Intensive Speaking

Abstract

In Korea, grammar is usually taught in combination with reading, especially in high school. However, due to the changes implemented in the upcoming National English Ability Test (NEAT) which tests all four language skills, a more practical grammar instruction is necessary in order to improve oral proficiency. During the past decade, many Korean English textbooks adapted the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach and grammar instruction was often neglected in the speaking class. As a result, students’ spoken output often seems to lack grammatical accuracy; therefore, it is necessary to prepare students to develop their oral proficiency with a strong focus on accuracy. The reason for designing a speaking class with a focus on grammar is because a speaking class can turn out to be a chatting class without explicit attention paid to grammar instructions. Although Korean EFL students do not receive adequate opportunities for engaging in interactions in English, which is considered to be crucial for developing language fluency (Gass, 1997), it is important to provide as many opportunities for using English in meaningful communicative situations as possible in a classroom setting. Furthermore, providing many opportunities to produce the target language is considered to be an important part of language acquisition (Swain, 1985). This textbook is specifically designed for high school students aged 18 or 2rd graders of high school. High school students who have not been abroad with very few opportunities to use English in their daily lives also have limited oral proficiency. Contrary to the current nationwide university entrance examination, the Korean SAT(Su-Neung), which mainly focuses on the testing of receptive skills (listening and reading), the NEAT(National English Ability Test) tests all four language skills. Students not only have the burden to read and listen well in English, but they are now faced with the task of producing fluent and accurate language skills in speaking and writing. The level of the target students is Intermediate Mid (according to the ACTFL) in an advanced speaking (conversation) class among differentiated classes of high school (few near native speakers of English will be included in this class). Although the level of the class is slightly beyond the proficiency level of their productive skills, they should be able to participate in the basic communicative tasks in English. In order to help the students to participate in various types of English conversations, a variety of topics and grammar-focused speaking practices that demand discourse-level competence (communicative competence beyond sentence-level proficiency) would be needed for attaining high-intermediate to advanced level proficiency. At this level, students can reformulate and self correct their utterances; therefore, fluency and accuracy can both be improved if they are urged to produce more by the teacher.