Name _____________Answer Key_________________________
Teacher’s Handbook—Chapter 8
Developing Oral and Written Interpersonal Communication
Proficiency is the ability to use language to perform global tasks or language
functions within a variety of contexts/content areas, with a given degree of
accuracy, and by means of specific text types.
1. Why is the ACTFL Proficiency Rating Scale for Speaking in the form of an
inverted pyramid? (page 247)
Language facility increases exponentially, rather than arithmetically; it
takes progressively more language ability to climb from one level to the next.
2. What are the four assessment criteria for speaking at each major level of
the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines? (page 249)
Global tasks and functions, Context/content, Accuracy, Text type
3. The results of OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) and SOPI (Simulated Oral
Proficiency Interview) studies of proficiency levels indicate that
“instructional time” is not the only factor in advancing oral proficiency.
What factors may be more critical than time itself? (page 253)
1. Type of classroom instruction that learners experience
2. The degree to which they are engaged in meaningful, goal-directed
interaction with others in the TL
3. Study abroad and immersion programs that provide the above experience
have a role to play in fostering growth in proficiency.
4. What three implications for teaching does the proficiency concept offer
teachers? (pages 253-254)
1. The proficiency guidelines provide a clear picture regarding what
students must be able to do at each level in terms of global tasks or
functions, contexts/content areas, text types, and accuracy.
2. Students must go beyond their traditional role as responder to the
teacher’s questions, and their interactions must take on the
characteristics of typical conversations that occur between native and
nonnative speakers outside of the classroom.
3. The need to provide opportunities for students to hear a great deal of
comprehensible and authentic language, to use the language in meaningful
interaction with others, to negotiate meaning in cooperation with others,
and to participate in an environment that encourages and motivates selfexpression in a nonthreatening way.
5. Describe the six characteristics of oral communication that make it
“interpersonal”. (pages 254-255)
1. Two or more speakers are engaged in conversation and exchange
information either a face-to-face discussion or a phone conversation
2. Interpersonal communication is meaningful and has as its objective a
communicative task or reason for communicating.
3. There is usually an “information gap”; that is, one speaker seeks to
acquire information that the other speaker has.
4. Interpersonal communication is spontaneous, partners must listen and
interpret what the other speaker says.
5. It is necessary to negotiate meaning with one another in order to
interpret meaning.
6. The use of gestures to make their message clear and to circumlocute.
6. What implications does the Willingness to Communicate (WTC) have for you
as a classroom teacher? How does what you learned about motivation in
Chapter 1 relate to WTC? (pages 255-257)
Teachers should become familiar with the personality types of their
students, their levels of anxiety about speaking the L2 with others, and how
they interact with peers. This information can be used to structure
experiences for the learners.
Motivation from Chapter 1 (pages 31-34)
7. Teachers use “instructional conversations” (ICs) as a way to facilitate a
conversation with students on a topic or theme that is interesting to them
and intellectually challenging, while providing them with assisted
performance.
What are some examples of ways you can effectively use ICs in your
classroom? Give at least 3 examples. (page 259)
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Engage students in ”warm-up” discussion of a personalized topic of
interest
Lead a discussion as learners interpret an authentic oral, printed, or
video text
Spark a discussion or the creation of a story based on a visual or
cultural artifact
Elicit opinions about a topic of high interest to learners
Acquire new information with learners on a content-based or cultural
theme
Explore with learners the relationship among specific products,
practices, and perspectives in C2
Guide learners through the process of designing a presentation or
creating a product for an audience.
8. What does research on “routines and gambits” imply (two implications) for
foreign language teachers? (pages 260-261)
1. Students incorporate gambits into their speech if they receive direct
training and practice in gambit use.
2. Natural conversations are an effective context for eliciting gambit use.
After looking at Appendix 8.4 on the TH Web site, list the 5 categories of
common Spanish gambits. (These will be applicable to other languages.)
1. Openers
2. Keeping the Floor
3. Linking
4. Reactive Listening
5. Business Situations with a Stranger
How could you teach “gambits” to your students?
9. In what specific ways can “gestures” help your students mediate between
themselves and the world? (pages 261-262)
 Refer to lexical items (iconic gestures)
 Illustrate concepts (metaphoric gestures)
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To indicate images (illustrators)
Point out objects in the immediate environment and virtual or far-off
contexts and thus indicate space and time (deictic gestures)
What kinds of “cultural” gestures for your target language do you feel are
important for your students to know?
10. After reading the studies on repair in pair/group interactions, what are 3
important implications for you as a language teacher? (page 265)
1. Repair is possible only when students have opportunities for meaningful
interaction in the classroom.
2. Repair is evidence of students becoming self-regulated in the language
3. Long turns at talk provide many opportunities for use of self-initiated,
self-repair strategies.
11. “Task-based instruction enables students to interact with others by using
the TL as a means to an end. In cooperative learning tasks, students work in
pairs or small groups to help one another complete a given task, attain a goal,
converse, or learn subject matter.” How does cooperative learning and taskbased instruction support 21st Century and post-secondary and workforce
readiness skills? (See the Colorado Academic World Language Standards—
“21st Century Skills and Readiness Competencies in World Languages”.) (pages
22-23)
 Critical thinking and reasoning
 Information literacy
 Collaboration
 Self-direction
 Invention
12. “Your family has just arrived in (a target language city). Everyone is trying
to find their suitcases on the carousel and you get separated from your
family. Find a policeman or airport agent to help you find your family.”
Create a sequence of 3 interrelated tasks to help your students prepare and
scaffold prior to engaging them in this culminating real-world task.
(Reference pages 266-275 and related on-line chapter resources.)
13. Briefly discuss what you learned after reading the section “Developing
Interpersonal Speaking Through Study of Literature and Culture”.
(pages 276-279)
14. Which of these strategies for teaching interpersonal writing would you most
likely use in your classroom and why: dialogue journals, pen pal/key pal letter
exchanges, or synchronous electronic interaction? (pages 279-283)
15. Six types of teacher feedback in oral interpersonal contexts were identified
in this section: explicit correction, recast, clarification request,
metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, and repetition. In a study, teachers
used __recasts_____ more than any other strategy for correcting errors.
Interestingly, ___recasts______ was the strategy that proved least likely
to lead to uptake. The most effective strategy with respect to uptake was
__elicitation___.
Figure 8.13 (page 286) illustrates six key findings of current recast
research together with the implications for using recasts in foreign language
classrooms. After reading the implications, when could recasts have a place
in your classroom? (page 286)
 Make recasts less ambiguous
 In content-based classes, teachers should allow more time for
learners to demonstrate uptake
 Reserve the use of recasts for older students who have more
metalinguistic knowledge and a higher proficiency level
 Provide recasts for linguistic forms that learners have the ability to
notice and correct
 Keep recasts short, declarative, focused primarily on pronunciation or
vocabulary
 Provide recasts along with negotiation of meaning.