Could you give some concrete examples of ou success, DAS?
I can only speak for students from my groups, so I can confirm their pronunciation and intonation and overall listening skills have become much better (especially of those ones who drill the flash drive systematically). Moreover, during the course of our lessons we read many texts and learn to reflect upon them, write essays and personal letters hence improving both receptive and productive abilities of our pupils. Furthermore, we devote the last phases of the lessons to speaking (according to the general plan), discuss up-to-date issues with advanced groups and provide the beginners with controlled speaking practice. Nevertheless, grammar of certain students still leaves much to be desired, particularly during free speech activities, some of them tend to forget about accuracy when concentrating on fluency and last but not the least, some of them need to have their vocabulary enlarged.