Introduction:

What is the overriding objective of a speaking component in a language teaching

syllabus?
enable the student to speak the target language.
This objective is quite complex when authentic speech in context is given a central role.
Speaking is primary, but messy and difficult to define, it is fundamental to language
learning but open to the vagaries of individual use and context.

What are our models and standards when we teach speaking?
Two different perspectives on spoken grammar:
In spoken language, grammar and vocabulary are reduced to a minimum. The
words used often have special or hidden meaning born of some shared experience
which an outsider would fail to grasp. The speaker makes much use of
elided and slurred forms in the familiar pattern of their ordinary everyday
speech. Utterances are typically short and often elliptical. . . . Short and rugged
homespun words are usually more powerful and expressive than elaborate
and high-flown words. Constructions that occur commonly in speech are not
necessarily acceptable in formal and dignified writing.