Eloquence

The Five Canons of Rhetoric

The art of rhetoric is divided into the following five canons, or major categories: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery. In his De oratore, Cicero explained these categories and how the speaker, or orator, must employ them:

"… He must first hit upon what to say; then manage and marshal his discoveries, not merely in orderly fashion, but with a discriminating eye for the exact weight as it were of each argument; next go on to array them in the adornments of style; after that keep them guarded in his memory; and in the end, deliver them with effect and charm." ⁴

In the following sections, I discuss each target audience and pair it with the rhetorical canon that most closely corresponds to the work that needs to be done to persuade that audience of fluency. ⁵ In this way, students will have a framework for considering which factors to emphasize or strengthen depending on the audience being addressed, or the individuals who will be "judging" their degree of fluency. This framework will also be a reference for students to consult in broadening the scope of what they are currently doing, and for teachers to consult in providing useful feedback to students. Also included are some suggested Feedback Points, in simple but effective language, which we can address with students, as well as Strategies for approaching the elements of each category in the classroom.

Invention – The Foundation

Invention is all about what you are going to say. ⁶ For us, it is the foundation of everything to come. The first step to convincing anyone of your fluency, or of your presence on a path toward fluency, is having something to say. In order to be able to do this in the language-learning classroom, you must both know and know how to use the vocabulary and structures given or discussed in class. You can build up your foundation by being purposeful about working in core vocabulary and structures properly.

This category has two main thrusts. First: Know your vocabulary. Second: Understand it - the grammar, the rules, the finer points of what to use when. I like to think of Invention as the stem and button of the pinwheel, the necessary base onto which we fasten the other elements of rhetoric and language usage.

Feedback Points – The Foundation

The following are a couple of feedback points to guide students in this area, along with necessary student actions, written in italics, and clarifying details, indicated in parentheses. The same feedback applies to both oral and written performance.

• Build the foundation. Review vocabulary. (Give specific topics or guidelines.)
• French: Construire la fondation. Revoir le vocabulaire.
• Understand the foundation. Review grammar. (Give specific concepts, like adjective agreement, subject/verb agreement, gender.)
• French. Comprendre la fondation. Revoir la grammaire.

Strategies: Building Language

In his seminal text De copia, noted 15 ^th century rhetorician Desiderius Erasmus wrote of the "commonplace book," where one could collect and store information in a way that it could be logically accessed later. ⁷ So the keeper would create headings and sub-headings for the book and fill it with interesting and informative notes, observations, and reflections. Then, when needed, that information could be pulled up readily to use in some rhetorical pursuit. Adapted to the language classroom, students can keep a language dictionary/journal of learned and researched vocabulary, helpful images, reflections, cognates, favorite words, words that sound nice, etc., and they can make headings according to theme or other areas of linguistic interest, labeling them with post-it tabs for easy reference.

Also, to build language students can make flashcards using images and color-coding for part of speech and gender (or other relevant categories.) They can use the cards to study individually or they can have someone else quiz them (putting pronunciation on the French language side will make this possible with non-French speakers.) They can use the cards in class for matching games with partners or to sort in either predetermined or open categories. Basically, the more ways you can get kids to group and list the vocabulary, the more they are practicing it and thinking about it in different combinations.

For words or concepts that are tricky because they are similar, students can make "Similar but Different" posters that compare the terms and convey in images and words the similar but different aspects of the language. I also like to use rhythm, rhyme, rap, claps and beats to help students remember strings of related vocabulary or to physically and audibly emphasize similar but different structures. I find that any time I can bring an aspect of physicality to a word, it helps students remember it. More on that in the next section!

See also: Activity II: Copia Pinwheel.

Arrangement – Convincing Passersby with the Appearance of Fluency

Rhetorically, arrangement refers to the way you arrange the elements of your argument, the way components of an essay are pieced together to create a whole. At base, that comes down to using structure to best prove your point. It is about the intentional ways you arrange what you are saying or doing in order to create an effective, complete, whole argument, including how you grab the audience's attention and how you establish your credibility. Rhetorically, the emphasis is how those parts contribute to the whole; when we apply this to our classrooms, we will keep our focus on the parts, as we save consideration of how they relate to the whole for later. When we speak of arrangement within the context of this unit, we will speak of the physical, perceivable, embodied aspects or parts of communication and being that influence the overall impressions we make, and how to use them to our advantage.

For this category, we seek to convince the passersby, those eavesdropping classmates who won't actually hear the whole conversation; this audience will only see and hear isolated snippets of what is said. So the way you look and sound while you are conversing will impress them more than what you are actually saying. I am not, of course, advocating that what you say doesn't matter; as I said before, not even mastery of any one category will convince someone of your fluency. But the look and sound of your communication does play an integral role in the perception of your fluency, and that is what we address here.

I consider three areas to be key in this category: Diction, Expression, and Gesture. Diction encompasses pronunciation as well as enunciation and intonation. You want students to take care to learn and practice proper pronunciation, work at clearly articulating words, and pay attention to the musical path that fluent speakers' voices follow while speaking. Expression and Gesture are two sides of the same communicative coin; expression being how one communicates with facial features and gesture with body. For Expression, have students consider whether or not their expressions match what is being said, or whether they convey anything at all; blank faces do not convince anyone of fluency! Gesture can cover the ways body language works with or against the speaker, as well as actual gestures that highlight words spoken.

This is largely the domain of oral communication, but in written work, we can consider the flow of the writing and the logic of the progression of sentences. Here we will determine whether questions asked are answered, whether statements follow appropriately, and whether everything makes sense. The lack of these things leaves us with a choppy, confused piece of writing that may have strong foundational elements but is missing a clear indication of integrated comprehension.

Feedback Points

The following are relevant feedback points to guide students in this area, along with key feedback words and prompting comments, written in italics.

• Diction: Pronunciation / Enunciation / Intonation
• French: Prononciation / Énonciation / Intonation
• Expression: Facial expression / Does your facial expression go with your words?
• French: Expression de visage / Ton expression de visage, va-t-elle avec tes mots?
• Gesture: Posture / Don't Fidget! / You missed an important gesture. / Too much gesturing
• French: Posture / Ne gigote pas! / Tu as manqué un geste important. / Trop de gestes
• In Writing: Transition words / Flow? / Is the sentence order logical?
• French: Mots de liason / Fluidité? / L'ordre des phrases, est-ce qu'il est logique?

Strategies: Embodying Language

It is commonly known in the study of second language acquisition that incorporating physical activity, rhythm, music, drama, and games into lessons can aid language acquisition; some credit this to the activation of the right hemisphere of the brain. ⁸ It could also be that those activities serve to better engage interest and thus attention. In any event, by getting embodied, keying into the physical experience of what they are saying, students are better able to meld their muscle memory with the memory of their mind, activating the one through the other, and merging a fuller expression of language.

I really like to use over-enunciation with my students as a way of getting into our faces with the language! The stretch in the muscles of the face, the momentary detachment from the meaning of the word into pure sound and feel that leads to better appreciation of the aesthetics of the language and better recall of pronunciation, as we have practically massaged it into the muscles that sound the words! And it's fun, which surely doesn't hurt. You can also have students put their whole bodies into it; for example, when a student is practicing the French version of umm (Euhh), have them over-exaggerate the whole thing, adding body language, gesture, and facial expression to emphasize the casualness of the term.

A variation of the above strategy includes combining facial exaggerations with movements – jumps, stomps, claps, or gestures - that mimic the sound pattern of the word, possibly as distinct from the meaning. Perhaps the movements will match the meaning and if so that will be wonderful, but if you have a hard time doing that, there's no need to worry, as the strategy is effective even when there is no meaning involved, just pure sound of word. Another variation is to try and make the face and or body convey the meaning of a word or phrase, kind of like interpretive dance; it can also be done in still form, like a tableau instead of a moving representation.

Style – Convincing Partners with the Feel of Fluency

When we first hear the word style, I think many of us consider it as it relates to personal style and elements of individuality; rhetorically speaking, I would say those components fall more under the realm of "delivery." For our purposes, style pertains to individuality only insomuch as individuality is reflected in word choice, as style for us is all about the particular language selected and used. Although there certainly are specific reasons one would employ various articulated styles of language in persuasive speech, they are largely irrelevant here. In the world language classroom, style is the domain of details, refined and pinpointed vocabulary, and expressing oneself; this is where we go beyond the foundational vocabulary to select more relevant language, where we use language devices to help us sound and feel more conversational and linguistically comfortable.

These are the qualities that will convince your partners in communication activities that you are fluent; while they will be affected by all the things the eavesdroppers will, they will be paying attention to everything you are saying, and it will take more then looks and sounds to convince them.

Whereas in fluent-language communication, hesitation can signal anticipation of a thoughtful response to come, in language-learner communication, hesitation signals that you either don't know what was said or how to answer, or both. So to better persuade partners with whom you are communicating in class, you need to either hesitate less, or else mask hesitations with filler phrases and grunts like: Euh, Beh, Donc, Puis, and Alors. Not only do they buy you time, but they also make you seem so on that path to fluency that you even um and uh in French!

An important aspect of the language enrichment process and discussion that will happen here relates to the topic of dictionaries and online translation sites. Sometimes students get so excited at the prospect of saying what they want to say that they run to the computer to look it up. In their quest to prove and demonstrate fluency with these new phrases, they in fact often prove the contrary by revealing isolated, plucked language poorly applied because the conceptual understanding of the utilized language has been bypassed and is lacking. Admittedly, online translation tools have come a long way from the days of giving the student the word for a can of soup when what was sought was the word for "can" that means to be able to. Even so, they do not teach application of language, and can mislead and confuse students as we guide them in developing their language knowledge. So be sure to teach proper dictionary usage, and to discuss things like idiomatic expressions often, so students get used to the idea that you can't always translate word for word.

Feedback Points

The following are some feedback points to guide students in this area, along with directives and questions to prompt further pursuit, written in italics, and clarifying details, indicated in parentheses.

    Details: More details
    French: Plus de détails

    Vocabulary: Revisit unit vocabulary. / 
      What vocabulary do you need? / 
      What vocabulary did you have to look up?
    
    French: Réexamine le vocabulaire de l'unité. /
      Tu as besoin de quel vocabulaire? C'était nécessaire
      de chercher quel vocabulaire?

    Self-expression: Is there another way to say this? /
      See me regarding your word choice.
    
    French: Est-ce qu'il y a une autre façon d'exprimer cela? /
      Viens me voir au sujet de ton choix des mots.

    Conversationality: How can you make this feel more
      conversational? (Fillers? Idioms?)
    
    French: Comment est-ce que tu peux donner cela un air plus conversationnel?
      (Mots bouche-trous? Expressions idiomatiques?)
  

Strategies: Personalizing Language

To help students start to personalize their language, you can encourage them to build their own individualized vocabulary lists. This will require a lesson on dictionary usage and guidance on choosing and identifying nouns, adjectives, and verbs, so that students don't fall into the word-by-word translation trap. They can keep their findings in a special booklet (like the commonplace book from the "Invention" section), make a poster for classroom or home reference, and teach the words to classmates.

As far as vocabulary and language you provide to everyone, it would be great to work up lists of vocabulary that correspond to student interests, like popular movies or videogames in French, for instance. Also, the more fun, conversational phrases and things that French-speaking teenagers actually say now that you provide, the more motivated students will be to personalize their language. That includes introducing idioms and other phrases that have silly or unexpected stories around them.

To build off the strategy in the previous two sections relating to rhythm and rhyme, having students create original songs or chants, using chosen vocabulary, is a great way to inspire them in this endeavor. Even just taking the opportunity as it comes to say words you like the sound of with verve and appreciation can encourage students to do the same! You can also have everyone chose their own signature word; it could be something they love the sound or meaning of, and you could encourage them to use it as much as possible. It would be fun to give the class a list of everyone's words and get them all to challenge themselves to use any of them whenever they can!

Memory – Convincing the Teacher with Practice and Application

In persuasive speechmaking, the more you remember, the more you are able to really perform and so enchant, to make your point even more compelling because it seems to live within you, burning brightly, ready to spill out at your will. And isn't that the same vibrant expression that we want for our students?

As opposed to something you have to keep looking at your notes for, memorized elements of speech seem to be the ultimate truth. Except of course when they are only partially memorized, or not really memorized with care. Then they stumble out awkwardly and stiffly and seem all the less true because rather than feeling something authentically, you are clearly reciting from memory, and you may not even be doing that very well.

The language teacher's oft-articulated antidote to this is practice. The reason we ask our students to engage with the language in so many similar but different-enough-to-not-be-boringly-redundant ways is precisely to give them ample opportunity for that necessary practice. This category is all about having done the work, having put in the study and practice time, or at least doing so now. Only with a quantity of time spent engaged at working through and with the language, speaking and writing it regularly, can students attain that quality of linguistic skill and expression that evinces fluency.

The audience here is the teacher. To convince your teacher, you've got to know your stuff, and the way you know your stuff is by practicing it. The previous three categories of persuasion really get woven together here the more you practice.

Of course, there is also the matter of actual memory; by virtue of the name of this category, one would think this its dwelling place. However, since it must be exercised in relation to the other categories, especially to the Foundation or Invention category, I would argue that memorization of language really lives more comfortably there, at the Foundation stage. That is where I would introduce any of your favorite memory tips and tools to help students learn and retain vocabulary.

The more practice in which one engages, the more he or she is able to talk around unknown vocabulary, and also the more willing to take risks. Even when those risks are unconventional, like saying what you know how to say instead of exactly what your English-speaking mind wants to say. That might seem to be the opposite of risk-taking, to stick to what you know. But it entails morphing and tweaking what you know to meet your needs instead of finding and selecting a custom-ordered response, and for beginning language learners especially, trusting themselves is the biggest leap of all, and therein the riskiest.

Feedback Points and Strategies: Practice and Automatizing Language

The only feedback point here is to encourage more practice in an error category, or to actually assign more practice. As far as strategies go, to support continued repetition in similar but different ways, I find the embodiment strategies listed for Arrangement to be quite helpful. Any way you can mix it up for students will be helpful in the process of developing automaticity, so that the necessary repetition doesn't become monotonous.

Delivery – Convincing Yourself with Confidence

In rhetoric, the category of Delivery is actually comprised of those elements of gesture, expression, and voice that we consider for our purposes under Arrangement. Here instead I wish to focus on the idea of confidence because, without it, even the richest learning can be left unexpressed, hidden and undiscovered. So much of language success has to do with confidence – confidence to try and risk making a mistake, confidence to understand that mistakes are part of the process, and confidence that you have indeed done your work and you do know what to say. It is therefore incumbent upon us to help students develop that confidence within themselves, by helping to clear the path of some common inhibitors.

The use of English in the world language classroom can be indicative of many things: A shortfall of foundational knowledge, a desire to self-express combined with an insufficiency of applicable vocabulary, the necessity of more practice, or a dearth of self-confidence. No matter how you look at it though, using English is a clear signal of a lack of fluency as well as confidence in one's abilities to self-express; whether it is used to fill in blanks or to apologize for perceived inadequacies, it interrupts the path of fluent expression, which further diminishes confidence in that arena.

Although eye contact would seem to fit under the category of expression and the elements of facial communication, I include it here because whether for or against, it reflects a student's level of self-confidence with the language. Either the student is averting eyes when he or she is insecure, or seeking refuge in yours in instances of uncertainty.

In his exploration of what he calls the science of acting, Professor Joseph Roach writes the following of the beginning actor, which we can easily transfer to the beginning language student:

"As he repeats himself in rehearsals and exercises… testing the pulses of his imagination, probing his physical and mental limits, … hesitancies tend to fall away one by one; his assurance generates energy, until he seems more thoroughly alive than ever before…. The actor's spontaneous vitality seems to depend on the extent to which his actions and thoughts have been automatized, made second nature." ⁹

It is this self-generated energy, set in motion and sustained by a confidence sculpted by repetition, freedom to experiment, and targeted support, that I hope to invoke and invite to dance with our kids.

Feedback Points and Strategies: Owning Language

Here, feedback points will gently revolve around whatever shows itself as insecurity for each student. In order to bolster confidence and demystify language through play and inspiring students to own their language, you could issue a call to exaggeration, an invitation to overact conversations as if students were performing for the stage and they needed to be recognized from and registered by the farthest reaches of the audience. Over-enunciating, over-expressing, over-gesticulating, here we are playing big for the back of the room. It could be a day of silliness that would have the potential to take away the scariness of trying to be perfect, while kick-starting ownership of language by having students try it on like kids playing dress up.