The output hypothesis, the L2 teacher, and the speaking skill

Authors

  • Maria da Glória Guará Tavares Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brasil

Keywords:

output, speaking, teacher, classroom

Abstract

The present article reports on a case study with three L21 teachers, the purpose of which was to examine teachers’ perspectives towards the speaking skill, types of opportunities provided for speaking the target language in the classroom, and functions of output (Swain, 1985, 1995) mostly emphasized by teachers within the opportunities provided for speaking. Results indicate that teachers tend to view speaking as communication and most opportunities provided for speaking are discussions about familiar topics. Moreover, teachers tend to emphasize the practice function of output.

Author Biography

Maria da Glória Guará Tavares, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brasil

Maria da Glória Guará Tavares has just completed her PhD in Applied Linguistics at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina on a grant from CNPq. The title of her doctoral dissertation is ‘Pre-task planning, working memory capacity, and L2 speech performance.’ Last year, she carried out part of her research data analysis at the University of Auckland on a grant from CAPES. She also has an MA in Applied Linguistics from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina and a degree in EFL Teaching Methodology from Universidade Federal do Ceará. Her main research interests are: Learning styles, task-based language learning and teaching, working memory, and L2 speech production.

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Issue

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Papers

License

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