Developing the Speaking Ability in High School Students

The guidelines of the Ministry of Education of Cordoba province for the C.B.U. require teachers of English to encourage in students the development of abilities and strategies which enable them to interact linguistically in basic situations of written and oral communication. In relation to the latter, teachers are expected to promote a student capable of saying something meaningful to somebody under certain circumstances. However, a very urgent and serious problem among teachers of English is the fact that, apparently, when students finish the third year of the C.B.U., they are unable to keep a meaningful oral interaction in the foreign language. This situation, which seems to be shared by most teachers of English from Villa Maria, showed the need to carry out a purely didactically oriented research work, aiming at describing how English is being taught at present, in our twelve secondary schools. In other words,it appears to be relevant to find out to what extent teachers follow the guidelines proposed by the Ministry as regards the development of students’ oral communicative competence, and to see if teachers actually stimulate students to communicate in the foreign language.