TEACHING OF TALK VERSUS LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE EFL CLASSROOM

Abstract

The article analyzes some aspects of the communicative approach to teaching EFL with the emphasis on teaching of talk versus language teaching in the EFL classroom. It has been revealed that traditional approach to teaching EFL actually separates teaching of foreign language from teaching practical speech. As far as talkers learn to talk by being exposed to communication practices during talking exchanges, it would be more successful to teach a foreign language in the process of actual exchanges of talk that allows participants to coordinate their turn taking in communication with others. The individual must be treated as a talker or participant in a foreign community not as a learner in the classroom. EFL teaching should be based not on teaching language but on teaching of spontaneous talk. There has been investigated the basic difference between teaching language and teaching of talk. While the unit of language is the sentence, the unit of talk is the exchange. It has been proved that it is rational that teaching verbal fluency in English should not depend on pedagogical units such as ‘the sentence’, ‘the utterance’ or ‘the structural pattern’ but actual speech exchanges between the communicators. There has been demonstrated that transactional methods designate the orientation towards teaching talk through particular actual exchanges. The pedagogic effort of teaching talk involves exposing the student to social situations in which he is being treated as a talker or a social participant rather than a learner or a participant of a simulated conversation.