Excerpt 1

We are interested in communication between native and non-native speakers for one very important reason: this is the kind of communication for which all teachers are essentially preparing students. Regardless of the level of our students, whether they are beginners or already near-native speakers, if they want to use their second language, they need to enter this type of communication. We need to help them to participate in this communication with dignity and power, and to close the gap between their language skill and those of the native speakers. In order for us to prepare our students in this way, we must be knowledgeable about the specific nuances of verbal communication between native and non-native speakers.

The most obvious distinction between the language performance of native and non-native speakers is the dramatic difference in levels of language accuracy and fluency. While native speakers usually talk effortlessly, naturally and correctly; non-native speakers consistently experience difficulties in expressing their thoughts, struggle for the right words, and typically lack confidence in their communication. When trying to speak a foreign language, non-native speakers think extensively in their own native language and, worse, they often translate directly from their native language into the foreign language. This frequently leads them to create utterances that do not make sense to native speakers, further diminishing their confidence in their speaking ability and often causing them to dread native speakers’ questions that they are then likely to answer very abruptly and awkwardly.

SHEKHTMAN, Boris; KUPCHANKA, Dina. Teaching Foreign Language on the Basis of the Native Speaker’s Communicative Focus. California: MSI Press, 2007. (Adapted).

Excerpt 2

From a sociocultural perspective, language phenomena reflect contextual needs, which, together with learner needs, have implications for language teaching. These phenomena pertain to both language use and language learning; the former is a function of an interaction of attitude, function, context, and competence; the latter has to do with language educational systems, institutional practices, and learner beliefs and attitudes. Understanding these components that inform language use and learning is a prerequisite to any pedagogical innovation. To understand English language use and learning within the context of Taiwan, a study delineated a sociolinguistic profile of English use and learning within a four-dimensional framework: attitude, function, pedagogy, and learner beliefs. Data were both quantitative and qualitative and included teacher, learner, and parent questionnaire responses and interview accounts.

This chapter presents only a small part of the study concerning teacher educators’ perceptions of English language teaching and learning in Taiwan. The interview accounts contribute to a fuller understanding of present day English teaching and learning in Taiwan, where curricular innovation has been both encouraged and challenged. Another reason for presenting this qualitative part of the much larger study is that it provides rich information necessary for in-depth analysis and addresses research questions for which quantitative methods alone are insufficient.

SAVIGNON, Sandra (Ed.). Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching. Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. (Adapted).

In these two excerpts of texts, there is a discussing teaching non-native speakers to communicate. According to their reading, choose the alternative that best presents the views carried out by the texts.