SPEAKING AND WRITING SKILLS AFFECTING THE ACQUISITION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Abstract

Many students express their inability and sometimes admit their failure in learning to speak a second/foreign language. These students may be good at other skills, but when it comes to learning how to speak another language, they claim to have a "mental block" (Horwitz et al., 1986: 125). The use of modern approaches in communicative teaching in language classrooms and the widespread use of English and German have increased the demand for good communication skills. Communication is the method by which people share their ideas, information, opinions, and feelings. People who share these can greatly contribute to teamwork and work of individuals. Communication is a two-way activity between two or more persons and it can take place in many different ways, depending on the situation or place. It implies the transfer of information and knowledge from the source to the recipient and is a process by which the sender/source reaches the recipient/destination with thoughts, ideas, feelings, facts, and values. Successful communication is said to occur when the receiver not only receives the message, but also accepts, interprets, and uses it in the manner intended by the source. This paper attempts to examine the impact that writing and speaking skills have on students' communication in English and German by examining the results obtained from the questionnaire. The questionnaire includes 10 questions responded by а total of 40 students from the Departments of English Language and Literature and German Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology, Goce Delcev University - Stip.