according to West (2000, Unit 2: 12), there are considerable differences between
spoken language in the classroom and that used in the real world, a basic factor which
determines the success of a lesson is the extend to which classroom practices resemble
real life situations. This involves considering the following factors:
1.2.3.1. The input
In a speaking session, input is provided to students mainly by the textbook
language and the teacher talk. However, Porter and Roberts (1981: 38) stress that
there is a mismatch between the characteristics of the discourse we normally listen to
and that of classroom language. This mismatch is, according to West (2000, Unit 2:
16) not innocent for the students’ inappropriate output as: “…unnaturalness in the
input would, one would think, lead to unnaturalness in the output.”
The necessity for providing students with input similar to that of authentic
language is not only justified by the fact that it provides students with an appropriate
model for their own output but also because, as Krashen (1987 21) argues, language is
better acquired through what he calls ‘comprehensible input’, i.e. language which is
meaningful and a little beyond the students’ level of proficiency.
1.2.3.2. The activities
West (2000, Unit 1:12) stresses that Krashen’s claim for comprehensible input
should not overshadow the importance of comprehensible output as: “the greater the
opportunities for spoken output, the greater the likelihood that they [students] will
develop confidence in speaking in the target language.”
There have been many attempts to define the characteristics of speaking
activities which would bridge the gap between classroom and ‘real world’. Allwright
(1984: 157) stresses that classroom activities should be communicative as it is through
such activities that classroom learning can be transferred to the outside world while
Littlewood (1984: 53 ) considers a person’s need to communicate about topics that are
of interest to her as capable of providing the speaker with the appropriate motivation
to learn the language.
Finally, Nation (1989: 24-28) identifies five features which he claims are
essential when devising communicative speaking activities. These are presented
below and further explored with relevant references from the literature:
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