Tema 1.- LA LENGUA COMO COMUNICACIÓN: LENGUAJE ORAL Y LENGUAJE

ESCRITO.- FACTORES QUE DEFINEN UNA SITUACIÓN COMUNICATIVA: EMISOR,

RECEPTOR, FUNCIONALIDAD Y CONTEXTO.

Human language is the fundamental vehicle to convey our thoughts, needs and feelings. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the communicative process among people by concentrating on its two basic manifestations: oral and written language. Traditional Foreign Language Teaching focused on teaching items of language in isolation and its main aim was to read texts. It could be said that people learnt about the language but could not use it in a real context, since the focus was not on communication, but on a piece of language. However, in the last decades, the movement towards a Communicative Approach has been a remarkable tendency in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. This Approach is based on providing the student with enough communicative activities to develop the oral and written skills needed to use the language with accuracy and appropriateness. Due to the influence of this Approach, our current education system has incorporated this functional and communicative potential of language in its objectives and methodology, the ultimate goal being the development of the students´ communicative competence , which at the same time, is one of the general objectives for Primary Education established by The Organic Law on Education 2/2006 passed on the 3rd of May (LOE).

Based on this view, the present essay aims to study language and its functions, and more precisely, the notion of communication as one of these functions. For this purpose, I will divide this topic into three main sections. In the first part, I will deal with the definition and the main properties of language. In order to do so, I will address the following two questions:

What is language? What is language for?

Then, I will introduce the concept of Communicative Competence. In the second part, I will compare spoken and written language, dealing first with the historical attitudes and then outstanding the main differences between writing and speech. Finally in the third part, I will deal with the communication theory, the key factors that affect any communicative interaction and the main functions of language according to Jackobson.

We deal with an essential topic since communication is the basis of understanding among human beings. In addition to that, the Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its objectives, blocks of contents and assessment criteria the development of oral and written communication through the four linguistic skills

FIRST To develop the first part of the topic, I will deal with the definition, properties of language and its functions. In Tragger´s words, Language can be defined as a “system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which the members of a society interact in terms of their total culture”.Hall, for his part, states that language is the “institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols”.

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As we can see in these definitions, it is difficult to make a precise statement about formal and functional universal properties of language, so some linguists have tried to identify the various properties that are considered to be its essential defining characteristics. Let us go on distinguishing which these characteristics are:

Communicative versus informative: we use communicative signals (as the language itself) to intentionally communicate something, but we can also provide information unintentionally via the informative signals. For instance, a person listening to us may become informed about us via a number of signals which we have not intentionally sent. He may note that we have a cold (because we have sneezed) or that we are uncomfortable (we shifted around in our seat). However, when we use language to tell this person that “I would like to apply for the vacant position of secretary at the office”, we are considered to be intentionally communicating something.

Displacement : Users of a language speak about things and events nor present in the immediate environment. That means they can refer to past and future time, and to other locations.

Arbitrariness : There is no link between a linguistic form or sign and the nature of the reality to which represents.

Productivity : The potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite. It is a feature of human language that novel utterances are constantly being created. Moreover, humans can understand and produce new sentences even if they haven´t said or heard them before.

Cultural transmission : Language is passed on from one generation to the next.

Discreteness : The sounds used in a language are meaningfully distinct, for instance, the difference between a “b” sound and a “p” sound is actually not very great, but when these sounds are used in a language, the occurrence of one rather than the other is very meaningful. The fact that the pronunciation of the words “pack” and “back” leads to a distinction in meaning is only due to the difference between the “b” sound and the “p” sound in English.

Vocal-auditory channel: Human linguistic communication is normally generated via the vocal organs and perceived via the ear. However, it can also be transmitted without sound, via writing or via the sign languages of the deaf.

Reciprocity: Any speaker or sender of a linguistic exchange can also be a listener or receiver.

Rapid fading: Linguistic signals are produced and disappear quickly.

Once the definition and characteristics of language have been presented, it may be appropriate to develop the concept of Communicative Competence. Dell Hymes stated that in order to learn a language, a native speaker does not only need to utter grammatically correct forms (as Chomsky thought), he also has to know the rules of use, that is, where and when to use a sentence, and to whom. Thus, Hymes replaced Chomsky´s notion of Competence with his own concept of Communicative Competence, and distinguished four aspects:

Systematic potential : A native speaker possesses a potential for creating language.

Appropriacy : A native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation, in a particular context.

Occurrence : A native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and act accordingly.

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Feasibility : A native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language, although some structures are grammatically correct, they are not possible in the language.

These four categories have been adopted for teaching purposes. Later on, linguists Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes, establishing five subcompetences of the Communicative Competence. As a result of this, the act 1006/1991 of 14th June (B.O.E. 25 June) establishes the teaching requirements nationwide and sets up that Communicative Competence for Foreign Language Learners comprises five subcompetences:

Grammar competence : It refers to the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules of use established in the linguistic system, for instance, the mastery of grammatical structures and vocabulary.

Discoursive competence: The ability to us different types of discourse and organise them according to the communicative situation and the speakers involved in it, using cohesion and coherence.

Sociolinguistic competence: The ability to adequate the utterances to the specific context according to the accepted usage of a particular linguistic community.

Strategic competence: The ability to define or make adjustments in the course of the communicative situation, and the capacity to use verbal and non-verbal strategies in order to make communication effective.

Sociocultural competence : A certain knowledge of the social and cultural context in which the Foreign Language is used.

SECOND Now that the communicative nature of language has been argued, I will go on developing the second part of the topic. For this purpose, I will first deal with the historical attitudes towards spoken and written language. Then, I will attempt to establish the main differences between speech and writing. For centuries, written language held a dominant place over oral language. Traditionally, it was considered to be superior, as it was the medium of literature and thus, a synonym of linguistic excellence. Oral language, on the contrary was thought to be an object unworthy of study because it was considered to be lacking in care and organization, which assumed that speech could not be studied scientifically. Given that the norms were based on written standards, the tradition rested on this supremacy of writing over speech. Contrary to this point of view, a group of linguists argued in favour of studying speech because this is the primary medium of communication. Also, spoken language is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue whereas written language is taught and learnt later. Following this criterion, many linguists came to think of written language as a tool of secondary importance. Nowadays, linguists no longer consider one medium of communication to be better than the other. Writing cannot substitute for speech, nor speech for writing. The functions of speech and writing are usually said to complement each other.Let us go on distinguishing the main differences between spoken and written language: The main distinction between speech and writing is obvious: speech uses the form of air pressure movements produced by the vocal organs whereas writing uses graphs that are marks on a surface, normally made by a hand using an implement or a tool.However, many other differences can be pointed out. I will analyse the relationship between speech and writing in terms of six points of contrast:(Firstly…)

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1. Speech is time-bound, dynamic. It is part of an interaction in which both participants are usually present, and the speaker has a particular addressee in mind. Writing is space-bound, static and permanent. The writer is usually distant from the reader, and often does not know who the reader is going to be.

2. The spontaneity and speed of most speech favours a looser construction, simpler sentences, repetition and comment clauses, such as “you know”, “mind you”, etc. Writing favours careful organisation and complexity in sentence structure.

3. Because participants are typically involved in face to face interaction, they can rely on extralinguistic clues such as facial expression and gestures to aid meaning. Lack of visual contact in writing means that participants cannot rely on context to make their meaning clear.

4. Unique features of speech include most of the prosody. Intonation, loudness, tempo, rhythm, provide highly efficient hints. Unique features of writing include pages, lines, capitalisation, spatial organisation and several aspects of punctuation.

5. Speech is very suitable for social or “phatic” functions. Writing is very suitable for the recording of facts and the communication of ideas, and for tasks of memory and learning.

6. Finally, regarding production mistakes, on the one hand, in speech there is an opportunity to rethink an utterance while it is in progress (starting again, adding clarification…). However, errors, once spoken, cannot be erased. On the other hand, errors in our writing can be eliminated without the reader ever knowing. Interruptions, if they have occurred while writing, are also invisible in the final product.

Despite these differences, there are many respects in which the written and spoken language have mutually interacted and nowadays, their dependence has been proved to be reciprocal.

THIRD Now that we have examined the main differences between speech and written language, we shall concentrate on the communication theory. Real life is full of communicative acts and their nature depends on several factors: the participants (a relative, a stranger), the context (at home, in a restaurant) and the type of activity we are engaged in (a phone conversation, a conference). The choice of the words used will vary according to the factors of each situation. Traditionally, communication has been defined as the exchange of meanings through a common system of symbols. One of the most popular communication theories is the Information Model, which was developed by the mathematician Shannon. He invented a mathematical theory of communication that gave the first framework. His model consisted of five elements:

1. An information source, which produces a message. Messages often work on two levels: what the sender means and what he says unintentionally (perhaps through non-verbal signs).

2. An emisor or transmitter, which encodes a message into signals.3. A channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission, for instance, the

telephone, face to face, a letter…4. A receiver who decodes the message from the signals sent by the emisor.5. A destination, where the message arrives.

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6. A sixth element, noise, was added later. In the process of transmission, certain unwanted additions to the signal may occur which are not part of the message and theses are referred to as noise or entropy.

Information, emisor, channel, receiver, destination and noise are key factors affecting any communicative interaction. In the English classroom we must try to vary the interactions, so that the communicative act is as genuine as possible. In this regard, the Communicative Approach fosters the creation of varied interactions: teacher-student(s), student-teacher, student-student(s).

Now that I have established the main factors involved in any communicative interaction, I will address what language is for. In the simplest sense, the word “function” can be considered as a synonym of “use”. In general terms, people do different things with language, that is, they expect to achieve, by talking and writing, and by listening and reading, a large number of different aims and purposes. The most usual answer to the question “what do we do with language?” is “to communicate our ideas”. But it would be wrong to think of communicating our ideas as the only way in which we use language (referential function). According to Roman Jackobson, the main functions of language are:

Referential function: Language is used to communicate ideas or facts. E.g. Water boils at one hundred degrees.

Expressive function: Language is also used to express both negative and positive emotions, such as expressions of fear or affection. E.g. Oh, my God!

Phatic function: It refers to the social function of language, which arises out of the basic human need to show friendship, for instance, saying Hello.

Poetic function: It´s based on the phonetic function of language, for instance, the persuasive cadence of political´s speech.

Conative function : The weight of communication falls on the receiver. The sender tries to attract the receiver’s attention to get a certain reaction. E.g. A baby cries because he is hungry.

Metalinguistic function : It is centred on the code. We use language to talk about language. E.g. What does language mean?

Now, I will analyse the intended effects of our communicative interactions (or speech acts) and the environment in which they are exchanged, that is, the social context. The Speech Act Theory, was developed by the philosopher Austin, who claimed that many utterances (things that people say) are equivalent to actions. When someone says “I name this ship”, the utterance creates a new social or psychological reality. Speech Act Theory explains these utterances as having three parts or aspects: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts:

1. Locutionary acts are simply the speech acts that have taken place.2. Illocutionary acts are the real actions which are performed by the utterance,

where saying means doing (as in betting, welcoming or warning).3. Perlocutionary acts are the effects of the utterance on the listener (who

accepts the bet, is welcomed or warned).

Apart from this, there is a second key feature which may be taken into account: the context. This concept would be defined as “the parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc. that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning”, which refers to the linguistic context.

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But this context may not be enough to fully understand a speech act, as it doesn´t make reference to the outside world, then a definition of the context of the situation may be added: “the conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc.”With regard to the concept of context of the situation, a number of linguists have worked over it and extended this concept. For instance, Halliday categorises the communicative situation in terms of three components for the analysis:

1. Field of discourse . It refers to what is happening, the nature of the social action.

2. Tenor of discourse . It refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants.

3. Mode of discourse . Is the function of the text in the event, including therefore both the channel taken by the language, and its genre and rethorical mode, as narrative, didactic, persuasive and so on.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to remark that, as I have proven in this topic, communication is a key word for us as English teachers. Not only it is the essence of human interaction, it is the centre of language learning, where both oral and written communication is included. In this topic, I have studied the definition and the main properties of language as well as the concept of Communicative Competence. Then I have compared spoken and written language, dealing first with the historical attitudes and then outstanding the main differences between writing and speech. Finally I have dealt with the communication theory, the key factors that affect any communicative interaction and the main functions of language according to Jackobson.

In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:

Halliday M.A.K.(Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday): “Spoken and written language”. Geelong University Press, 1976.

Halliday M.A.K.: “Language as Social Semiotic”. Arnold, London, 1978. Searle, John Rogers “Speech Acts: an essay in the Philosphy of

language” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969. Grundy, Peter “Doing Pragmatics” Arnold London, 2000. BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin

English. HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language

Teaching. Oxford University Press. VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios

Ramón Areces.

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