Accuracy and Fluency: Giving each its place JoAnn Miller, Editorial Macmillan

Fluency 8The ability to produce written and / or spoken language with ease 8Speak with a good but not necessarily perfect command of intonation, vocabulary and grammar 8Communicate ideas effectively 8Produce continuous speech without causing comprehension difficulties or a breakdown in communication Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Accuracy 8Ability to produce grammatically correct sentences 8May not include the ability to speak or write fluently. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

Self-Assessment 8The amount of emphasis you put on accuracy or fluency depends on your students 8Tourism? 8Translation?

Four skills 8Reading Intensive vs. Extensive 8Listening Intensive vs. Extensive 8Writing Process vs. Free 8Speaking Planned vs. Spontaneous

Reading: Extensive 8Reading for overall understanding 8Longer piece of text 8Worry less about individual words and sentences 8Get caught up in flow of ideas Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching. Heinemann, 1994, p

Reading: Intensive Short sections or sentences 8When we need to understand information in detail

Listening Intensive vs. Extensive like in reading 8Intensive listening: Instructions 8Extensive listening: A movie A conversation

Process Writing 8 Teacher doesn’t just assign a writing topic and receive the finished product for correction with no intervention in the writing process itself. 8 The process is as (or more) important than the product 8 Students plan, write, rewrite, edit individually and in groups with teacher supervision Stanley, G. “Approaches to process writing”. Teaching English. British Council, BBC.

Freewriting 8Not just for brainstorming 8Practice for decreasing students’ inhibitions about writing 8Allow them to increase written fluency 8Reassure students continually that whatever they write is OK 8BUT must keep writing..write as much as possible Gretchen Jude (1999). Freewriting for fun and fluency.

Now you try it…. 8Theme: The best class I ever had 8Rules: Don’t erase Don’t stop writing

Speaking 8Fluency: “concerns the learner’s capacity to produce language in real time without undue pausing or hesitation.” 8Accuracy: “how well language is produced in relation to the rule system of the target language.” Peter Skehan, “Second language acquisition research and task-based instruction”, Challenge and Change in Language Teaching, J. Willis and D. Willis, ed. Heinemann, P. 22.

Task-based methods 8Recommend fluency activities first 8Then follow up with accuracy activities

Accuracy in Tasks Whenever learners are involved in communication they are concerned with accuracy… In spontaneous communication -- little time to reflect on the language they produce. If given time to prepare, there will be more accuracy Dave Willis, “Accuracy, fluency and conformity” Challenge and Change in Language Teaching, J. Willis and D. Willis, ed. Heinemann, P. 50.

Fluency in Tasks need opportunities to process language for communicative purposes as receivers and producers. should be unfettered by the perceived need to conform to teacher expectations in terms of the production of specific language forms. Dave Willis, “Accuracy, fluency and conformity” Challenge and Change in Language Teaching, J. Willis and D. Willis, ed. Heinemann, P. 50

The Task Cycle: Task (Fluency) 8Pairs or groups. use any language they have to express themselves and say what they want to say. 8T walks around and monitors helps Ss formulate what they want to say, but doesn’t correct errors in form 8Emphasis on spontaneous, exploratory talk and confidence building in small group. Success helps Ss’ motivation.

The Task Cycle: Planning / Reporting (Accuracy) 8Planning Ss draft and rehearse what they want to say or write. T helps advising Ss. Emphasis on clarity, organization and accuracy 8Reporting: T asks some pairs to report briefly to whole class so everyone can compare findings--or begin a survey T chairs, comments on content, rephrases but gives no public correction

Now you do it… 8In pairs, tell your partner about your worst teaching experience F Now, write your experience F Change partners and tell the story again F How did it change?

So, what to do in class… 8Reading: Encourage students to do free reading of longer passages (fluency) as well as in class exercises (usually accuracy) 8Listening Encourage students to watch movies and listen to songs in English (fluency) as well as class practices (accuracy)

8Writing Include freewriting (fluency) daily or weekly for a few minutes 8Speaking Follow a task cycle

Thank you very much…. JoAnn Miller Handout available at: