A course book for the successful use of foreign languages

Abstract

During the study of foreign languages many students face a number of challenges, regardless of their present progress. Of all the possible challenges rises that of (fluent) verbal communication that causes the most headache for quite a large number of students. In order to maintain a solid and fluent speech one does not only need a significant background knowledge, grammatical accuracy and a rich vocabulary, but also the integrated use of strategic competence, and that of communication strategies in particular (Bárdos, 2000, 2004, 2005). The key reason for emphasising the importance of communication strategies is due to the beneficial effect they have on the fluency of speech (Dörnyei, 1995; Eszenyi, 2001; Maleki, 2007). These strategies are unconscious plans that can influence and enhance the use of foreign languages by reducing the possibility or length of an episode of „communication breakdown”, thus enabling the speaker to use these methods in an effective way – provided that they have properly learnt the techniques. To aid this conscious preparation for a more successful approach to conversing in a foreign language the authors have started to work on a course book which aims at providing the theoretical and practical background for acquiring communication strategies. To the author’s knowledge, there has been not a single book released on the topic of verbal fluency in foreign language education (at least in Hungary) by 2018. Therefore, this course book can be the first of its kind published in Hungary.