Improving high school EFL learners' communicative competence using CEFR-based speaking practices

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) encourages language learners to think about what they do when communicating and what they can do to help themselves and others learn a language better. Related research supports CEFR's contribution to language learning. This study aims to improve Kurdish EFL learners' communicative competence through some proposed CEFR based speaking practices in Northern Iraq. A mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) research design was used in the study. The study was conducted in a high school in Erbil city with CEFR level B1. The supposed speaking practices were applied to 50 high school students in which 24 of the students were the experiment group students, and 26 of them were the control group students. The post-test results depicted that the treatment was very useful and fruitful in assigning that the treatment process and the supposed speaking activities were really in favor of developing the students' communicative competence. The qualitative results indicated that the developed materials increased motivation and self-confidence in interaction and communication in the target language.