Developing Accuracy with Communicative Tasks

Abstract

Introduction This Textbook is designed to engage students in learning language skills applied in conversational English and it focuses mainly on speaking. The class consists of eight students who are taking EFL Speaking in an International School in South Korea. Their grades range from 7th to 9th grade and they are taking this class because they need additional productive practice. Students will apply for AP English the following year, which involves a lot of discussion and presentations. For this reason, these students tend to be intrinsically motivated and want to improve their speaking skills in order to gain acceptance into the AP classes. The students’ level is intermediate mid based on ACTFL. They attend classes which are only taught in English and students have spent some time studying abroad or in international schools before coming to this school. Therefore, students speak English quite fluently and meaning is delivered most of the time in class; however, a focus on accuracy in their speaking is greatly needed. While they have had the opportunity to speak English in class and abroad, many need to raise their awareness of accuracy in speaking since many minor mistakes have been overlooked and they are now unable to correct themselves since their mistakes have become fossilized. Unfortunately, the speaking textbook that the school recommends mostly contain fluency-based speaking activities, which is the main reason why I have decided to design this Textbook in order to help students improve their accuracy in speaking. Method Based on the target situation and level, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Project-Based Learning (PBL) are the two methodologies applied to meet the students’ needs. The goal of this textbook is to teach communicative competence in both accuracy and fluency, so that students understand how to use the language for different purposes and functions. Since students need to raise their awareness in accuracy, the class will focus on form; therefore, language control is provided according to the different functions covered in class. As Richards mentions, students need to spend lots of time on meaningful practice, but they should make these meaningful choices on their own when doing interactive activities (Richards, 2005, p.16). This will allow them to enhance their accuracy and fluency. In the sample chapter, students learn to express their likes and dislikes with the use of gerund. They do many activities using the gerund, but they also practice fluency by doing functional tasks such as asking interview questions and finding out what their favorite actor likes. Overall, the communicative activities will be helpful in creating the classroom environment for students, especially when they will be required later to do their final projects and presentations. Lastly, Project-Based Learning (PBL) is applied at the end of every chapter. All the meaningful input and practice that students have previously done will help them perform more engaging and challenging tasks, which are the final projects and presentations. According to Beckett & Miller, students learn that language, content, and skills development all happen together when performing a final project and this can lead them to develop their performance in an English-speaking academic context (Beckett & Miller, 2006, p.245). As a result, students’ continuous progress and outcome of the final project will be considered more important and testing will not be a priority in this class. Expected Outcomes In conclusion, this Textbook will enable students to raise awareness of accuracy in speaking by doing engaging and interesting communicative tasks. As a result, students should be able to show progress in the following two areas by the end of the year: improving fluency as well as accuracy in English speaking and passing EFL English in order to join AP English the following year.