Developing your academic speaking skills: A handbook for learners of English as a Foreign Language.

Impresiones FL de Natalia Rondini

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2013 p. 59

978-987-1976-01-0

In this edition of the handout we have made some adjustments to improve the activities and guidelines included in a previous edition, which came out under the title Developing Your Oral Academic Skills: A Handbook for Learners of English as a Foreign Language. Based on our observation of English as a foreign language (EFL) students' oral performance at undergraduate level and on research findings in the area of foreign language speaking skills, we propose practical ways to empower university students to become more successful EFL speakers. The purpose of this handbook is to discuss ways of practising academic speaking skills in the context of EFL teaching to upper-intermediate students enrolled in teacher, translation and licentiate training programmes at university. The guidelines and tasks included in this handbook have been designed to encourage students to develop general naturalness and clarity of speech, critical thinking skills, a control of grammatical structures, and use of varied subject-core vocabulary in communicative contexts. Thus, it is expected that this material will help learners to improve their mastery of the foreign language and to approach oral communication in a way that makes them become self-confident and competent speakers.