The output hypothesis, the L2 teacher, and the speaking skill

Authors

  • Maria da Glória Guará Tavares Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brasil

Keywords:

output, speaking, teacher, classroom

Abstract

The present article reports on a case study with three L21 teachers, the purpose of which was to examine teachers’ perspectives towards the speaking skill, types of opportunities provided for speaking the target language in the classroom, and functions of output (Swain, 1985, 1995) mostly emphasized by teachers within the opportunities provided for speaking. Results indicate that teachers tend to view speaking as communication and most opportunities provided for speaking are discussions about familiar topics. Moreover, teachers tend to emphasize the practice function of output.