Learning-to-Speak and Speaking-to-Learn

Speech is ubiquitous in language classrooms, just as it is privileged in popular language teaching methods, both traditional and contemporary. In other words, much of the speaking in classrooms plays a 'speaking-to-learn' rather than a 'learning-to-speak' role, a distinction Hughes also makes. This chapter focuses on a framework of learning opportunities proposed by D. Crabbe. This framework offers a well-theorized and elegant representation of the core ingredients of instructed language learning in the form of seven categories of learning opportunities. These are: Input, Output, Interaction, Feedback, Rehearsal, language Understanding and Learning Understanding. Learners in the study negotiated for meaning very infrequently and then, almost invariably, over vocabulary items, findings confirmed by Smith B. in the context of computer-mediated interaction. Researchers have taken a keen interest in oral corrective feedback, notably since Lyster R. and Ranta's L. landmark 1997 study into the types of oral feedback occurring in communicative classrooms and their differential effects of learner uptake.