Abstract
In Taiwan, English is the most important foreign language and being proficient in English is crucial when it comes to college application as well as job hunting and career promotion. While English is learned as a foreign language in Taiwan, students are exposed to English insufficiently and it is hard for them to develop proficiency in English, especially listening and speaking skills. Although it is claimed that communicative language teaching is the major principle that the English curriculum of Taiwan adopted, there is a disconnect between what is claimed to be achieved and the outcomes of students' performance in terms of English speaking or listening proficiency. The purposes of this project are to promote students' communicative competence and involve real language use through communicative activities. A Curriculum to Enhance Listening and Speaking Skills for 4th Graders in Taiwan is aimed to provide teachers who wish to enhance students' English listening and speaking skills with communicative lesson plans. Topics such as school life, English songs, answering the phone, ordering meals, English stories, shopping and sports are included in the lesson plans, and these topics mirror the authentic language use in the real world. The focus of the lessons is intended to give students meaningful, contextualized and communicative language practice.