.ihes.com