Spoken Grammar and Its Role in the English Language Classroom

Abstract

According to Ur “of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important.” Indeed, whether for business or pleasure, a primary motivation to learn a second language is to be able to converse with speakers of that language. This explains why so many language learners are very interested in the speaking skill. However, in addition to being an important skill, speaking is also a great challenge for foreign language learners, and students must master several difficult microskills, including the pronunciation of unfamiliar phonemes, the correct placement of stress and intonation, and the appropriate use of formal and informal expressions.