Teaching English grammar: A key to improve spoken communicative competence

Abstract

Nowadays, EFL students have to face important difficulties when learning a language, it is an important challenge for them to use the language in spoken communicative contexts. The main problem is that English in the Spanish context of education is taught as a subject instead as a means for communication. At the end of upper secondary education, students have acquired great knowledge about grammatical rules and structures, they can complete reproductive exercises without any problem. However, most students are not able to use the language for oral communication and in a creative way. The present paper aims at the improvement of the teaching approaches and methodologies currently used for the teaching of grammar in upper secondary education. The activities presented follow a functional grammar approach in which grammatical structures are learned in a context and have a communicative function. In addition, different language aspects and skills are developed in the activities, being the emphasis placed on grammar and spoken communication. The essay is divided in four parts. The first one introduces the objective of the project and gives an insight into the current educational context in Spain, focusing on the factors that usually affect EFL learning. The second part, provides the theoretical background for the project. In this section, approaches for teaching grammar and spoken communicative competence are presented. Taskbased learning approach is explained as it is the basis for the activities designed. The third part consists of a teaching proposal where the activities are explained regarding their development, contents, objectives, competences, methodology and assessment. Finally, the conclusion of the project is presented