Speaking Skill

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non -
verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is a crucial part of
second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for man y years, teaching
speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach
speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world
requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve st udents' communicative skills,
because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the
social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In addition to
linguistic and cultural knowledge, there are other requirements that should be available in
order to develop this skill. They include the following:-

A competent teacher who is fluent in conversation. -

Appropriate classroom atmosphere, which is conducive to oral communicative -
acts, and where pupils feel at ease and relaxed.

Ample opportunity for pupil appreciation. -

Clear objectives in speaking so that pupils can think of the ideas they wish to -
express.

Knowledge of the appropriate functional expressions. -

A variety of learning activities include manipulative drills, guided conversation, -
communicative practice and free oral work such as discussion groups,
debates, panel discussions, skills communications, etc.

Sensitivity to any change in the situation in which communicative operations -

are taking place.

Contextualized language in terms of who is speaking to whom, where and -

why.

All of these requirements are essential for the development of the

speaking skill. Probably for this reason this skill is frequently neglected
or often conducted poorly in English classes. As a compensation for
this shortcoming, emphasis is usually placed on drilling patterns,
reading passages and answering comprehension questions. All these
activities are controlled by the teacher and have no natural context of
their own. In such situations, pupils speak very little English, and when
they speak, much of what they say will be in answer to questions from
the teacher.

Learning to speak is more effectively achieved by speaking than by

listening or reading. Pupils must have the opportunity to express their
likes and dislikes, to talk about their interests, etc., in living natural
English. Without this training in the productive skills of speech, pupils'
ability to communicate in spoken English will be meager despite all
knowledge of rules of pronunciation, of grammar and of sentence
formation.

How to teach speaking skill?

Many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to
speak in the second language by "interacting". Communicative
language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this
aim. Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations
that require communication. By using this method in ESL classes,
students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in
the target language. In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom
environment where students have real-life communication, authentic
activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can
occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to
complete a task.

There are three components may be distinguished in teaching oral

communication: mechanical oral practice, meaningful oral work, and
free oral production.

Stage 1: Mechanical practice:

The first step in teaching speaking is to train pupils in sound

discrimination, oral vocabulary, verb form and grammatical patterns.
These elements are necessary to acquire a basic knowledge of
linguistic competence. Thus pronunciation should be stressed from the
beginning because habits acquired at the start of language study are
often difficult to change later on. Pupils, therefore, must practice
hearing and understanding what is said or hear and must pronounce it
correct.

This activity is best carried out in the language laboratory where

pupils can work at their own pace. They record some sentences, after
a model, and then listen to each recording in order to correct any
pronunciation problems. They continue this process until they gain
some insight into the natural of the phonological rules of English.

At the same time, the teacher should draw pupils' attention to the rules
of grammar and of sentence formation. These elements are
interdependent and should be developed concurrently. Pupils must, for
instance, know that a word may have different pronunciation or
meanings in different situations. In addition, they must know the rules
of question formation and other types of sentence (statements,
imperative, negative, passives, etc.). This is meant to help pupils
differentiate grammatical from ungrammatical utterances, so that they
can speak English fluently as they progress in language learning.
However, the vocabulary, structures and other language patterns
should be carefully selected and of high frequently. The speaking
activities should be controlled in order to eliminate the possibility of
errors in pupils' responses.

Examples of Mechanical Drills:-

There are many types of manipulative drills where there is complete

control of the pupils' responses. Typical examples of these are
repetition, mim-mem and substitution drills.

Stage 2: Meaningful Oral Work:-

At the second stage of learning to speak English, the structural

controls are progressively relaxed. Having automatic control over basic
patterns by means of the habituation process, and having increased
their linguistic competence through practice in various types of
manipulative drills, pupils they are saying structurally and semantically.
But there is no real communication taking place because there is still
control of the response and the speakers do not add new information
as they are still subject to some restraints. Furthermore, the initiative is
still left with the teacher or with the group leader.

This stage introduces the pupils to social formulas: greetings,

introductions, complaints, asking for information, etc. it also gives them
expressions with which to express their ideas creatively. It produces
few incorrect sentences, and these are corrected by members of the
group, not by the teacher.

Procedures and examples:-

For drilling guided oral fluency, the teacher provides the class with
the situation and content of what is to be said, and pupils communicate
within this general framework. Topics and exercises should follow
closely the interests of the pupils in order to encourage pupil-pupil
interaction and to make English classes a lively and cheerful
experience. Material can be drawn from different sources such as
textbooks, pupils' compositions, English newspapers or magazines,
language games, classroom objects, and the like. It is also important to
make situations as concrete as possible. Persons, places and things
should be named rather than referred to as generic concepts.
Contextualization highlights the social setting of language use. It also
motivates the pupils because they are practicing the language as it is
actually used by native speakers.

The teacher should make the following points clear:-

Setting: - where are the people talking? What sounds do they hear? -
What is the weather like? And so on. This will help pupils visualize the
scene and stimulate them to talk.
Action: - what actions initiate or terminate the conversation, and what -
do the participants do during the activity? Are they standing, sitting,
walking or so? How are they reacting? This will inject humour and
liveliness into the classroom situation.
Emotion: - pupils must be encourages expressing their feelings and -
opinions. The pupils will feel the vitality and expressiveness of English.
Function: - pupils should know why someone says something and what -
it means. Understanding the purpose makes the drill meaningful and
eliminates habituation practice.

Once the teacher should explain procedural steps and the teaching
method, including the rearrangement of the class to meet the
requirements of the activity and to encourage everyone to participate,
he starts drilling the speaking activity. The methods suggested for this
stage are guessing games, simple role-playing and dialogues, and the
like. Here are some examples:-

Question and answer exchanges between pupils. -a

Dialogue adaptation. -b
Short conversations. -c
Directed discourse in which the teacher guides the pupils. The -d
teacher set up the situation that makes the pupils do the work. The
teacher is not asking the questions; but he is guiding or directing
pupils. His main concern is to encourage pupils to use their
imagination and to talk about their own experiences and opinions.
Oral guessing games. Such games provide pupils with good -e
practice in formulating questions. A skill that does not receive
sufficient attention in English classes. Questions are usually put by
the teacher or written in the textbook. For example what is it? There
are two ways for doing this activity; the first one of the pupils asked
to leave the classroom. The class then selects a small object and
heads it. The pupil returns and tries to discover its location by
asking the lass yes/no questions, using some prepositions. The
pupil moves around, asking questions from different positions in the
room until he discovers it. The second way, one of the students put
something, animal; job etc. and the pupils ask him/her some
questions to know what it is.
Prepared talks. The teacher assigns a topic or a choice of topics for -f
a prepared talk the pupils write an outline of what they want to say.
This is to encourage thoughtful preparation. Then they give their
talks in the class without using the notes they have written. As a
variation of this technique students may talk about what they did in
the summer, last night, etc
Play lets. The teacher divides the class into groups. Each group is -g
asked to prepare a sketch using their ideas and making use of the
teacher's suggestions. When the sketches are ready, individual
groups present them to the other members in the class, or to other
classes, or to the English language club.
Informative sentences. The teacher writes on the chalkboard a -h
sentence or two that can evoke a variety of questions from the
students.
Rank order. The teacher (with class participation) writes on the -i
blackboard some activities which one might do at a weekend or on
any day evening. The teacher then asks pupils to indicate their
order of performance.

Stage 3: free oral production:-

By the third stage of learning to speak, the pupils have the basic
machinery to say whatever they want or feel and to tell others what
they did. However, the teacher has to sit p the situation or to provide
the stimuli that arouse the pupils' interest. Visual aids and props are
good tools to set up class discussions, dialogs and other speaking
activities. Moreover, the teacher has to fit the oral activities to the
students' own cultural background in order to meet their interests and
to motivate them to participate in the activity the teacher also has to
prepare the material adequately as free discussions are likely t fail if he
has not planned them carefully in advance. In fact the success of free
conversations depends on four elements: careful preparation by the
teacher and the students; the silence of the teacher during the activity;
the availability of interesting topics that stimulate; and confidence in
their ability to communicate.

Procedures and techniques:-

Training at this stage is best done with group work in problem-

solving and role-playing activities, conversation classes, dramatization
and the like. In such activities group work is favored as it is more
motivating and more useful for oral fluency. It also meets the problem
of large classes with over thirty students. The teacher can divide the
class into appropriate groups appointing a group leader for each. He
then assigns the activity or task. An appropriate time is allowed to the
groups to discuss the problem, after which the students meet together
as a large group to summarize their conclusions. However, if the class
is too large, the students may place their desks in semi-circle, with the
rostrum as the head desk. This arrangement involves the students in a
series of activities and encourages everyone to participate. Another
possible class organization is to pair the students off to interview each
other about a particular topic. It is left to the discretion of the teacher to
decide which class arrangements suits the situation and meets the
requirements of the activity.

With these organizational considerations in mind, the teacher

proceeds to conduct the activity. The teacher supplies first the general
topic for assignment, leaving the class with responsibility for generating
the details and supporting material. If the teacher feels that the class
has not been sufficiently motivated by the oral presentation, he can
provide the necessary stimuli for promoting the activity. For example,
he may give the class notes containing most of vocabulary and
structure useful to the activity or he may assign the topic for the next
session so that the students have time to think about it, as it is often
difficult for them to talk in English at a moment's notice. The teacher
has to instruct the class that no one will be allowed to talk a dominant
part in the vocabulary, and everyone will be given the opportunity to
speak.

Te teacher then asks the students to avoid those questions that are
normally answered by Yes/No as they do not further the activity.
Instead, students should use open-ended questions (e.g. how, why and
what) that require the answering students to give an opinion,
information, a reason or an emotional reaction, etc. students should be
encouraged to assist each other so that the activity never degenerates
into questions and answers between them. The teacher should not
frequently interrupt the flow of speaking activity in order to correct
mistakes. Immediate correction destroys self-confidence and
consequently inhibits students' desire to speak. The teacher may
tactfully mediate to clear up a problem that the students have failed to
explain adequately, but his participation should be limited and
restricted only to errors that lead to miscomprehension. The main
concerns are developing the students' motivation to speak and
increasing fluency and ease of expressions. What is said is not
particularly important. Speaking English is the primary concern. The
teacher can help his students achieve this objective through a series of
communicative interaction activities. Here are some examples:-

Discussions

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons. The
students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find
solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that the
purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the discussion
points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting
with each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved
in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form
groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial
sentences like “people learn best when they read vs. people learn best when they
travel”. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents
their opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided
among group members. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who
defended the idea in the best way. This activity fosters critical thinking and quick
decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite
ways while disagreeing with the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always
better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in
large groups. The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the
students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every
discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be
open to different ideas. Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the
students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express
support, check for clarification, and so on.

Role Play
One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are
in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the
teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or
feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor
and tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)

Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than
role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to
the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a
singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have
many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students.
Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant
students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role
and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the
same responsibility.

Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One student will have
the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their
information. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a
problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role
because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information
the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the
opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.

Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the
context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate
ideas quickly and freely. The good characteristics of brainstorming are that the
students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new
ideas.

Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody
beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling
fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of
beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has
to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of
each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes
as an opening. In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking
ability, but also get the attention of the class.

Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sits in
a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he
or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the
previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences.
Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.

Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good
idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of
questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own
interview questions. Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to
practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them
becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her study to
the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her
partner to the class.

Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in
class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news.
Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling
their friends in their daily lives before class.

Playing Cards

In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For
instance:

 Diamonds: Earning money

 Hearts: Love and relationships
 Spades: An unforgettable memory
 Clubs: Best teacher
Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about
that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example:

If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:

 Is money important in your life? Why?

 What is the easiest way of earning money?
 What do you think about lottery? Etc.

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students
are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students
get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-ended
questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.

Picture Narrating
This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the
story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria
provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures
they need to use while narrating.

Picture Describing

Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one
picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students
can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students discuss the
picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture
to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners
as well as their public speaking skills.

Find the Difference

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different
pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls
playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the
pictures.

Speaking sub skills:-

Rather than just have students ‘spoken’ in the classroom we should be
teaching students specific speaking skills, known as sub-skills or micro skills. Since
conversations outside the class are bound to be better learning experiences than
those inside the class, rather than trying to duplicate real-world conversations in the
classroom, we should be teaching students skills they are not likely to learn outside
the classroom. By raising awareness of speaking sub-skills and providing classroom
practice with them, we will be providing students with strategies to improve their
communication outside the classroom, which is, or should be, the ultimate goal.

Fluency Students practice speaking with a logical flow without planning or

rehearsing.
Application:- Activities which require students to focus on meaning in communication
without immediate concern for accuracy (errors can be corrected afterwards).
Accuracy with Words & Pronunciation:- Students practice using words, structures
and pronunciation accurately.
Application: - students need to be able to use and pronounce words and structures
correctly in order to be understood. Controlled practice activities are the most
common way of working on spoken accuracy.

Using Functions: - Students use specific phrases for pur-poses like giving advice,
apologizing, etc.
Application: - Activities which stress that verbal communication is for a reason or
function. Role plays and simulations are ideal.

Appropriacy: - Students practice using language appropriate for a situation and

making decisions about formality and choice of grammar or vocabulary.
Application: - Activities which stress that the purpose of talking determines what
language is appropriate. Students are required to make choices about grammar and
vocabulary and also other aspects of communication like intonation and length of
turn. For example, “What’s the damage?” is inappropriate in a four-star restaurant.

Turn-taking Skills Students practice ways of interjecting, eliciting an interjection or

preventing one.
Application:- Turn-taking skills involve knowing how and when to interject, eliciting an
interjection or preventing one. Students can practice listening for appropriate gaps in
order to take their turn without irritating the speaker. While speaking they can
practice techniques such as pausing which purposely allows others to take a turn or
they can practice using hesitation devices such as 'ums' and 'errs' to hold on to a turn
while they search for the next thing to say.

Relevant Length: - Students practice speaking at a length appropriate to a situation

Application: - Activities which demonstrate that the purpose of speaking or the
context determines the appropriate length of a turn. For example, a one-word answer
is acceptable for a market research survey but would not be sufficient in a job
interview. Activities which require students to elaborate or be concise are useful.

Responding and Initiating: - Students practice managing a conversation by making

responses, asking for a response or introducing a new topic or idea.
Application:- Activities which get students to practice managing a conversation in an
appropriate way with specific words and phrases such as, “What do you think
about…”, “Speaking of…”, “Really?”, etc. Gestures and other paralinguistic tools are
also used in conversation management.

Repair and Repetition: - Students practice repeating or rephrasing parts of a

conversation when they suspect that what was said was not understood.
Application: - The spontaneous nature of conversation requires that participants
constantly have to make sure that what’s being said is understood. When
misunderstanding is suspected, a participant will ‘repair’ parts of the conversation.
The most common form of repair is repetition and individual words or groups of
words can be repeated by either the speaker or listener. Students can practice
repairing when they suspect they haven’t been understood or as listeners they can
repeat to seek clarification or correction from the speaker.

Range of Words and Grammar: - Students practice using particular grammar

and/or vocabulary for speaking on a specific topic or for doing a specific task.
Application:- Students need to know a range of words and grammar and have the
ability to choose from that bank the most appropriate words and structures for a
specific task or topic. They are taught or made aware of words or structures
appropriate for specific tasks or contexts and then are required to use them
appropriately.

Discourse Markers Students practice using words/phrases which organize a talk

(e.g. firstly, secondly, on the other hand, to summarize)
Application: - When speakers are required to take a particularly long turn, for
example when giving a presentation, they use specific words and phrases to help the
listener recognize how their talk has been organized. Activities can be used which
teach discourse makers and then require students to use them appropriately.

How are we asses speaking skills?

Two methods are used for assessing speaking skills. In the observational approach, the
student's behavior is observed and assessed unobtrusively. In the structured approach, the
student is asked to perform one or more specific oral communication tasks. His or her
performance on the task is then evaluated. The task can be administered in a one-on-one
setting -- with the test administrator and one student -- or in a group or class setting. In either
setting, students should feel that they are communicating meaningful content to a real
audience. Tasks should focus on topics that all students can easily talk about, or, if they do
not include such a focus, students should be given an opportunity to collect information on the
topic.

Both observational and structured approaches use a variety of rating systems. A

holistic rating captures a general impression of the student's performance. A primary
trait score assesses the student's ability to achieve a specific communication
purpose -- for example, to persuade the listener to adopt a certain point of view.
Analytic scales capture the student's performance on various aspects of
communication, such as delivery, organization, content, and language. Rating
systems may describe varying degrees of competence along a scale or may indicate
the presence or absence of a characteristic.

A major aspect of any rating system is rater objectivity: Is the rater applying the
scoring criteria accurately and consistently to all students across time? The reliability
of raters should be established during their training and checked during
administration or scoring of the assessment. If ratings are made on the spot, two
raters will be required for some administrations. If ratings are recorded for later
scoring, double scoring will be needed.

Suggestions for Teachers in Teaching Speaking

Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral
language:

 Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by

providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic
materials and tasks, and shared knowledge.
 Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice
different ways of student participation.
 Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time.
Step back and observe students.
 Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.
 Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that
conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more.
 Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good
job. I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use
of your voice…"
 Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are
speaking. Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.
 Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents
and other people who can help.
 Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and
see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs.
 Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
 Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing
themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the
spoken language.