EFL Teaching

It is quite true that formal academic teaching focuses primarily on grammar skills, mainly at secondary school level. Promoting the integration of macro linguistic skills can help learners develop language awareness beyond grammar.
It is also important to consider the grammar component as the foundations for language competence in L2. Thus one of the aims of teaching EFL at high school should be the development of this language competence in an integrated mannner, by applying diverse strategies that attend to each and all of language skills.

Components of oral proficiency (based on Schwartz, R, 2008)

FLUENCY: being natural when speaking.
Features: pausing, rhythm, intonation, stress.
Some elements: speech rate, interjections, interruptions, communication of ideas, continuous speech

LISTENING: understanding what is being said
Features: comprehension
Some elements: perception of some speech elements, sound discrimination

GRAMMAR: the way in which words and phrases are combined to make meaningful sentences
Features: competence
Some elements: the way a speaker manages the patterns of a language

FUNCTIONS: using the language for specific purposes
Features: speaker’s ability to use L2 for certain tasks and functions
Some elements: requesting, obtaining information, formal and informal conversations, giving instructions, creating with the language

VOCABULARY: giving meaning and describing thoughts and ideas
Features: content and function words, compound words and idioms
Some elements: choice of words and topic

PRONUNCIATION: way sounds of a L are produced, and how they are perceived.
Features: ability to recognize different accents
Some elements: sounds, accents, sound clusters, and liaisons

Which of these skills are really developed/ enhanced in our FL / L2 class?

How can LANGUAGE SKILLS be furthered in the FL class at an advanced level?

SOME MYTHS
 There are too many different levels of ability in this class
 As soon as students are told to work in groups, L2 is not used. They speak in L1
 There are too many students in the class to do pair oral exchanges
 I’d like to incorporate more speaking activities in my English class, but students might feel overwhelmed by this
 Writing tasks involve too many sub skills to be assessed in an integrative manner
 Time is too short to give students enough speaking practice
 Strategies for developing comprehension are not helpful
 Students make too mistakes, some of which can not be corrected all the time