ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the development of the experimental curriculum design for confidence building in terms of theoretical perspectives. It deals with the related logistics of the Building Confidence to Speak English course. The Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, Common Underlying Proficiency and the Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency Skills theory of Cummins is the overarching theory for the entire curriculum design and it has been selected by considering the developmental sequence of the learner language. For the material design, Speech Act Theory is used along with principles of gradation and the sequencing of activities. With building student confidence as the pivotal point around which speech activities are clustered, the two scales used in designing and sequencing materials are exploited mostly in pair and group activities. The material for the Confidence Building Course has been developed using Speech Act Theory that classifies all speech functions into five categories: Declaratives, Constatives, Commissives, Representatives and Directives.
