Chapter 2
"Understanding Language: Listening to and Producing Oral Discourses"
Very Short Answer Questions — 1 Mark
1. What is communication?
Answer: Communication is the process of exchanging ideas, information, feelings or messages between people.
2. What is oral communication?
Answer: Oral communication is the exchange of messages through spoken language.
3. What is listening?
Answer: Listening is the active process of receiving, understanding and interpreting spoken language.
4. What is listening with comprehension?
Answer: Listening with comprehension means listening carefully and understanding the meaning of the spoken message.
5. What is speaking skill?
Answer: Speaking skill is the ability to express ideas, feelings and information clearly through spoken language.
6. What is an oral discourse?
Answer: An oral discourse is a meaningful stretch of spoken language used for communication in a particular context.
7. Give one example of oral discourse.
Answer: A speech.
8. What are segmental features of language?
Answer: Segmental features are individual speech sounds such as vowels and consonants.
9. What is IPA?
Answer: IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet.
10. What are supra-segmental features?
Answer: Stress, rhythm and intonation are the main supra-segmental features of speech.
11. What is stress?
Answer: Stress is the extra emphasis given to a particular syllable or word in speech.
12. What is rhythm?
Answer: Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds in speech.
13. What is intonation?
Answer: Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice while speaking.
14. What is an oral presentation?
Answer: An oral presentation is a planned spoken presentation of information or ideas before an audience.
15. What is role-play?
Answer: Role-play is an activity in which learners act out different roles in an imagined or real-life situation.
16. What is storytelling?
Answer: Storytelling is the oral presentation of a story to an audience.
17. What is re-telling?
Answer: Re-telling means narrating a story or event again in one's own words.
18. What is a language-rich classroom?
Answer: A language-rich classroom is one that provides learners with frequent and meaningful opportunities to listen, speak, read and interact using language.
Short Answer Questions — 2/3 Marks
1. Why is language called a means of communication?
Answer: Language helps people express thoughts, feelings, needs and information to others. Through language, people exchange ideas and establish social relationships. Therefore, language is an important means of communication.
2. What is the importance of listening skill?
Answer: Listening helps learners understand spoken language, follow instructions and participate effectively in communication. Good listening also supports the development of pronunciation, vocabulary and speaking skills.
3. Mention three qualities of a good listener.
Answer:
- A good listener pays careful attention to the speaker.
- A good listener tries to understand the complete message.
- A good listener responds appropriately and does not interrupt unnecessarily.
4. Distinguish between hearing and listening.
Answer:
| Hearing | Listening |
|---|---|
| It is mainly a physical process of receiving sound. | It is an active process of understanding sound and meaning. |
| It may happen without conscious attention. | It requires attention and concentration. |
| Understanding is not always necessary. | Understanding the message is essential. |
5. What are segmental features of English?
Answer: Segmental features are the individual sounds of English. They mainly include vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Correct production and recognition of these sounds help learners speak and understand English more clearly.
6. What are supra-segmental features? Name them.
Answer: Supra-segmental features are features of speech that extend over individual sounds and affect the meaning and natural flow of spoken language. The main features are stress, rhythm and intonation.
7. Why is intonation important in spoken English?
Answer: Intonation helps express meaning, attitude and emotion. A rise or fall in voice can indicate whether a speaker is asking a question, making a statement, showing surprise or expressing some other attitude.
8. What is the importance of a language-rich classroom?
Answer: A language-rich classroom gives learners many opportunities to hear and use meaningful English. Conversation, storytelling, role-play, songs, discussions and classroom interaction help develop confidence and listening-speaking skills. SCERT specifically includes the importance and organisation of a language-rich classroom in this unit.
9. Mention four examples of oral discourses.
Answer: Four examples are: speech, interview, discussion and announcement. Other examples include news reports, advertisements, songs and conversations.
10. How does role-play help in language learning?
Answer: Role-play creates realistic communication situations in the classroom. It encourages learners to speak naturally, use suitable vocabulary, improve confidence and practise communication with others.
Long Answer Questions — 4/5 Marks
1. Explain listening and speaking as important language skills.
Answer:
Listening and speaking are two basic skills of language communication. Listening is a receptive skill through which a learner receives and understands spoken messages, while speaking is a productive skill through which the learner expresses ideas and feelings orally.
Importance of Listening:
- It develops comprehension of spoken language.
- It helps learners follow instructions and conversations.
- It exposes learners to pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence patterns.
- It supports the development of speaking ability.
- It helps learners respond appropriately in communication.
Importance of Speaking:
- It enables learners to express ideas and feelings.
- It develops confidence in communication.
- It helps learners participate in discussions and classroom activities.
- It improves pronunciation and fluency through practice.
- It prepares learners for real-life communication.
Therefore, listening and speaking should be developed together through meaningful classroom activities.
2. What is listening with comprehension? Discuss ways to develop it.
Answer:
Listening with comprehension means not merely hearing sounds but understanding the message, identifying important information and interpreting the speaker's meaning.
It can be developed through—
- Listening to short stories and answering questions.
- Following oral classroom instructions.
- Listening to announcements and identifying important details.
- Listening to news reports and summarising them.
- Listening to conversations or interviews.
- Predicting what may come next in a spoken text.
- Re-telling a story after listening.
- Using audio materials appropriate to the learners' level.
The teacher should begin with simple, familiar contexts and gradually introduce more complex listening tasks.
3. Explain segmental and supra-segmental features of spoken English.
Answer:
The sound features of spoken English can broadly be understood through segmental and supra-segmental features.
Segmental Features:
These are individual speech sounds. They include vowels and consonants. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) provides symbols for representing speech sounds. Awareness of these sounds can help learners distinguish and pronounce English words more clearly.
Supra-segmental Features:
These operate across sounds, syllables or words.
- Stress: Giving greater emphasis to a syllable or word.
- Rhythm: The pattern created by stressed and unstressed parts of speech.
- Intonation: The rise and fall of the voice.
Both segmental and supra-segmental features contribute to intelligible and meaningful oral communication. These are specifically included under SCERT's Unit 2.
4. What is oral discourse? Discuss different types of oral discourses.
Answer:
Oral discourse is meaningful spoken language produced for a particular purpose, audience and situation.
Important forms include—
- Speech: A planned talk given before an audience.
- Discussion: An exchange of views among two or more people.
- Interview: A structured interaction based on questions and answers.
- News Report: Oral presentation of information about events.
- Announcement: A short public message containing important information.
- Advertisement: A persuasive oral message about a product, service or idea.
- Storytelling: Oral narration of a story.
- Conversation: Informal spoken interaction between people.
Learners should get opportunities both to listen to and produce different oral discourses. SCERT explicitly recommends speeches, discussions, songs, news reports, interviews, announcements and advertisements as classroom activities.
5. Explain the importance of a language-rich classroom and how it can be organised.
Answer:
A language-rich classroom provides frequent opportunities for meaningful communication. Learners do not develop speaking and listening skills effectively if the teacher does all the talking.
A language-rich classroom can be organised by—
- Encouraging teacher–student and student–student interaction.
- Using simple English naturally for classroom communication.
- Organising pair work and group discussions.
- Conducting storytelling and re-telling activities.
- Using songs, rhymes, pictures and short audio materials.
- Organising role-play and drama.
- Encouraging learners to ask and answer questions.
- Providing opportunities for oral presentations.
- Creating situations in which language is used for real purposes.
Such a classroom develops confidence, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency and meaningful language use. SCERT lists both the importance and organisation of a language-rich classroom as part of this chapter.
6. Discuss the role of stress, rhythm and intonation in spoken English.
Answer:
Stress, rhythm and intonation are important features of natural spoken English.
Stress refers to emphasis placed on particular syllables or words. Appropriate stress can make speech clearer and may help highlight important information.
Rhythm refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed elements in connected speech. Appropriate rhythm contributes to the natural flow of speech.
Intonation refers to changes in pitch or the rise and fall of the voice. It can communicate attitudes, emotions and communicative purposes.
For example, intonation can help listeners recognise whether an utterance functions as a question, statement or expression of surprise.
Therefore, effective spoken English requires not only correct words and grammar but also appropriate stress, rhythm and intonation.
7. Discuss oral presentation and the qualities of a good oral presentation.
Answer:
An oral presentation is a planned spoken presentation of ideas or information before an audience.
A good oral presentation should have—
- Clear purpose: The speaker should know what is to be communicated.
- Logical organisation: Ideas should be arranged in a proper sequence.
- Simple language: Vocabulary should suit the audience.
- Audible voice: The speaker should speak clearly and loudly enough.
- Appropriate pronunciation: Words should be understandable.
- Suitable stress and intonation: Speech should sound meaningful and natural.
- Confidence: The speaker should communicate without unnecessary hesitation.
- Audience awareness: The speaker should maintain appropriate interaction with listeners.
Regular oral presentations can strengthen both language proficiency and confidence.
8. Explain the role of storytelling and re-telling in developing English proficiency.
Answer:
Storytelling and re-telling are useful techniques for developing oral language.
Storytelling helps learners to—
- Listen attentively.
- Develop vocabulary.
- Understand sequence and meaning.
- Experience natural language in context.
- Develop imagination and interest.
Re-telling helps learners to—
- Recall important information.
- Organise ideas in sequence.
- Use language independently.
- Develop speaking confidence and fluency.
- Express the same content in their own words.
SCERT includes storytelling and re-telling among the recommended Listening and Speaking activities for this unit.
9. Explain the use of classroom theatre in developing oral language.
Answer:
Classroom theatre includes activities such as role-play and drama. It provides learners with meaningful situations in which spoken language is required for a purpose.
Its advantages include—
- It increases learner participation.
- It reduces fear of speaking English.
- It provides practice in dialogue and conversation.
- It develops pronunciation, expression and fluency.
- It promotes imagination and creativity.
- It develops cooperation through group performance.
- It allows learners to practise language in realistic contexts.
SCERT specifically recommends role-play and drama as classroom-theatre activities for developing listening and speaking.
10. Discuss the role of feedback in developing oral communication skills.
Answer:
Feedback is an important part of learning to speak a language. It helps learners recognise what they are doing well and what they need to improve.
Effective feedback should—
- Encourage the learner rather than create fear.
- Focus on intelligibility and meaningful communication.
- Help improve pronunciation where necessary.
- Draw attention to stress, rhythm and intonation.
- Suggest clear ways to improve.
- Allow learners to try again after feedback.
- Include appropriate peer and self-feedback.
SCERT recommends giving and eliciting feedback during oral activities, particularly in relation to segmental and supra-segmental features.
11. Why should learners get opportunities to use English in context?
Answer:
A language is learned more effectively when it is used for genuine communication rather than only memorising grammar rules.
Contextual language use helps learners—
- Understand when and how particular expressions are used.
- Connect vocabulary and grammar with real situations.
- Develop confidence in speaking.
- Improve fluency through meaningful practice.
- Learn appropriate language according to purpose and audience.
- Communicate spontaneously.
Situational conversations, interviews, role-play, announcements and telephonic conversations are useful examples. The revised SCERT syllabus includes opportunities to use language in context and an introduction to spoken English under this unit.
12. Describe important activities for developing listening and speaking skills.
Answer:
Various meaningful activities can be organised to develop listening and speaking skills.
- Theme-based Oral Interaction: Learners discuss a familiar topic.
- Situational Conversation: Learners practise real-life communication.
- Speech and Discussion: Develop organised oral expression.
- Interview: Develop questioning and responding skills.
- News Report: Develop listening, summarising and presentation skills.
- Role-play and Drama: Provide language practice in meaningful contexts.
- Storytelling and Re-telling: Develop comprehension and fluency.
- Telephonic Conversation: Develop oral communication without visual support.
- Announcement: Develop concise and clear spoken communication.
- Feedback Activities: Help learners improve pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation.
These activities closely match the activities prescribed for SCERT Assam's Unit 2.
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