Abstract

Apart from accuracy, fluency is one of the issues that concern language learners and teachers on parallel grounds. Fluency is generally defined as the rapid, smooth, and effortless use of spoken language. This study aims at suggesting a method and a set of techniques that can be employed in the pronunciation classroom to work on training Iraqi learners of English to learn and use some aspects of connected speech, viz. weak forms, sentence stress, linking and elision, and accordingly developing their fluency skills in speaking English. It basically draws on using a communicative approach with the following characteristics: first, maintaining a learner-centered teaching, encouraging pair/group work, and employing practice through using activities and tasks. The suggested method involves proceeding through three stages of practice: mechanical, meaningful, and communicative. Mechanical practice is a controlled type of practice carried out through repetition and substitution activities; meaningful practice is also a controlled practice through meaningful choices of items; and the last stage, communicative practice involves using language within real communicative contexts. The suggested techniques are also set into three stages in consonance with the stages of the method.