Leech and Svartvik (2002, 12) state that, because it is such a common everyday form of language, conversation is the most important thing to be taught to learners of English. Broughton et al. (1978, 173) emphasise the importance of teaching English in its oral form at the beginner level and for
young learners, as this will help the learners adopt the way of regarding the spoken language as equal to its written counterpart, instead of seeing it as ungrammatical or inferior in any way.
The use of spoken language and an oral approach to English teaching at the beginner level is important for the development of the learners’ communicative competence. Broughton et al. (1978, 173) note that it is common for EFL learners to be more competent in reading and writing English than in speaking it, which is often a result of book-centred teaching or learning mainly by translating from the first language. If the teaching concentrates mainly in written language, the learners often transfer the language of the written texts into their spoken production; as Carter (1999, 158) states, teaching children to speak English by the rules of written, formal English grammar may result to them speaking “like a book”, which refers to producing unnatural-sounding spoken language.
One reason for including spoken English and practising oral communication especially in Finnish EFL teaching is, as Ringbom (1998, 194) points out, the reluctance of Finnish learners to try to speak a foreign language unless they can do it flawlessly. This can become a problem especially if the model of ‘correct’ use of English comes entirely from the written registers, as the spoken grammar deviates in places from the written grammar, making the features of spoken English seem ungrammatical, hence ‘incorrect’, to the learners. Ringbom (ibid.) states that this attitude leads to problems in oral communication, which are caused by a lack of culture-related socio-pragmatic competences, not problems in proficiency, as the same phenomenon occurs among advanced learners as much as among beginners. The unwillingness of attempting to speak in English and the fear of making mistakes could perhaps be avoided or lessened by introducing the aspects of oral communication at the very beginning of EFL teaching, making the learners more comfortable in producing free speech in another language.
The ability to speak English, or any other language, naturally requires cultural knowledge as well as knowledge on the conversational ‘rules’ of the given language. McCarthy and Carter (1995, 64) state that the communicational approach to language helps to see and understand differences
between the cultures of the target language and the mother tongue, such as the use of phatic language, which might otherwise be noticed only in there being something ‘off’ or unnatural in the learners’ oral production. In order to be able to learn about these cultural differences, the learners need to be exposed to ‘real’, natural English. Receiving authentic input instead of, or at least in addition to, artificial language can be stated to be of assistance in learning to use the target language. Haynes (2007, 11) states that a source of natural communication will help young learners acquire the target language more quickly than learning by simply memorising grammatical structures.
There are several opinions regarding the content of teaching spoken English, varying from the simplest of forms to the more complex features of conversational grammar. Mumford (2009, 139) sees the use of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions (and, but, so, because) as important features to be taught to EFL learners, and also mentions the tendency of native speakers to link utterances together as a chain, instead of using separate sentences, as a feature worth teaching, pointing out that speaking in phrases instead of sentences can make the language sound more fluent. Carter et al. (1998, 71) mention the use of heads and tails as an important feature to be taught to EFL learners, as they allow more choice in expressing feelings and attitudes, as well as establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. McCarthy (1998, 66) states that the use of deictic expressions, which is common in natural conversation, is an important feature to be included in teaching oral communication in English. McCarthy and Carter (1995, 67) mention the use of ‘language-in-action’ texts (for instance dialogues where the participants are doing something, such as cooking or assembling a bookcase) as useful in EFL teaching, as they include numerous deictic expressions, which make the texts context-dependent. Another feature seen as an important addition to the English learners’ repertoire is, according to McCarthy (1998, 53), the use of follow- ups. He (ibid.) points out that in the classroom context, the learners are often used to the follow-ups only being produced by the teacher, who uses them to evaluate the learner’s response. In McCarthy’s (1998, 54) opinion, textbook dialogues should include follow-ups, and in cases where
there is no access to natural data, the dialogues should be edited by adding follow-ups to make them familiar to the learners.