Real People Don't Talk Like Books:Teaching Colloquial English

Lucia Pietrusiak Engkent

Register is an important feature of lan-guage use, but has often been neglectedin language teaching. A systematic pres-entation of register differences and usewould help students minimize registererrors. The language of the streets must

RATIONALE

be brought into the classroom so that stu-dents can cope with everyday spokenEnglish. In this paper, different charac-teristics of conversational English are dis-cussed.

All speakers control many different register vanatIons of their lan-guage. We determine register by the relative status of speakers, themedium of communication, and the degree of formality required withina particular situation. For example, adults have a different manner ofspeaking to children than to other adults, and a job interview requiresmore formal English than a conversation. A paper delivered at a confer-ence must have its register changed when it is written up for publica-tion. Register is an essential part of everyday language use.

People appear to be sensitive to errors in register, maybe even moreso than to errors in grammar. Even though most native speakers allowfor such errors in the speech of non-native speakers, register errors canbe as serious as social gaffes. The general rule that it is better to besomewhat too formal than too informal is an oversimplification. Overlyformal language can make native speakers uncomfortable. Just as wedo not want our students to write sentences like "You can see a lot ofkids hanging around the mall," in a formal academic essay, we also donot want them to address classmates with a "Pardon me, sir."

Register, however, is often neglected in language teaching. As aresult, errors in register are common in students' speech and writing.Some texts do mark certain vocabulary and expressions as formal andinformal but rarely go beyond that to explore differences in register.Many materials smooth over register variations and homogenize the lan-guage taught. Teachers would benefit from research in the form of asystematic study of register with more emphasis on teaching the differ-ences between registers and when and how they are used.

Some students, especially those who have studied English as a

TEACHING COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH 225

foreign language, have studied English very formally. Their teachingsituations may have been less than ideal. They may have had out-of-date materials, an over-emphasis on formal grammar, or teachers whoare not fluent speakers. As a result, these students can be ill-equippedto converse with native speakers. They are often completely bewilderedwhen they first hear sentences like "What'cha doin' this aft?" Somecannot accept the English they hear as "proper" and they feel more athome dissecting sentences than having a conversation. On the otherhand, we also have students who have not studied formally and havepicked up their English in conversational situations; they often havetrouble dealing with formal varieties of the language.

FORMAL VS. INFORMAL ENGLISH

While there are many different registers that native speakers use,language learners do not need to master them all. Students are well-equipped if they can handle a basic formal! informal distinction andunderstand the principles of register use. Colloquial English must betaught so that students understand the characteristics of the languagethey hear on the street and the proper places to use it. Such instructionshould go beyond simply labelling certain expressions as formal orinformal.

Gillian Brown (1981, p. 4) distinguishes between hearer-oriented/interactional speech and message-oriented/ transactional speech:

Primarily hearer-oriented/ interactive speech is found in all cultures,literate and non-literate, and among all ages of speaking humans.It differs from primarily message-oriented/transactional speech,very often, in being less clearly articulated, less clearly expressed,often containing a lot of vagueness and modality. . . .

Some conversational interchange, such as small talk, fits this descrip-tion of hearer-oriented/interactional speech. In conversation, nativespeakers may start with a ritualistic speech pattern and then move intothe intended message.

A Standard

When dealing with conversational English, we as ESL teachers haveto come to terms with our own perceptions of correct and incorrect.English teachers as a group may be overly conservative when it comesto language. We must recognize this tendency and make judgementsnot only according to our own personal preference, but also accordingto general acceptability and our intuition and common sense. After all,there will always be speech forms that make us cringe and other

226 TESL CANADA JOURNAL/REVUE TESL DU CANADASPECIAL ISSUE I, NOVEMBER 1986.

neologisms that we embrace whole-heartedly, consciously or uncon-sciously.

Still, we must keep in mind that not everything we hear can be con-sidered good, informal English. Native speakers do make errors whichthey are able to correct. In addition, some forms and expressions aregenerally considered to be socially unacceptable, and therefore non-standard English. For example, a person who says "ain't" or "irregard-less" is outside the bounds of acceptable English. But these limits areflexible. For example, within a peer group, a non-standard form maybe acceptable. As well, words and forms can become standard Englishover time.

When we consider the rights and wrongs of language, or the accept-able and the unacceptable, we should also recognize that language isconstantly changing. Today's brash neologisms gradually become moreaccepted and make their way into even the most conservative dic-tionaries. Generally, changes start in the colloquial tongue and spreadto other registers, gaining acceptance when they become written forms.

Just as vocabulary and pronunciation change, grammar does too.Aitchison (1981) points out the increasing use of the progressive tenseand of going to for the future. For example, Polonius asks Hamlet"What do you read, my Lord?" instead of "What are you reading?"(Aitchison, 1981, p. 104). We can see another change taking place:verbs of mental state and perception are now used in continuous tenses,as in such sentences as "I'm wondering where I should go on vacation."

While language purists have always bemoaned the deterioration oflanguage, some linguists claim that each language evolves into a moreefficient state. The only certainty is that all languages change and stop-ping the change is impossible. We cannot tum back the hands of timeto a period when language was "purer"; there is no such time.

Recognizing different varieties of English does not mean we mustadopt an attitude of "anything goes." By keeping registers distinct inour classroom, we can accept the colloquialisms in everyday conversa-tion, but demand precision of language in students' essays. Ignoringregister variations only puts us in the position of ostriches with headsin the sand, oblivious to the reality around them.

FEATURES OF CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH

Just as native speakers instinctively know the grammatical rules oftheir language but may not be able to explain them, they are also awareof the differences between registers but may not know what actuallymakes them different. This same phenomenon occurs for other social"rules": often we are unware of the presence of a rule until it is broken.

TEACHING COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH 227

Indeed, ESL teachers often discover the rules of their native languageand culture for the first time as they teach them. ESL curricula nowinclude the quirks of our cultural behaviour "discovered" by sociolin-guists and anthropologists. For example, their studies in body languagemade us aware of the importance of teaching gestures and proxemics.As well, becoming conscious of the characteristics of register differ-ences in English can help us explain another facet of English to ourstudents.

Pronunciation

To purists, informal English is sloppy and a victim of "lazy tongues".Spoken English of all registers, however, is characterized by reductionsof sounds and ellipses. Vowels drop or reduce to schwa, and othersounds change or blur. We do not pronounce words letter by letter withthe written form. A word like "vegetable", for example, would be un-recognizable if all the written vowels were given a full-length pronunci-ation. Unstress should be taught in pronunciation drills because it isessential to the rhythm of English.

Reduction of sounds is characteristic of informal spoken English."Gotta", "gonna", and "wanna" look strange to students when they areprinted in a dialogue, yet the students hear ~hese forms all the time. Anoverconcentration on the written forms of ~nglish creates a false senseof how English is actually pronounced. For example, one student chal-lenged the North American pronunciation of "butter", claiming that itwas "wrong" even though the flap "t" is a natural articulation.

Listening for unstressed elements in a sentence is often a useful exer-cise. Sometimes it seems that students do not pay enough attention tothe function words of a sentence. Prepositions, articles, verb endings,and auxiliary verbs are all unstressed in a sentence and difficult forstudents to produce correctly in both writing and speaking. Examiningstress patterns can help students hear the differences between such formsas can and can't. Practice in listening for the vowel sound instead ofthe "t" sound can be useful for distinguishing such sentences as "I cantalk now," and "I can't talk now."

Ellipsis

In speech, people take shortcuts. There is not the same danger ofmisunderstanding as there is in writing. The context is clear and com-prehension can be easily verified since the audience is present. A uni-versity student saying "I have an eight-thirty tomorrow," is not indanger of being misunderstood. "This afternoon" becomes "this aft" and"an invitation" becomes "an invite".

Sometimes ellipsis results in surface ungrammaticality. We go out228 TESL CANADA JOURNAL!REVUE TESL DU CANADA

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for "a coffee" and get invited to "a wine 'n cheese". These forms canprove puzzling to students who have been taught that non-count nounsdo not take an indefinite article. Explaining the ellipsis restores a senseof order to the language.

Use of "You" as a General Pronoun

Spoken English is also characterized by a use of "you" as a generalpronoun to mean people in general. It is used in many expressions andin proverbs such as, "You should look both ways before you cross thestreet." Language learners seem to catch on quickly that such pro-nouncements do not mean them personally. Still, we should point outand explain that "you" is a feature of spoken English that becomes anerror when it is used in an academic essay.

Hesitation Markers

"You" also appears in expressions. For instance, the ubiquitous "Youknow" has various functions in conversational speech. It is used as ahesitation marker: "It's close to that new restaurant-umm, you know-what's the name of that place again?"; as a request for agreement:"They really are the best team in the league, you know."; and as anintroduction to a new fact: "You know, I saw Peter yesterday." In thislast instance, it is a contradiction in terms-a case where you reallydon't know.

As well as "you know", there are other hesitation markers we use inspeech, and some of the new functional conversation texts, such asFunctions of American English (Jones & von Baeyer, 1983) activelyteach hesitations. Some people may think that hesitation markers showpoor language skills. While these hesitations are not the sign of a goodpublic speaker, they are a normal part of everyday conversation. Afterall, hesitation phenomena serve an important function: they give a per-son time to think and hold the floor. A silence would not only be con-fusing to listeners, it would allow interruptions. It can even be embar-rassing to the participants in the conversation.

Subject-Verb AgreementNative speakers make errors in subject-verb agreement constantly in

their everyday speech.. The singular verb with a compound subject ismoving into acceptability: "The salt and pepper is on the table." Yetthe frequently heard singular verb with "here" and "there" is still con-sidered ungrammatical: "There's lots of books on the table," and"Where's my boots?" This surface ungrammaticality results partly fromease of pronunciation. "There are" is difficult to pronounce, and thecontraction, "there're," is almost impossible.TEACHING COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH 229

Rather than just giving our students the rule for subject-verb agree-ment and ignoring the "errors" in native speakers' speech, we shouldexplain these exceptions and their use in conversation. After all, sub-ject-verb agreement is difficult enough for most students to handle. Weshould not ignore such forms or dismiss them as exceptions, but insteaddemonstrate this process at work in informal speech.

Pronoun Agreement

Other grammatical errors commonly found in conversational speechinclude pronoun agreement: "Everybody take out their books," and"Each person brought their own lunch." This results from the effortmade to avoid the masculine pronoun as a generic pronoun. In writing,pronoun usage can become very awkward, as we try to avoid usingboth the masculine pronoun and the ungrammatical plural forms thatsurface in speech. But in our everyday speech, we are more relaxedand pay less attention to traditional grammar rules. In time, perhaps,English will evolve a more efficient system of pronoun use.

To Get

The verb "to get" tends to be over-used in informal English. It hasseveral basic meanings: to obtain, to become, to arrive at or reach, andto have. As well, it is used in many two-word verb combinations. Inexpressions with prepositions and adverbs it can replace many differentverbs. We can tell our whole life story using "get":

This morning I got up late (since I got in late the night before),got washed and dressed quickly, and got a quick breakfast of cof-fee and a muffin. I got out of the door by 8:30, got the expressbus on the comer, and got to work in the nick of time. I got towork before the boss got in....

The form "have got" is colloquial and is a result of the contractionof "have". The redundancy is considered unnecessary and, indeed,incorrect in formal, written English.

Verbs with "Up"

More verbs are modified with the addition of the adverb up to addthe meaning of "completely". For example, "cut up" means to cutsomething into small pieces, whereas "cut" can signify a single cut.The list of such verbs includes "dress up, tear up, speak up, read up,burn up, and clean up." A recent addition is, of course, "listen up".

Modifiers

Conversational English is also marked by certain qualifiers that are230 TESL CANADA JOURNAL!REVUE TESL DU CANADA

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not found in other registers. "Pretty" and "real" used as adverbs aretwo common examples. With these, we should point out the meaningof the modifiers by contrasting relative strength. For example, "I'mpretty tired," is weaker than "I'm really tired." "Real" used as anadverb is heard more frequently today (''I'm real tired.") but is stillgenerally considered to be non-standard in Canada.

Other modifiers, such as "a lot" and "a bit", find their way into thespeech of non-native speakers quite easily; they also occur incorrectlyin their formal writing. In fact, native speakers are also guilty of com-mitting such errors in formal essays.

Comparisons

A few years ago, a well-known cigarette company asked "What doyou want, good grammar or good taste," in answer to the public outcryfollowing the use of its claim that its cigarette "tastes good like acigarette should." "Like" in such comparisons is a common feature ofconversational English. The "as" form, although, considered correct,sounds overly formal, as in the phrase "tastes just as if mother made itherself."

Euphemism

Euphemism is another characteristic of conversational speech. AsAitchison (1981) points out, a scientific or medical paper might containreferences to "urination", but in everyday speech, people go to "thelittle girls' (or boys') room", or to "the washroom" or "powder room".Everyday conversation includes euphemisms for swear words and bodyparts and functions.

Idioms

Many ESL students love to study idioms. Idioms are an integral partof conversational English but they are difficult to learn. Some idiomscan be grouped together by theme or similar form. Others can only betaught within context. Teachers can always mention the idioms appro-priate to a situation discussed in class. We can introduce our studentsto as many idioms as possible, but we should not require them tomemorize long lists. Students will remember idioms they find particu-larly useful or particularly interesting.

Slang

Slang is impossible to teach systematically in the classroom. By itsvery nature, it is transitory and linked to peer groups. Probably the bestway to deal with slang is simply to define and classify any terms thatmight come up in class from students' questions.TEACHING COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH 231

It is wise, however, to discourage language learners from usinjtslang.The use of slang depends on the degree of integration within a society.Just as it seems odd for a middle-aged business executive to use currentteenage slang, it is equally inappropriate for many non-native speakers.Young ESL students, however, will use the slang of their peer group asthey become a part of the group.

Slang words such as "kids" and "bucks" are readily picked up byESL students, especially as the words move from the realm of slanginto that of colloquialisms. Here again, we should inform our studentsthat such words are unacceptable in formal academic essays and in for-mal speaking situations such as job interviews.

Phatic / Ritualistic Expressions

Much of everyday conversation is routine. People use ritualisticexpressions for greetings and partings. Some of these expressions takeon a function that seems separate from the literal meaning. For exam-ple, "How do you do?" is used to acknowledge an introduction and notto ask about someone's welfare. "How are you?" is also losing its literalmeaning; the expression functions as a greeting. For example, peoplecall out "Hi. How are you?" to acquaintances and do not even wait fora response. Other ritualistic expressions include "Take it easy," and"Take care," for conversation closings.

TEACHING CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH

By recognizing the features of colloquial English and by explainingthem to our students, we prepare them for life outside the classroom.Not everyone they speak to will have the precise diction of an Englishteacher, and the language they hear will not be the sanitized versionfound in textbooks. Language learners should be aware that colloquialEnglish is a different variety and is "correct" as such. A common-senseapproach to colloquial English and its place among different registersshould be fostered in students, teachers, and textbook writers.

In addition to teaching the forms of informal and formal English, wemust teach our students when certain registers are appropriate. Anacademic writing class should focus onforrnal English, with a clearexplanation of what is not acceptable. Conversation classes, on the otherhand, should focus on informal English. Teachers of multi-skill classesshould make it clear which register is required for each task.

As well as teaching the language of conversation, we must teach thesocial parameters. Conversational strategies include knowing when tospeak, what topic to speak about, and other cultural rules. The sociolin-

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guistic aspects of language can be difficult to teach because the rulesare subtle and not explicitly explained in any rule book of conversation.

The features of informal English can be taught within the context ofdialogues. While Brown and Yule (1983) favour transcripts of actualconversation over scripted dialogues, the latter have the advantage ofbeing focused and readable. They do not have to sound stilted andunnatural. While tape recordings are an invaluable tool for bringing realspeech into class, students should also have the opportunity to read thedialogue aloud. Dialogues such as those used in Functions of AmericanEnglish (Jones & von Baeyer, 1983) are natural but difficult to read inclass. Textbook dialogues should not, however, be practiced to the pointof memorization; rather, they provide a jumping-off point for role playsand discussions.

One question each teacher must deal with is how much colloquialEnglish students should be asked to actually produce. Do we really wantour students saying, "Gotta go now, catch ya later?" Some colloquialexpressions sound out of place when spoken by students struggling withthe language. Also, the relaxed pronunciations characteristic of informalEnglish could ever make it more difficult for students to be understood.It is easier to follow speech that is precise and explicit, especially if thespeech is heavily accented.

Because the features of colloquial English are more important to com-prehension skills than to production skills, they tend to be neglected incurricula. However, we cannot assume our students will understandeveryday speech without some explanation of its features. Teaching col-loquial English is a decoding process, an explanation of the way thelanguage works and what can be expected of it. This instruction helpsstudents improve comprehension and increase self-confidence. In time,their use of language will become less formal in conversation.

We must explain the principle of register and the features of formaland informal English. Some students have trouble accepting more thanone "right" answer and see language in black and white terms . Workingwithin the framework of register variations allows us to deal with con-versational English in its rightful place and to reduce register errors inour students' work.

REFERENCESAitchison, J. (1981). Language change: progress or decay? Britain: Fontana

Paperbacks.Brown, G. (1982). Teaching and assessing spoken language. TESL Talk: Con-

ference Proceedings TESL 81, JI, 3-13.Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language: An approach

TEACHING COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH 233

based on the analysis of conversational English. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity Press.

Dubois, B.L.& Crouch I. (1975). The question of tag questions in women'sspeech: they don't really use more of them, do they? Language in Society,4,289-294.

Jones, L. & von Baeyer, C. (1983). Functions of American English. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman's place. New York: Harper ColophonBooks.

THE AUTHORAuthor of Take Part: Speaking Canadian English (Prentice-Hall Canada, 1986),Lucia Engkent has taught conversational English at the University of Alberta.She is currently teaching EAP for the York University English Language Insti-tute, Toronto.

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