Ways of improving students’ communication-oriented oral speech skills in Еnglish (through authentic materials)

The presented article briefly examines the problems that first and second course students confront while speaking. The article emphasises that English has become a fashionable language to learn in Azerbaijan in the past decades. First course students know grammar rules well enough and they possess rich vocabulary also. Yet most students (not all of them, of course) are unable to take part in simple conversations either with a teacher or with each other. The lack of self-confidence in students lead them to express their view points in Azerbaijani. The presented paper emphasizes the importance of the use of authentic materials to improve first and second course students' communication-oriented skills in English. It is indicated in the paper that according to the requirements of the communicative approach, the usage of authentic texts and language materials in the English language lesson are better than the presentation of artificial texts. Speaking is the productive use of language and improving students' speaking skills which is considered to be the most difficult part of language teaching and is directly connected with motivation, communicative exercises, listening activities. In the article, it is stated that habit forming provides an excellent incentive so speak English fluently. With regard to the selection of authentic materials, the interests of the students should be taken into consideration. Those authentic materials should be presented to the students that meet their needs and requirements. In addition, the article outlines the types of authentic materials. Teachers are encouraged to use all the types authentic materials in class. Authentic reading and listening materials used in English classes and the activities to be carried out on them are also grouped. The paper points out that authentic materials have become an important element of the English language lessons noting that students should use them in English more often in the contexts in which real oral speech occurs naturally than in the context in which artificial speech occurs. Therefore, it is important to use authentic materials in the process of teaching English.