AN EVALUATION OF SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN FAR AHEAD 1ÈRE FROM A COMMUNICATIVE PERSPECTIVE.

ABSTRACT: Speaking plays a crucial role in foreign language learning as it enables learners to develop their communicative competencies and learning activities in textbooks should foster such competencies. This study aimed to evaluate the speaking activities in Far Ahead, an Ivorian EFL textbook, from a communicative perspective. It was carried out around the following question: To what extent do the speaking activities in Far Ahead 1ère develop learners’ communicative competencies? An evaluation checklist was used to collect data and both qualitative and quantitative approach were used to analyze them. The findings revealed that only four out of the ten units in the textbook have at least 50% of speaking activities likely to develop learners’ communicative competencies. This is due to the fact that the speaking activities are too mechanical and there is not full lesson devoted to the speaking skill in the textbook. Therefore, I suggested that, in a CBLT-based EFL teaching-learning context, the speaking activities should be fluency-oriented, which aims to develop learners’ spontaneous communication skills in using what they have already learned. On the basis of that, I designed a worksheet for a full speaking lesson that should enable learners to simulate real life communication in EFL class. KEYWORDS: EFL learning, speaking activities, communicative competencies, textbook, evaluation, competency-based language teaching.