Recent trends in ESL/EFL curriculum design and pedagogy have stressed the importance of teaching communicative strategies and the functional use of language. Speaking Naturally is designed to do just that: teach students how to perform certain language functions in English by presenting the social rules for language use.

Because native speakers acquire these rules as part of growing up, they do not need to make conscious reference to them as adults. Second language learners, however, need information about sociolinguistic rules that may differ from those in their own culture.