1. Professional Development Consortium in MFL
Oral Interaction

2. 4 research based principles
(1) Target language input is essential for learning but it can be made more effective if learners are allowed/encouraged to ‘negotiate’ their understanding of it by asking questions of what the teacher is saying
(2) Learners need to be encouraged to speak and to say things that they are not sure are correct
(3) Although not all oral interaction can be ‘communicative’ (some will be practice and/or form focused), it has to nevertheless demonstrate measures of ‘quality’ (among other things, student initiated turns, student length of turn; adequate wait time; cognitive challenge; appropriate teacher feedback)
(4) Students need to be given opportunities to develop oral fluency but also taught how to use communication strategies when faced with communication difficulties

3. National Agencies:UK (early 1990s)
“From the outset, the foreign language rather than English should be the medium in which classwork is conducted and managed.” (Department of Education and Science)
“The natural use of the target language for virtually all communication is a sure sign of a good modern languages course” (DES)
“the lesson should be conducted through the medium of the target language....to avoid interference from the sound and syntactical patterns of the mother tongue....(and) to lessen any desire the pupils may have to engage in the process of translation” (my italics) (DE. Northern Ireland)

4. research: teacher beliefs (mid 1990s)
Systematic observation; interviews; questionnaires
Statement for teachers: “good language teachers use the L2 almost exclusively”
Findings:
Only 17% disagreed with the statement
Most teachers equated good practice with L2 use to some degree
(Macaro Target Language, Collaborative Learning and Autonomy. Multilingual Matters)

5. Findings Most teachers believed L2 should be predominant language
Most teachers felt limited L1 was useful
L1 facilitated setting up L2 tasks
L1 sometimes needed to explain new lexical items which arise in interaction

6. Use of L1 by 6 student teachers (late 1990s)
only 7.1% (Mean) as a proportion of total talk.
Macaro (2001), MLJ

7. Other findings
Student-Teacher use of L2 did not necessarily lead to pupil use of L2
No negative impact of “controlled” levels of codeswitching
Evidence of a “threshold” at around 15% of L1 use
Functions: instructions; explaining vocabulary; managing behaviour
Student-teachers did not relate their decision-making to any theories of language acquisition (but to being ‘told’ by the NC)

8. Measurements of teacher L1 use by “two experienced teachers”
In 6 lessons, only 7.3% (Mean) as a proportion of total talk.
Macaro & Mutton (2002), LLJ

9. UK agencies post-2000
“pupils are expected to use and respond to the target language, and to use English only when necessary (for example when discussing a grammar point or when comparing English and the target language)”
(learners) should use their knowledge of English or another language when learning the target language
2012?

10. Why the huge pendulum swing in UK?
Frequent L1 use
Early 1990s
L1 use banned

11. Why the huge pendulum swing?
Late 1990s
Low % of
L1 use
Late 2000
L1 use
predominant

12. One more piece of research
Year 9 learners learning French in UK
After listening to a text, the teacher:
Selected and drew attention to new words
Attempted to explain new lexical items using L2 definition, paraphrase and contextualization (video-recorded)
Individual students looked at video and said how they tried to work out what the teacher was saying

13. Findings
Students’ strategies for understanding the L2 word: almost entirely reliant on the cognate nature of the word
Students’ strategies for understanding the teacher’s L2 explanations: almost entirely reliant on the cognate nature of any word in the explanation

14. Let’s stop using the expression:
“Use of the Target Language”

15. Problems with ‘Use of the target language’
No theoretical explanation for ‘exclusive use of the TL’ – teachers told!
Many teachers do not necessarily associate TL use with a ‘communicative’ approach (intralingual approach).
Students in KS3 were/are not ‘trained’ to cope with teacher communicating information in L2

16. quality interaction in L2
It’s not about ‘use of the TL’ but about
quality interaction in L2

17. Video clip 1

18. What constitutes quality oral interaction? (teacher-whole class)
The TL is the predominant language for setting up tasks. Students try hard to work out what teacher is saying (use strategies)
Students engage in ‘meaning negotiation’ (asking questions when they don’t understand; commenting)

19. What constitutes quality oral interaction? (teacher-whole class)
Students taking risks with trying to say something
Student initiated turns (occasionally they start ‘an idea’)
Appropriate teacher feedback to risk-taking.

20. What constitutes quality oral interaction? (teacher-whole class)
Balance of message (real/referential) and medium (practice/display) questions
Longer student turns
Reasonable wait times (allows processing)
Students using lots of verbs (using grammar in real situation)
Students using lots of different verbs (range)

21. What constitutes quality oral interaction
What constitutes quality oral interaction? (either in teacher-whole class or learner-learner tasks
Students use ‘classroom language’ spontaneously because they have been taught it thoroughly (not just on classroom walls)
(in learner-learner tasks), students are given the opportunity to improve their oral output

22. Video clip 2

23. Principle 4
Students need to be given opportunities to develop oral fluency but also taught how to use communication strategies when faced with communication difficulties
(This links with Principle 2 – if learners are to say what they want or need to say, they are not always going to have the exact word at their fingertips. They need to be taught ways of getting round the problem and keeping the conversation going)

24. Communication Strategies
Paraphrase or contextualization
Guessing (hypothesis testing)
Word coinage (making L1/L2 word sound like L2)
Intonation & exclamations
Facial expressions/body language
Fillers for gaps
Repetition (to give time to think)
Truc, machin
Asking for help
Avoidance (language or topic itself)

25. Research suggests that...
Task repetition leads to greater fluency
‘Training’ students in use of ‘paraphrase’ and ‘fillers’ helps them to keep the conversation going

26. Video clip 3

27. Session plenary discussion