HOW WELL DO CROATIAN LEARNERS SPEAK ENGLISH?

Summary- The paper discusses issues related to assessing the speaking skill in English as a foreign language. The paper also presents the process and the results of assessing the speaking skill within the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport research project- English in Croatia. Assessment results show that grade 8 and grade 12 learners are communicatively competent when speaking English. Although this is the main goal of teaching English as a foreign language, the author stresses that in the process of teaching more attention should be payed to the accuracy of learners ’ speech. Key words: assessment of speaking skill, ELT, speaking skill Nowadays when fast and effective communication is essential for success-ful functioning in all aspects of private and professional life, an individual’s com-municative language competence in both his fi rst and second language is prima-rily assessed by how well he/she speaks that language. Very often, an individual’