Abstract:
This paper will focus on how to develop oral skills of Sri Lankan students who learn French as a
foreign language. This topic is highly interesting as speaking skills are often under represented
in the traditional classroom. This is mainly due to the fact that it is considered a less- academic
skill than writing. A questionnaire was given to seventy university students studying French. The
questions were aimed at summarizing the main difficulties faced by students when learning to
speak French. A thorough study was also made on methodologies used in applied linguistics. It is
important to elucidate the main issues related to the acquisition of oral skills mentioned by students
and the emphasis will only fall upon the most pertinent issues such as the use of native languages
(Sinhala and Tamil) and English in the classroom, over usage of translation, lack of interaction
between teachers and students, problems of ignoring real communication, rigid teaching methods
etc. Finally, the stress will be on the solutions which can be used to overcome the above mentioned
problems. The bespoke solutions derive from teaching methodologies and applied linguistics
theories like direct method, the audio lingua method, the behavioral approach, the nativist theories
and Noam Chomsky’s theories etc.
