FALAR : a competência oral no ensino de uma língua estrangeira = Speaking : teaching oral communication skills in foreign languages

Abstract

These eight articles collected under the title Falar - A competência oral no ensino de uma língua estrangeira – are the outcome of a conference organized by the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC) - in particular by its research line Translating Europe across the Ages - held in Lisbon, at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in October 2012. We would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology/Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), the Instituto Cervantes Lisboa, the Goethe-Institut Lissabon, the Embassy of Spain in Portugal, the Fundación Ramón Areces for their financial and logistic support without which this scientific meeting would not have been possible. The thematic and theoretical variety of the articles included in this volume is not only the outcome of the variety of languages in which they were written, but also derives from the invited specialists who have different backgrounds in academic contexts, schools, research methodologies, and who are today contributing to a central area in the teaching of a foreign language: speech. Besides contributions by specialists in didactics like Jürgen Kurtz, from the University of Justus-Liebig, Gießen, Germany, there are articles in this volume from linguists, such as Marta Albelda Marco from the University of Valencia, Spain, and from specialists in classroom practice, such as Carolyn Leslie, lecturer in English as a foreign language at the Universidade Nova of Lisbon and the British Council. The essays in this book are grouped in theoretical-thematic areas, beginning with didactics, and paying particular attention to the teaching of the speaking skills.