The Teaching of English Listening and Speaking to Adolescents Foreign language teaching in Icelandic compulsory schools now starts earlier than it did previously, and English is the first foreign languages that children in Iceland begin to learn. Most of them starts learning English in the fifth grade (Lovísa kristjánsdóttir et al. 2006: 7). The fact that English language is familiar to Icelanders, as it is a common language in al sorts of activities like in television, computer programs and music, should give us a head start. Therefor it is logical to assume that the environment together with the fact that children starts rather early to learn English, should lead to good English skills. Nevertheless it is a common knowledge that the English
When I finished high school after several courses of English my English speaking skills had taken little improvement. I could understand spoken English but only if it was clear and slow enough. When I first tried to listen to real world English, for the sake of testing my ability, I choose the Sky news in television. I realised that I just understood enough to barely know what was going on and if it had not been for the pictures, I probably would not have had a clue about what the news was about. I believe that many Icelanders share my experience when it comes to English speaking and listening, although it is a common knowledge that Icelanders often consider themselves better in English that they truly are when it comes to actually use the language effectively in a real world situations. Hence, in spite of environment were English is common and most of us spends many years learning English, our English skills are in fact rather poor, especially when it comes oral skills i.e. to listening and speaking the language. With this in mind it is perfectly natural to wonder if our English teaching methods does not focus enough on practicing the oral English skills with attention to