TEACHING ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LAGUANGE (TEFL)

“TEACHING SPEAKING EFFECTIVELY”

By:
Saidna Zulfiqar Bin Tahir
10B01033

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR
2011
 TEACHING SPEAKING EFFECTIVELY

A. Introduction

Language is a means of communication that allows people to give and receive

information, ideas, and thoughts. It means that how important language in our live.

Human can talk, communicate, and share with their community using language.

Through language, they can express their idea, their feelings to do all their activities

in their lives.

As a tool of communication, it is certain that the main purpose of language

learning itself is that the students can communicate the language. Speaking is an

interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving

and processing information (Burn and Joyce, 1997: 63). Its form and meaning are

dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves,

their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking.

English in Indonesia has been taught as the first foreign language in the

formal schools since its Independence Day in 1945 (Ramelan, 1992:1). That time,

English was given to the students of Junior and Senior High levels as a compulsory

subject. Until now, English is still taught from the fourth elementary level as a local

content, up to the High School level as compulsory subject. It means that a student, at

least, has nine years opportunity to learn English and hopefully master it. However, it

is still hard to search for the qualified graduates who have good English speaking

skill.

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 Many teachers made efforts to make their class interesting by using various

methods, techniques, instrument and materials in order to stimulate the students to

learn English, but they get some problems, such as: many students cannot

communicate each other in English either in the classroom or out side the classroom..

They are frequently vacuum and passive in English communication, and they have

low achievement in speaking.

Those issues above deserve full attention in finding the best solution to solve

it. And as an English teacher it is necessary to know what and how to teach speaking

effectively, so that this paper would be a part in solving the problems.

B. Definition of Speaking

According to Longman Dictionary, speaking is the utterance of intelligible

speech or seeming to be capable of speech. Speaking is the process of orally

expressing thought and feelings of reflecting and shaping experience, and sharing

information. Speaking is a complex process, which involves thinking language and

social skills. The speaker combines words to sentences and paragraphs and use a

language style that is appropriate to a social context.

Speaking is development for the relationships between a speaker and her

hearer. In addition, speaking is determining which logical linguistic, psychological

and physical rules that should be applied in a given communicative situation.

In teaching speaking, teachers should teach the students some steps in order to

make the speaking itself properly and understandable, those steps are: Speak clearly

and expressively about their ideas.

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 C. Components of Speaking Skills

There are four components of speaking skill introduced by Heaton (1988:

100), they are; accuracy, fluency, comprehensibility, and content.

a) Accuracy

Accuracy in speaking means when someone can produce correct sentences in

pronunciation, grammar and word choice so it can be understood. There are three

components of accuracy. They are pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.

b) Fluency

Stovall in Asni (2007: 19) defined fluency as the ability to converse with

others much more than the ability to read, write or comprehend oral language. In

Longman dictionary, fluency is defined as the features that give speech the qualities

of being natural and normal.

Meanwhile, Simon and Schuster in Amin (2006: 22) defined fluency as:

(1) the quality of flowing, smoothness, freedom from harshness, (2) the ability to

write or to speak easily, smoothly, expressively, readiness or smoothness of speech.

c) Comprehensibility

Comprehensibility is the process of understanding of the utterances sent by

the speaker done by the listener. Also comprehensibility in speaking means that

people can understand what we say and we can understand what they say.

Harmer (1998: 107) says that if two people want to make communication to each

other, they have to speak because they have different information. If there is a ‘gap’

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between them, it is not a good communication if the people still confuse with what

they say.

d) Content

Jacob (1981: 38) explains that content should be clear to the listener so that

they can understand what the messages convey and gain information from it. Content

refers to how suitable or substantive the explanation toward the object to be

explained. To have a good content in speaking, the contents should be well unified

and completed.

D. Principles of Teaching Speaking

Westwood, Peter and Oliver (1979: 57) state the principles of oral language

should be based on:

1. Create an enjoyable, entertaining social learning situation which gives

pleasure to the students. Teacher personality is a vital vector;

2. Keep the small group, not more than five or six students;

3. Arrange for fragment, intensive sessions in two or three short sessions daily;

4. Ensure active participation remembering that it is what a student practices

saying, not what he hears, that improves communicating ability;

5. Have clearly defined, short term goals for each sessions: teaching a certain

adjective, adverb, or conjunction: ‘and’ and ‘but’;

6. Use material such as practices and games to hold attention as the basis for

language simulation;

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 7. Observe the slow leaner and give some degree of repetition in teaching if

necessary;

8. Use pleasure and praise as reinforces.

The successful communication can be seen when mutual understanding

between speaker and listener in exchanging ideas work as their wishes. Teacher

should know the characteristic of successful speaking activity. Ur (1996: 51) stated

the characteristics of a successful speaking activity:

1. Learners talk a lot. As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the

activity is in fact occupied by learner talk. This may seem obvious, but often

most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses;

2. Participation is even. Classroom discussion is on dominated by a minority of

talk active participants: all get a change a speak, and contributions are fairly

distributed;

3. Motivation is high. Learners are eager to speak; because they are interested in

the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to

contribute to achieving a talk objective;

4. Language is an acceptable level. Leaner express themselves in utterances that

are relevant, easy comprehensible to each other, and an acceptable level

language accuracy.

The teacher should also know some problems in getting learners to talk in the

classroom. Problem with speaking activities:

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 1. Inhibition. Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires

some degree of real time expose to an audience. Learners are often inhibited

about trying to say things in foreign language in the classroom: worried about

making mistakes, fearful of critics or losing face, or simply shy of the

attention to their speech attracts;

2. Nothing to say. Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners

complain that they cannot think of anything to say: they have no motivate to

express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking;

3. Low or uneven participation. Only one participant can talk at a time if he or

she is heard: and in large group this means that each one will have only very

little talking time. This problem is compounded by the tendency of some

learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.

4. Mother tongue use. In classes, a number of the learners share the same mother

tongue, they may tend to use it: because it is easier, because it feels less

‘exposed’ if they are speaking their mother tongue. If they are talking in the

small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes particularly the less

disciplined or motivated ones to keep the target language.

The things that the teacher can do to solve the problems in speaking activities

according to Penny Ur (1996):

a) Monologue. In monologue when one speaker uses spoken language for the

long of time, as in speeches, lectures, readings, language broadcasts, and the

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 like, the hearer must process long stretches of speech without interruption the

stream of speech will go on whether or not the hearer comprehends;

b) Dialogue. Dialogues involve two or more speakers can be subdivided into

those exchanges that promote social relationship (interpersonal) and those for

which purpose is to convey proportional or factual information (transactional).

In each case participants may have a good deal of shared knowledge (

background information or Schemata);

c) Questions and answer drills. The teacher can begin these by simply

questioning to the learners. But the learners have mastered the questions

patterns; they should practice questioning one another. After the numbers of

questions have been mastered, questions and answer drills can used in wide

variety of topics. There are many topics can be asked, question about learners

themselves, their surroundings, well-known events (recent and historical), and

stories which everyone has read;

d) Speaking game. It is a very interesting activity of speaking games for making

relax of the students while speaking. It can increase motivation of the students

to speak English, like guessing games, speech through action (look and say,

and do and say drill, or sing a song);

e) Group work. This increases the sheer amount of learner talk in a limited

period of time and also the inhibitions of learners who are not willing to speak

in front of the full class. In this case, the teacher can not supervise all learner

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 speech, because the best way to keep students speaking the target language is

simply to be themselves, there is no substitutes for nagging.

In speaking class, the students are hoped to express their ideas, information,

and feeling. Practice to use language is very important to develop the students’ ability

in speaking. The students will not be able speak fluently if they do not practice the

language in good, correct, and accurate language.

D. Tips for Developing Students’ Speaking Skill

For students learning a foreign language speaking can be very difficult. But

there are two key elements involved in students speaking ability:

a. The first is the ability to converse. The students are able to ask and answer

questions.

b. The second is their ability to produce language. The student is able to tell

stories and describe things.

Building their development and confidence in these two areas is essential for

long term learning success. Therefore, the tips for developing students speaking skills

are:

a) Repetition - By repeating words and phrases the students are able to memorize

and pronounce the words correctly and acquire good pronunciation.

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 b) Mistakes - Do not have a harsh stance with students when they make

mistakes. Sometimes they will mix the second language with their native

tongue. Repeat back to them how they should have said it in a good manner.

c) Time - Allow the students’ time to digest and absorb the language before

trying to speak it.

d) Activities - Give the students plenty of choral activities where they can join in

as a group so they can gain confidence before attempting to speak on their

own. They need to feel secure and unthreatened. Choral counting games,

rhymes and songs are good choral activities.

e) Routines - Creating routines for students to follow helps them get used to

communicating in the second language. Say 'good morning', 'goodbye', 'May I

have please' are example of short phrases that the students can get in the habit

of saying everyday.

f) Real Situations - It is important for students to get the chance to use the

language they are learning in real life situations that they can relate to. Using

role-play is a good opportunity for them to be motivated and encouraged to

use the language.

E. Activities to Promote Speaking

There are some activities to Promote Speaking, they are:

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 1. Discussion

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. 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”. 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.

2. Role Play

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)

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 3. Simulation

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.

4. 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.

5. 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

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 brainstorming are that the students are not criticized for their ideas so

students will be open to sharing new ideas.

6. 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.

7. 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.

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 8. Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for students

who sit 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

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 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.

11. 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.

12. Picture Describing

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 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.

13. 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.

F. The Assessment of the speaking skills

Assessment is an integral aspect of the teaching and learning process in the

classroom as teachers continually judgments related to student’s study progress.

Woods (2005; 2) states that the role of assessment is also a critical area to be

explored. Assessment can take several forms. Assessment carried out during the

course of study can inform us about how well students are performing in the short

term. It can help us to evaluate students’ learning experience, and inform us as to

future target and help us to plan courses and learning strategies (formative

assessment).

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 When we asses spoken language, we are interested in either in how our

students are likely to use language in social situations or in how well they learn what

we have taught to them. The assessment of spoken language is really needed in

measuring the improvement of the students’ motivation and progress in the process of

teaching and learning, particularly in improving their speaking skill.

In assessing the spoken language, the assessor should pay attention to, as in

the following:

1) Purposes and resources: proficiency test, placement test, diagnostic test,

achievement test.

2) Test types: self assessment and teacher assessment

3) Elicitation techniques of oral test: discussion, oral report, role play,

interview questions and answer, reading aloud dialogues, pictures

describing, retelling story, repetition, reading aloud and translation.

4) Marking: recording oral test, keys, categorize weighting, rating scale,

impression, additive, and subtractive marking

5) Test evaluation: test should have validity, reliability, discrimination, and

administration.

G. Conclusion

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning. The

ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the

success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life. Therefore, it

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is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking. Rather

than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where

meaningful communication takes place is desired. With this aim, various speaking

activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in

developing basic interactive skills necessary for life. These activities make students

more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more

meaningful and fun for them.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Amin, Fatimah Hidayahni, 2006. Improving the Students’ Performance Through
Team Made Question Technique. Makassar: Unpublished thesis. Graduate
Program UNM.

Asni, 2007. Students’ Speaking Improvement Through Three Step Interview at SMA
Kartika Kendari. Kendari: Unpublished Thesis Unhalu.
Burns, A and Heken Joyce, 1997. Focus on Speaking. Sydney: Macquarie University.

Harmer, J. 1984. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.

Heaton, J.B. 1988. English Language Test. New York: England: Longman.

Jacobs, Holley L et al. 1981. Testing ELS Composition: A Practical Approach.

London: New Bury House publisher Inc.

Ramelan. 1991. Introduction to Linguistic Analysis. Semarang: IKIP Semarang Press.

Ur. Penny. 1996. A course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Woods, Caroline. 2005. Teaching and Assessing Skills in Foreign Languages. United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

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