Another Way of Teaching Spoken Language

Abstract

‘Speech’ is a form of human communication and it is assumed to be the most efficient form of communication. Evidence from Horowitz and Newman’s research supports this view. Horowitz and Newman had forty subjects speak and write for two minutes on two topics after thinking about the topic for thirty seconds. Twenty subjects wrote first and spoke second; twenty spoke first and wrote second. The same procedure was repeated in a second experiment except the subjects were allowed to write for four, eight, or twelve minutes (it takes longer to write than to speak the same number of words). The results showed that spoken communication produced significantly more ideas and subordinate ideas than written communication even when the time limit for writing was extended to twelve minutes. This shows that speaking is more efficient and effective than writing. Now let’s look at the word ‘communication’. Communication is viewed as the process of sending and receiving messages to achieve understanding. The expression ‘say what you mean and mean what you say’ is exactly what communication means. Once a German scholar, Thomas Mann, defined communication as ‘civilization itself’. He is right because without communication human beings would be isolated and unable to send and receive ideas.