G R A M M A R
Holistic
grammar
teaching 4
Rod Bolitho reports on ery often we all need to
ways to report speech.
V report, in speech or in
writing, what someone has
said or has written. When we
do this, we are concerned with meaning
and also with our interpretation of the
words we wish to report, and we have a
number of choices open to us. These
choices operate in similar ways in
almost any language. We can be more
or less formal, more or less true to the
original spoken or written words, closer
or more distant in the position we take
up as ‘reporter’; we can choose to
condense and summarise or to give a
detailed representation of the original;
we can display an attitude towards what
has been said or written as we report it.
These choices are realised either
grammatically, lexically or stylistically
or, as often happens, through a mixture
of all three. The resulting output is
often complex and sophisticated in
nature, a fact which becomes evident
only when we investigate ways of
reporting in their ‘natural habitat’,
namely in spoken or written reports.
The idea that there is a set formula for
reporting which plays out at sentence
level, as many coursebooks and
grammar books would have us believe,
is not only an oversimplification but a
fallacy – as Dave Willis pointed out in
a recent ETp article on the same topic
(Issue 70). Once again, it is only
through taking a more holistic look at
different ways of reporting that we edge
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 76 September 2011 •
towards a clearer view of how the
process works in real communication.
Here are three examples of what this
might mean in an intermediate-level
class:
Activity 1
Ideally this should be based on a
recording of the dialogue between two
teenagers (see below) and with an
accompanying transcript.
Listen to a dialogue between two British
teenagers sitting together on a train,
and answer the following questions:
a) Is their conversation easy for you to
understand? Why/Why not?
b) Do they seem to be close to what
they are reporting or more distant?
What tells you this?
c) Is their language formal or informal?
d) Is there a similar way of reporting in
your language?
As a learner of English, would you
speak in the same way as the two girls?
If you did, would it sound natural?
Emma: ... thank goodness, no more
school this week!
Megan: Yeah! A whole weekend with no
silly rules.
Emma: I just didn’t get what old Wellsy
wanted from us in the English class. You



37
 Holistic
grammar
teaching 4



remember, when he said we have to write
a critique of that passage in Lord Jim. So
I turn to Elena and I’m like ‘What does he
mean?’ and then Wellsy goes, ‘Do you
have a question, young lady?’
Megan: I remember ...
Emma: ... and I’m like ‘Doesn’t he even
know my name?’
Megan: But why didn’t you ask him to
explain about critique?
Emma: I didn’t say anything ’cos I don’t
want to sound stupid. And, remember,
then Martha’s mobile goes off and Wellsy
goes, ‘Don’t you know the rules about
mobiles?’ and Martha’s like: ‘Silly old
fool,’ you know, under her breath, and he
goes, ‘What did you say?’ and then
Martha pipes up, ‘I said I was sorry, sir.’
How cool was that?
(Transcribed by the author on the basis of
a conversation overheard on a train in
Greater London – the names are fictional.)
Comment
Increasingly, and whether purists like it
or not, learners of English are going to
be exposed to this very informal spoken
style of reporting on conversational
exchanges. Learners will be better
equipped to recognise this if it is dealt
with in this kind of ‘awareness-raising’
way in class. As the second question
suggests, they would be well-advised not
to imitate it directly until they are very
sure of themselves in terms of register
and appropriacy.
Activity 2 Onyango’s wife Margaret said she was‘deeply
As you read the newspaper article
opposite, answer the questions beside it.
As a teacher, you may want to relate
the ten questions to the following
factors that govern a writer’s choices in
an article like this:
● a need to be cautious about the detail
of the report (questions 1, 3, 4)
● summarising what someone has said
(2, 5 and, in part, 9)
38 • Issue 76 September 2011 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
Wildlife activist
reported murdered
1 1 Why not just ‘Wildlife
activist murdered by
poachers’?
by poachers
Alan Crosby Nairobi
Less than a year after telling journalists and
colleagues that his life was in danger2, a well- 2 Is the journalist reporting
known conservation activist has reportedly3 Onyango’s exact words
here? How do you know?
been executed by poachers in the
Samburu/Laikipia region of Kenya. Peter 3 Is Alan Crosby completely
Onyango, who has spent a lifetime working sure of his story?
tirelessly to preserve Kenyan wildlife, especially
elephants, is believed4 to have caught the group 4 Is this a fact or hearsay?
of poachers in the act of killing a mature How do you know? Why
is ‘believed’ in the
elephant, almost certainly for its ivory.
passive here?
According to local sources5, Onyango’s
27-year-old son was with him at the time, but he 5 Is this a report of
someone’s exact words?
managed to escape unharmed. The exact
Why doesn’t Alan Crosby
circumstances of Onyango’s murder are not identify his sources for
known, but local police reports indicate that two this part of the account?
bodies were found at the scene, though the
second one ‘has not been identified’ 6. The local 6 Why are these words
commissioner of police has promised a full quoted in inverted
enquiry into the events surrounding the deaths.7 commas?
7 What do you think were
At an international conference on wildlife
conservation in Entebbe ten months ago, the police chief’s exact
words? Is it important to
Onyango spoke of his mission and his fears.8
know? Why does Crosby
‘Commercial interests continue to threaten big choose ‘promised’ as a
game in Africa, whether it is the demand for reporting verb?
ivory or just hunting safaris which make a lot of 8 Why is this next section
money for the organisers. I believe passionately of the report in direct
in the need to keep our wildlife balanced and speech? Does it make a
protected, and I’m prepared to go to any lengths difference to the reader?
to ensure that this happens. Sure, I’ve had death
threats from gangs who would rather have me
out of the way, and one day they will probably
get me, but until they do I’ll devote all my
waking hours to conservation.’
saddened’ at the news of her husband’s death,
but that she was ‘immensely proud’ of him and
that ‘Kenya needs more brave men like him’.9 9 Why this mixture of direct
A 2008 survey by the Kenya Wildlife Service and indirect speech here?
reported10 that there were at least 7,468 10 What exactly is being
elephants in the Samburu/Laikipia region, reported here?
representing a 5% increase on the last survey
conducted in 2002. This is probably the most
fitting tribute to Peter Onyango’s life’s work.
● summarising and interpreting what
someone has said (7)
● establishing distance between the writer
and what was said (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
● a possible element of scepticism on
the writer’s part (6)
● establishing closeness between the
reader and what was said (8, 9)
● summarising something written (10)
Comment
An example like this can’t cover all
aspects of reporting but it does
highlight the choices writers have
available to them when putting a report
together. This cannot be studied or
practised at single-sentence level. And
coursebooks often blithely ignore
common discourse-level reporting
devices such as according to ... and
reportedly.
Moving from this kind of awareness of
how the reporting of speech works to a
way of practising it at whole-text level is
challenging, but here is an activity I
have used successfully:
Activity 3
This activity involves simulating a press
conference. Ask an able and confident
student to research the life of a well-
known personality, either contemporary
or from history (Wikipedia is fine as a
source here as we are not concerned
with absolutely watertight facts). Ask 3 Was there anything that you found
the student to make detailed notes, to hard to believe? Decide how to
find a photo or portrait of the person distance yourself when you report
concerned and to be ready to ‘be’ that this.
personality in the next class. Enlarge the 4 Was there anything emotionally
portrait to at least A3 size and display it
interesting in the interviewee’s
to the class on a flip-chart easel at the
responses? Decide how best to
start of the next class. The student
report this.
playing the role should remain outside
5 Think of a good headline for your
the room. Tell the class that they are
reporters and that the personality will article, and a good opening and
soon be available to answer their closing.
questions for just ten minutes. Give
As a variation, you can ask the groups
them ten minutes to prepare their
to produce a spoken report on the press
questions. Tell them they will need to
conference for TV or radio.
take notes on the answers they get. The
student playing the ‘personality’ then
comes in secretly and sits behind the

easel so that the class can’t see who it is.
Once you develop an understanding of
Chair the press conference and ensure
the ‘big picture’ view of reporting, the
that the questions are fair and not too
artificially created grammatical category
challenging. After ten minutes, bring the
of ‘reported speech’ becomes completely
conference to a close and debrief – this
redundant, and you can focus on a much
is important, especially for the student
more communicative and productive
who played the role. Ask how they felt
perspective focusing on ‘ways of
about being in role and ask the press
reporting’ what people say and write. ETp
corps how they perceived the
personality. Ask them to form groups
Rod Bolitho is Academic
and agree on how to report the press Director at Norwich
conference. Set a realistic word limit. Institute for Language
Education, UK.
Give them the following guidance: Previously, he spent 17
years at the University
1 Decide what you want to report College of St Mark and
St John in Plymouth. His
exactly, and what you want to
most recent book is
summarise. Trainer Development,
co-authored with Tony
2 Decide on any reporting verbs you Wright.
might need to interpret the
rodbol44@yahoo.co.uk
interviewee’s words.

ENGLISH
Tprofessional
EACHING
ENGLISH TEACHING professional
Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd,
PO Box 100, Chichester,
West Sussex, PO18 8HD, UK
Fax: +44 (0)1243 576456
Email: info@etprofessional.com
IT WORKS IN PRACTICE
Do you have ideas you’d like to share
with colleagues around the world?
Tips, techniques and activities; simple or
sophisticated; well-tried or innovative;
something that has worked well for you?
All published contributions receive
a prize! Write to us or email:
editor@etprofessional.com
teaching materials for ETp? We are always
Writing for ETp
Would you like to write for ETp?
We are always interested in new writers
and fresh ideas. For guidelines and
for reviewers. You will need to give your
advice, write to us or email:
editor@etprofessional.com
TALKBACK!
Do you have something to say about
an article in the current issue of ETp?
This is your magazine and we would
really like to hear from you.
Write to us or email:
editor@etprofessional.com
Reviewing for ETp
Would you like to review books or other
looking for people who are interested in
writing reviews for us. Please email
helena.gomm@pavpub.com
for advice and a copy of our guidelines
postal address and say what areas of
teaching you are most interested in.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 76 September 2011 • 39