ELT365 · Day 183 — Fluency vs accuracy: the tension at the heart of production

Idea — Fluency means communicating meaning without interruption; accuracy means using form correctly. Every speaking and writing task sits somewhere on the scale — and you design where.

Example — A five-minute conversation task with no interruption for error correction: fluency-focused. A grammar exercise producing written sentences checked immediately: accuracy-focused.

Try — Think of your last speaking task. Did you intervene on errors during the task? If yes, was the task fluency-focused? What would you do differently now?

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