This contribution has a twofold objective: (1) to list effective practices for teaching oral language through genres, based on the latest research findings and (2) to propose a training program that uses these practices. To achieve this aim, we first explore effective practices for teaching oral language through genres, based on the literature. In the second part, we present Itineraries, an instructional program that implements these effective practices.
Oral practice at school
Four ways of considering oral language at school are generally distinguished (PLANE, 2015; WIERTZ et al., 2020
As far as formal instruction is concerned, this fourth dimension of oral language at school, as a learning object, is increasingly present as an issue. Indeed, "oral language education has gained a clear place in L1-curricula all over the world" (WURTH et al., 2019, p. 2). For example, in our school context of French-speaking Belgium, the new regulations specify that "disciplinary skills - listening/reading, speaking/writing - must be of equal importance" (PACTE POUR UN ENSEIGNEMENT D'EXCELLENCE, 2017, p. 48
In classrooms, oral language has struggled to become a real object of instruction (COLOGNESI; DESCHEPPER, 2019
In pre-service and in-service teacher training, the teaching and learning of oral language is not at all or hardly represented in training programs. When it is, it is in an occasional and limited way, unlike training in reading or writing skills (CÔTÉ; PELLERIN, 2017
Finally, the teaching–learning of oral language is complex. It is complex in terms of the conditions under which it is carried out (time, traces, …), the characterization of its components, the methods of its evaluation, and the relative lack of reference points (training, programs) on which to base instructional sequences. All of this contributes to making teachers insecure. This reinforces the continued usage of highly stereotyped activities in teaching oral communication. These activities are also reassuring because the teachers have often experienced them as students themselves.
Thus, for example, the most popular practices in exercise how to speak are recitation, speaking in the service of self-expression such as expressing the mood of the day or an opinion about an incident), and delivering a presentation (COLOGNESI; DESCHEPPER, 2019
In view of all this, there are therefore real issues at stake in considering the guidelines that can help teachers instruct oral language usage in the classroom.
The perspective of working by genres in the teaching–learning of the oral language
Even though oral language occupies a major place in people's out-of-school daily lives, much more so than written language (LAFONTAINE, 2016
The genres used in working on oral language are thus often the same: the presentation, which is often practiced, rarely taught, or recitation, whose generic authenticity is essentially, if not exclusively, academic. Yet, teaching oral language through genres would allow students to develop their listening–speaking skills in the real-life formats of communication situations they confront or will be confronted with. This is what is at stake in the teaching–learning of oral language in the classroom: teaching students to communicate orally and to understand the oral messages that surround them, in both their diversity and their specific characteristics.
Genre-based instruction in oral communication has been currently advocated for teaching oral language, both by researchers (CHARTRAND; ÉMERY-BRUNEAU; SÉNÉCHAL, 2015
First, the generic perspective allows understanding oral language from an effective communicative perspective. The genre, which corresponds to an existing communicative practice, carries with it a series of specific oral usages in which oral language use is associated with different discursive and social situations (DOLZ; GAGNON, 2008
Second, the existing instructional activities for working on written genres can be used to support work on the oral genre. Certain oral genres lend themselves well to the need for in-depth work. This is particularly true of public genres, which can be prepared in advance and are subject to rehearsal (JAUBERT, 2007
Finally, working on genres where the oral language is prepared and rehearsed allows showing the students that taking charge of a complex oral presentation takes time. The presentation is prepared and discussed with others. This makes it possible to place the learning of oral language in a “co-actional approach” that is as valid for the mother tongue as for second languages (PUREN, 2002
This also makes it possible to anticipate, and if possible, to take charge of, the emotional dimension. In fact, all speaking engenders a "putting at risk" of the speaker (LAVOIE; BOUCHARD, 2017
In sum, for all the reasons mentioned above, it seems to us that genre-based learning and the identification of effective practices for this learning, widely used for writing, constitute a relevant source of guidelines for the teaching–learning of oral language as well. That is the twofold objective of this contribution: (1) to list effective practices for teaching oral language through genres, based on the latest research findings and (2) to propose an instructional program that uses these practices. In short, what are effective practices for teaching and learning oral language through genres and how can they be integrated "in act" within an instructional program?
There is a vast literature on what is meant by effective teaching. Ko, Sammons and Bakkum (2014
This examination of effective practices has continued within each discipline. For example, there have also been meta-analyses for language teaching. Thus, Koster et al. (2015
As far as speaking is concerned, research in this field is still recent, so that there is not yet much work on effective practices for teaching speaking in the classroom. We identified two articles that mention such practices. The authors of the first article aimed to provide guidelines for secondary school teachers, while the second article focused on the primary level.
First, Wurth et al. (2019:2) analyzed the literature to deduce what they called "key elements of good quality L1-oral language teaching". To do so, they selected 13 articles, from which they identified five main aspects: (1) having a clear vision of goals and criteria before beginning oral language instruction; (2) analyzing and monitoring each student's language progress by setting aside time for reflection and analysis in L1 oral language lessons; (3) practicing self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher assessment of oral products; (4) conducting observation and discussion time on filmed speakers serving as models; and (5) regular practice of a variety of speaking tasks.
Next, Colognesi and Hanin (2020
Combining these proposals and the literature on effective practices, we have formulated a series of effective practices that are interesting to have as guidelines for teaching oral language, within the framework of teaching by genres. They are presented in Figure 1 and explained below.
Source: produced by the authors.
Planning oral language teaching in the class timetable
Planning is one of the key tasks of teachers (KANG, 2017
The first aspect is to be convinced that teaching oral language is possible and useful. This is needed to be able to set aside time slots in the week's program to work on speaking.
The second aspect is to know the curriculum relating to the teaching of oral language. On the one hand, it is a question of having an idea of the genres that can be covered in the different years of schooling (COLOGNESI; HANIN, 2020
Establishing a climate conducive to listening and speaking
If the work environment is important for all activities that take place in the classroom, it is even more important when working on oral language. Indeed, when speaking, the person exposes himself (GAGNON; DE PIETRO; FISHER, 2017
Presenting the objectives and the communication situation
Regarding goals, in relation to writing, it has been shown that students who had a specific writing goal and sub-goals as they went through the writing process improved the quality of their writing (FERRETTI; MACARTHUR; DOWDY, 2000
Thus, at the beginning of work on oral communication skills, it is necessary to give the pupils objectives for speaking. It is also necessary to explain to them what they have to achieve. This is so that they can understand the communication situation they are in. It is essential that students know why they are producing this message, for whom, what it will be used for, and so forth. Working through genres naturally leads to engaging students in real communication projects, as recommended by the Council of Europe (2001
This goal-setting step at the beginning of the work as well as in the intermediate phases can take two different forms (KOSTER et al., 2015
Moreover, it is now commonly accepted that a student is motivated to engage in a task if it is meaningful to him or her, but also if he or she believes in his or her chances of success (BOURGEOIS, 2011
Enabling students to re-oralize
Inspired by the practice of rewriting, namely, "any operation which returns to what has already been written" (GRÉSILLON, 1994, p. 245
In addition, from one oral rehearsal to the next, the speaker does not have to repeat the same thing. It is about having the challenge of improving from one time to the next. These challenges may come from teacher-generated scaffolding, or from feedback received either from the teacher or from peers. They can also be determined by the speaker himself. In this way, re-oralization allows the possibility of development for and by the student. It is also a way for the teacher to ensure formative co-assessment of oral language competence.
The ephemeral aspect of oral language can make its evaluation subjective (GARCIA-DEBANC, 1999
It should be noted that, depending on the genre, the re-oralizations can be prepared for. They can be prepared for in writing, as a tool for the elaboration of oral communication (CELLIER; DREYFUS, 2002
Helping students through scaffolding: deepening, support and feedback
Scaffolding is what the teacher provides to ensure the student's learning, the actions undertaken to allow the student to accomplish alone a task that he did not know how to accomplish independently at the beginning (BRUNER, 1983
The first function of scaffolding is deepening. It is a matter of the teacher bringing the students to mastery of a specific aspect that they do not yet know and that they need. Thus, for the oral genre being worked on, the teacher can intervene with regard to one or more aspects relating to action, discourse or linguistic-discourse skills (DOLZ; PASQUIER; BRONCKART, 1993
Considering that action skills are addressed when the task is presented to the student, one of the first deepening scaffolds should be focused on the structure of the message to be produced, that is, on students’ discursive abilities (DOLZ; PASQUIER; BRONCKART, 1993
Dolz et al. (2001
Other scaffolding can also be organized according to the specificities of the genre to be produced, related to linguistic-discursive abilities (DOLZ; PASQUIER; BRONCKART, 1993
The second function of scaffolding is support. This consists of being able to adapt interventions according to the diversity of the students and their needs (ALLAL, 2020
The third function of scaffolding is control. The teacher ensures that the students' answers are correct and validates them. Feedback is therefore the key. It has been identified as one of the most powerful levers for learning (DIETRICHSON et al., 2017
In order to deal with this complexity linked to the evaluation of oral language, one practice is to use a criterion-based grid. However, this raises an issue around which multiple questions are focused: who evaluates, what, how, why, on the basis of what criteria and with what indicators of progress? How best to include, consider and integrate all of these parameters in a grid designed to evaluate a student's oral performance is a constant question for teachers, and researchers as well (WIERTZ et al., 2020
Making time for peer support
Peer assessment involves two or more students in a symmetrical relationship who evaluate their respective learning, progress and/or difficulties (ALLAL, 1999
As mentioned above, assessing speaking is not a simple task for the teacher. This is also the case for students. Established criteria can serve as a guide for them to evaluate the performance of others (DUNBAR; BROOKS; KUBICKA-MILLER, 2006
Students often have difficulty using a complete criteria grid: they need to be trained to do so for the feedback to be effective (LAVEAULT; MILES, 2008
There is also the question of which modalities are most effective for peers to use in giving feedback to others as part of an oral performance evaluation. In their study, Colognesi et al. (2020b
Moreover, by providing feedback to others, students will take ownership of the goals set by the teacher (ALLAL; MOTTIER LOPEZ, 2005
Providing moments of reflection for the speaker (metacognition and self-reflection)
Vosniadou et al. (2021) explained that all theories of metacognition agree that metacognition in the context of learning and academic performance refers to individuals’ ability to improve their learning and academic performance through the use of strategies to plan, manage, and control their learning.
Thus, the teacher can support students' metacognition at three points: before, during, and after the tasks; in this case, the oral performance tasks. This is done by activating strategies for orientation, planning, monitoring, regulation, and evaluation of the product and the process (COLOGNESI et al., 2020b; EFKLIDES, 2008; VEENMAN, 2012). It is then possible to invite students to verbalize their process, make judgments about their learning, or even take a look at how confident they feel about the tasks (DOUBLE; BIRNEY, 2019).
This time spent in working on strategies, and the discussions that go with it, allows for the identification of winning strategies (COLOGNESI, 2021). It is also an opportunity to take into account what the speaker thinks and feels when confronted with delivering an oral message in front of others.
Reflective speaking, considered as a third use of speaking in class, could support the time spent learning how to speak well. The ability to "say what one has done in order to speak" constitutes an interesting way to work on speaking. It generates a double gain. It allows one to reflect on one's oral practice and to equip oneself with a language in which to express it.