Attitudes to classroom conversation and casual chat have varied over the years. In the heyday of audiolingualism, one writer, Louis Alexander, warned that the traditional conversation lesson is of no value at all if the student is not ready for it. The student must first be trained to use patterns in carefully graded aural-oral drills. Only in this way will he finally learn to speak.The chat stage of the lesson, if it occurred at all, was simply there as a curtain raiser to the main event – the controlled practice of sentence patterns. Until recently, one London language school was still advising its students that the teacher and the student must not chat during the lesson. They must only ask and answer the questions in the book. Chatting is a waste of time. Such a view sits uncomfortably with the finding that conversation, i.e. casual talk that is primarily interpersonal, is by far the most common and the most widespread function of speaking. Moreover, there is a school of thought that argues that, in L1 acquisition, the development of conversational skills precedes the development of language itself. As Evelyn Hatch put it, language learning evolves out oflearning how to carry on conversations, i.e. out of learning how to communicate. By extension, it has been argued that conversation in English as second or foreign language is not the result of language learning, but it is the site where learning occurs. lt is also, of course, a fact that many language learners feel that their most urgent need is to develop conversational competence, and they regularly choose conversation as their principal objective when answering needs analysis surveys. For this reason, many language schools offer conversation classes as a way of complementing more traditional, grammar-focused, classes. However, these offer a challenge to teachers and course designers since it is difficult to plan or programme something as inherently unstructured and spontaneous as casual conversation. As one writer puts it, genuine conversational interactions cannot be the outcome of planned lesson agendas, they have to emerge - and so, by definition, cannot be planned. One way that teachers get round this is to organize conversation classes around a set of themes. Ideally, these should be negotiated with the learners in advance, through the use of a questionnaire or by means of a consensus debate. Themerelated texts can be used to trigger conversation, either in open class or in groups. Or individual students take turns to make a short presentation on the pre-selected topic, which is then followed by open discussion. Pre-planned lesson content can take the form of teaching useful conversational formulas and routines, such as how to open and dose conversations, how to interrupt, change the subject, ask for clarification, and so on.

THORNBURY, Scott. How to Teach Speaking. Cambridge: Longman, 2005, pp. 110-1. (Adapted).

In this excerpt, the author states that “By extension, it has been argued that conversation in English as second or foreign language is not the result of language learning, but it is the site where learning occurs”.

After reading the passage as a whole, choose the best alternative that explains how to cope with this matter.

The effect of teaching Structural Discourse Markers in an EFL classroom setting

[...] Recent studies in corpus linguistics have examined specific aspects of spoken grammar particularly in unplanned speech. According to McCarthy and Carter (2001), spoken grammars have uniquely special qualities that distinguish them from written ones [...]. In spoken discourse, according to Fung and Carter (2007), the amount and frequency of DM use is significant in comparison to the use of other forms because they serve important interpersonal functions.

Therefore, DMs act as influential interactional features rather than having a purely grammatical function. One of the most important features of DMs is to constitute and organize talk [...]. There is acknowledgement that DMs have a pragmatic meaning in discourse and consequently play a significant role in speakers’ pragmatic competence because they contribute to the pragmatic meaning of utterances. Thus, there is the view that DMs contribute to the interpretation of an utterance rather than to its propositional content [...].

There are a limited number of studies conducted on the instruction of DMs in EFL contexts. All studies revealed similar findings, namely explicit instruction has a positive impact on learners’ production. The main difference being that each study focused on a different genre: writing skills, oral production and listening comprehension, respectively. In all these studies the addition of a post-test would have been beneficial to measure the long-lasting effects of teaching DMs on learners’ acquisition.

Rahimi and Riasati (2012) stated that using DMs will help learners to perform better in spoken skills. In English as a Second Language context (ESL) Jones (2009) carried out a small-scale study with two groups, both of which were given the same DMs using two different teaching approaches: illustration, interaction and induction (III) and presentation, practice and production (PPP). The results demonstrated that PPP had a considerable effect on learners’ use of the taught DMs [...].

Available in: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1101735.pdf. Acess on: Feb. 2, 2026.

According to the text’s perspective,

Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca

[...] There are three possible interpretations of the expression “World Englishes”. Firstly, it serves as an “umbrella label” covering all varieties of English worldwide and the different approaches used to describe and analyze them. Secondly, it is used in a narrower sense to refer to the so-called new Englishes in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean (Kachru’s outer circle). [...] Thirdly, it is used to represent the pluricentric approach to the study of English associated with Kachru and his colleagues, and often referred to as the Kachruvian approach, although there is considerable overlap between this and the second interpretation of the term. The first use is also sometimes represented by other terms, including World English (i.e., in the singular), international English(es), and global English(es), while the second is in fact more commonly represented by the terms nativized, indigenized, institutionalized, and new Englishes or English as a second language. And still other terms are currently in circulation [...]. Despite the range of interpretations of the term “World Englishes” and its alternatives, the links between them are so strong, and the field now so well established, that there seems to be little confusion over the intended reference.

The same cannot be said, by contrast, for ELF, despite Larry Smith’s visionary work on English as an international language dating way back to the 1970s and 1980s. One complication for ELF is the fact that “International English” is sometimes used as shorthand for “English as an international language”, or EIL, itself an alternative term for ELF. Used in this way, it can be misleading because it suggests that there is one clearly distinguishable, codified, and unitary variety called International English, which is certainly not the case. “International English” is used to refer to the local Englishes of those non–mother tongue countries where it has an intranational institutionalized role, although some researchers also include the mother tongue English countries (Kachru’s inner circle) in their definitions. On the other hand, “International English” is also used in another sense to refer to the use of English as a means of international communication across national and linguistic boundaries (primarily, but not exclusively, across the countries of Kachru’s expanding circle). These two meanings, as Seidlhofer (2004) observes, are therefore in “complementary distribution”. It is because of the potential for confusion of the word “international” that ELF researchers prefer the term “English as a lingua franca” to “English as an international language”, although to add to the confusion, both terms are currently in use.

There is considerable overlap between ELF (English as a Lingua franca) users and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, partly because many of those who start out thinking they are learning English as a foreign language end up using it as a lingua franca.

A further problem relates to the so-called phenomenon of “World Standard (Spoken) English” (W(S)SE). This is a hypothetical, monolithic form of English that scholars such as Crystal (e.g., 2003), Görlach (e.g., 1990), and McArthur (e.g., 1987, 1998) believe is developing of its own accord, although Crystal (2003) considers that US. English does seem likely to be the most influential in its development. This form recalls Quirk’s (1985) “single monochrome standard form”, based on the native speaker English that he advocates for nonnative speakers of English regardless of their communicative context [...].

Available in: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255669551_Current_Perspectives_on_Teaching_World_Englishes_and_English_as_a_Lingua_Franca. Acess on: Feb. 3, 2026.

The text states that

In the end, weaving a meaningful narrative using music, images, video, text, and voice really made the assignment worthwhile. The video editing and text creation were important aspects of that process, but it is the people who watch the film — those who may not already love martial arts or understand why or how it came to the States — whom I kept in the forefront of my mind during the composition process. The struggle to accurately represent the views of others forced me to think critically about the way the film would be received and therefore I had to think critically about the various media I was collecting and composing for the documentary. As part of being able to choose my own topic and interview people I knew (and some I didn’t know that well), I learned that it’s important to frame others’ comments in ways that are fair to them while still choosing clips that are interesting to read or see. Ethics became a bigger concern when I knew the people whose words were being represented in my documentary. That’s something that may be more difficult to relay (to students, to audiences) when you’re dealing with impersonal texts. The creation of a research proposal for the documentary — while not a lot of people’s idea of a good time — was a great learning experience that helped me foresee the ethical choices I had to make in the media I used. The proposal allowed me to put what were just ideas down on paper in a way that could be systematically useful to both my professor and me. Even in a narrative text, the research you do can and should change the direction of that text. If I had been unflinching in my drive to sell my message, it is likely that the significance of the message itself would be lost. One of the biggest lessons I took away from this project was that being given more power over my education (i.e., choosing the genre, focus, and media for my assignments) gives me more motivation to perform. It’s something that I knew before but that was emphasized by this assignment. I liked all the other classes I took that semester, but I found myself worrying and working on the documentary in preference to other classes. Also, the assignments that led up to the documentary work focused on one aspect of the documentary process and were great preparation for the final project. For me, the introduction to technologies (such as the audio-editing software) was unnecessary because I’ve worked with them my whole life, but I can see how it was important to other members of the class, and I was able to help others who needed it if I already knew how to do a particular assignment or task. In the end, the sequence of individual media assignments leading up to our documentary research proposal, storyboard, interviews, and choices in editing the media clips provided me with a process in which I could understand how to ethically compose a multimedia text for a specific audience and purpose.

BALL, Cheryl E.; BOWEN, Tia Scoffield and FENN, Tyrell Brent. Genre and Transfer in a Multimodal Composition Class. In: BOWEN, Tracey; WHITHAUS, Carl (Eds.). Multimodal Literacies and Emerging Genres. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013 pp. 20-1.

In this fragment of text you will find a report from an English student named Tyrell about his report on ending a course in digital genres. After reading the report, choose the sentence from the text that may represent the concept of ‘agency’ in practice as it relates to digital genres, multiliteracy and technology.

The application of Bakhtinian theories on Second Language reading comprehension: a qualitative case study

[...] Reading comprehension has been recognized as one of the most important areas in second and foreign language research. Due to the dominance of behaviorism, applied linguistics, and cognitive psychology since 1960s, many research studies focused on the accuracy and speed required for successful comprehension. The epistemological assumptions behind these studies regarded reading as merely a skill-getting process. Readers have to be equipped with the skills and strategies required for successful comprehension, which is mainly based on their performance on multiple-choice tests. Applied linguist Koda (2005) believes that reading depends mainly on the decoding of textual cues: “Successful comprehension is heavily dependent on knowledge of individual word meanings. The widely recognized relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension attests to the crucial role word knowledge plays in text understanding among both L1 and L2 readers” [...].

This viewpoint is also supported by Hauptman (2000), who mentioned that grammar, vocabulary, and the length of the text determine the level of difficulty of the reading task. According to Mackey‘s (1997) definitions of “good enough reading”, good readers have to strike “a balance between the need for accountability to the text and the need for momentum”. It seems that all it takes to be a good reader is to read accurately with a reasonably fast speed and to have a large vocabulary size.

I do not object the importance of speed, accuracy, and vocabulary knowledge in second language reading. However, I argue that there are individual differences which are deterministic toward the comprehension of a text. The meanings that readers created from texts and the depth of the meaning actively constructed by them are also critical in the reading comprehension processes. Second language reading comprehension used to acquire a deficit model, which asked questions like “What do learners need to do in order to decode the sentence?” and “What is required to correctly understand the passage?” Alderson‘s famous question on second language reading was raised in 1984, “Is reading in a foreign language a reading problem or a language problem?” But my question is, “Are there any other factors influencing the second language reading process, other than the language barrier and the reading strategies?”.

On an ideological level, the reason for the emphases on accuracy, speed, and vocabulary size is based on the belief in “abstract objectivism” that

i) Language is a stable, immutable system of normatively identical linguistic forms…; ii) The laws of language are the specifically linguistic laws of connection between linguistic signs within a given, closed linguistic system…; iii) Specifically linguistic connections have nothing in common with ideological values…; and iv) Individual acts of speaking are, from the viewpoint of language, merely fortuitous refractions and variations or plain and simple distortions of normatively identical forms (Voloshinov, 1986, p. 57).

Researchers in traditional reading studies believe that there is (1) a correct or incorrect interpretation of meaning and (2) a generalized speed that a non-native speaker of English should achieve, and that (3) word meanings are fixed meanings which are traceable in dictionaries. They conclude that, when reading a text in another language, the plight of the reader is to master speed, accuracy, and vocabulary knowledge. All research methods or pedagogies are rooted in certain philosophies. I take on an alternative perspective by referring to the Bakhtin Circle that there can be no correct or incorrect interpretations of a text, and that the dialogic process involved in reading comprehension is crucial toward the active construction of meaning by the reader. By “Bakhtinian theories”, I refer here to the ideas and thoughts proposed by “the principal members of the Bakhtin Circle during the 1920s — Valentin Voloshinov, Pavel Medvedev, and Mikhail Bakhtin”.

It is true that for beginning second language readers, language barriers can be an obstacle in constructing meaning. However, this case study was conducted with a native speaker and an advanced learner of English with near native proficiency, and thus the language issue is not the most prominent concern; rather, the research focused on the depth of meaning constructed by the two readers, and the dialogic interactions between the readers and the author of the text [...].

Available in: https://www.readingmatrix.com/. Acess on: Jan. 27, 2026.

Based on the text, it is correct to affirm that

The humanistic approach to boost self-confidence in English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ oral skills

[…] Oral communication skills are crucial in the process of learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), with many students wrestling with a lack of self-confidence when it is time to speak in English, whether in academic or personal situations. Speaking is a skill that requires a high level of self-confidence. Lack of confidence will affect students’ learning process because talking in English requires not being shy or rude.

Grammar and vocabulary are tools that are often used over fluency and proficiency in traditional methods, which has resulted in this problem. When in educational environments there is a neglect of the socio-emotional part at the time of the teaching-learning process, there is a series of negative consequences, such as introversion and lack of motivation to participate in classes […].

The central question that this research aims to address is how the Humanistic Approach can be used to enhance learners' selfconfidence in EFL contexts. This research work explores the potential of the humanistic approach to increase the self-confidence of English as a foreign language learner, focusing specifically on the development of their oral skills. By investigating the theoretical underpinnings, methodologies, and teacher perceptions, this study aims to provide educators with information about a type of teaching that will help them approach learners and foster a supportive learner-centered environment that can lead to significant improvements in both confidence and oral skills […].

In the past, when emphasis began to be placed on teaching English as a foreign language, traditional methods were used, which did not produce results in the emergence of meaningful knowledge, as there was no emphasis on interaction with students and the use of appropriate strategies for teaching a new language [...].

The humanistic approach, based on the principles of empathy, individualization and self-realization, offers a transformative way to address these challenges. By placing the learner at the center of the educational process and fostering an environment of trust and encouragement, this approach emphasizes emotional well-being in language acquisition [...].

Humanistic Approach, rooted in the principles of Carl Rogers (1969), emphasizes a holistic teaching methodology, focused on fostering a supportive, inclusive and learner-centered learning environment. This approach focuses on students as the authors of their own knowledge, with students having the agency to explore and acquire meaningful knowledge according to their experiences, with the teacher being more of a guide who provides instructions and creates an appropriate and harmonious environment for an effective teaching and learning process, taking into account the affective and social needs of each individual […].

Available in: https://repositorio.upse.edu.ec/items/5caf2c50-6627-4f44-87f2-9220acfb1cc8. Acess on: Jan. 25, 2026.

According to the text,

Read the passage adapted from the introduction of a book titled Language and Antiracism that reflects upon antiracist language education in universities.

INTRODUCTION

This book’s twofold goal integrates theory and praxis in an attempt to decolonize the curriculum. On the one hand, these pages aim to inform about theoretical aspects of racism and how it manifests in language programs. In this sense, this book is interested in establishing a conversation about topics that may help educators reflect on an antiracist approach to language teaching while providing the fundamental concepts necessary to be familiar with before attempting to implement it. On the other hand, from a more practical approach ‘concerned with the functional process of how the process of decolonization might happen’ (Ade-ojo, 2021: 1), this book aims to provide a theory-based pedagogical rationale and strategy to fight racism in the language classroom through instruction that integrates research-based contents related to the sociopolitical dimension of language (also referred to as sociopolitical contents [SPCs]) aiming to raise critical linguistic awareness (CLA) in relation to racism. The purpose of this book, then, is to combat racism within one institution that has historically perpetuated it: the university.

US educational institutions – and their educators – have the moral duty to transmit ethical beliefs framed within the national, or rather a-national, self-concept of a pluralistic, democratic, egalitarian ideology, as well as the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive, or at least survive, physically, psychologically and socially in our society and across societies in this globalized world. It is our duty as educators to break a system that echoes beliefs such as, quoting Princeton President Woodrow Wilson, ‘[T]he college is not for the majority who carry forward the common labor of the world [but] it is for the minority who plan, who conceive, who superintend’ (Veysey, 1970: 245, cited in Cabrera et al., 2017).

MAGRO, José L. Language and Antiracism. An Antiracist Approach to Teaching Language in the USA. Jackson: Multilingual Matters, 2023, pp. 15-6. (Adapted).

Choose the alternative that best completes the sentence: The objective of the book is to decolonize curriculum by

lt is often a delicate decision as to how to provide learners with feedback on their errors when their attention is primarily focused on the content of what they are saying, rather than on the way they are saying it. Interrupting learners ‘in full flight’ to give them corrections seems to run counter to the need to let them experience autonomy. If the teacher is constantly intervening to assist their performance, whether by providing unknown words or correcting their errors, they can hardly be said to be self-regulating. And it may have the counterproductive effect of inhibiting fluency by forcing learners’ attention on to accuracy. Nevertheless, many teachers feel uncomfortable about ‘letting errors go’, even in fluency activities, and there is support for the view that maintaining a focus on form – that is, on formal accuracy – is good for learners in the long run. lt is important, therefore, that such a focus should be effected at minimal cost to the speaker’s sense of being in control. What is agreed is that in cases of correction of oral fluency, the teacher’s corrections, while explicit, are unobtrusive, and these are picked up by the learners with no real loss of fluency: ln the above extract, the teacher's interventions should be economical and effective, and the conversational flow should not threatened. However, it could be argued that such overt monitoring deprives the learners of opportunities to take more responsibility for their own monitoring and selfrepair. This is especially the case with regard to their mistakes, as opposed to their errors. By mistake is meant the learners’ momentary failure to apply what they already know, due mainly to the demands of online processing. An error, on the other hand, represents a gap in the speaker’s knowledge of the system. Mistakes can usually be self-corrected, but errors cannot. A deft hint to the learner that they have used a present verb form instead of a past one, for example, may be all that is needed to encourage selfcorrection. And self-correction, even if prompted by the teacher, is one step nearer self-regulation and the ultimate goal of full autonomy. Sometimes, however, the learner’s message is simply unintelligible, and some kind of more obtrusive intervention is necessary to repair the breakdown. ln this case, an intervention that is perceived by the learner as repair is likely to be less inhibiting than one that is perceived of as correction. Repair is facilitative, while correction can be construed negatively, as judgmental. In repairing, the teacher's intervention takes the form of a conversational repair, one that is consistent with the meaning-orientation of the interaction

THORNBURY, Scott. How to Teach Speaking. Cambridge: Longman, 2005, pp. 91-2. (Adapted).

One of the main problems when dealing with oral fluency is to know if a student should be corrected when interacting or after it. After reading this passage about feedback and correction in fluency, select the alternative that agrees with the point of view discussed in the passage.

In the book titled Literacies by Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope, the authors mention the roles of teachers and students facing the challenges of reading in a technological environment. According to the authors, “Communication is rapidly changing. With the rise of new technologies and media, the way we make and transmit meaning is shifting significantly”. For this reason the profile of students have changed considerably from passive actors in the reading and interpreting information to more active meaning-makers, considering the various forms of access to information. New media environment “focuses not only on reading and writing, but also on other modes of communication, including oral, visual, audio, gestural and spatial”.

Below you will find a list of actions related to reading and interpreting texts both in the new and old environments. Read the actions and decide which action relates to which kind of environment. Then choose the correct alternative that corresponds to the right choice.

1. Appreciating texts of prestige ‘literary’ value must be the rule for right interpretation.

2. Innovations, risk-taking and diversity in meaning-making are aspects to be regarded by teachers.

3. It must be considered that a wide and diverse range of texts exists and should be valued.

4. Reading means decoding messages transmitted by written texts.

5. Teaching students to read means dealing solely with canonic British and American production.

6. The fundamentals of literacy should be understanding messages beyond messages.

7. The many social languages and variations in communication must be considered.

8. There are multiple forms of reading a word in multimodal communication.

9. Understanding and using correct spelling and grammar is good communication.

10. We should read only standard, educated English used in homogeneous situations.

KALANTZIS, Mary; COPE, Bill. Literacies. Melbourne: CUP, 2012, p.19. (Adapted).

Even if a foreign language student is an able decoder in English, the level of effort required to read for meaning in real time academic situations can be a monumental task. Look how author Richard Rodriguez (1982) describes his own reading in English as a new language: “Most books, of course, I barely understood. While reading Plato’s Republic, I needed to keep looking at the book jacket to remind myself what the text was about”. One might ask how Rodriguez could be reading a book at such an advanced level in English but still not reading with comprehension. How could he read and yet not read? And what is it that makes reading in a new language so overwhelming? Perhaps part of the answer can be found in the less extensive listening vocabulary upon which foreign language students can draw when reading written words, they have never seen before. Part of it may result from incomplete knowledge of the syntax and grammar patterns of English. When we struggle with sentences in a new language, reading takes a great deal of cognitive energy. As a result, retaining the gist of the previous sentences in a paragraph or of previous paragraphs in working memory is hard to do as we move through a text. Even when decoding is no longer very effortful, it is still much harder to move along through a text and construct meaning from it as we read in a new language. We might describe this as a real-time “delay”, which has to do with discursive practices. When the rate of processing discursive meaning from text can’t “catch up” with the rate of our decoding, the result may be the strange phenomenon of decoding but not comprehending, as lamented by Richard Rodriguez above.

LEMS, Kristin; MILLER, Leah D.; SORO, Tenema M. Teaching Reading to English Language Learners. Insights from Linguistics. New York and London: 2010, pp. 171-2. (Adapted).

The excerpt discusses what the author calls ‘real-time delay’ in English as a foreign language students’ reading ability. After reading this passage, choose the best alternative that may define this real-time delay.