First, You Have to Hear It! ESL Oral Language Practice

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ON THE NETFirst,
You Have to Hear It! ESL Oral Language Practice

Jean W. LeLoup
SUNY Cortland
Robert Ponterio
SUNY Cortland

There is no question that the development of oral language skills in second (as well as first) language learners is of prime importance. Language learners must focus on oral language proficiency because it is eventually the skill they will most use. Indeed, "...oral language interactions account for the bulk of our day-to-day communications, remaining the primary mode of discourse through out the world" (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005, p. 119). But oracy in second language learners does not develop in a vacuum. It is inextricably intertwined with the other language skills (reading, writing, and listening). In addition, by the time students are studying a second language, they have begun learning literacy skills that we also wish to develop in the target language. The National Standards for Foreign Language Learning clearly support the notion of integration of skill areas with the goal area of Communication. The first standard in this goal area is 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions (National Standards, 1999). This interpersonal communication standard implies two-way communication in which aural and oral language both play a key role.

Oral language development needs two essential elements in order to be maximally realized: comprehensible input (CI) and social interaction (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). The language learning environment, be it a classroom or other venue, should be structured to include CI as well as encourage the aforementioned two-way communication qua social interaction. In this column, we examine two sites that provide CI for English language learners and also make provision for subsequent two-way interchanges that allow learners to practice their oral output.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab provides the English language learner with many audio files that offer language sound bites on numerous topics. These sound files are graded "easy," "medium," and "difficult" as a guide for the instructor and/or self-motivated learner. According to the creator of the site, Randall Davis,

"the main goal has been to try to combine pedagogically-sound content while making use of Internet technology to deliver it .... to create listening activities with pre-, listening, and post-listening activities to build content schemata, help check students' understanding while introducing new vocabulary, and then encourage speaking activities to expand on language students have learned." (personal communication, July 14, 2005)

To that end, each audio file is supported by several components that enable the language learner to prepare for, negotiate, and master the CI. The example below, "Camping under the Stars," shows the information available to the learner who selects this audio clip and its concomitant activities. This particular clip is graded "medium." It is a conversation between a man and a woman, and lasts 1:17 minutes.

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