ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the teaching and assessing of oracy in EIL contexts. Beginning with an exploration of the notion of oracy, we will also further examine the notion of fluency touched upon in Chapter 3, and end that discussion with some reflections on what EIL fluency means. The chapter also addresses the important concept of intelligibility (and does so in contrast to both comprehensibility and accentedness), and what intelligibility means with regard to teaching EIL. In the process, the nativeness and intelligibility principles will be considered as will speaker-listener intelligibility in terms of native speaker and non-native speaker interactions. More importantly, we will advocate a broader view of what speaker-listener intelligibility means in terms of speakers from Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circle Englishes interacting in all possible combinations, arguing that for many EIL learners those interactions will mostly involve speaking and listening to Outer, and Expanding Circle speakers of English. The research on the features that are likely to interfere with intelligibility suggests that students might benefit most from being taught a balance of various global suprasegmental features, especially word stress, and those segmental features that teachers determine are most likely to interfere with the intelligibility of their particular students. We then turn to what we call 12 keys to teaching EIL oracy and how teachers can apply them, with special emphasis on encouraging students to listen more quickly and speak more slowly. The chapter ends by discussing techniques for assessing EIL oracy, including the notion of “scope of proficiency,” and gives several examples of assessment procedures that include the ideas of fluency and intelligibility. Throughout the chapter, we will consider the following misconceptions about what English students need to learn and how they need to learn it.
Misconception #1: Fluency in English means being able to speak quickly.
Misconception #2: Fluency means speaking like a native English speaker.
Misconception #3: Listening comprehension in English means being able to understand native speakers of English.
• Misconception #4: Speaking fluently in English means being understood by native speakers of English.
