Language use and the language user/learner

•dealing with the unexpected, such as changes of domain, theme schema, etc.;

•dealing with communication breakdown in interaction or production as a result of such factors as memory lapses;

•inadequate communicative competence for the task in hand by using compensating strategies like restructuring, circumlocution, substitution, asking for help;

•misunderstandings and misinterpretation (by asking for clarification);

•slips of the tongue, mishearings (by using repair strategies).

Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:

•to what degree which skills are required for the satisfactory accomplishment of the communicative tasks the learner is expected to undertake;

•which skills can be presupposed and which will need to be developed;

•which reference aids the learner will need/be equipped/be required to use effectively.

4.6Texts

As explained in Chapter 2, ‘text’ is used to cover any piece of language, whether a spoken utterance or a piece of writing, which users/learners receive, produce or exchange. There can thus be no act of communication through language without a text; language activities and processes are all analysed and classified in terms of the relation of the user/learner and any interlocutor(s) to the text whether viewed as a finished product, an artefact, or as an objective or as a product in process of elaboration. These activities and processes are dealt with in some detail in section 4.4 and 4.5. Texts have many different functions in social life and result in corresponding differences in form and substance. Different media are used for different purposes. Differences of medium and purpose and function lead to corresponding differences not only in the context of messages, but also in their organisation and presentation. Accordingly, texts may be classified into different text types belonging to different genres. See also Section 5.2.3.2 (macrofunctions).

4.6.1 Texts and media

Every text is carried by a particular medium, normally by sound waves or written artefacts. Subcategories can be established according to physical properties of the medium which affect the processes of production and reception, e.g. for speech, direct close-up speech as against public address or telephone, or for writing print as against cursive writing, or different scripts. To communicate using a particular medium, users/learners must have the necessary sensory/motor equipment. In the case of speech, they must be able to hear well under the given conditions and have fine control of the organs of phonation and articulation. In the case of normal writing, they must be able to see with the necessary visual acuity and have control of their hands. They must then have the knowledge and skills described elsewhere, on the one hand to identify, understand and interpret the text or on the other to organise, formulate and produce it. This will be true for any text, whatever its nature.

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The above must not discourage people who have learning difficulties or sensory/motor disabilities from learning or using foreign languages. Devices ranging from simple hearing aids to eye-operated computer speech synthesisers have been developed to overcome even the most severe sensory and motor difficulties, whilst the use of appropriate methods and strategies have enabled young people with learning difficulties to achieve worthwhile foreign language learning objectives with remarkable success. Lip-reading, the exploitation of residual hearing and phonetic training have enabled the severely deaf to achieve a high level of speech communication in a second or foreign language. Given the necessary determination and encouragement, human beings have an extraordinary capacity to overcome obstacles to communication and the production and understanding of texts.

In principle, any text can be carried by any medium. However, in practice medium and text are more closely related. Scripts do not generally carry the full meaningful phonetic information carried by speech. Alphabetic scripts do not generally carry prosodic information systematically (e.g. stress, intonation, pausing, stylistic reduction, etc.). Consonantal and logographic scripts carry less. Paralinguistic features are usually unrepresented in any script, though they may of course be referred to in the text of a novel, play, etc. In compensation, paratextual features are employed in writing, which are tied to the spatial medium and not available to speech. Moreover, the nature of the medium exercises a strong pressure on the nature of the text and vice-versa. As extreme examples, a stone inscription is difficult and expensive to produce and is very durable and immovable. An air-letter is cheap and easy to use, easily transported, but light and fragile. Electronic communication using a VDU need not produce a permanent artefact at all. The texts they typically carry are correspondingly contrasted: in the one case, a carefully composed, frugal text preserving monumental information for future generations and inducing reverence for the place and person(s) celebrated, and in the other, a hastily scribbled personal note of topical but ephemeral interest to the correspondents. A similar ambiguity of classification thus arises between text-types and media to that between text-types and activities. Books, magazines and newspapers are, from their physical nature and appearance, different media. From the nature and structure of their contents they are different text-types. Medium and text-type are closely related and both are derivative from the function they perform.

4.6.2 Media include:

•voice (viva voce);

•telephone, videophone, teleconference;

•public address systems;

•radio broadcasts;

•TV;

•cinema films;

•computer (e-mail, CD Rom, etc.);

•videotape, -cassette, -disc;

•audiotape, -cassette, -disc;

•print;

•manuscript;

•etc.

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Language use and the language user/learner

Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:

•which media the learner will need/be equipped/be required to handle a) receptively b) productively c) interactively d) in mediation.

4.6.3 Text-types include:

Spoken, e.g.:

public announcements and instructions;

public speeches, lectures, presentations, sermons; rituals (ceremonies, formal religious services); entertainment (drama, shows, readings, songs);

sports commentaries (football, cricket, boxing, horse-racing, etc.); news broadcasts;

public debates and discussion; inter-personal dialogues and conversations; telephone conversations;

job interviews.

Written, e.g.:

books, fiction and non-fiction, including literary journals; magazines;

newspapers;

instruction manuals (DIY, cookbooks, etc.); textbooks;

comic strips;

brochures, prospectuses; leaflets;

advertising material; public signs and notices;

supermarket, shop, market stall signs; packaging and labelling on goods; tickets, etc.;

forms and questionnaires;

dictionaries (monolingual and bilingual), thesauri; business and professional letters, faxes;

personal letters; essays and exercises;

memoranda, reports and papers; notes and messages, etc.;

databases (news, literature, general information, etc.).

The following scales, based upon those developed in the Swiss projects described in Appendix B, give examples of activities involving a written text output produced in response to, respectively, a spoken or written input. Only the higher levels of these

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activities can enable a learner to meet the requirements of university studies or professional training, though some ability to deal with simple input text and to produce a written response is feasible at more modest levels.

Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:

•with which text types the learner will need/be equipped/be required to deal

•a) receptively, b) productively, c) interactively, d) in mediation.

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