Oral and literate connections in second language / November 18, 2009

Williams, J. The speaking-writing connection in second language and academic literacy development

One of the most interesting arguments to me in this chapter is that “retrieving a form repeatedly in planned production, such as in writing, increase the likelihood that it will be produced later in a more spontaneous setting such as conversation” (p. 13). It is interesting because I intuitively believe that repeated production in writing facilitates my spontaneous oral production. But I didn’t know that this connection is actually researched in the field and have some ground to argue for the connection.

This argument can be more valuable in EFL settings where learners have truly limited opportunities to speak English in real life. Not only that, writing is less stressful to learners because it’s not spontaneous, which is why it would be easier to provide students with writing opportunities in the classroom. In contrast to some people making a case that repetition is useless and should be removed in language classrooms, I want to argue that repeated production of unfamiliar forms in writing should be encouraged in and out of the classroom. Simple repetition of discrete and decontextualized words may not be that helpful. If possible, teachers need to try to come up with ways to get students to use some constructions in a meaningful context.