Components of a Contextualized Language Lesson

Introduction Communication is known to be the single most important factor that fuels the interaction among individuals. it is defined as the sending and receiving of message through a specific channel (Brown, 1994). Communication is a necessity in every facet of the modern day world. Ranging from individual, to group and to organizational level, communication is plays irreplaceable role in ensuring that information passes from the source to the target. Over the past, communication has evolved through centuries and more and more means of communication continue to be discovered day in day out. Even though new communication means are being discovered, there are basic foundational communication channels that are irreplaceable by whatever new means. One of these foundational communication is verbal communication. This is known to be the single most important and the most widely adopted means of communication worldwide. Verbal communication however presents many challenges due to the fact that different people have different languages. This aspect of multi-linguistic society brings about language barrier since an individual may can never speak all the languages of the world. This in turn has led to the emergence of foreign language learning among many people. Individuals enroll to learn foreign language for several reasons. The most common reason among those who learn foreign language is to be able to adjust to the linguistic skills that are necessary in order to communicate in that particular language. The concept of foreign language has become so widespread due to the modern day globalization. Individuals are enrolling to learn new languages even in their adulthood so as to adjust to the societal requirements with regard to verbal communication. This essay presents the speaking skills that are important to an adult learner. It further discusses the functions needed, grammar, and the vocabulary that would be necessary to meet the competence. In the end it will describe the presentation activities that would be used to facilitate language used in real world context, meaningful practice activities, and application/ extension activities. Speaking and listening skills In the normal communication scenario, people listen twice as they speak. This means that listening dominates speaking (Rivers, 1981). However, the essence of communication is to send and receive message and as such, both listening and speaking have to happen concurrently to enhance effective communication (Bailey & Savage, 1994). In the classroom context, listening and speaking are used at an almost the same rate. This is because of the interactive nature of learning process. Both listening and speaking are crucial in ensuring that learning process is efficient and effective both to the learners and the teachers. Speaking Speaking is defined as the process of coming up with a meaning that involves sending, receiving and processing the information born in the speech. It is often times spontaneous and unpredictable. This aspect of spontaneous compels speaking to largely rely on several prevailing factors such as the audience or the participants to the speech, the context of the scene, and the parties’ collective experience (Carter & McCarthy, 1995). For an adult learning to speak, it is required that he/she hold some competencies that will enable him to effectively communicate. This paper will specifically look at an adult’s ability to call the school about a child’s illness. The paper will highlight the grammar needed, the functions, the vocabulary and so in that requires an effective communication through speech on the above named speaking competence. For an adult learner, it is necessary that he posses this speaking competency. This is for the simple reason that illness is an emergency and as such, an adult ought to clearly understand how to report such a case to the school authority. There are several functional elements that would enable such an adult to acquire this competency and these will be discussed in the ensuing text. Correct vocabulary Vocabulary is an important element of this type of speaking competence. Vocabulary is defined as the sum of all the words used in a language. It is a linguistic element that evolves and as such, an individual ought to familiarize with the most current vocabulary that relate to the subject matter in question. Vocabulary can be either selective or exhaustive. Exhaustive vocabulary is defined as the total sum of the words used in a certain language while selective vocabulary is defined as a section of words that relate to a certain case (Rivers, 1981). For an adult to possess the above mentioned competence, he must possess selective vocabulary that relates to the child, illness as well as the school. This is because the person will operate in these three contexts. The adult must be able to understand and conceptualize the words involved in the school context for him to successfully communicate to the school authority. He must also be able to understand some basic medical terms include the symptoms and the various illnesses associated with that particular illness. This is because he needs to fully explain the child’s ill condition in a clear and understandable manner. He also needs to understand the basic courteous vocabulary which will come in handy when offering the excuse for the child’s probable inability to attend school at that particular moment when he is sick. Correct Grammar Grammar is considered the back bone of any language. It is defined as the syntax of the language. It therefore gives the structural relationship among words that bring about the meaning in a sentence. Without grammar, no amount of vocabulary can help an individual to form meaningful speech. Whereas vocabulary is important, grammar is even more important since it dictates how the words ought to be arranged in a sentence in order to bring about the intended meaning (Brown, 1994). There are different levels of complexity in the grammar formation in a language. For an adult who is learning the language, simple and unambiguous will certainly ensure that the communication is done successfully. The person should also avoid using of jargons as this will complicate the grammar and will often time result in grammatical syntax errors. Simple sentences will always be preferable to complex ones. An individual also...