HOW
TO TEACH SPEAKING SKILL?
Taher
Bahrani * Rahmatollah Soltani
Department
of English, Mashhahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, Iran
E-
Mail of the corresponding author: taherbahrani @ yahoo.com
I.
PROBLEM
One of main concern of the most language
teachers is how to help language learners to develop satisfying language
profeciencies, one of them is speaking proficiency. In this case there are
problem in how to teach speaking in Departement
of English, Islamic Azad University.
First, In teaching English as Foreign Language (EFL) and English as Second Language (ESL), vocabulary
and grammmar tend to earn more attention than
Speaking as the skill which is needed
to use this vocabulary and grammar. Second, is the psychological aspect, in which the language learners
who do not get any opportunity to speak in target language, becomes, de-motivated before they
reach the goal of their study.
II.
THEORY
a.
According
to Nunan (1991), a success in language learning is measured in terms of the
ability to carry out a conversation in the target language.
b.
Brown
and Yule (1983)made a useful distinction between the interactional function of
speaking, in which it serves to establish and maintain social relations, and
the transactional function , which focus on the exchange of Information
c.
Jones
(1996) and Burns (1998), performance is another function of speaking
III.
FINDING
If teachers want to have a
large class of energetic students talking and working in English in group
together, they must help the languange learners develop communicative
efficiency in speaking by setting the curriculum in which give more time
attention and time in speaking
practice, creating an enjoyable class, Theachers can also utilize activities
approach combining language input and communicative output.
IV.
CONCLUSION
Developing
speaking proficiency requires more than simply getting the language
learners exposed to a pool of vocabulary or grammar descriptions.
Unfortunately, most of the language teachers who are to run conversation
courses still devote much of the class time immersing the students with non
communicative activities. The language learners themselves also show few interest in speaking. These are just some of
the problems that teachers with large classes face when teaching speaking in
the classroom. These problems are not new, nor are the solution offered above.
HOW
TO TEACH SPEAKING SKILL?
Taher
Bahrani * Rahmatollah Soltani
Department
of English, Mashahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, Iran
E-
Mail of the corresponding author: taherbahrani @ yahoo.com
I.
INTRODUCTION
One
of the main concerns of most of the language learners in both EFL and ESL context’s
is how to improve their speaking skill. However, a common characteristic of
many language classes particularly in EFL contextst is a heavy focus on the
language system. In this international journal the problems are: 1. Teaching vocabulary and
grammar seem to earn more attention than the skills needed to use this
vocabulary and grammar. Skills are of course an essential part of communicative
competence, however, skills themselves are often not explicitly taught but
rather left to the to the language learners to pick up with practice and
language use. The default position in most EFL contextst is that skills will
just be acquired implicitly. This seems especially true of many classes. 2. Being lack of
time in speaking practice raises
a psychological problem in which if
the language learners fail
to learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom,
they may soon get de-motivated
and lose interest in learning the language. This problem is common in EFL contextst
where language learners have less chance to speak English. In fact, language
learners in EFL contextst can only have limited speaking activities inside the
classrooms. However, if the right activities are taught in the right way,
speaking in class can be a lot of fun. This will surely raise a language
learner’s motivation.
II.
THEORY RELATED WITH THE PROBLEMS
a. According
to Nunan (1991), a success in language learning is measured in terms of the
ability to carry out a conversation in the target language.
Speaking
as the active skill becomes the skill which is
considered appropriate to measure how well language learner’s mastery in
English. Generally people tend to judge that learners’ language proficiency by
their performance in speaking.
Speaking which needs vocabulary and grammar of course will be easily detected
if learners are active to apply them in conversation. The fluency, diction and
grammar which are combined to be many sentences in question and answer will be
a proof which
measures the
learners’ success in studying the target language.
Thus,
in language learning teacher must be smarter
to design the time and material based on the students’ level. Giving time and
oppurtunity to speak in the class is a part of designing which makes the students motivated and
interested in learning the language.
b.
Brown and Yule (1983) made a useful distinction
between the interactional function of speaking, in which it serves to establish
and maintain social relations, and the transactional function , which focus on
the exchange of Information
By
having good speaking skill language learners can easily interact with others in
which in this term Speaking has a function as the media of communication in
social relations which mostly related to daily activities, the pattern are
usually based on the patented expression that usually used in the
society, For example : “How
are you ?” will be answered with “ I am fine/I
am good, Thank you” (interactional function), we can say it as a traditional speaking , in which the
questions and answers
are predictable and have certain rules. On the other hand, speaking has other function
which focuses on how language learners
exchange the information
(transactional function), we can call it “Real Communication” (Real talk) in which learners must
manage uncertainty about what he other people will say. The information that is
asked or given here, is out of plan, and can be
about many topics which are not mainly related to daily life, for example if the language learners are having the
discussion, asking opinion etc.
The theory supports the finding since by making usefull
distinction the learners will understand more that in mastering speaking skill
they will not just emphasize their speaking practice based on the material or
source they have got from the teacher or the book they read, but more than that
they will realize that there are many situations and conditions they must cope
with their speaking ability in daily life.
c.
Jones (1996) and Burns
(1998), performance is another function of speaking.
What
it means by performance in this case is how well language learner’s ability in
applying language product knowledge in their way of speaking. The style of
learners’ conversation is different from one and others. It doesnt mean that
learners who have good
ability in writing will have
good ability in Speaking too. We cannot guarantee that there is corelation
between the two skills since again
there is psychological aspect influences the learners’ motivation. How fluent their way of speaking, how good
their grammar, what kind of vocabulary they choose are the factors that can
measure how well the learners’
performance in speaking
too.
In this case, this theory also support the finding since
the learners’ performance of speaking consist of repair strategy and survival
strategy that will help the learners to activate their speaking skill. Repair and survival strategy are the ways when the
learners try to perform their speaking performance better by adding other words or changing the sentences into the better one , and those
are also the ways when the learners try
to keep speaking and to explain what they mean by using other words, but it is still in the form of the target
language.
III.
FINDING
There are many
ways to enable the students to speak up ;
1. Setting
the curriculum by giving more time and attention to speaking practice, in which
it is also related to the material that will be given. It must be suitable and relevant with the students’
level.
2. There are many ways to help the students who feel
de-motivated.
2.1.
Having a good class
management
One of many ways to
encourage and improve the students‘ speaking skill is by creating a good class
management. Distinguishing the classroom by setting the desks different from
other classes, activating the students to decorate the wall in English language
and culture posters that involve the students’ creativities.
2.1.1.
Creating
and establishing your own classroom
culture where speaking out loud in English is the norm due to the fact that
there are cultural barriers in the
process of the study.
2.1.2.
Distinguishing
the classroom by aranging the class room situation differently, for example by arranging the desk in group
instead of lines, decorating the wall in English cultures and posters.
2.1.3.
Putting
the students in their class according to their level.
It often happens when the students are put in the same
class regardless their various level, the students who are in a lower level
will tend to feel shy, unconfident and inferior. While the students who have
better level or the students who are catagorized in high level will tend to
take a majority of time to practice and monopolize the class. That is why, they
need to be separated based on their levels, so the lower level will feel
comfortable and confidence in communicating their ideas in speaking. And the
better and the higher level students will maximally improve their ability.
2.2.
Helping the students to
communicate by combining the
languange input and the communicative
output (page 26)
Language input is the information that the learners get
from the teachers or other sources and communicative output is gained from the
learners’ activities to apply the language input for example by completing the
assignment from the teacher such as obtaining information, developing travel
plan etc.
To complete the assignment they may use the language that
the teachers have presented but they also may draw on any other vocabularies,
grammar and communication strategy that they know.
2.3.
Setting special
strategies for the silencees
to develop speaking skills (page 27) the strategies are:
2.3.1. Encouraging the
students to speak and build minimal responses
Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic
phrases that conversation participant use to indicate understanding agreement,
sympathy and other responses to what another speaker is saying.
2.3.2. Preparing the
script
Some communication situation are associated with a
predictable set of spoken exchange which are called script. Greeting,
apoligizing, compliment, invitation, and other functions are influenced by
social culture norms which often follow pattern or script. In this script, the
relationship between a speaker’s turn that follows it can be often anticipated.
Teacher can help the students develop speaking ability by making them aware of
the script for different situation, so they can predict what they will hear and
what they will need to say in response.
2.3.3. Providing
authentic practice that prepares students for real life communication
Many students regard speaking ability as the measure of
knowing a language. Students think that fluency as the ability to interact with
other much more than the ability in reading and writing.in the same line,
teacher are required to assist the students to develop this body of knowledge
by providing authentic practice that prepare students for real life
communication situation. The teacher help
the students develop the ability to produce grammaticaly correct,
logically, connected sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts, and
to do so using acceptable, understandable pronounciation.
IV.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
Developing
speaking proficiency requires more than simply just getting the language
learners exposed to a pool of vocabulary or grammar descriptions.
Unfortunately, most of the language teachers who are to run conversation
courses still devote much of the class time immersing the students with non
communicative activities. The language learners themselves also show few
interests in talking. These are just some of the problems that teachers with
large classes face when teaching speaking in the classroom. These problems are
not new, nor are the solution offered above.
B. Suggestion
Due
to the problems above we
know that teachers play a very important role in teaching speaking. They are
not only
expected to transfer the materials to language learners, but also than that Language teachers are expected to be the
facilitators and the
motivators of the
learners.
It
often happens that culture and norm become the barriers in Language learning,
for example : among Javanesse, in this culture it is considered impolite to
speak loudly and
show our abilities in front of others, whereas in language class these
cultural problems will cause the students’
anxiety whether they will speak or not, so teacher must be wiser and smart to
also give the students Cross Culture Understanding in order to help the
students feel relaxed and
enjoy the speaking practice in their class without feeling shy and overanxious.
Teachers
must be creative an innovative in creating an enjoyable class by setting many
activities which are full of fun and make the students feel comfortable to
express their ideas
in speaking practice.
Teachers should appreciate the progress the students have
made, regardless their mistakes in the process of learning speaking. Eventhough
it is a small progress, the students will feel confident and motivated if the
teachers are not poor in giving the compliments. Hopefully the compliments will
rise the students’ motivation and enjoyment to progress in their study of
language.
Refference
Taher Bahrani * Rahmatollah Soltani. How
to Teach Speaking Skill. International journal
International Journal
How to teach Speaking skill
Compiled as an assignment of Advance English Skill
Subject,
Educated by Dr. Hj. Mutmainnah Mustofa, M.Pd
By
Nurul Wahyudi
Anita Wahyuning Kursasi
Lailatul Masruroh
Idris Hidayatullah
POST GRADUATE PROGRAM
UNIVERSITAS ISLAM MALANG
2012
- 2013
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