Language is about communication， and a great deal of communication in the world of work is oral. Yet SpeaHng is one of the least prestigious and least developed of the English language skills Chinese students seek to attain at school and university. This has much to do with the great di伍culties of examining Speaking.However， if students are to be equipped for the world beyond the conventional examinations which they need to pass in order to graduate， they need to develop the confidence to speak. This book attempts to help them to do so.
The kind of speaking I envisage is not "reciting". There is a great deal of reciting that goes on in our education system. It has its merits， but reciting is not the same as engaging in a conversation. In the world of work we are necessarily interactive. We need to shape what we say in response to what others say to us. This cannot be learned by heart， for it will vary from one occasion to another. That is why the questions that follow each Unit in this book are so geared to promoting discussion and debate. Most of them have no "correct" answers. There are many possible avenues that can be explored and many different ways oflooHng at the same subject. Students need to open themselves up to challenge this poses.
