Vol 02 No 1 TESL Reporter

              3211

teaching english as a second language
IT

T

response the utterance pattern bri1l1ll d il method to
BY JASON
B

vol

2

no

1 I

laie hawaii

fall

1968

ALTER

represents an attempt to improve upon and go beyond the traditional or ordinary structural drill or pattern po drill utterance response drillsprro vide the quality of meaningful context and utilize natural realistic language thereby acquainting the student with patterns in settings that he can actually use outside the confines of the classroom the drills gre most palatable both to student i l re
i

ppro ach the utterance responseaapproach

did susan have time to wash the dishes almost she didnt quite finish washing them 2 did bill have time to write the term paper he didnt quite finish writing it
1

CONTENTS
pattern drill page by jason B alter your gestures and mannerisms
help or hindrance
by

the utterance response method to
1 A

e and instructor

of materials that mr collier I mrs miho tanaka steinberg and 1 began to work on in the winter of 1964 for use at the english language institute university of hawaii we sought to use language and patterns that were more natural and less stilted or awkward intentionally avoiding the overly formal the text bookish and the prescriptive
3

ac c di p rr a ahis this apppoocheh iis emboroed y

in a set

alice C pack part 1I A structural I1

page 3 compari-

son of english and tongan page 5 by ermel J morton
A

teaching pattern practice with aw k language game page by car la weusshoff Wu i weusttto f

7

jason B alter is assistant professor of english in the english language instituteuni h versity of hawaii in honolulu
an here are some examples fromacactual drill this is part of pr

tice 2 unit 8 one ccof tw0o units that 3 to on t ing and adt o e phas z amphasiizeedrills s verbs following other verbs

did ruth have time to address the envelopes she didnt quite finish addressing them 4 did dad have time to read the paper he didnt quite finish reading it 5 did jack have time to figure his income tax he didnt quite finish figuring ft i the utterances are in black print th die responses in brown this draws l

2

lesl reporter
TES L IE S

give attention to the two pelson ind take arrangement of the drills all the responses are printed in the text enabling the student to practice the correct responses at home this is in accord with the philosophy that we should be doing more teaching and less testing in class the text is seldom open except at the very introduction of the drill all of the grammatical items at issue are presented in the responses not in the utterances italics and arrows indicate these items in the on first response in every regular exercise in pattern testing exercises the first two responses are so marked in the drill in question both finish and washing are italicized marked by a single arrow

utterance giving the proper response requires more than simple substitution in this era of la rge lecture g courses the student spends a major portion of his time listening but may seldom have a chance to speak given the foreign students reluctance to ask questions in the classroom even truer in his nonnellI classes it is no EL essential that we build his listenang eni ability

utterance response drills have all but eliminated the need for artificial cues in effect the entire utterance is a cue and a natural one the student is never faced with the following type of drill instructor whatever she serves is does all right with me student whatever she does is all right with me instructor the children student whatever the children do is all right with me virtually never would the foreign student or any student be asked outside the language classroom to engage in this sort of interchange therefore why have the student practice something that he will never use each utterance response instead
quarterly publication of the english language institute and the BATESL program of the church college of hawaili awa i editor william D conway assistant professor of english and
A

cues elimininat f ei Elim attegsrt

the NAFSA conference in san francisco on may 3 1968 notice that the student has other things to worry about besides the grammar points namely pronoun shifts in both subject and obiect t is she susan and becomee ecom s dishes becomes them wherever possible we forced such changes to avoid monotony and to add a challenge the utterance serves merely to elicit the response in many cases the utterance is a statement and the response is a question the student is thereby given ample opportunity to phrase questions in english a feature that is sometimes neglected in several drills the utterance is a statement and the response is also a statement for example again from

alter

this article is
s speech

based upon mr

delivered at

TEn REPORTER tesR i

unit 8 utterance response

1 I

hate to write letters

TESsl t19 L

staff

do t idiaont mind writing d nn them the goal is to give the student experience with all sorts of combinations rather than the hackneyed n question answer syndrome alone
1 I

TESL

tant professor

mrs

alice pack assisof english

and

english as a second lanngdga ge in gu e ia gua d hawaii the south pacific and asia may be submitted to the editor through box 127 the church college of hawaii laie hawaii 96762 manuscripts should and typed not pages is november 25
be

articles relevant to teaching

the listening comprehension aspect of the utterance response approach needs mention the varied nature of the drills challenges the student to listen carefully to the

double spaced exceeding three

deadline for the winter editor
1968

fall

1968

3

your ges tures and manneerssmO s Be s Mann rii ms A help or Nl n drance h nii n nr i
BY

ALICE C

PACK

one of the areas which teachers of english as a second language seem to neglect is personal gestures and although sentence mannerisms l structure intonation and vocabugary are very carefully controlled estures are often used unconsciously or without any previous study or consideration many teachers feel that gestures are a universal language and that communication by sign language is primarily primi pair is arranged in the form of a two line dialogue an utterance res ponse version of the above would go like this
U

tive and natural thus subject to only one interpretation this language myth is quickly exploded as one examines various cultures true there are intercultural gesture cognates as well as word cognates with similar and nearly similar interpretations but 1every society has its own 9 peculiar sign language which teachers should search out then encompass or avoid according to the
meaning

no UG

R
U

whatever she serves is all right with me whatever they do is all right with me

whats helen serving

R

whatre the children doing

this

smacks more of communication which is supposed to be the name of the game the utterance response drills are a part of the saturation process that should characterize the language classroom the student should not be given time to think in his own language the nature of intensive language activity suggested here seems to indicate that communication is indeed going on As the drilling on a particular practice proceeds to its later stages as the class seems to be catching on the instructor begins to probe and check on comprehension by asking impromptu questions on various items in the drill these questions are rapidly interspersed with the actual drilling this pron cedure adds a sponnaneous quality po t taneo and forces the student to think about the meaning of the utterance res ponse pair more deeply

lulu As we approached the building 1 I stopped suddenly and informed my guests that the company wasntttaaking sn t ki ng tours that day when questioned as I to where 1 received this information 1 I indicated a company official standing inside the building near a second story window and replied that the man in the office had told me I when 1 turned to leave my guests who were very anxious to see this factory questioned my certain knowledge that no tours would be conducted that day after all they knew no one had spoken to me there had not been any verbal exchange so how could such definite communication have taken place this was a perfect example of a meaningful body movement the manshhandwave ans an d wave a side to side rolling movement of the vertical open hand has a peculiar significance in hawaii and 1 I had clearly got the message although to others in the group it was merely a friendly wave

I recently 1 took some visitors to see the industries of our island and called at the sugar factory near hono-

tours today

andor connotation

cultural meaning
ESL teachers must be

sensitive to peculiar cultural signifi cances of common american and english gestures as unawareness can often alienate or unknowingly offend

j r cu arll pantiicullarrs