本书从新颖的角度，从口语的教学、研究、评估、资源等不同方面对口语教学与研究现状进行了分析，并将其与语言学及应用语言学中更广泛的议题联系在一起。作者总结并评介了以往一些学者对这一课题所作的研究并指出这些研究还远远不够，此外作者还将这些研究与读者自身潜在的研究课题联系起来。广大英语教师、英语教育研究者及应用语言学专业的研究生会通过阅读此书而受益。

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Section I Issues in teaching and researching speaking

Conceptual and historical background

Introduction

The skill of speaking

The nature of speech in contrast to writing

Where does speech fit in language studies?

Summary

The research space: paradigms and problems

Introduction

Classical research paradigms in relation to researching

speaking

Attitudes to speech data

The applicability of research approaches and frameworks

to the study of speech

The problem of the status of speech in applied linguistics

Where are the data for research into speech?

Summary

Section II Issues for teaching and assessing speaking

Approaches, materials and the problem of 'real' speech

Introduction

Spoken interaction in context

Teaching global speaking skills

Teaching spoken grammar

Perspectives on pronunciation and fluency

Bringing the skills together

Summary

Issues in assessing speaking

Introduction

Language proficiency versus speaking proficiency

The issue of interactivity

The issue of creating authentic conditions for speech testing

The issue of spoken genres and testing

Integrated versus discrete skills testing

A comparison of test paradigms for oral assessment

The criteria for three tests of speaking compared

Summary

Approaches to researching speech

Introduction

Research into global features of speech

Grammar, structural choices and the spoken language

Research into fluency and pronunciation

Sunmmary

Some new directions

Introduction

Mode-based research

Theoretical orientations on the role and status of speech

Evidence from speech pathology

Modality, processing and memory

Speaking, writing and teaching spoken/writren forms of

language

Summary of central issues discussed in relation to newapproaches to speech

Summary

Section III Researching speaking

Classrooms, research and spoken mode

Introduction

Implications of the nature of spoken discourse on

teaching speech

Moving towards your own project on spoken discourse

Sources of inspiration for research

Research project ideas and frameworks

Introduction

Projects on oral interaction: a discourse analysis approach

and an experimental approach

Projects on one particular spoken discourse feature:

an action-research approach and a conversation analysis

approach

Projects on oral task difficulty: two approaches to quantifying complexity

Projects on differences between mode: two experimental

approaches

Section IV Resources and further information

Research borders and boundaries

Introduction

Speaking and ethnographic or cross-cultural studies

Speaking and psycholinguistics

Speaking and neuro-linguistic studies

Speaking and corpus linguistics

Speaking and new technologies

Research resources

Traditional library resources

Databases and sound archives (both on-line and on CD-ROM)

Speech corpora

Societies and organisations

Speech recognition and text-to-speech

On-line pronunciation and intonation resources

Research skills summaries

Other on-line resources

Glossary

References

Index