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Juana Arias-Dominguez, an AP Spanish teacher at Union City High School in New Jersey, shares how to develop oral competency in students learning a language in this recent article: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/2016/12/oral_competency_for_world_language_fluency.html

Based on her experience sending students out into the community while teaching Spanish in Spain, she writes, “Oral competency is essential to the language classroom. Most language teachers focus on vocabulary building, the dreaded conjugation charts, and the false realities often found in school texts. However, in my Spanish classroom back at Union City High School, the effect of my experiences permeated my lessons as soon as I returned from Spain. I brought back activities from the summer study abroad program and adjusted them for my classroom students—such as asking them to buy a ticket, find a bus schedule, ask a friend about family, decide what itinerary is convenient—among other activities. These "experiences," as I call them, add a new facet to language acquisition. The cultural component also becomes more prevalent and students are now more comfortable working in pairs to complete tasks orally.”