Masaryk University Brno Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature

The Effectiveness of Preparation of Grammar School Learners for Working in an English Speaking Country
Diploma Thesis

Brno, April 2011

Author: Bc. Vclav Hemerka

Supervisor: PhDr. Alena Kaprkov

Declaration
I hereby declare that I have worked on this thesis independently and used only the sources listed in the bibliography. Brno, 15 April 2011. Bc. Vclav Hemerka

Acknowledgements
I would like to express gratitude to my supervisor, PhDr. Alena Kaprkov., for her valuable advice, as well as for having been very kind and supportive throughout my work on this thesis. My thanks are also due to my family, especially my parents, for their immense patience and both the material and non-material support they have been giving me when I was writing this thesis.

Brno, 15 April 2009. 3

Bc. Vclav Hemerka

Contents
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................5 1.1 Working experience abroad.............................................................................................6 1.2 Reasons for the decision to work abroad..........................................................................7 1.3 What precedes the decision to go?....................................................................................7 2. Communicative Language Teaching...................................................................................9 2.1 Communicative competence.........................................................................................9 2.2 Background to CLT...................................................................................................11 2.3 Characteristics of CLT...............................................................................................11 2.4 Types of activities used in CLT..................................................................................12 2.5 Methods.......................................................................................................................14 2.6 The learners roles.......................................................................................................15 2.7 The teachers roles......................................................................................................15 2.8 Criticism......................................................................................................................16 2.9 Implementation of CLT into teaching ........................................................................17 3 Common European Framework.........................................................................................19 3.1 Common Reference Levels.............................................................................................20 3.2 CAN DO descriptors...................................................................................................21 4 Grammar schools outcomes................................................................................................21 4.1 Speaking.........................................................................................................................22 4.1.1 Spoken production and spoken interaction.............................................................24 4.1.2 Accuracy x fluency.................................................................................................25 4.1.3 Balancing accuracy and fluency.............................................................................27 4.2 Listening........................................................................................................................28 4.2.1 Specifics of real-life listening.................................................................................31 4.2.2 Types of listening...................................................................................................32 4.3 Writing.......................................................................................................................32 4.3.1 Specifics of written language .................................................................................33 4.3.2 Written production and written interaction.............................................................33 4.3.3 What the learners should be able to do and know...................................................34 4.4 Reading..........................................................................................................................34 4.4.1 What the learners should be able to do and know...................................................35 4.5 Linguistic competence ...................................................................................................35 4.5.1 What the learners should be able to do and know...................................................36 4.6 Sociolinguistic competence...........................................................................................37 4.6.1 What the learners should be able to do and know ..................................................38 4.7 Production strategies ......................................................................................................38 4.7.1 What the learners should be able to do and know ..................................................39 4.8 Intercultural competence................................................................................................40 4.8.1 What the learners should be able to do and know ..................................................41 ..................................................................................................................................................43 4

5. Introduction.........................................................................................................................43 5.1 Purpose of the survey ....................................................................................................43 5.2 Method...........................................................................................................................44 5.3 Research sample.............................................................................................................45 5.4 Data concerning the research sample.............................................................................46 ..................................................................................................................................................49 6. Interpretation of results.....................................................................................................49 6.1 Question 1......................................................................................................................49 6.2 Question 2......................................................................................................................51 6.3 Question 3......................................................................................................................52 6.4 Question 4......................................................................................................................53 6.5 Question 5......................................................................................................................55 6.6 Question 6......................................................................................................................56 6.7 Question 7......................................................................................................................58 6.8 Question 8.......................................................................................................................60 6.9 Question 9......................................................................................................................62 6.10 Question 10..................................................................................................................64 6.11 Question 11..................................................................................................................65 6.12 Question 12..................................................................................................................66 .............................................................................................................................................67 6.13 Question 13...................................................................................................................67 7. Summary of results and conclusion..................................................................................69 8. Bibliography........................................................................................................................73 9. Appendices...........................................................................................................................76 9.1 CAN DO statements related to level B2.........................................................................76 9.2 A sample questionnaire from the survey........................................................................89

1. Introduction
This thesis focuses on how grammar schools prepare their students for the possibility to travel to an English speaking country in order to start working there. I decided to focus on grammar schools because they are expected to offer probably the best level of foreign language education of all types of secondary schools.

The thesis will be divided into two parts. The first part will give theoretical background to the issue. I will open the theoretical part by discussing one of the approaches to foreign language teaching Communicative Language Teaching, which emphasises building ones communicative competence and thus teaching the learners to become active users of the language. I will then go on to present one of the most important documents governing foreign language education in all European countries the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. We will briefly familiarize ourselves with its content and take a closer look at the so called CAN DO descriptors. The most important chapter in the theoretical part will be Grammar school outcomes, in which I will very thoroughly discuss what competences, skills, and knowledge an ideally prepared grammar school student should have when they are to start working in an English speaking country. The second part will be practical. Here I will present a small survey I carried out, concerning the issue of grammar school preparation for travelling to and working in an English speaking country. In appendices, I will enclose the most important CAN DO descriptors related to the topic of the thesis, as stated in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. One sample questionnaire from the survey will also be included.

1.1 Working experience abroad

A great number of foreign language learners are considering the opportunity to travel abroad in order to spend some time in a country where the language is natively spoken. Plenty of them also want to combine business with pleasure and start working there. Such people do so because of a variety of reasons, of which money may be one of the strongest, though in the vast majority of cases not the only one. More on these reasons will be discussed in the following subchapter. There is, however, one very strong motive shared practically by all foreign language learners the desire for improvement of their language level. Quite a few people are deeply convinced that one can never achieve proficiency in foreign language without spending some time in the target country. Yet this statement is a myth. Several surveys aimed at this issue have been carried out and according to the results, it has been proved that it is perfectly possible to become a very advanced user of a foreign language without actually having to

travel anywhere. Nevertheless, the positive contribution of staying in the target country to one s foreign language knowledge is indisputable. There are a huge variety of jobs a person from a foreign country can get. Some of them even do not presuppose any knowledge of the language, but in most cases, the applicant should be able to handle at least basic communication. Obviously, the higher level of a foreign language knowledge a person has achieved, the broader range of career choices abroad they have to choose from.

1.2 Reasons for the decision to work abroad

Apart from the wish to improve ones foreign language knowledge, there are of course many other reasons which stand behind the decision to start working in a foreign country. Some of the learners might only want to make a long holiday, others might want to break the everyday stereotype, and some might even wish to drop out of school or job and break away completely. Another primary motive can often be the passion for travelling and all the exciting possibilities that go hand in hand with it. These include meeting interesting people, getting to know distant places and foreign cultures, and discovering sources of experiences and new perspectives. One of the most frequently mentioned motivations, especially in fresh graduates, would probably be the desire to gain independence from parents and stand on ones own feet. Spending a few months abroad enables a young man or woman to prove that they are able to take care of themselves without any support from their families. This awareness of ones self-reliance makes an important part of young peoples self-esteem and helps a great deal when in making the decision to move out of home and possibly establish a family.

1.3 What precedes the decision to go?

The decision making whether to go or not can be very difficult. Quite understandably, a question of money is usually the primary determinant. However good and returnable investition working abroad can be, some young people might find it hard to acquire financial means to realize their dream. But of course, travelling abroad is not just a question of money. The person should weigh the pros and cons carefully and consider what they expect from their

plan, whether their expectations are fulfillable, what benefits there are, as well as what ventures they might possibly undergo. Apart from their language level, they ought to selfassess their qualifications, skills, abilities, and knowledge, and think about the employment possibilities. Similarly, one should respect various circumstances concerning their professional and personal life, e.g. their personality, health status etc. And finally, it is highly advisable to find out as much information as possible about the country the person indends to travel to and the area they want to stay in. They should pay attention to the current political and social situation, working and accommodation possibilities, living costs, safety, infrastructure, the possibilities of commuting and others. They should not forget to inform in advance about the working conditions and requirements, the immigration policy of the country, the necessary steps that have to be taken in order to get to the country, reside there and start working.

Theoretical part

2. Communicative Language Teaching

2.1 Communicative competence

As opposed to grammatical competence, which refers to ones knowledge of grammatical and syntactical rules of a foreign language and the ability to recognize and produce grammatically correct utterances, communicative competence is a much broader term and refers to ones ability to use language effectively in communication. The term communicative competence was coined by D. H. Hymes, who reacted to N. Chomskys concept of competence and performance. In Chomskys view, competence means the speaker-hearers knowledge of his language, whereas performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations. (Chomsky 1965: 4) Hymes argues that if competence denotes the overall knowledge and ability to communicate and should underlie performance, then it definitely has to consist of more segments than just knowledge of how words are combined into sentences. He calls Chomskian concept of competence grammatical competence and brings in a new term communicative competence, which, apart from the knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical and syntactical rules of a language, also comprises many other aspects, e.g. the knowledge of how to say something in order to perform a desired communicative function, how to adjust ones speaking with regards to a given context, how not to deviate from the way native speakers would normally say something, how to start, maintain, and finish conversation etc. He suggests that communicative competence falls into four layers: whether something is formally possible, whether something is feasible, whether it is appropriate, and whether it is in fact done. (Hymes, as quoted in Richards and Rodgers 2001: 159) By possibility he means what Chomsky called competence that is, grammatical competence, or the knowledge of the language system. Feasibility refers to whether an utterance which is grammatically correct possesses the quality of being comprehensible to the addressee. For example, a complex sentence consisting of ten clauses can be grammatically correct, yet the meaning can be very difficult to understand. Appropriateness has to do with adequacy, whether something fits in the given context. And the last segment, whether something is done, refers to whether an utterance is what a (native) speaker would normally say. It is obvious that a learner who has only been taught what Hymes calls possibility, e.g. grammatical structures, might very often be confronted with a situation in which they do not know whether their utterance is feasible, appropriate, and used. This limits their ability to communicate considerably. Another two linguists, Michael Canale and Merill Swain, extend Hymess theory and divide communicative competence into four areas: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic:

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Sociolinguistic competence refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, including role relationships, the shared information of the participants, and the communicative purpose for their interaction. Discourse competence refers to the interpreatation of individual message elements in terms of their interconnectedness and of how meaning is represented in relationship to the entire discourse or text. Strategic competence refers to the coping strategies that communicators employ to initiate, terminate, maintain, repair, and redirect communication. (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 160)

2.2 Background to CLT

The rising tendency to concentrate on the communicative potential of language in the 1960s led to the development of a brand new complex approach which later became known as Communicative Language Teaching (abbreviated as CLT). CLT was meant to replace the two most influential approaches to EFL teaching at that time Situational Language Teaching (SLT) in Britain and Audiolingualism in the United States. Both SLT and Audiolingualism were based on the behaviorist theory which claims that language learning, like any other learning, takes place through habit formation. (Richards and Rodgers 2001) Even though that they did not share their origin, both of the two approaches viewed orientation on grammatical structures as the core of EFL learning. Learning involved a lot of memorising, drilling, and controlled practice. In addition, Situational Language Teaching emphasized the need to relate language forms to appropriate contexts. Learners were supposed to learn and practice fixed patterns of language which were likely to be used in different real-life situations. Critics of SLT and Audiolingualism objected to the belief that language learning equals habit formation. They felt that memorising patterns inevitably leads to certain rigidity in communication. Chomsky claimed that language is not a habit structure. Ordinary linguistic behaviour characteristically involves innovation, formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance with rules of great abstractness and intricacy (1966: 153). The task to reassess and reformulate the goals of EFL teaching so as to ensure unlimited, free language production started to occupy brains of the most prominent linguists both in the UK and USA. The idea to make the ability to communicate well the focus of EFL teaching eventuated in the invention of CLT.

2.3 Characteristics of CLT

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Communicative Language Teaching focuses on building communicative competence, which we discussed in subchapter 2.1. Proponents of the approach believe that the goal of EFL teaching should be enhancing the ability to communicate using the language rather than teaching the language itself that is, its grammatical and syntactical rules. They argue that it was the desire to communicate that led to the invention and consequent development of languages and that language serves as only a means to fulfill our need to communicate. M. A. K. Halliday, a British linguist, says that it is the service of social contexts and behavioural settings that language has evolved (as quoted in Brumfit and Johnson 1979: 25) One of the learning theories underlying CLT is called the communication principle. It suggests that learning is promoted by activities that involve real communication. (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 161) Apropos, learning by doing seems to be the key philosophy of CLT. Unlike e.g. Audiolingualism, whose supporters view language more or less as habit formation, CLT assumes that language is created by the individual (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 157) and that the individual should be given as many chances as possible to produce language so as to learn from their attempts. Therefore, CLT also has a more tolerant attitude towards slips and errors, which are considered natural part of the learning process and do not have to be prevented at all costs. Similarly, CLT does not expect the learners to achieve mastery of language forms, it does not seek flawless pronuciation, and considers fluency the primary goal. Accuracy is judged not in the abstract but in context. (Richars and Rodgers 2001: 157) A great emphasis is given on careful relation of language forms to language meanings. Learners are taught how to use the learned language potential to best perform the desired language function. The proponents of CLT suppose that once the learners concentrate on how they can put across what they really want to say, they will be able to relate to what they are taught more, their intrinsic motivation will rise and they will learn the language with more ease. That is why the teachers are supposed to engage the learners in tasks which involve authentic, meaningful language, rather than mechanical practice. (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 196) Due to the same reason, language should be contextualized as much as possible to prevent the learners from wondering what a certain exercise might be good for.

2.4 Types of activities used in CLT

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The teacher is given relative freedom in choosing the types of activities in CLT. An ideal activity should, however, always involve information sharing, producing meaning, and/or interaction. Rather than aimed at mechanical manipulation with language only, activities used in CLT should follow the communicative principle mentioned in the previous subchapter that is, enable learning through making the learners use language for communication. In other words, tasks should be mediated through language. (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 165) Littlewood mentions some more specific demands on communicative activities. Not only should they allow natural learning through using language for communication, but they are also expected to enhance learner independence, promote peer learning and cooperation, raise motivation through engaging learners in tasks that are meaningful to them, and create a positive, learning-friendly atmosphere in the classroom. (Littlewood 1981: 17-18) Littlewood divides activities used in CLT into two major categories precommunicative and communicative. Pre-communicative activities prepare the learner for taking part in communicative activities. Their aim is to provide the learner with the necessary lexis and give them control over linguistic forms. In communicative activities, the learner first concentrates on the meaning they want to put across, then they select suitable language structures from their repertoire, and only then produce the structure. Although communicative activities usually follow pre-communicative activities, the sequence can be reversed. This is especially useful when the teacher first wants to find out what the learners strengths and weaknesses in communicative tasks are, so that they know what areas they should consequently concentrate on. Littlewood goes on to make another distinction between two types of communicative activities. Functional communicative activities expect from the learners to use any language they know in order to express themselves, exchange information, or solve a particular task. In these activities, we do not primarily assess the learners language level, but rather their level of success in the task completion and the functional effectiveness of communication. Activities which can be labelled as functional communicative include e.g. comparing and contrasting pictures, working with maps and time tables, discovering missing parts in a dialogue, giving instructions to learners who are supposed to draw a picture, listening for purpose, or jigsaw listening. Social interaction activities also expect the learner to communicate effectively, but they add another dimension which is social appropriatness of communication. Apart from expressing meaning and exchanging information, the learner has to pay attention to the aspects of social interaction and choose language means according to 13

the given social context. They have to distinguish between different levels of formality, familiarity, politeness etc., as well as be familiar with various techniques used for leading a conversation. These activites involve mainly discussion, dialogues, and role plays. (Littlewood 1981)

2.5 Methods
Under the term CLT we understand rather an approach to language teaching than any specific method. The learner and enriching their communicative competence should always be the centre of attention. Nevertheless, the learners linguistic competence has to be constantly improved as well so as to form a solid base for fluent production of language. New language structures are presented, explained, and practised. Ideally, any new words and phrases should be contextualized. Also, their written and spoken forms ought to be provided, as well as their grammatical and syntactic properties, all possible meanings, their position in the utterance, level of formality, collocations in which they appear etc. (Finocchario and Brumfit, as quoted in Richards and Rodgers 2001: 171) Whenever the learners are expected to learn a new structure, they should always be informed about the language functions it can perform. They should be able to recognize the function(s), distinguish between possible function shifts determined by the context, and perform the desired function using the structure correctly. If the new language comprises any grammatical rules, the teacher should prefer the inductive approach to direct explanation that is, let the learners explore the rules themselves through analysing examples of usage from which the rules can be worked out. Once the learners are familiar with the new language to the extent that they are able to apply their knowledge in independent work, they practise meaningful and practical tasks. They most often work in pairs or small groups, so that they are given enough space to communicate and made cooperate with peers. Preferably, the teacher should choose such tasks to which the learners would be able to relate, so that they can best acquire the relation between structures and their functions in communication. CLT gives priority to holistic approach to language teaching. This means that no language skill should be taught in isolation. They are ideally linked and two or more skills should be employed simultaneously whenever possible. (Richards and Rodgers 2001)

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2.6 The learners roles

It is clear from what has been written that CLT, more than many other traditional approaches, requires high amount of the learners active participation. Due to the cooperative character of learning, the learner should feel that they are part of the group and that they share responsibility with the others for what the communication is like. This joint responsibility plays an important role in building the learners confidence as speakers. It prevents them from feeling that they are outsiders and cannot keep up with their peers. Each learner is aware of their equal role in the conversation. If there is a learner who is not doing very well, the others should spontaneously try to help them eliminate the obstacles that prevent them from communicating, whatever those might be. (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 166)

2.7 The teachers roles

CLT promotes less teacher-centred teaching. The role of the teacher shifts from being purely language instructor to rather functioning as facilitator of learning and communication. The teacher, of course, remains their position of classroom manager, they select the areas to be taught and activities to be incorporated, decide about the seating arrangements, division of learners into groups or pairs etc. Nonetheless, the tendency is to pass greater responsibility for the learners progress onto the learners themselves. The learners should feel comfortable and secure. This is achieved by creating a cordial, supportive, and speaking-friendly atmosphere. Establishing warmer, more personal relationship among the teacher and the learners is advisable. The choice of activities, their atractiveness and contribution to learning matter a great deal as well. CLT also emphasizes the significance of analysing the learners needs and adjusting the approach according to them. The teacher should be familiar with each of their learners individual characteristics, the purpose they learn English for, their strong and weak points, and make use of this knowledge in their teaching as much as possible. Another important role of the teacher in CLT is, apart from facilitating learning, monitoring the learners performance when they are practising communicative activities. The teacher should not interfere unless a learner cannot cope with their task and the others are not able to help them either. However, the teacher still functions here as a resource of knowledge and thus provides help with language and guidance whenever asked. Quite often the teacher joins a learner or learners to form a pair or group and becomes one of the participants. In that

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case, they should decide whether they want to step down to the level of the others completely and thus stop functioning as a facilitator, resource of knowledge, and guide, or whether they want to maintain those competences. A teacher who takes part in communicative activities can reduce the inhibition and anxiety which learners sometimes feel towards an authority.

2.8 Criticism
As any other approach, CLT has its sworn proponents, but also some critics. They most often dispute the idea of the necessity to teach learners how to express meanings. Also, they warn that the overemphasis on meanings could lead to underestimation of the structural aspects of language. In their views, the learners inability to put a meaning across most often lies in insufficient knowledge of lexical items, rather than not knowing how to express that meaning. One of the recent opponents of CLT, M. Swann, claims that language learners already know [. . .] how to negotiate meaning. They have been doing it all their lives. What they do not know is what words are used to do it in a foreign language. (Swan 1985: 9) It is important to mention that Swan does not condemn CLT as such, he only doubts the theoretical background that underlies it, while does recognize some of the positive contribution of CLT to language learning. The critics also point out that CLT makes considerable demands both on the learners and the teachers. The teachers have to pay high attention to the choice of suitable materials and activities, as well as plan their lessons so that communication is present most of the time. They are supposed to follow the notional-functional syllabus, in which instruction is not organized in terms of grammatical structure, [. . .] but instead in terms of notions and functions. (Syllabus) Notions refer here to specific contexts in which the learners might use specific language functions for example, asking the way when travelling. In notionalfunctional syllabi, the teacher does not have a record of what structures and grammatical rules the learners are already familiar with. The learners have to face some big challenges as well. They are expected to achieve such level of language that enables them free, flexible manipulation with language items. They also become much more responsible for their progress and are expected to achieve high level of self-management. All these demands can be stresfull and problematic in quite a number of learners, e.g. those who learn slowlier, who are shy, learners with SLD, and others.

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2.9 Implementation of CLT into teaching

Now that we have become familiar with the characteristics of CLT, its advantages, but also potential drawbacks, we should not forget to weigh its possible contribution to preparing EFL learners for real life. I will attempt to justify some of the main ideas of the approach and explain why I think that learners who plan to work abroad (but not only them) might benefit from CLT. First of all, I strongly identify with the idea of teaching language for communication, however cliched this may sound. Unfortunately, I have good reasons to think that the communicative value of foreign language is not always sufficiently acknowledged by the teachers. This frequently results in their orientation on structural aspects of language and more or less on building only the linguistic (or grammatical) competence of the learners. There is, of course, nothing wrong with enhancing the learners knowledge of the grammar and syntax of the language. It is one of the teachers primary goal. Actually, when we discussed Hymes and his view on the relation between grammatical and communicative competence in subchapter 2.1, we found out that he recognizes the essential role of linguistic competence as part of communicative competence. Linguistic competence forms the base of communicative competence and provides language repertoire the speaker has to draw on when speaking. However, I believe that neglecting the other parts of communicative competence is a fatal mistake. I have learnt from my experience as freelance English tutor that learners very often do not know how to use the knowledge they are taught in practice. When I asked them what they have learnt in their last lesson, they usually told me the name of a certain grammatical structure or area. Being asked when and in what context would they use it, in most of the cases they did not know. This only confirmed my conviction that language teaching in elementary and secondary schools still consists a great deal in mechanical absorption of rules, regardless of whether the learner would be able to apply them not only in tests and exercises but also (and perhaps more importantly) for their purposes in real life. Secondly, I support the idea of teaching how to relate language meanings to forms. Not in a dogmatic manner, but sometimes and when possible. We neither need to bother our learners with the terms meaning and form, nor addle their brains with lengthy descriptions of what the relations between them are. Rather, we might introduce an area of meaning by simply saying: Today we are going to look at how we can make an offer and provide several examples of utterances which perform the function of an offer. The learners will then make a link between the utterance and its illocutionary force. This does not mean 17

that thay have to use exactly the structures they have learnt. It is perfectly enough when they are familiar with them, so that, at least, they will not be surprised when they ever hear them. The learners want to learn authentic language and want to familiarize themselves with collocations and fixed structures. In my opinion, providing them with authentic language cannot do any harm unless we demand from the learners to memorize the structures like a poem. Ideally, they ought to be provided with as many examples of forms having the same meaning as possible, varying in the degree of formality, politeness, explicitness etc. The teacher should make sure that the learners achieve such level of knowledge that they are able to use the structures flexibly. That is, they should be able to alternate the language items they consist of when needed, as well as change the structure according to the context while preserving its grammaticality. Last but not least, I think that there can never be enough communicative activities in EFL learning, especially those aimed at oral fluency. If we really want our learners to become competent speakers, we must give them plenty of opportunities to practise oral communication. Speaking is referred to as a skill and acquisition of every skill requires tens, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of hours of practice. It would be naive to think that our learners will be able to develop the skill well if we narrow down our teaching to just presentation of language and some practise, mainly controlled and mechanical and mainly on exercises in workbooks, followed by written tests. This situation could be well compared to craft. A craftsman who does all the work themselves cannot expect that his apprentices will learn the craft. He has to provide them with all the necessary equipment and give them a lot of time to develop their skills in a workshop. Similarly, the teacher who speaks most of the time in their lessons simply cannot make their learners competent speakers. Through using language for expressing ideas and views, communicating meaning, fulfilling meaningful tasks, and oral interaction, the learner gains confidence as a speaker and receives valuable feedback on their actual performance. Building this confidence and raising the awareness of what a persons real performance is like must definitely be some of the most important goals of any teacher who wants to prepare their learners for working in a foreign country.

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3 Common European Framework

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, abbreviated as CEFR, is an important document put together by the Council of Europe between 1989 and 1996 as a result of the intention to unify language teaching in Europe. (Common European Framework) Its purpose is to standardize teaching of all languages and provide a common basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc. across Europe (Council of Europe 2001: 1) The CEFR states the key terms in

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language learning and teaching, as well as the necessary competences, skills, strategies, and knowledge a learner acquires and develops when learning a foreign language. It also introduces Common Reference Levels used for identifying ones level of proficiency in language learning. National language curricula of the individual countries are based on the instructions and regulations stated in the CEFR.

3.1 Common Reference Levels

In order to bring up an integrated scale measuring ones achieved level of language proficiency which would enable comparisons, the CEFR presents the so called Common Reference Levels scale. According to that scale, there are three recognized broad levels of language proficiency basic, independent, and proficient user. These levels are also commonly denoted by letters A, B, and C. Each of the broad levels is then subdivided into two stages, the lower (or earlier) and the higher (or later) one, e.g. A1 and A2, forming six Common Reference Levels. All these levels have also been labelled with names which illustrate the learners individual stages on their way towards language proficiency.

Common Reference Levels Proficient User Independent User Basic User C B A C2 C1 B2 B1 A2 A1 Mastery Effective Operational Proficiency Vantage Threshold Waystage Breakthrough Council of Europe 2001: 24

Table 1: Common Reference Levels

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3.2 CAN DO descriptors

Each of the six Common Reference Levels presupposes a certain

achievement/performance level in any of the areas of knowledge, language competences, skills, and strategies described in the CEFR. Such achievement/performance levels are stated and specified using the so called CAN DO descriptors, which inform what the learner at a particular level is supposed to know or be able to do. The learners effective abilities are described using the statements (I) Can, so that the learners can relate to the statements and have the opportunity to identify their own level, assess themselves, recognize their strenghts and weaknesses, set their own goals in language learning, self-manage learning, and also monitor their own progress. A high number of such descriptors have been developed (and consequently validated), covering a wide range of various areas of language.

4 Grammar schools outcomes

As stated in one of the main curricular documents governing secondary education in the Czech Republic, the Framework Educational Programme for Grammar Schools, foreign language education in grammar schools makes for achieving level B2 according to the CEFR in the first foreign language and B1 in the second foreign language. (Vzkumn stav pedagogick 2007: 19, 21, translated by the author) Thus, in other words, grammar school students should have achieved the level B2 by the end of their studies, which means that by the time they graduate, they should ideally have met the demands and characteristics stated in all CAN DO descriptors related to the given level. In the following subchapters, I will try to give an account of the most important knowledge, skills, and abilities, that a well-prepared learner who wants to work in an English

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country should possess. Also, the areas which might be found useful, beneficial, or often even neccessary, will be dealt with. I will mainly draw on the CEFR, being the most important document which provides a very detailed framework for language education. The knowledge, skills, and abilities will be both lingustic and non-linguistic and they will cover all the major areas of language learning and use. Each component of the learners overall knowledge and competence will be dealt with individually. We will look at the four basic skills in ELT (speaking, listening, reading and writing), various linguistic and non-linguistic competences, as well as some other knowledge, skills, and abilities that one might find useful and/or important when they plan to apply for a job abroad. In each subchapter, the particular area will be defined and described when neccessary and dealt with in more detail. I will also present some of my own beliefs and views from time to time, concerning teaching of the area. The CAN-DO descriptors related to particular areas will be provided (they can be found in Appendices), informing about what the person at the level B2 is supposed to know and be able to do. Due to the fact that the descriptors are mostly very general and consider a broad area of English teaching, ranging from teaching absolutely general English to English for very specific purposes, we will look at the areas from the point of view of teaching English and preparing learners for travelling abroad and working there. Thus, I will in fact give an account of the learners preparation from two perspectives. The first perspective will be that of what a learner should be able to know and do once they have achieved the level B2 in general. The second perspective will focus on what a learner should be able to know or do in order to fulfill their plans to work in an English country. That is, what areas of language and other issues deserve to be taught in more detail, with more emphasis, or what extra areas and issues might or should be taught.

4.1 Speaking
It is no coincidence that of the four basic skills, speaking comes first. Though all the skills are to some degree interrelated and none of them can be considered of minor importance, speaking seems to somehow overshadow its three counterparts. But not everybody may share the view that speaking deserves to be considered a skill which stands out as the most important one. Some specialists in linguistics and EFL teaching assume that foreign language learning is a complex process and that knowing a language does not only mean good speaking performance. This is undoubtedly true. Learning is a complex process

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and, ideally, the performances in all of the skills should be balanced. There really are some learners who are quite fluent speakers, but at the same time face serious problems understanding spoken English, reading English texts, or writing in English. In such cases, their good performance in speaking, in itself, does not always automatically ensure them the status of a person who knows the language well. However, my experience taught me that such learners are in a tiny minority and that a vast majority of learners would wish to improve their speaking more than any other skill. In a survey I carried out for the practical part of my Bachelor thesis which dealt with the topic of speaking performance, I asked 50 learners of English, mostly secondary school students, to decide which one of the four skills they found the most important in language learning. 96% of the respondents that is 48 people chose speaking. (Hemerka, 30) Without exaggeration, this figure can be labelled as striking. Therefore I think that in spite of all the contra arguments, we simply cannot ignore the learners obsession with speaking and the special significance it has for them. The leading position of speaking in the race for the most (un)popular skill can be accredited to several facts. Firstly, being able to speak is what a majority of people usually imagine under the term knowing a foreign language.A foreign language learners confidence results a great deal from their speaking performance. People will always tend to judge ones language level from how well they can speak, because speaking demonstrates the ability to effectively use what has been learned. That is also why almost all international EFL exams comprise oral part. Second, even nowadays, when it seems that the influence of media and Internet often diminishes the importance of face to face conversation, oral communication still plays a major role in information exchange among people. And finally, speaking is an extremely social-friendly skill. It gives people the opportunity to sell their qualities, to present the best of their personal characteristics. One holds somebody elses interest not only by what they say, but also how. And learners are well aware of this power of spoken performance. Not seldom can a person make the listener change their opinions and attitudes when they say what the listener wants or likes to hear. Good speaking performance can help people win others favour and succeed in dealing with various problematic situations and these are facts which should by no means be neglected by any learners, especially those who plan to work abroad. In this chapter, we will first take a closer look at the subcategories speaking can be divided into. We will also deal with the burning question of finding the right balance between accuracy and fluency in speaking.

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4.1.1 Spoken production and spoken interaction According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), speaking as a skill in EFL learning can be divided into two areas: spoken production and spoken interaction. Spoken production (in Czech samostatn stn projev) refers to a situation in which the language user produces an oral text which is received by an audience of one or more listeners. (Council of Europe 2001: 58) Activities which involve spoken production are e.g. introduction, oral description, storytelling, public speech, presentation, announcement, monologue, telling jokes etc. In contrast, spoken interaction refers to a situation in which the language user acts alternately as speaker and listener with one or more interlocutors so as to construct conjointly, through the negotiation of meaning following the co-operative principle, conversational discourse. (Council of Europe 2001: 73) Activities involving spoken interaction are e.g. conversation, discussion, interview, task-solving, negotiating etc. Obviously, each of the two areas of speaking as distinguished by CEFR has its specific features which can make it difficult for some learners. Spoken interaction might appear more demanding due to the fact that the learner, apart from speaking, also has to listen to their partner(s) so as to receive information and feedback. Moreover, they are expected to employ various strategies to ensure interactivity and keep the communication going, e.g. establishing, maintaining, and ending conversation, managing co-operation, turntaking and turngiving, making arguments, agreeing and disagreeing etc. (Council of Europe 2001: 73) In linguistics, these strategies are known as discourse or co-operation strategies. The awareness of and ability to use such strategies conform to Canale and Swains idea of strategic and discourse competence, which I discuss in subchapter 2.1. The participants in spoken interaction must follow the thread and be prepared to flexibly respond to any shift in topic. They have to consider the other sides arguments and, in case of need, re-formulate or change their own. They might also be expected to say something in other words from time to time, expand on their ideas, explain something, provide evidence, state their case, oppose the others opinions etc. Spoken interaction should ideally be balanced so that each participant contributes more or less evenly, unless instructed otherwise. The result of a successful spoken interaction should be a state in which all the participants feel that the communication they took part was not in vain and that they managed to negotiate something. However more challenging spoken interaction may seem, quite a number of learners may find spoken production equally (if not even more) burdensome. This is because of the fact that some learners find it very stressful when the attention of the listener(s) is centred 24

solely on them, particularly when they are to speak in front of a larger audience. Also, simply not everybody considers themselves a good and interesting rhetorician. And lastly, in spoken production, the learner has to produce fluent, often fairly long spoken utterances. They cannot normally rely on any prompts from the other participant(s), as it is possible in spoken interaction. Similarly as in the case of spoken interaction, the speaker has to employ certain strategies that help them better fulfill the act of communication. It is clear from the character of spoken production that these are mainly discourse, not co-operative, strategies. However, in some cases the speaker may or has to interact with the audience as well.

4.1.2 Accuracy x fluency Much has already been written about the issue of finding the right balance between accuracy and fluency in EFL teaching. There are approaches to EFL teaching which are almost entirely oriented at accuracy (these are mostly some of the traditional ones, like Grammar Translation Method), as well as those which appear to give priority to fluency over accuracy (some of the more recent approaches aimed at the communicative ability, including CLT). If we are to deal with the question of an ideal balance between the two aspects, we should first look at what accuracy and fluency refer to, and, particularly in the case of the latter, clarify the somehow vague meanings of the terms. While accuracy in the context of spoken language production corresponds to the level of correctness, that is, whether and to what degree a learner produces correct language in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation (Accuracy), fluency refers to the ability to produce rapid, flowing, natural [. . .], but not necessarily grammatically correct speech. (Fluency) I would like to point out here that the adjective rapid expresses what many people understand under the term fluency. To a lot of EFL learners, fluency more or less means speed. They look up to the (more advanced) learners who are able to speak quickly and only seldom have to make a pause to search for words. It seems as though rapid and uninterrupted speech was generally making the impression of mastery in language. But does fluency only mean that the person has to speak quickly? Definitely not. The pace of ones speech is an important factor here, though neither the only nor the most important one. Fluency does not only refer to how many words are said per a certain unit of time. It is important to bear in mind that we are primarily concerned with how well, how effectively, how persuasively etc. a speaker is able to produce meanings. A person who speaks very quickly does not necessarily

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have to be clear and very often, such speakers are not. Listeners might very easily get lost in what is being said if a speaker hurries and does not provide them with any time to absorb and correctly infer all the information. A much too high rate of speech exhausts both the speaker and the listeners, causes that the speaker is likely to make more mistakes, slips, or false starters, as well as produce awkward or clumsy expressions. And, of course, it inevitably worsens their articulation. All of these facts very negatively influence the act of communication. Thornbury claims that pausing is equally important as speed. (2005: 6) All speakers need to make a pause from time to time. They must breathe, they should mark the end of a sentence or a thought, and sometimes also formulate an utterance in advance. (Thornbury) Therefore, making a pause from time to time should be viewed as something natural, rather than something to feel ashamed of and which has to be eliminated at all costs. What is important, though, is the placement of pauses. Thornbury suggests that pauses do not have that much disturbing effect when they occur between sentences or between groups of words that form a meaningful unit. (2005: 7) However, pauses which are placed within such units and divide them into two parts are un-natural, disturbing, and affect fluency. The difference can be demonstrated on the two following ways of pronouncing the same sentence, which initiates the block quote in subchapter 2.1 (pauses are marked by the symbol | ): un-natural pauses: Sociolinguistic competence refers to | an understanding of the social | context in which communication takes place, including | role relationships, the shared information of | the participants, and the communicative | purpose for their interaction. more natural pauses: Sociolinguistic competence | refers to an understanding | of the social context | in which communication takes place, | including role relationships, | the shared information of the participants, | and the communicative purpose | for their interaction. Even though there are only five pauses in the sentence case versus seven in the second, the latter sounds more fluent and does not put so much strain on the listener. Generally speaking, however, it is better to make longer, but less frequent pauses than short, but frequent:

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Sociolinguistic competence | | | refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, | | | including role relationships, the shared information of the participants, | | | and the communicative purpose for their interaction. Thornbury explains that speakers use certain strategies when speaking in order to give the illusion of a better fluency. These techniques involve pause fillers (e.g. um, er, uhm, well, you know, I mean, sort of) and repeats (e.g. in a sentence like this: What I What I want to say is that that that it does not matter whether whether you agree or not ). (2005: 7) Native speakers very often employ such techniques and it is advisable to teach the learners how to use them as well, instead of being silent or saying err eveytime they need to formulate the right words.

4.1.3 Balancing accuracy and fluency Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the terms accuracy and fluency, I would like to deal with the question of their interconnection. Is it at all possible to reach any reasonable balance between speaking correctly and fluently? Do we have to consider them two separate skills and assess each of them individually? Or should we insist on the view that they are inseparably linked and always assess both? It seems that EFL learners tend to divide by nature into two groups. Learners from the first group value accuracy more than fluency, and vice-versa. Of course, the boundaries between the two groups are not clearly cut and we cannot say of anybody that they are, for instance, perfectly fluent, but speak totally incorrectly. Nonetheless, if we imagine two extreme examples of learners from each of the two groups, we can see how the two factors accuracy and fluency often collide and act somehow antagonically. Learners from the first group are doing considerably better in fluency at the expense of accuracy. This means that such learners speak a lot, try to make use of as much language as possible from the repertoire they have to express themselves, and do not feel that much ashamed for saying something wrong. On the other hand, they are likely to produce quite a number of language mistakes and grammatically wrong structures, which causes that the listeners may from time to time find it hard to understand such speakers. With the second group, it is the other way round. Such learners fear saying something wrong and concentrate on producing correct language in all

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circumstances. They show a much better command of language structures, but their reluctance to speak and the fact that they are too tied by the grammar rules and restrictions are the causes of their considerably lower fluency. This dilemma whether one should speak a lot and simply ignore the fact that they make mistakes, or whether one should chew over every structure they are about to say and speak only when they are perfectly sure that the structure is correct is an evergreen issue among learners of foreign languages. Undoubtedly, learners who want to work abroad, in particular, will very often find themselves in a situation in which they will not know how to say something, but still will have to express themselves somehow. This premise could lead to oversimplification that fluency should always be paramount. It is of course better to say something than never say anything because one does not know how. That is why we must help our learners develop their confidence as speakers and appreciate every effort they make to express themselves, share their ideas, or perform a certain language function. If the class often remains silent rather than say something potentially wrong, the teacher has very probably not succeeded in their task to untie their learners tongues and teach English for communication. However, we must either not forget that one of the most important tasks of the teacher is to constantly develop their learners knowledge of the language and supervise their performance, so that they learn correct language. The learners want to and do their best to speak well, while still rely on the teacher to monitor their production and correct them or help where necessary. Finally, I believe that almost every problem can be minimalized when being discussed. That is why I would like to highlight the importance of discussing the issue of accuracy and fluency with the learners. The teacher should first of all ask the learners what their preferences and ideas are. Just the fact that he/she shows their interest in their learners needs can help reduce the anxiety that learners sometimes feel when in struggle between fluency and accuracy. And, of course, the teacher receives some very valuable feedback and can thus adjust their teaching according to their learners preferences.

4.2 Listening
Listening competes with speaking for the first position in the imaginary most important skill chart. With regards to the context of working in a foreign country, listening turns out to play a quintessential role in receiving information. Especially at the beginning of

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their working career, an employee has to listen carefully to the instructions their employers, senior staff, or trainers give them in order to grasp what their tasks will be. The better their ability to understand what they are expected to do is, the sooner they will manage to become independent workers. Also, many occupations require communication with people and having problems understanding of what they are saying can be a serious obstacle to the exercise of the profession. When we ask several learners of English, we will probably find out that listening is quite an unpopular skill, if not the most feared one. Learners of English very often wonder whether they will understand native English. And, unfortunately, a number of them later on realize that their worries were not vain. The ability to understand native, unsimplified English at its normal pace often requires a much longer period of acquisition and more practice than one might expect. It is no exception to meet a fairly advanced learner who has been learning English for a couple of years and still struggles hard to understand authentic English conversation. Why is this so? Firstly, learners of English struggle with listening because they find native English often too fast and some of its typical aspects troublesome. Such aspects include the occurrence of different, sometimes very exotic, sounds (e.g. // or //), strong and weak forms, linking, assimilation, silent letters, stress, intonation, rhythm, variations in pronunciation, different accents etc. To mention just one of such aspects, Czech learners at less advanced levels of English might have difficulties distinguishing individual words when listening to native English because they are used to the Czech pronunciation in which the stress is always put on the first syllable of a word. Thus, they expect the stress to mark the beginning of a new word and might get confused when it occurs somewhere in the middle of the word, or even on its last syllable. Ur (1984: 13) demonstrates this on the following utterance (stressed syllables are capitalized): the CAT is INterested in proTECTing its KITTens A Czech speaker who would rely on the stressing to mark the spaces between individual words could understand the utterance like this: / ktz ntrstdmpr tektts ktnz/

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Such learner would make vain effort to identify what, for example, the word /ntrstdmpr/ could be. Similarly, Ur adds one more sentence to demonstrate the effect of rhythm: the CAT is INterested in proTECTing its KITTens LARGE CARS WASTE GAS Interestingly enough, it takes roughly the same time to say each of the two sentences, although the latter is considerably shorter. However, both of them contain the same number of stressed syllables (4), and a native speaker would pronounce the unstressed syllables in the first sentence [. . .] very fast so as not to break his rhythm. (1984:13) A learner might get confused at hearing (for them) the unusually strong shifts in stressing and speed of ones speaking. All these aspects mentioned put strain on the learner who is not used to listening to native English. Secondly, native English differs from the English which is taught by non-native teachers in schools a great deal. The latter is of course simplified, considerably slower and certain aspects of native-like pronunciation which were dealt with in the previous paragraph might not be present. The teacher may modify their English intentionally so as to make their output more comprehensible for the learners. Understandably, this is common especially with learners at lower levels. The other, much more prosaic, reason of simplification is not far to seek sometimes, the teacher does not have to simplify anything, just because they cannot speak and pronounce any better that they do in the classroom. In such a case, the learners may understand the teacher without much effort, but are prone to experience a deep disillusionment as soon as they get in touch with authentic, unsimplified, native English and all the more when they find themselves in an English-speaking environment. Finally, listening in the classroom differs from real-life listening a great deal. Though, to be even-handed, we must appreciate the effort that has been made to change the approach to classroom listening so as to make it more authentic-like. It would be totally wrong if the learners only purpose for listening in the classroom would be the wish to get a good mark. The importance of having a purpose in listening, along with some other factors, will be explained in the following subchapter.

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4.2.1 Specifics of real-life listening In the vast majority of cases, listening in real-life situations involves certain purpose and expectations. There can be a number of different purposes for listening (more on this will be discussed in the following subchapter. Sometimes we listen because we want to, sometimes because we need to, and sometimes because we have to. According to the purpose and context, we usually have some preconceived idea of the content, formality level and so on of the discourse we are about to hear. (Ur, 1984: 3) These ideas help a great deal in the process of listening in that they tell us what to expect and what we should concentrate on. For example, if we ask a yes-no question, we expect the person to give either a positive, or a negative response. A person who is asked by another person about what they are doing at the weekend may answer like this: Well I havent decided yet, you know, I told you that my parents might be coming, but anyway, I think I will be at home. and the listener knows that they have to wait until the end of the sentence to find out. If they did not know that, they could very easily get lost in the answer, as they would concentrate on each and every single word from the very beginning and would be likely to miss the focus of the message which is, actually, only the last two words. Another aspect of real-life listening is that it is usually accompanied with environmental clues. That is, sense stimuli (usually visual) which create a context for the message being communicated and contribute valuable information. (Ur, 1984: 5) The support of environmental clues can be remarkable. For example, when watching a film, a viewer can guess the meaning of unknown vocabulary according to what is being shown on the screen. There are, however, situations in which there is only little or even no presence of such clues e.g. talking on the phone. Obviously, in such situations the listener has to rely on audial input only. Real-life listening also involves coping with redundancy and noise. Redundancy refers to extra information that is unnecessary for transferring the message. (Ur, 1984: 7) It is impossible to imagine a person who would always, in all circumstances, be saying only what the audience want to hear. Whether consciously or not, we naturally tend to provide more information than relevant to the message we want to put across. Such redundant information can involve repetitions, false starts, self-corrections, re-phrasings, fillers etc. (Ur, 1984: 7) Noise, on the other hand, occurs when information is not received by the listener because of interference. (Ur, 1984, 7) Such interference often takes place owing to some outside disturbance, but it can also occur when the speaker says something which the listener does not 31

understand because it has, for example, been mispronounced or used inappropriately. The learner is then forced to try to reconstruct the missing information. One of the unquestionable challenges of real-life listening is the fact that a listener can and is very likely to come across people with different accents. Understanding some accents can be really difficult, especially if those are very different from the precise variety. Learners who have always been exposed to only one accent, usually one or both of the two standard accents used in EFL learning Received Pronunciation or General American might even find some accents almost incomprehensible.

4.2.2 Types of listening According to CEFR, listening activities involve listening to individuals, listening to public announcements, listening to media, listening while being a member of an audience, or listening to conversations in which the listener either does or does not take part. Another criterion according to which listening can be divided is its purpose. A person can listen for gist (get the overall information, e.g. in a conversation), for specific information (find out about concrete pieces of information, e.g. train arrivals), for detailed understanding (understand as much information as possible, including details, e.g. various descriptions or user guides), for implications (etc. work out information which has not been mentioned, listen between the lines) etc. (2001: 67)

4.3 Writing
Writing is undoubtedly an extremely productive skill, with immense influence on the outer world. All important documents, laws, contracts, or regulations nowadays are written. Printed text has higher value than oral communication, therefore written documents are always considered obligatory. Written information often outlives the author and can preserve for centuries. Literature also constitutes one of the most amazing treasures of the cultural heritage of mankind. The problem with writing is that written language differs a great deal from spoken language. Also, people employ completely different strategies when writing. The idea that writing = written record of what would normally be said is far from being true. I will present some of the key factors in which spoken and written language differ. 32

4.3.1 Specifics of written language In general, we can say that written language tends to be more formal, accurate, explicit, the inner organization of the utterance is more important than in speaking, sentences are generally more complex, and written language is characterised by lexical density, which means that the proportion of lexical words (= those which have a semantic meaning, unlike grammatical words which do not have any or little semantic meaning) is higher. (Harmer 2004: 9) There are, of course, areas of writing in which some (or even all) of the statements mentioned above are not true. For example, the language used in SMS or in Internet chats is often miles away from being formal, well-structured, or complex. Similarly, it would be peculiar to go for sophisticated expressions and complex sentences containing three or more clauses if we just want to write a postcard to a friend. That is why learners should be very well aware of the difference between spoken and written language, as well as between different levels of familiarity/politeness and informality/formality, and be able to apply that knowledge so as to choose and then stick to the appropriate style.

4.3.2 Written production and written interaction Similarly as it was with speaking, CEFR distinguishes between two areas of writing written production (samostatn psemn projev) and written interaction (psemn interakce). In written production activites, the person produces texts without interacting with the reader(s). Such activities include making notes, writing essays, newspaper articles, announcements, schedules, filling in forms and questionnaires, or creative and imaginative writing. (Council of Europe 2001: 61) In contrast, spoken interaction always involves the readers active participation and the participants take turns in writing (producing) and reading (receiving). Such activites include e.g. exchanging and passing notes, correspondence (letters, postcards, e-mails, fax), writing SMS, or communicating via instant messaging services and social networks (ICQ, Skype, Twitter, Facebook).

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4.3.3 What the learners should be able to do and know Despite the fact that the learners who are working abroad (or are about to go there) might not need to write in English on a daily basis, they should definitely be competent enough so as to be able to express themselves as correctly and accurately as possible in case they need to write something. Above all, they should be able to: write letters, both formal and informal, in which they should be able to present their opinions, express their requirements, ask for whatever they need to know etc., while stick to the conventions concerning letter writing in English

write CVs (rsums), letters of application, cover letters write textual announcements, statements, instructions, descriptions, or notes write e-mails or text messages respond to letters, messages, and e-mails fill out various forms, questionnaires, or contracts

4.4 Reading
It is known that the vast majority of all information is received through eyes. Some scientists estimate the percentage to be up to 80%. (Zrak) An indispensable proportion of that information is transferred via text. We can hardly imagine how many textual notes, notices, announcements, written instructions, advertisements, or signs we read every day when we, for example, go to work. Whereas a high number of texts have a mere informative character or serve entertaining purposes, some of the texts dramatically influence our lives in that they order us something, or, on the contrary, ban something else. Furthermore, a lot of instructions we get have a form of a text. Such instructions may often be obligatory and it is our full reponsibility to become acquainted with them. We all also know how important it is to very carefully read every contract or a form before one decides to fill it out and sign it. However, reading books, newspapers, or magazines, still plays a crucial role in receiving information, keeping up-to-date on what is going on in the world, broadening ones horizons, formulating of attitudes and opinions, cultivating language and increasing word power, or simply discovering and enjoying the beauty of written language and literature in general. The contribution of reading to ones acquisition of language is immense, particularly

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in terms of exposition to authentic, (that is, unsimplified and unmodified) language, vocabulary building, learning fixed expressions, collocations and grammatical scructures, exploring ways how meaning can be expressed, familiarizing with various poetic functions of language and figurative expressions, but also raising ones general knowledge of the target country.

4.4.1 What the learners should be able to do and know It is clear that the level of a learners linguistic knowledge determines the greatest deal whether they will understand a certain written text or not. However, the learners should be skilled readers, so that they know that it is not always necessary to precisely understand every single word when reading. They should always be able to grasp the main idea of a text and understand its message. They should identify and distinguish between the information that is essential for understanding the message and the redundant or irrelevant information. They ought to be able to read a text critically and search for further information when necessary. In case they need to understand a text thoroughly, they should be able to find and search any resources that could help them comprehend it e.g. printed and online dictionaries, grammar reference books, language corpora on the Internet etc. Last but not least, they should not feel embarassed when they need to ask a native speaker for help.

4.5 Linguistic competence

Linguistic competence refers to what most people imagine under the term knowledge of a language. It is a complex of theoretical knowledge of all major areas the language consists of, plus the ability to apply the knowledge in language production and reception. CEFR divides linguistic competence into the following sub-categories: Lexical competence knowledge of vocabulary of a language (lexical and grammatical words) Grammatical competence knowledge of grammar of a language, i.e. how language items are combined into meaningful strings (sentences) Semantic competence awareness of organisation of meaning Phonological competence pronunciation issues 35

Orthographic competence knowledge of proper spelling and punctuation

4.5.1 What the learners should be able to do and know It is clear that a well-prepared learner who wants to work abroad ought to have a command of as wide range of vocabulary as possible so as to be able to communicate on a number of various topics and in various situations. Nevertheless, special attention should be given to knowledge of vocabulary connected to jobs, professions, and work in general. Such words and expressions may include: names of various professions and the people who exercise them words connected with professional life and work in general words connected with searching and applying for a job and recruitment words connected with writing CVs, cover letters, and letters of application words connected with the exercise of particular jobs words connected with inner organization of a company or a working place words connected with the working hours, shifts, working overtime words connected with a company hierarchy and the relations among the people who are part of it

words connected with financial issues, salaries, taxes, statutory deductions, insurance, bonuses etc. Having achieved level B2, the learner should be quite well familiar with English

grammar. Thus, their possible problems in language production and reception should not often be caused by insufficient knowledge of grammatical structures, but rather by limited range of vocabulary. They, of course, still make mistakes. These, however, should not be fatal. In case they are, the learner should either be able to correct themselves, or at least be aware of having made them when told by other people. The occassional uncertainty about or not knowing of a certain grammatical rule should not hinder expressing the desired meaning. Pronunciation is in my opinion often demonized and its role a little overestimated. Many learners of English would wish to attain a native-like accent one day. They get frustrated when realizing how different their pronunciation is from that of native speakers.

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They also fear that native speakers would not understand them, or, that their pronunciation could cause embarrassment. It can take years until a learner acquires natural pronunciation. And it is much more difficult to acquire it when the person learns language outside an English speaking environment. Besides, we can see (and hear) that lots of the worlds leading prominent politicians, diplomats, TV news reporters, and other people whose voice is daily heard by thousands or maybe millions of listeners speak with often quite peculiar accents. Similarly as it was in the case of pronunciation, I think that there is not much point in forcing the learners to achieve an unshakable mastery in writing. Should they make any mistakes in writing, these should not be frequent and too distracting. Also, teaching, for instance, all the rules governing punctuation in English would in my opinion exceed the scope of secondary school education. Yet the learners should definitely master the written forms of the most frequently used words in English, especially all grammatical and the most common lexical words.

4.6 Sociolinguistic competence

The awareness of how to speak with whom, how to act politely, yet be persuasive and confident, how to make a good impression either on the recruiters at the job interview or, eventually, on the employers, fellow workers, or clients, is a condition of success for those who wish to make a career abroad. Ones knowledge of the sociocultural and sociolinguistic rules of a language and the ability to adjust the language according to the setting, the topic and the relationship among the participants is referred to as sociolinguistic competence. (Goal: Communicative Competence) It is without exaggeration startling to realize how many EFL learners are little aware of the numberless varieties of English. During my experience as a freelance English tutor, I have encountered a lot of learners who were, for example, not able to distinguish between different levels of formality whatsoever. It seems that a great many of EFL learners still wrongly see English as a somehow flat language i.e., one that does not have many varieties and which does not change much according to the context. Not only is it unfortunate for such learners because they cannot discover the diversity and colourfulness of the language, but it also harms their performance a great deal. Ones inability to express

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themselves appropriately to the context creates barriers which prevent from being understood correctly, taken seriously, and often also being liked by the others. The learners need to know that there are almost always more ways how to express one meaning and they should distinguish among the nuances concerning the level of formality, explicitness, politeness, urgency etc., so that they can choose structures that best suit the given context. I often learn from my learners that they would appreciate being taught more colloquial and slang expressions used in everyday conversation. This complaint seems to me fully justified. Slang and colloquialisms make ones language more vivid and picturesque and help the speaker develop a sense of belonging. (Ebble 1996: 119) Learners who find themselves in an English speaking environment will be meeting a great number of people every day, which is a unique opportunity to make new contacts. And particularly young people who plan to travel abroad state as one of their primary motives the desire to get to know new friends from foreign countries. Assuming that they will mostly wish to make friends of the same age, they will need to adjust to the way (young) people normally speak there. We should therefore incorporate slang and colloquial language into our teaching. This could be done, for example, by means of a presentation and a consequent analysis of stretches of authentic conversations, both in a textual (transcripts of conversations) and audial (listening and/or video) form. 4.6.1 What the learners should be able to do and know Learners who want to work in an English speaking country, in particular, need to have a high level of sociolinguistic competence. They will very probably have to communicate with people of a higher rank or with those who are more senior than they are. They will also need to stick to formal language when communicating with other people outside the company e.g. its clients. However, they should be equally able to deformalize their language when it comes to talking to their fellow workers. And, of course, they will need to speak in an informal manner with the people they will be meeting in their free time, especially with those of a similar age.

4.7 Production strategies

When speaking, EFL learners (similarly as all users of a language, including native speakers) employ a number of strategies which help them execute the process of language production. These strategies are called production strategies and involve planning of what is 38

to be said, execution of the process of production, evaluation, and repair. CEFR describes production strategies as mobilising resources, balancing between different competences exploiting strengths and underplaying weaknesses in order to match the available potential to the nature of the task. (Council of Europe 2001: 63) The learner first activates their internal resources. Provided they do not manage to formulate an utterance using the resources from their available repertoire, the speaker may draw on external resources e.g. look things up in a dictionary, or ask the teacher or somebody else for help (Locating resources). In formulating an utterance, the speaker prepares what they want to say (Rehearsing), while considers the audience and how to best approach them, that is, tries to choose appropriate language means with regards to the style of language, level of formality, politeness, and other factors ( Considering audience). Whenever the speaker decides to scale down their ambitions and avoids saying what they are not able to express, they employ Avoidance strategies. On the contrary, if the speaker scales up their ambitions and tries to find ways how to say something in spite of not exactly knowing how, we speak of Achievement strategies. Achievement strategies include overgeneralising, approximating, paraphrasing (i.e. saying something in other words), describing, or direct translations from L1 (Compensating), using of memorised or familiar expressions and prefabricated chunks of language (Building on previous knowledge), or simply attempting to say something (Trying out). Having produced an utterance, the speaker receives feedback through the reactions of the audience (Monitoring success). And finally, the speaker sometimes corrects themselves when they want to re-formulate an utternace, or when they become aware of making a slip or a mistake (Self correction). (Council of Europe 2001: 63).

4.7.1 What the learners should be able to do and know During their stay in an English speaking country, the learners will very often be confronted with situations in which they will have to explain something, say something in other words, expand on an idea, correct themselves etc. It is necessary that we have them learn and regularly practise these skills. They should not get disconcerted if they are asked to say something in a different way, re-formulate something, or provide an explanation for something. This can only be achievied by providing them with plenty of communicative tasks in order to give them the opportunity to rehearse. Activities which help develop functional

39

competence are e.g. descriptions, task-solving, negotiating, explaining something to the audience etc.

4.8 Intercultural competence

Up to now, slightly beyond the threshold of the 21 st century, the world has turned into one big globalized village. Hundreds of often totally different nations and cultures meet, coexist, merge, or clash on a daily basis. The trend of globalization is welcomed by some people and hated by others. Somehow or other, it is clear that it cannot by stopped or reversed and we have to accept it as a fact. We should therefore seek ways how to best live in the multicultural world and contribute ourselves to a better understanding among people and cultures. The ability to successfully interact with people from different cultures is refered to as intercultural competence. Raising of peoples intercultural competence forms an indispensable part of language teaching not only at secondary schools. The culture we live in has an immense impact on almost all areas of our lives. Our values, beliefs, and attitudes are to a high degree influenced by our culture. The culture tells us what behaviour is normal, acceptable, and polite, and what is not and the same, of course, applies to language. Also, our culture determines such things as e.g. how to greet someone, how to politely ask for something, or how to express emotions in an appropriate, non-insulting manner. (Matikainen and Duffy 2000: 41) Matikainen and Duffy then point out that because each culture has a unique way of approaching these situations, we find great diversity in cultural behaviours throughout the world. (2000: 41) That is why it is important to get familiar with the patterns of behaviour and the corresponding language means characteristic of the culture of the target country which, in our case, is a culture of one of the English speaking countries. A person who is interculturally competent should be open for new horizons that is, willing to get to know and learn new things, tolerant, communicative, and free from prejudices and stereotypes. They should be able to encounter people, lead conversations, and establish relationships with ease, without offending anyone, being tactless, or inappropriate. They must not perceive the cultural patterns of the other countries as strange or wrong. An interculturally competent person understands the fact that the cultural patterns of a country are determined by a number of historical, social, political, economic, geographical, natural, and other, factors. They are aware of the differences and similarities between their native culture and the culture of the target country.

40

It is important, however, to bear in mind that there is not a single one country in the world, the culture of which could be labeled as perfectly homogenous. In other words, no country in the world consists of only one culture. There is usally one or more dominant and several (sometimes tens or even hundreds of) less important cultures. Therefore, we cannot speak of, for example, one typical American or British culture. It is thus clear that apart from teaching the learners about the dominant culture of a country, we should also prepare them for the possibility of getting in touch with the other cultures present in the country, which can often be very different from the dominant one.

4.8.1 What the learners should be able to do and know A learner who wants to work in an English country is supposed to become acquaint with as much information about the cultural conditions of the country as possible. The more understanding of what is typical of the country and what is currently going on the person shows, the better chances they have to assimilate and become respected by other people. There can always emerge some embarrassing or funny moments resulting from differences among cultures. Such moments can sometimes paradoxically make people grow closer to each other and ease the strain among them. Nevertheless, an interculturally competent learner should never find themselves in a situation in which they would inadvertently offend somebody by behaving or acting totally inapproprietly.

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42

Practical part

5. Introduction
In this part I will present the findings from a survey I carried out among learners of English who already had experience with working in an English speaking country. The survey was carried out in February 2011.

5.1 Purpose of the survey

The survey was meant to collect data concerning two areas of interest. These were the aspects of the transition into an English speaking environment and the preceding language preparation in grammar schools. As for the former, I wanted to gather information about how difficult it was for the respondents to find themselves in an English speaking environment, what they had found particularly challenging and what, in contrast, had not caused them much or any trouble. The second area dealt with both the linguistic and non-linguistic preparation in grammar schools. I was interested mainly in the respondents subjective evaluation of their

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grammar school studies and how the knowledge, abilities, and skills they acquired helped them succeed in their aims. I also expected them to come up with some feedback that is, constructive criticism, as well as useful tips and suggestions.

5.2 Method
The survey was based on a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 14 questions, of which 9 were of multiple-choice type and 5 were open questions. Thus, the questionnaire gathered both quantitative and qualitative information. It was divided into three sections. The first section enquired about personal information (age, sex) and general data concerning the working experience (length of working experience, target country/countries, and kind of job). The second part collected information about the transition into an English speaking environment. I asked the respondents about their expectations and whether the transition was easier/more difficult that they had expected. They were also to express whether they had any problems with any of the four basic skills in language, and if yes, how frequently the problems had occured. Furthermore, they were also given space for adding more areas of language that caused them problems if they had found any. The last part of the interview dealt with the preparation in grammar school. Here the respondents were supposed to reflect on the linguistic and non-linguistic preparation in school with regards to their consequent working experience abroad. I asked whether they found the preparation effective or not, what could have been done better and what (if anything) they had missed completely. Special emphasis was given on two aspects of preparation: cultural studies and raising the intercultural awareness, and the teachers considering their learners purpose for learning English in their teaching. The questions will be dealt with stepwise in subchapters. In each of the subchapters, I will first provide the literal wording of the question translated into English and identify its type that is, whether it was a multiple choice or an open question. The quantitative data will be presented in pie charts. The qualitative data will be presented either verbally or in bar graphs, provided that some similar responses could be consolidated and their occurence consequently quantified. The results will then be interpreted and commented upon. I will try to summarize the results and highlight the most significant findings from the whole survey in the conclusion. Moreover, I would also like to add some of my views on the

44

issue and give some recommendations and suggestions about how the preparation in grammar schools could be improved.

5.3 Research sample

The research sample contained 30 respondents who were chosen from randomly asked people. The criteria for including were as follows: the person must be a grammar school graduate they learned English in their grammar school (either as their first or second, third foreign language)

they spent at least 2 months (uninterrupted) working in an English speaking country/countries (i.e. a country/countries where English is natively spoken as an official language (or at least one of the official lanuages) after they graduated the period of time between the day of graduation and the day when they started working in the foreign country did not exceed one year the profession they exercised involved communication in English

I wanted to narrow the sample down so that it would contain people who attended only one type of secondary schools. This was because of the considerable differences among the various types of secondary schools. Quite understandably, the outcomes from e.g. vocational schools cannot be compared with those from grammar schools. I chose grammar school graduates because of several reasons. First, grammar school students are presumably the ones who would be most likely to travel to a foreign country in order to work there. Second, the overall level of language education should be relatively high in this type of schools. And lastly, unlike e.g. in the previously mentioned vocational schools, or technical schools, language education is not secondary to the major subjects. The interviewees have to have graduated before they started working. That is, I did not include those who worked in an English country already during their studies. This is because I wanted to investigate only those who finished their secondary school studies before they went to work, so that they could in retrospect reflect on how effectively the school had prepared them.

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In order to ensure a higher reliability of the results, I excluded those people who travelled abroad later than within a years time after graduation. The survey concentrating solely on the preparation in grammar schools, this condition should diminish the potential interference of other sources of language education (e.g. post-secondary school courses in language schools, language education in universities, private lessons etc.). However, the possibility of some interference could still not be ruled out. Therefore I emphasized in the questionnaire that it concentrates on the preparation that took place in grammar schools and asked the interviewees to answer with regards to that. The last condition I set was that the job the person did had to involve communication in English. There were no other criteria, as I wanted to investigate people who did various kinds of jobs. I only wanted to exclude professions in which the people did not have to communicate on a daily basis, as such working experience would not provide with enough opportunities to self-assess ones language skills and evaluate the contribution of school to ones knowledge of a language.

5.4 Data concerning the research sample

Concerning the kinds of jobs the respondents provided, the most frequently mentioned working position was that of a Shop Assistant and Assistant in general. The most of the respondents worked in fast-food restaurants, either in the kitchen as Assistants/Porters or at the cashier (7x). The second most frequently mentioned job was Farmworker and/or Fruit Picker (4x), closely followed by Au Pair (3x). Three of the respondents worked in hotels as a Receptionist, Handyman, and Cleaning Lady. Barman and Civil Engineering Technical Assistant both earned two points. The rest stated the following positions: PR Consultant, Assistant Waiter, Perfumery Shop Assistant, Medical Assistant, Pizza Delivery Driver, and Beach Lifeguard. The following graphs show other figures concerning the personal information of the respondents, the length of stay, and the target country.

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14 16

Men Women

Graph 1: Sex ratio of respondents

5 Number of respondents

5 4 4

3 2

3 2 1 0 0 2 1

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Age

Graph 2: Age distibution of respondents

24.5
Average age Graph 3: Average age of respondents

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Number ofrespondents

16 16 12 8 4 0 26 6 12 more than 12 Length of stay (months) Graph 4: Division according to the length of stay 10 4

6.1
Average length of stay (months) Graph 5: Average length of stay

2 15

5
UK USA Australia and New Zealand Other countries

Graph 6: Division according to the target country

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6. Interpretation of results

Part 1: Transition into an English speaking environment

6.1 Question 1
I wanted the learners to make a subjective assessment of how quickly and successfully they had managed to assimilate into an English speaking environment, whether that assimilation was smoother or more difficult than they had expected, or whether it corresponded to their expectations. They were to compare the expectations with what the reality was then like. Wording

The transition into an English speaking environment: a) was easier than I had expected b) came up to my expectations c) was more difficult than I expected Type Multiple choice, choosing the most appropriate/correct answer

49

Results

2
Easier than I expected Came up to my expectations More difficult that I expected

22
Graph 7: Results for question 1 Interpretation of results We can see that nearly three quarters of the respondents had been very realistic with their expectations and found the reality neither worse nor better. Another good news definitely is that of the rest, more respondents found the transition less hard than they had expected. Only two of them admitted to have struggled with being in the new environment more than they would have imagined. We can thus conclude that the respondents seem to have been very well aware of what to expect.

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6.2 Question 2
Here the respondents were supposed to reflect on their understanding of native spoken English, which seems to be one of the most problematic aspects in those who suddenly find themselves in an English speaking environment.

Wording

Did you have any troubles understanding native speakers? d) not at all e) yes, occassionally f) yes, frequently g) yes, nearly all the time Type Multiple choice, choosing the most appropriate/correct answer Results

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2 6
Not at all Occassionally Frequently Nearly all the time

20

Graph 8: Results for question 2 Interpretation of results The two extreme possibilites that is, no problems at all and having problems all the time both scored very few points. Far more respondents claimed that they had only occassionally found it difficult to understand what a native speaker was saying than those who admit having had problems with understanding frequently.

6.3 Question 3
One of the things I was most interested in was of course what the spoken performance and spoken interaction of the respondents had been like when they had appeared in a foreign country. Again, the wording of the question was quite brief and I did not ask about any concrete obstacles they had to struggle with. The only thing I examined here was whether they had had any problems with speaking, and if yes, how often.

Wording

Did you have any troubles with your spoken performance and/or interaction? h) not at all i) yes, occassionally j) yes, frequently 52

k) yes, nearly all the time Type Multiple choice, choosing the most appropriate/correct answer Results

6
Not at all Occassionally Frequently Nearly all the time

22
Graph 9: Results for question 3 Interpretation of results The results came out very similar to those from the previous question, which concerned listening to and understanding of spoken English. That is, the vast majority of the respondents found it difficult to express themselves only from time to time and one fifth of them had had difficulties more often. In fact, it would appear that speaking causes even slightly less troubles than listening, as no one marked the option nearly all the time.

6.4 Question 4
The third language skill I investigated was reading, more specifically, reading of various kinds of information written in English. It is assumed that people who are staying and working in a foreign country more or less willingly read a huge number of texts. These texts

53

can be very short, e.g. notices, advertisements, or notes, but there can also be considerably longer stretches of written language, such as various announcements, rules and regulations, job instructions, newspaper articles etc. The respondents were asked whether they had found the reading troublesome. Wording

Did you have any troubles reading information in English? l) not at all m) yes, occassionally n) yes, frequently o) yes, nearly all the time Type Multiple choice, choosing the most appropriate/correct answer

Results

2 10
Not at all Occassionally Frequently Nearly all the time

18

Graph 10: Results for question 4

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Interpretation of results After the two previously examined skills (listening and speaking), we can see a certain shift in the distribution of the results. The majority of the respondents again crossed the option occassionally. However, a much higher number than in the two previous cases (with regards to the total number of respondents) now went for not at all and only two of the respondents admit having had frequent problems with understanding of written information.

6.5 Question 5
The last of the four language skills is writing. The wording of the question still followed the same pattern. I asked the learners whether they had found writing in English difficult or not. Nevertheless, in the case of writing, I decided to add one more option which is I did not have to write anything. It seems that writing is the only skill that some of the people who worked in a foreign country did not have to put to use at all. They were simply not asked to write anything and therefore they would not be able to assess their performance.

Wording

Did you have any troubles with writing in English? p) not at all q) yes, occassionally r) yes, frequently s) yes, nearly all the time t) I did not have to write anything Type Multiple choice, choosing the most appropriate/correct answer Results 55

5 2
Not at all Occassionally Frequently Nearly all the time I did not have to write anything

3 14

Graph 11: Results for question 5 Interpretation of results As we can see, the option I had added did not dramatically affect the results. If we excluded the respondents who went for that option, we would see that the percentage distibution remained very similar to those from the previous questions.

6.6 Question 6
Wording Which areas of language caused you problems (for example speaking, vocabulary, grammar)? Type Open question Results The most frequently mentioned areas were:

56

16 Number of respondents

11

10 6 3

Listening comprehension

Vocabulary range and control

Area of language

Graph 12: Results for question 6 (Note: Not all the respondents provided an answer for this question.) Interpretation of results As we can see, the respondents mostly complained about their insufficient range of vocabulary. Almost all of those who answered this question admitted having had problems in this area. When we take a look at the second column, we can see that the number of those who had struggled with grammar is one third smaller. I dare say that this supports one of my theses stated in the theoretical part that learners at B2 level do not suffer that much from insufficient knowledge of grammatical rules anymore, but rather from a limited range of vocabulary. In other words, they seem be more often confronted with a situation in which they are not able to come up with the right words than with an appropriate grammatical structure. Some respondents mentioned the fact that they had not been taught a sufficient amount of practical vocabulary, or vocabulary typically occuring in everyday conversations. I suppose that they had probably meant various informal and slang expressions, and perhaps also some less common phrasal verbs. One of the respondents had provided a further

57

Oral communication

Dialect variation

Grammar

explanation: No one taught us such words as chick, mate, Gosh, or buck, all these being extremely common, much more than words like, for example, the greenhouse effect. However, grammar earned the second position with its 11 points, which leads to the assumption that learners at B2 level are still very concerned with grammatical accuracy and might not yet have sufficiently acquired the grammatical structures they have been taught, particularly the connection between the structures and their functional values. They might not always be able to use a corresponding structure to express the desired meaning, even though they have already got familiarized with the structure. Difficulties with oral communication closely followed. The respondents stated the notoriously known problems which go hand in hand with speaking, e.g. low fluency, frequently having to search for words, unavoidable oversimplification of language, inhibition etc. Surprisingly, only six respondents mentioned problems with understanding spoken English. What was also interesting was that three respondents stated that they had had problems with different varieties of English. One of them wrote: Especially elderly people and teenagers often spoke totally incomprehensibly and were quite incosiderate. They did not bother themselves to speak more slowly, even if repeatedly I asked them to.

6.7 Question 7
Wording In what areas did your knowledge of language improved the most during your stay? Type Open question

Results

The most frequently mentioned areas were:

58

Number of respondents

8 6 5 4 4 3 3 2 2

Courage to speak, confidence

Listening comprehension

Oral communication

Vocabulary range and control

Pronunciation

Area of language

Graph 13: Results for question 7 (Note: Not all the respondents provided an answer for this question.)

Interpretation of results The respondents see the highest benefit of working in an English speaking country in its contribution to their confidence as users of English. This means that they find this confidence crucial in EFL learning. They had probably not had enough opportunities to prove to themselves that they had been competent enough users until they travelled abroad. The working experience, together with all the challenges they had to face (e.g. the responsibility connected with standing on ones own feet, the necessity to communicate and take care of everything they needed, the everyday contact with native English etc.), assured them that their effort in grammar school had not been in vain and that they had learned enough to stay in an English speaking environment. The confidence was closely followed by oral communication. Again, that proves what I suggested in the theoretical part that speaking as a skill is perceived as being special and is perhaps the most valued by the learners. I believe that even the shiest persons tongue can be

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Spontaneity, flexibility

Grammar

Reading

Fluency

untied after some time of listening to and having to speak English only. The placement of speaking in one of the leading positions therefore comes as no surprise. Reading and listening were the two skills which followed vocabulary range and control. It is definitely the massive amount of language input both audial and textual which stands behind the improvement of the two receptive skills. What surprised me the most was pronunciation. I expected it to appear somewhere in a higher position. It might confirm the presumption that acquiring a native-like pronunciation takes a much longer period of time than one might think and that the relatively short exposition to native English (that is, less than 3 months in the majority of respondents) does not always have to be a solution. Better fluency, flexibility, and spontaneity, in contrast, do not come as such a big surprise. What is definitely worth mentioning, though, is grammar which earned only two mateches. It appears that staying in an English speaking environment does not affect grammatical competence as much as e.g. listening comprehension or spoken performance.

6.8 Question 8
Wording In what areas, on the contrary, did your knowledge of language improved the least (or not at all) during your stay? Type Open question Results The most frequenty mentioned areas were:

60

12 Number of respondents

8 6 3 3

Accuracy (occurence of mistakes)

Area of language

Graph 14: Results for question 8 (Note: Not all the respondents provided an answer for this question.) Interpretation of results If we were to pick one important area of language which remains little affected by staying in an English speaking environment, this area would definitely be grammar. 40% of all the repondents did not notice any improvement in this area. This can be accredited to the fact that no one will teach you grammatical rules anymore once you find yourself in an

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Listening comprehension

Oral communication

Grammar

Writing

English speaking environment. It might, however, also imply that fresh grammar school graduates are still quite highly reliant on direct explanations of grammatical rules. The second least affected area is writing, which should not surprise us because, just as we learned in one of the previous questions, quite a number of the respondents did not have to write anything in English. What startled me was that exactly the same number of respondents who chose oral communication as an area in which they had improved a lot that is 6 people marked it as a skill in which they had made little or no progress at all. To put it in more concise words, one in five respondents had not developed their speaking skills much during their stay abroad. This might be the most disappointing piece of information from the whole survey. Three respondents also mentioned that the relative number of mistakes they had usually made had not decreased. One of them made a remark: The problem with mistakes is that you never know whether you have just said something right or not no one will correct you. The people you encounter and talk to are happy that you are trying to tell them something and would consider it rude to correct each and every error you make. Unfortunately, they [. . .] did not realize that I would have appreciated their help. Listening comprehension earned the same number of points as accuracy.

Part 2: Grammar school preparation

6.9 Question 9
The respondents were to express whether they found the overall preparation (both linguistic and non-linguistic) in grammar school for working abroad satisfactory or not. 62

Wording Do you think that your grammar school prepared you well for the working experience abroad?

Type Yes-no question Results

10 Yes No 20

Graph 15: Results for question 9

Interpretation of results Two thirds of them answered no. I do not want to speculate on this result much, as the purpose of the question was nothing more than to find out about the subjective feelings of the repondents. Nonetheless, the preponderance of nos is quite convincing, which means that most of the respondents either missed something in their studies, or would have wished to

63

change something in the way they were taught. We will learn about their suggestions and notes in the following presentation of results from the next question.

6.10 Question 10
Contrary to the previous open questions, I will not describe the results quantitatively this time. This is because the respondents provided a number of various suggestions and there were only few tips which were mentioned more than once.

Wording What do you think could be changed or improved about the language preparation in secondary schools?

Type Open question Results and evaluation As for the approach to teaching, some of the respondents feel that it remains quite oldfashioned and rigid. They mostly criticized the overemphasis on grammar-based exercises. Instead, they would have preferred more communicative activities, as well as exercises involving listening and reading. Two of them felt that the approach was too teacher-centred and that they had not been asked to interact with their peers. The teachers should adjust their approach so as to better meet the expectations of teenage learners and be able to respond to their specific needs. Some would have appreciated more conversational practise, both with native speakers and Czech teachers, who should, however, be better-qualified. They would prefer teachers who have spent some time in an English speaking country. Not a few respondents expressed that they would have wished to be taught more practical vocabulary, including, among others, slang expressions. One respondent suggested more contact with authentic, colloquial language through media, namely the Internet or 64

various magazines written in English. Another one would have liked more activites typical of situational and experiential teaching. Finally, one of the respondents would have appreciated being taught functions of language more, so that they would know e.g. how to buy a ticket at the airport.

6.11 Question 11
As I already discussed in the theoretical part, building ones intercultural competence and raising their cultural awareness form important parts of EFL learning. Therefore I asked the respondents whether they had received enough information about the cultural patterns of the target country, as well as a sufficient amount of information concerning cultural studies. I wanted to find out whether the teachers in grammar schools pay enough attention to these issues.

Wording Do you think that your grammar school prepared you well for the cultural specifics of the target country, including its history, cultural life, politics, literature, arts etc.? Type Yes-no question

Results

65

Yes No

24
Graph 16: Results for question 11

Interpretation of results I was very pleased to see that 80% of the respondents had rated their cultural studies as good and found them beneficial. It seems that grammar schools do well in this respect and that the level of cultural studies is generlky very high.

6.12 Question 12
I also focused on the role of the teacher as an analyst of their learners needs. The teacher should, in my opinion, be interested in what the learners want their English for. There are, of course, a lot of high school students who learn English just because it is compulsory. But there are also a number of those who plan to use English for various purposes and would wish their teacher to adjust their teaching if possible so as to suit their needs. The learners who plan to work abroad are definitely the case. Therefore I asked the respondents whether their teacher had known about their purposes for learning.

Wording Was your English teacher interested in the purpose you were learning English for? Type

66

Yes-no question

Results

Yes No

26
Graph 17: Results for question 12

Interpretation of results The graph shows an unexpectedly dramatic change in the results in contrast to the previous question. While the figures remained roughly the same, the two colours switched. More that 80% marked no this time and only 4 respondents said yes. Positive as I may have been in the previous results evaluation, now there is little space for optimism because the vast majority of the teachers had not at all been interested in what their learners would want or need their English for.

6.13 Question 13

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This question expanded on the previous one. I asked whether the teachers in grammar schools did anything to meet some of the specific needs of the learners who planned to work abroad

Wording Did your English teacher adjust their teaching according to the purpose you were learning it for? Type Yes-no question

Results

Yes No

24
Graph 18: Results for question 13

Interpretation of results

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Not suprisingly, the results show that the teachers mostly did not adjust their approach whatsoever. And it is understandable - they could not adjust their teaching anyhow because they were not interested in their learners motives for learning, as we found out when discussing the previous questions results. Only one in five respondents concede that their teachers took their needs into consideration. This is, in my opinion, appallingly few.

7. Summary of results and conclusion

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The first part of the survey has shown that when they found themselves in a foreign country, the respondents mostly struggled with their limited range of vocabulary and the corresponding inability to express themselves as precisely as they would have wished. In fact, more than a half of all the respondents mentioned this aspect as the most problematic of all. Furthermore, quite a number of the respondents also complained about not having been taught many colloquial and slang expressions used by native speakers. The appeal for more practical vocabulary was also frequent when I asked the respondents what could be improved about the language preparation. Personally, I see the possible solutions to these problems in more concentrating on two important areas of EFL teaching. These are providing the learners with as much input consisting of authentic language as possible, and conversation lessons involving both free and controlled practice, ideally with native speakers. One of the most frequently discussed issues concerning foreign language education in Czech schools is its excessive orientation on grammar. As for grammatical competence, it seems that the respondents mostly consider it somehow inferior to lexical competence. It can be assumed that most of the respondents value ones ability to express themselves precisely more than grammatical accuracy. On the other hand, the number of those who admit having had problems with grammar is still quite high, which leads to the premise that a lot of learners acknowledge the importance of grammatical accuracy in language production and are concerned with it. And what was very interesting to find out, grammar turned out to be the area of language which remains the least affected when one is staying in a foreign country. In other words, a high numer of the respondents had to draw solely on the knowledge of grammatical rules they had learned in their grammar schools throughout the whole stay. Especially the last mentioned finding supports the argument that building ones grammatical competence still plays an indispensable role in foreign language education not only in grammar schools and that teaching grammar should by no means be neglected. Nonetheless, grammar-based exercises should form just one of several important parts of teaching and testing, not the only one. Various communicative tasks involving production and interaction, task-solving, negotiating, or creative thinking and language production, should be paid an equal amount of attention. While grammar-based tasks will make the learners familiar with the necessary language structures, communicative tasks will give them enough opportunities to practise those structures in meaningful tasks and achieve a better command of them, so that they will not end up only passively acquaint with them. I believe that once the learners are told how to use the structures in expressing what they actually want to express and given

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enough space for trying it out, they will soon realize that the structures are taught not only for the purpose of consequent testing and that they really can make use of what they have learned. Based on what we have learned from the results in the second part aimed at grammar school preparation, we can make several important conclusions. The first one would definitely be an encouraging one it appears that grammar schools succeed in developing all of the four basic language skills harmonically in their students and that none of the skills could be labelled as not receiving enough attention, which can be assumed according to the very similar figures from questions 2 to 5. Another positive fact is that we can say that grammar schools do a good job in preparing the learners for contacts with different cultures and building their intercultural competence. The respondents who felt that they had not been prepared well in this area were in a clear minority. Finally, a pleasing discovery is that grammar school graduates seem to be well aware of what to expect when considering the possibility to start working in an English speaking country. Only 2 out of the total 30 respondents admit that the transition into an English speaking environment was more painful than they had anticipated. However, in this case it is not easy to say to what degree we can accredit the surprisingly good results to grammar school preparation. Unfortunately, but understandably, the survey does not bring good news only. To begin with, we can say that two undoubtedly disappointing discoveries have been made through questions 12 and 13. It seems that English teachers in grammar schools, with only few exceptions, neither ask their students about their purposes for learning English, whatever those might be, nor adjust their approach according to those purposes. This might be considered the most bewildering finding from the survey and I am convinced that this is where some kind of a change is desperately needed. The teachers could object that it is not their duty to know their students purposes for learning English. Furthermore, they could point out that there are quite a lot of students who seem to have no specific purposes at all and who learn English simply because they have to. And lastly, they might argue that there is no space in the curriculum for meeting the individual needs of each and every student anyway. Somehow or other, I think that a good language teacher should be interested in what their learners are planning to use their knowledge for. If nothing else, the learners will see it as a sign of concern. And though there is little space for any radical adjustments of the curriculum, there are always possibilites how to meet some of the learners specific needs without much deviating from the syllabus. Let aside the fact that the needs of the learners who plan to start working in a foreign country, as I described them in the theoretical part, are not in conflict with teaching general English. The teachers can implement some of the activities and 71

materials which such learners might find useful. To mention some of the possibilities, they can have the learners practise job interviews, write CVs and letters of application, devote one or more lessons to teaching language connected to jobs and working carreer, or practise telephone conversations. They can bring various materials concerning working in an English speaking country, for instance reports or interviews with people who already have worked somehwere. Perhaps an even better idea is to arrange a meeting with such people, so that the learners can discuss the issue with them and ask for everything they want to know. Apart from these steps, the teacher should also function as a counselor and resource provider. They should offer their learners help with anything they might need in the pursuit of their plans, e.g. check any written documents, as well as be able to recommend proper literature and other resources related to the issue. Despite the fact that as many as two thirds of the respondents did not find the language education in their grammar schools effective enough in terms of preparing them for travelling to and working in a foreign country, I do not want to give any verdicts. I would not dare to say that the language education in grammar schools is wrong. However, I am convinced that some steps towards a more learner-centred teaching, particularly more interest in their wishes and needs, as well as the recommendation to more concentrate on the communicative potential of language and its practical aspects, would definitely be appreciated by the students. If this thesis inspires any teacher to reflect on the areas mentioned above and make at least a slight effort to change something in their teaching, its purpose has been fulfilled.

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8. Bibliography
Printed sources

Brumfit, C. J., and Johnson, K. (1979). The communicative approach to language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Candlin, Ch. N. (1981). The communicative teaching of English. Harlow: Longman Group Limited. Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. Chomsky, N. (1966). Linguistic theory. Reprinted in J. P. B. Allen and P. Van Buren (eds.), Chomsky: Selected readings. London: Oxford University Press. Ebble, C. (1996). Slang & sociability: In-group language among college students. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Harding, K. (2007). English for Specific Purposes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Harmer, J. (2004). How to teach writing. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Hemerka, V. (2009). Low speaking performance in learners of English. Unpublished bachelor thesis, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Hutchinson, T., and Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jones, L. (1981). Functions of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Matikainen, T., and Duffy, C. B. (2000). Developing cultural understanding. English Teaching Forum, 38(3), 40-48. 73

Richards, J. C., and Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Swan, M. (1985). A critical look at the communicative approach. ELT Journal, 39/1. Thornbury, S. (2005). How to teach speaking. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Ur, P. (1984). Teaching listening comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vzkumn stav pedagogick. (2007). Rmcov vzdlvac program pro gymnzia. Praha: VP. Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching language as communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Electronic sources

Accuracy.

In

TeachingEnglish.

Retrieved

February

20,

2011,

from

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/knowledge-wiki/accuracy. Beard, R. (2007). On the road from the brain to the tongue [web page]. Retrieved February 24, 2001, from http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/Linguistics/publish/05lect06a.html. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Langu ages. Fluency. In ESL Glossary. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from http://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary/fluency.htm. Goal: Communicative Competence. The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC. Retrieved March 8, 2011,

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from http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/goalsmethods/goal.htm#topofpage. Syllabus. In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabus#Notional-functional. Zrak. In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 18, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zrak.

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9. Appendices
9.1 CAN DO statements related to level B2
Speaking CAN DO statements B2 I can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible. I can take an active part in discussion in familiar contexts, accounting for and sustaining my views. I can present clear, detailed descriptions on a wide range of subjects related to my field of interest. I can explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Council of Europe 2001: 27

Spoken interaction

Spoken production

Spoken production CAN DO descriptors Overall spoken production B2 Can give clear, systematically developed descriptions and presentations, with appropriate highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail. Can give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on a wide range of subjects related to his/her field of interest, expanding and supporting ideas with subsidiary points and relevant examples. Council of Europe 2001: 58 B2 Can give straightforward descriptions on a variety of familiar subjects within his/her field of interest. Can reasonably fluently relate a straightforward narrative or description as a linear sequence of points. Can give detailed accounts of experiences, describing feelings and reactions. Can relate details of unpredictable occurrences, e.g. an accident. Can relate the plot of a book or film and describe his/her reactions. Can describe dreams, hopes and ambitions. Can describe events, real or imagined. Can narrate a story. Council of Europe 2001: 59

Sustained monologue: describing experience

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Sustained monologue: putting a case (e.g. in a debate)

B2 Can develop an argument systematically with appropriate highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail. Can develop a clear argument, expanding and supporting his/her points of view at some length with subsidiary points and relevant examples. Can construct a chain of reasoned argument: Can explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Council of Europe 2001: 59 B2 Can deliver announcements on most general topics with a degree of clarity, fluency and spontaneity which causes no strain or inconvenience to the listener. Council of Europe 2001: 60 B2 Can give a clear, systematically developed presentation, with highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail. Can depart spontaneously from a prepared text and follow up interesting points raised by members of the audience, often showing remarkable fluency and ease of expression. Can give a clear, prepared presentation, giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view and giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Can take a series of follow up questions with a degree of fluency and spontaneity which poses no strain for either him/herself or the audience. Council of Europe 2001: 60

Public announcements

Addressing audiences

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Spoken interaction CAN DO descriptors Overall spoken interaction B2 Can communicate with some confidence on familiar routine and non-routine matters related to his/her interests and professional field. Can exchange, check and confirm information, deal with less routine situations and explain why something is a problem. Can express thoughts on more abstract, cultural topics such as films, books, music etc. Can exploit a wide range of simple language to deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling. Can enter unprepared into conversation on familiar topics, express personal opinions and exchange information on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday life (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and current events). B2 Can understand in detail what is said to him/her in the standard spoken language even in a noisy environment. Council of Europe 2001: 75 B2 Can engage in extended conversation on most general topics in a clearly participatory fashion, even in a noisy environment. Can sustain relationships with native speakers without unintentionally amusing or irritating them or requiring them to behave other than they would with a native speaker. Can convey degrees of emotion and highlight the personal significance of events and experiences. Council of Europe 2001: 76

. Understanding a native speaker interlocutor

Conversation

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Informal discussion with friends

B2 Can keep up with an animated discussion between native speakers. Can express his/her ideas and opinions with precision, and present and respond to complex lines of argument convincingly. Can take an active part in informal discussion in familiar contexts, commenting, putting point of view clearly, evaluating alternative proposals and making and responding to hypotheses. Can with some effort catch much of what is said around him/her in discussion, but may find it difficult to participate effectively in discussion with several native speakers who do not modify their language in any way. Can account for and sustain his/her opinions in discussion by providing relevant explanations, arguments and comments. Council of Europe 2001: 77 B2 Can keep up with an animated discussion, identifying accurately arguments supporting and opposing points of view. Can express his/her ideas and opinions with precision, present and respond to complex lines of argument convincingly. Can participate actively in routine and non-routine formal discussion. Can follow the discussion on matters related to his/her field, understand in detail the points given prominence by the speaker. Can contribute, account for and sustain his/her opinion, evaluate alternative proposals and make and respond to hypotheses. Council of Europe 2001: 78 B2 Can understand detailed instructions reliably. Can help along the progress of the work by inviting others to join in, say what they think, etc. Can outline an issue or a problem clearly, speculating about causes or consequences, and weighing advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Council of Europe 2001: 79

Formal discussion and meetings

Goal-oriented cooperation (e.g. repairing a car, discussing a document, organising an event)

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Transactions to obtain goods and services

B2 Can cope linguistically to negotiate a solution to a dispute like an undeserved traffic ticket, financial responsibility for damage in a flat, for blame regarding an accident. Can outline a case for compensation, using persuasive language to demand satisfaction and state clearly the limits to any concession he/she is prepared to make. Can explain a problem which has arisen and make it clear that the provider of the service/customer must make a concession. Council of Europe 2001: 80 B2 Can understand and exchange complex information and advice on the full range of matters related to his/her occupational role. Can pass on detailed information reliably. Can give a clear, detailed description of how to carry out a procedure. Can synthesise and report information and arguments from a number of sources. Council of Europe 2001: 81 B2 Can carry out an effective, fluent interview, departing spontaneously from prepared questions, following up and probing interesting replies. Can take initiatives in an interview, expand and develop ideas with little help or prodding from an interviewer. Council of Europe 2001: 82

Information exchange

Interviewing and being interviewed

Accuracy and fluency CAN DO descriptors B2 Shows a relatively high degree of grammatical control. Does not make errors which cause misunderstanding, and can correct most of his/her mistakes. Can produce stretches of language with a fairly even tempo; although he/she can be hesitant as he/she searches for patterns and expressions. There are few noticeably long pauses. Council of Europe 2001: 29

Accuracy Fluency

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Listening CAN DO descriptors Overall listening comprehension B2 Can understand standard spoken language, live or broadcast, on both familiar and unfamiliar topics normally encountered in personal, social, academic or vocational life. Only extreme background noise, inadequate discourse structure and/or idiomatic usage influences the ability to understand. Can understand the main ideas of propositionally and linguistically complex speech on both concrete and abstract topics delivered in a standard dialect, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can follow extended speech and complex lines of argument provided the topic is reasonably familiar, and the direction of the talk is sign-posted by explicit markers. Council of Europe 2001: 66 B2 Can keep up with an animated conversation between native speakers. Can with some effort catch much of what is said around him/her, but may find it difficult to participate effectively in discussion with several native speakers who do not modify their language in any way. Council of Europe 2001: 66

Understanding conversation between native speakers

B2 Listening as a member of Can follow the essentials of lectures, talks and reports and a live audience other forms of academic/professional presentation which are propositionally and linguistically complex. Council of Europe 2001: 67 B2 Can understand announcements and messages on concrete and abstract topics spoken in standard dialect at normal speed. Council of Europe 2001: 67

Listening to announcements and instructions

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Listening to audio media and recordings

B2 Can understand recordings in standard dialect likely to be encountered in social, professional or academic life and identify speaker viewpoints and attitudes as well as the information content. Can understand most radio documentaries and most other recorded or broadcast audio material delivered in standard dialect and can identify the speakers mood, tone etc. Council of Europe 2001: 68 B2 Can understand most TV news and current affairs programmes. Can understand documentaries, live interviews, talk shows, plays and the majority of films in standard dialect. Council of Europe 2001: 71

Watching TV and film (audio-visual reception)

Writing CAN DO descriptors Written production Overall written production B2 Can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to his/her field of interest, synthesising and evaluating information and arguments from a number of sources. Council of Europe 2001: 61 B2 Can write clear, detailed descriptions of real or imaginary events and experiences, marking the relationship between ideas in clear connected text, and following established conventions of the genre concerned. Can write clear, detailed descriptions on a variety of subjects related to his/her field of interest. Can write a review of a film, book or play. Council of Europe 2001: 62

Creative writing

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Reports and essays

B2 Can write an essay or report which develops an argument systematically with appropriate highlighting of significant points and relevant supporting detail. Can evaluate different ideas or solutions to a problem. Can write an essay or report which develops an argument, giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Can synthesise information and arguments from a number of sources. Council of Europe 2001: 62

Written interaction Overall written interaction B2 Can express news and views effectively in writing, and relate to those of others. Council of Europe 2001: 83 B2 Can write letters conveying degrees of emotion and highlighting the personal significance of events and experiences and commenting on the correspondents news and views. Council of Europe 2001: 83 B2 Can take messages communicating enquiries, explaining problems. Can write notes conveying simple information of immediate relevance to friends, service people, teachers and others who feature in his/her everyday life, getting across comprehensibly the points he/she feels are important. Council of Europe 2001: 84

Correspondence

Notes, messages and forms

Reading CAN DO descriptors Overall reading comprehension B2 Can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively. Has a broad active reading vocabulary, but may experience some difficulty with low frequency idioms. Council of Europe 2001: 69

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Reading correspondence

B2 Can read correspondence relating to his/her field of interest and readily grasp the essential meaning. Council of Europe 2001: 69 B2 Can scan quickly through long and complex texts, locating relevant details. Can quickly identify the content and relevance of news items, articles and reports on a wide range of professional topics, deciding whether closer study is worthwhile. Council of Europe 2001: 70 B2 Can obtain information, ideas and opinions from highly specialised sources within his/her field. Can understand specialised articles outside his/her field, provided he/she can use a dictionary occasionally to confirm his/her interpretation of terminology. Can understand articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular stances or viewpoints. Council of Europe 2001: 70 B2 Can understand lengthy, complex instructions in his field, including details on conditions and warnings, provided he/she can reread difficult sections. Council of Europe 2001: 71

Reading for orientation

Reading for information and argument

Reading instructions

Linguistic competence CAN DO descriptors General linguistic range B2 Can express him/herself clearly and without much sign of having to restrict what he/she wants to say. Has a sufficient range of language to be able to give clear descriptions, express viewpoints and develop arguments without much conspicuous searching for words, using some complex sentence forms to do so. Council of Europe 2001: 110

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Lexical competence Vocabulary range B2 Has a good range of vocabulary for matters connected to his/her field and most general topics. Can vary formulation to avoid frequent repetition, but lexical gaps can still cause hesitation and circumlocution. Council of Europe 2001: 112 B2 Lexical accuracy is generally high, though some confusion and incorrect word choice does occur without hindering communication. Council of Europe 2001: 112

Vocabulary control

Grammatical competence Grammatical accuracy B2 Good grammatical control; occasional slips or nonsystematic errors and minor flaws in sentence structure may still occur, but they are rare and can often be corrected in retrospect. Does not make mistakes which lead to misunderstanding. Council of Europe 2001: 114 B2 Has acquired a clear, natural, pronunciation and intonation. Council of Europe 2001: 117

Phonological competence Phonological control

Orthographic competence Orthographic control B2 Can produce clearly intelligible continuous writing which follows standard layout and paragraphing conventions. Spelling and punctuation are reasonably accurate but may show signs of mother tongue influence. Council of Europe 2001: 118

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Sociolinguistic competence CAN DO descriptors Sociolinguistic appropriateness B2 Can express him or herself confidently, clearly and politely in a formal or informal register, appropriate to the situation and person(s) concerned. Can with some effort keep up with and contribute to group discussions even when speech is fast and colloquial. Can sustain relationships with native speakers without unintentionally amusing or irritating them or requiring them to behave other than they would with a native speaker. Can express him or herself appropriately in situations and avoid crass errors of formulation. Council of Europe 2001: 122

Production strategies CAN DO descriptors Planning B2 Can plan what is to be said and the means to say it, considering the effect on the recipient/s. Council of Europe 2001: 64 B2 Can use circumlocution and paraphrase to cover gaps in vocabulary and structure. Council of Europe 2001: 64 B2 Can correct slips and errors if he/she becomes conscious of them or if they have led to misunderstandings. Can make a note of favourite mistakes and consciously monitor speech for it/them. Council of Europe 2001: 65

Compensating

Monitoring and repair

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Pragmatic competences CAN DO descriptors Spoken fluency B2 Can communicate spontaneously, often showing remarkable fluency and ease of expression in even longer complex stretches of speech. Can produce stretches of language with a fairly even tempo; although he/she can be hesitant as he/she searches for patterns and expressions, there are few noticeably long pauses. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without imposing strain on either party. Council of Europe 2001: 129 B2 Can pass on detailed information reliably. Council of Europe 2001: 129 B2 Can adjust what he/she says and the means of expressing it to the situation and the recipient and adopt a level of formality appropriate to the circumstances. Can adjust to the changes of direction, style and emphasis normally found in conversation. Can vary formulation of what he/she wants to say. Council of Europe 2001: 124

Propositional precision

Flexibility

Turntaking

B2 Can intervene appropriately in discussion, exploiting appropriate language to do so. Can initiate, maintain and end discourse appropriately with effective turntaking. Can initiate discourse, take his/her turn when appropriate and end conversation when he/she needs to, though he/she may not always do this elegantly. Can use stock phrases (e.g. Thats a difficult question to answer) to gain time and keep the turn whilst formulating what to say. Council of Europe 2001: 124

Thematic development

B2 Can develop a clear description or narrative, expanding and supporting his/her main points with relevant supporting detail and examples. Council of Europe 2001: 125 87

Coherence and cohesion

B2 Can use a variety of linking words efficiently to mark clearly the relationships between ideas. Can use a limited number of cohesive devices to link his/her utterances into clear, coherent discourse, though there may be some jumpiness in a long contribution. Council of Europe 2001: 125

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9.2 A sample questionnaire from the survey

Ven sleno/pan, ven pane, rd bych Vs poprosil o vyplnn nsledujcho dotaznku, kter je soust praktick sti m diplomov prce. Dotaznk je zcela anonymn a Vmi zveejnn informace budou pouity vhradn v elm vzkumu. Vaeho vyjden si vm a dkuji Vm za spoluprci. Bc. Vclav Hemerka student Pedagogick fakulty MU v Brn

Prvn st dotaznku (obecn informace) Vk: Pohlav: ena mu

Datum zapoet a ukonen prce v zahrani (sta msc a rok): Clov zem, oblast: Druh vykonvan prce:

Druh st dotaznku (pobyt v cizojazynm prosted) 1. Jak byl pro Vs pchod do cizojazynho prosted? snaz, ne jsem si pedstavoval/a odpovdal zhruba mm oekvnm t, ne jsem si pedstavoval/a 2. Ml/a jste problm porozumt rodilm mluvm? ne, vbec obas asto tm neustle 3. Ml/a jste njak problm se svm mluvenm projevem pi konverzaci s rodilmi mluvmi? ne, vbec obas asto tm neustle

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4. Ml/a jste njak problm se tenm informac v anglitin (nap. rznch npis, oznmen, pokyn atd.)? ne, vbec obas asto tm neustle 5. Ml/a jste njak problm s psanm projevem? ne, vbec obas asto tm neustle nevm, nemusel/a jsem nic pst 6. Kter oblasti jazyka Vm inily nejvt pote (nap. mluven, slovn zsoba, gramatika)? Prosm, vypite. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Tet st dotaznku (pprava na stedn kole) 7. Myslte si, e Vs na stedn kole dostaten dobe pipravili na vjezd do zahrani? ano ne nevm 8. Myslte, e by se ve koln pprav student na vjezd do zahrani dalo nco zlepit, zmnit? Uvete, prosm, co. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 9. Jsou podle Vs njak oblasti jazyka, jim se na kolch nevnuje dostaten pozornost? Jak? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 10. Pipravili Vs ve kole dobe na kulturn zvltnosti dan zem?

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 ano ne 11. Dozvdl/a jste se ve kole dostatek informac o relich dan zem (relie jsou fakta a zvltnosti souvisejc s danou zem, nap. jej historie, kultura, politika, literatura, umn aj.)? ano ne 12. Zajmal se V vyuujc jazyka o to, k jakmu elu chcete znalost jazyka vyut? ano ne 13. Zohledoval vyuujc fakt, e chcete vycestovat za prac, njakm zpsobem pi vuce? ano ne 14. Jak moc se zlepila Vae jazykov vybavenost po nvratu? mn, ne jsem ekal/a zhruba tak, jak jsem ekal/a vce, ne jsem ekal/a 15. Ve kterch oblastech se Vae znalost jazyka zlepila nejvce? Prosm, vypite. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 16. Ve kterch oblastech se Vae znalost jazyka naopak nezlepila vbec, nebo zlepila jen mlo? Prosm, vypite. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 17. Chcete mi jet nco vzkzat, pidat jakkoliv posteh i koment? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Dkuji Vm za V as vnovan dotaznku. 91