The text presented just confirms that vocabulary, syntax or grammar in isolation are not enough to provide our students with the sufficient skill (not knowledge) to speak naturally. Speaking in a way that sounds natural and native-like is not really easy, as the author points out, when even speaking itself is a quite complex thing to do. However, I do agree with the author when he comes to the point where consciousness is emphasized as the most important thing to do. Putting our students in contact with natural and real language and making them aware of it is of extreme importance, especially elementary students when they will have the chance not to fossilize wrong, mechanic and inadequate structures and responses, for example. We should not forget the effort the teacher should make to bring close-to-real situations to the classroom and try to make the students perform them in a lively and spontaneous manner. Practice + awareness is a good combination to provoke more natural conversations.

I totally agree with Sam Smith when he `talks` about the repetition of his students` errors
as to Speaking Practice and that teachers should attack this problem from the beginning,
although we should take into consideration that conversation is a difficult task for students at

lower levels. Therefore it is a must for teachers to provide students with the appropriate vocabulary so that they can feel their improvement as well as not forget the use of pairwork, groupwork and listening activities in class. In my opinion, we, Cultura teachers are on the way.

Speaking and Conversation with a Focus at Elementary Level