This document discusses oral communication in teaching English as a foreign language. It defines communicative competence as having grammatical competence as well as understanding what is feasible, appropriate, and accepted usage in a language. Oral communication is a complex skill that requires being able to engage in rapid conversation and say things that conform to the speaker's goal, relationships between participants, setting, topic, and linguistic context. Swedish curricula since the 1970s have focused on communication and ensuring students can communicate orally in English. Oral proficiency refers to students' ability to use language effectively to achieve communicative goals. Developing oral proficiency requires acquiring vocabulary and grammar as well as communicative competence through speaking and listening activities.

1. Oral Communication
Keywords: oral communication, oral language acquisition, English foreign language teaching, English foreign language classroom, motivation,
self–esteem, assessment.
Abstract
The overall aim of this essay was to investigate what attitudes some English teachers and pupils in 9th grade in Sweden have towards oral
communication in the teaching of English. I wanted to find out why oral communication is an important part of the teaching of English, what factors
teachers and pupils believe contribute to orally active pupils in the English foreign language classroom and what English teachers think of the
assessment of pupils' ability to express themselves orally in English. I have interviewed three English teachers, and 85 pupils in 9th grade...show more
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Communicative competence is a combination of four different competences. To be communicatively competent, according to Hymes, means that a
person, apart from having grammatical competence, knows if an utterance is feasible or not, if it is appropriate or not and also if it is accepted usage
(Tornberg 1997:40).
The spoken communicative skill is complex. Since the utterances cannot be prepared in advance in a conversation a rather rapid usage of the language
is required of the participants and what is being said must be right on a number of levels, that is "it must conform to the
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speaker's aim, to the role relationships between the interactants, to the setting, topic, linguistic context etc" (Johnson & Morrow 1986:11).
2.1.2 Communicative competence and Swedish curricular documents
Since the 1970s foreign language teaching in Sweden has focused on communication where the pupils have been taught to use the language in a
communicative context (Tornberg 1997: 40–41). The current Swedish curriculum for the compulsory school states in its Goals and guidelines that
school has to ensure that all pupils completing compulsory school "can communicate in speech and writing in English" (The Swedish National Agency
for Education [www]). Further the current national syllabus for English in the Swedish compulsory school states that the school should aim for the
pupils developing "an
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2. Oral Proficiency In English
Oral proficiency refers to the point of skill, which students can use the language. According to Taylor: ''the latter term [proficiency] designating
something like the ability to make use of competence ...Competence can be regarded as a static concept, having to do with structure, state, or form,
whereas proficiency is essentially a dynamic concept, having to do with process and function.'' (Taylor, 1983p166). The concept of proficiency is the
ability to use language effectively to ensure the communicative objectives. The general definition of Oral Proficiency in English is the learner's ability
to speak and use English for interaction with others. For the development of proficiency in oral English must acquire vocabulary, earn grammar...show
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Also, help to acquire communicative competence in language learning this according to Dawes: "Through a speaking and listening approach, children
can naturally achieve literacy without being burdened with ridiculous learning intentions". (Dawes 2011, p. 44). Easiness peaking discourse can play a
crucial role for listening to second language because the main function of listening in a foreign language is the facilitation of understanding
conversation. (Richards, 2008). As noted above, teachers should pay attention to the close relationship between speaking and listening, and should
relate these two skills in the teaching process. Both of them (speaking and listening) happen together; when teachers focus their attention on speaking
activities such as describing a photo, listening is always there. Therefore, the relationship between them is clear almost in all activities that used to
teach speaking; both of them strengthen one another. 3.2–Speaking V.s
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