Teaching

Speaking
What, Why, and How
What is speaking?
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 ).
Kazi Abubakar Siddique | KAS
What are speaking skills?
Speaking skills are defined as the skills which
Assistant Professor
allow us to communicate effectively. They give
us the ability to convey information verbally Department of English
Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT)
and in a way that the listener can understand.

Teaching speaking
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 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 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 Designed and prepared in the KAS teaching lab
at the same time make their learning more
meaningful and fun for them.
 SPEAKING AND TEACHING SPEAKING

1.0 Introduction

Speaking is a fundamental language skill. It is the primary way in which we communicate

information. When we ask how well we can function in a second language, we ask the question “how
well do you speak…?”, so it is the ability to speak well which best represents our proficiency in
another language.

As teachers, however, we must be mindful that speaking involves more than simply using
words to articulate what we are thinking, and there is more at play than simply asking students to say
the words that they know.

Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-
verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”. It is a crucial part of foreign language learning and
teaching. Despite its importance, for many 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. As a result, most students find it difficult to speak English in EFL classes
and some of them are reluctant to participate in speaking activities. There are many reasons for this.
Here are the most common reasons.

Speaking is the skill that makes human beings different from and superior to the species of
living beings. Speaking is a complex cognitive and linguistic skill. A child learns to speak
through interaction with the people around him/her in their native language. Every normal adult can
speak in his/her native language without effort and this skill is a natural one. But speaking in a
foreign language is not natural and it requires conscious effort throughout the whole process.
Speaking is a verbal skill that involves words and sounds. It also involves:
 Meaning: connotation, denotation, grammar
 Sociality, Relationship, Affect: formal, informal, slang, turn-taking
 Cultural Issues: class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, dialect
 Performance: articulation, projection, pronunciation
 Sound Elements: how volume, pitch, pace, and nature of sound complement/contradict/replace
words

Speaking is a production skill that involves listening skill. Without listening, speaking is not
possible and the relationship between these two skills is corresponding.

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2.0 On Communicative Competence

The term was coined by Dell Hymes in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy
of Noam Chomsky's (1965) distinction between linguistic competence and performance. To address
Chomsky's abstract notion of competence, Hymes (1966) undertook ethnographic exploration of
communicative competence that included "communicative form and function in integral relation to
each other”. The approach pioneered by Hymes (1966) is now known as the ethnography of
communication.

Being a „good speaker‟ requires a range of skills beyond accurate grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation, though these are the basic building blocks that enable a message to be understood.
An effective communicator chooses the words they use, and the way in which they speak to different
people in different situations, whether that is ordering a sandwich at a snack bar or giving a keynote
speech at an academic event.

The skills involved in how we interact with others in different ways are called communicative
competencies. Speaking as a language skill involves these competencies much more than it requires
accuracy of language, so when we talk about „teaching speaking‟, we are talking about something
different from grammar or vocabulary practice. The design of Communicative Competence includes
the following:

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The elements of Communicative Competence result in the following competences in speech and
communication as a whole.
a) Grammatical (ability to create grammatically correct utterances),
b) Sociolinguistic (ability to produce sociolinguistically appropriate utterances),
c) Discourse (ability to produce coherent and cohesive utterances), and.
d) Strategic (ability to solve communication problems as they arise).

3.0 Teaching speaking: a set of competencies

Just as we can instruct, present and practice specific grammar features to students, the
component competencies which make up speaking as a pure language skill can also be broken down
and presented systematically.
Some useful language sub-skills which can be turned into practice activities are:
a) Avoiding repetition
b) Responding appropriately while listening
c) Turn-taking techniques
d) Politeness
e) Circumlocution (talking around unknown words using known language)
f) Extending ideas

Notice that none of these sub-skills make specific reference to grammar, vocabulary or
pronunciation, though obviously these are necessary for students to communicate what they want to
say. In order to bring the focus onto these competencies, it is therefore advisable to lead speaking
tasks on topics that are familiar to students, and using language that is within their ability. Taking the
strain of new language out of speaking activities allows students to focus on the pure sub-skills listed
above.

According to Thornbury (2007: 40), the process of developing speaking skills consists of three
stages:
a) awareness – learners are made aware of features of target language knowledge,
b) appropriation – these features are integrated into their existing knowledge-base,
c) autonomy – learners develop the capacity to mobilize these features under real-time
conditions without assistance.

3.1 The Goal of Teaching Speaking

The goal of teaching speaking is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make
themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid
confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the
social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation. To this relation, it is worth
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voting to what Nunan (2003) believes, which particularly dealing with teaching speaking. In his
perception, to teach speaking can be defined as to teach the students to:

a) Produce the English speech sound and sound patterns

b) Use words and sentences stress, intonation patterns, and the rhythm of the second language
c) Select the appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and
subject matter
d) Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence
e) Use language as a mean of expressing values and judgments
f) Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as
fluency

To help the students in developing communicative efficiency in speaking, teachers can use a
balanced activities approach which combines language input, structured output, and communicative
output (Richard, p. 2008).

3.2 Principles for Teaching Speaking:

H.D. Brown (2007) in his Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy, (Third Edition) proposed some principles for teaching speaking

a) Focus on both fluency and accuracy, depending on your objectives

Accuracy is the extent to which students‟ speech matches what peopleactually say when
they use the target language. Fluency is the extent towhich speakers use the language
quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc.

In our current interactive language teaching, we can easily slip into interactive activities that
don‟t capitalize on grammatical pointers or pronunciation tips. We need to bear in mind a spectrum
of learner needs, from language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction,
meaning and fluency. When you do a jigsaw group technique, play a game, or discuss solutions to
the environmental crisis, make sure that your tasks have a linguistic (language-based) objective, and
seize the opportunity to help students to perceive and use the building blocks of language. At the
same time, don‟t bore your students to death with lifeless, repetitious drills. As noted above, make
any drilling you do as meaningful as possible. The student cannot develop fluency if the
teacher is constantly interrupting them to correct their oral errors. Teachers must provide students wit
h fluency building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new
language.

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 b) Provide intrinsically motivating techniques
Try at all times to appeal to students’ ultimate goals and interests, to their need for knowledge,
for status, for achieving competence and autonomy, and for “being all that they can be”. Even in
those techniques that don‟t send students into ecstasy, help them to see how the activity will benefit
them. Often students don‟t know why we ask them to do certain things, it usually pays to tell them.

c) Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

This theme has been played time and again. It is not easy to keep coming up with meaningful
interaction. We all succumb to the temptation to do, say, disconnected little grammar exercises
where we go around the room calling on students one by one to pick the right answer. It takes energy
and creativity to devise authentic contexts and meaningful interaction, but with the help of a
storehouse of teacher resource material, it can be done.

d) Provide appropriate feedback and correction

In most EFL situations, students are totally dependent on the teacher for useful linguistic
feedback. In ESL situations, they may get such feedback “out there” beyond the classroom, but even
then you are in a position to be of great benefit. It is important that you take advantage of your
knowledge of English to inject the kinds of corrective feedback that are appropriate for the moment.

e) Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening

Many interactive techniques that involve speaking will also of course include listening. Don‟t
lose out on opportunities to integrate these two skills. As you are perhaps focusing on speaking
goals, listening goals may naturally coincide, and the two skills can reinforce each other. Skills in
producing language are often initiated through comprehension.

f) Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication

A good deal of typical classroom interaction is characterized by teacher initiation of language.
We ask questions, give directions, and provide information and students have been conditioned only
to “speak when spoken to.” Part of oral communication competence is the ability to initiate
conversation, to nominate topics, to ask questions, to control conversations, and to change the
subject. As you design and use speaking technique, ask yourself if you have allowed students to
initiate language.

g) Encourage the development of speaking strategies.

The concept of strategic competence is one that few beginning language students are aware of.
They simply have not thought about developing their own personal strategies for accomplishing oral
communicative purposes. Your classroom can be done in which students become aware of, and have
a chance to practice, such strategies as:
a) asking for clarification (what?)
b) asking someone to repeat something (pardon me?, Huh? Excuse me?)

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 c) using fillers (uh, I mean, Well) in order to gain (to get) time to process
d) using conversation maintenance cues (Uh-huh, Right, Yeah, OK, Hmm)
e) getting someone‟s attention (Hey, Say, So)
f) using paraphrasing for structures one can‟t produce
g) appealing for assistance from the interlocutor (to get a word or phrase, for example)
h) using formulaic expressions (at the survival-stage) (How much does____cost? How do you get to
the____?)
i) using mime and non-verbal expressions to convey meaning

3.3 The Role of Teacher and Learners in Teaching Speaking

A. Teachers’ Roles in Teaching Speaking:

Paul (2003, p. 77) lists several principles that teachers need to consider in preparing students to
communicate in English:
a. Introducing and practicing patterns in ways that feel meaningful to the children, such as in
games, in situation where the children genuinely want to express themselves, and through
personalization.
b. Practicing new patterns in combination with the other patterns the children have learned, so
the children can internalize them more easily.
c. Giving the children many opportunities to guess how to use the patterns flexibly in novel
situation.
d. Giving the children confidence to speak out in front of others by talking independently with
other children and the whole class.
e. Building the children‟s inner strength to deal with confusing and novel situations, by
presenting them with puzzles to overcome and solve, and making sure they are finally
successful.

In line with Paul (2003), Harmer (2007b) and Terry (2008) classify roles of teacher in teaching
speaking, as follows:
a. Prompter: The teachers provide the students with discrete suggestions, leave them to struggle
by themselves, and give them chunks not words, without disrupting the discussion.
b. Participant: The teachers participate in the discussion by introducing new information and by
ensuring the continuation of students‟ engagement. The main point is the teacher should not
monopolize the conversation.
c. Feedback provider: The teachers can give some feedbacks by giving helpful and gentle
correction and by telling the students about their performance. Besides that, they should
avoid over-correction, since it might lead to students‟ reluctance to continue the dialogue.
d. Assessor: The teachers can write down some written samples of languages produced by
students, or memorize some of it, then tell it to their students.
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 e. Observer: The teachers should observe the class speaking activity and find out what makes
the activity breakdown.
f. Resource: The teachers have to provide some tools to improve their students‟ oral
competence.
g. Organizer: The teachers manage the classroom to set the activities and get the students
engaged.

B. Learners’ Roles in Teaching Speaking:

According to Richard and Rogers (1985: 22) there are five aspects that support the role of
learners in learning speaking:
a) The learner is the planner of his or her own learning program and thus ultimately assumes
responsibility of what he or she does in the classroom,
b) The learner is monitor and evaluator of his or her own progress,
c) The learner is a member of a group and learns by interacting with others,
d) The learner is a tutor of others learners,
e) The learners learn from the teacher, from the other students and other teaching sources.

3.4 Of Speaking Activities

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

a) Learners talk a lot. As much as possible, activities should occupy learners.

b) Participation is even: contributions should be fairly distributed among students.
c) Motivation is high: Learners should have eagerness to speak; because they should feel
interested in the activities.
d) Language is an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant
in situations, easily comprehensible to each other, and acceptable level language accuracy.

There are a number of ways that different scholars have categorized the types of EFL/ESL
speaking activities for language classroom. Based on the design, the activities can be of:

A. Controlled Practice
The students‟ use of language is controlled by the design of the activity – in other words they
have little choice but to use the target language.
a) Using the language more accurately is the aim.
b) Repetition of the target language is important.

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 c) Error correction is often done during the activity so that students don‟t continue to repeat
incorrect language.
Flashcards, Bingo, Sentence scramble, Crossword puzzles, Information gap, etc are the examples
of controlled activities.

B. Semi-controlled Practice:
It gives the student more freedom in producing language. Students can personalize the language.
Brainstorming, Fill-in-the-blank, Dialogues, Story-telling, using a picture, etc are such practices.

C. Free(r) Practice
a) The activity gives students more choice about the language they can use to complete the
activity and express themselves.
b) The aim is for students to get the message across and speak more naturally and fluently –
using the target language where appropriate.
c) Error correction is often delayed as we don‟t want to keep interrupting students – this would
impede their fluency.
Role plays, Free talking, Debate, etc are the examples of free activities.

Piccolo (2010) proposed two types of speaking activities:

a) Task-Based Activities: These are activities that ask students to accomplish a specific task by
following simple instructions. These types of activities are generally preferred by students as
they have a clear understanding of when they have accomplished what was asked of them.
Tasks such as “reach an agreement,” “Find someone who,” “Describe the media” are
common ways of presenting such tasks. These tasks are also an excellent way to activate
language that has been presented in class, providing focused situations in which students will
be forced to use the target language in order to continue.
It is extremely important that students understand exactly what is being asked of them,
otherwise it can be difficult for them to focus on the task at hand, and it‟s possible that some
students will end up doing something entirely different.
How does this help students in real life? – This helps students practice more practical skills
that people might use every day. Tasks such as finding directions, navigating a city, finding people
with which you have something in common, asking for help etc.

b) Topic-Based Activities: These are activities that allow the students more freedom. By
choosing topics that your students will identify with, they are given a chance to express their
thoughts and opinions in a more natural way. Activities such as Discussions or Debates are
common examples of these types of activities. These tasks let students experiment with the
language that has been presented to them in class over a longer period of time. It is a great
way to see what students have retained from the lessons, as they must construct sentences by
themselves.
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 One must be very careful when choosing the topics to present in class. They must be age
appropriate, appropriate for the cultural and religious beliefs of the students, but also thought-
provoking and interesting. Remember that what your students find interesting can be very
different from what you find interesting.
How does this help students in real life? – This helps students practice interaction on a
deeper level. This can help them prepare for interviews, making friends, talking to colleagues or
classmates in a different country. This also gives students the freedom to experiment with language
from previous lessons.
To figure out which type of activity to use, we need to identify which sub-skill we want to
activate. What are the sub-skills of speaking? (Lackman, 2010)

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 In the following discussion we will talk about some frequently used activities for teaching
speaking skill in EFL/ESL classroom:

a) Discussions (FGD)
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.

b) Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

Focus group is good for initial concept exploration, generating creative ideas, testing ideas and
determining differences in opinion between various stakeholder groups. Campbell (2008: 1) Focus
group discussion is a planned, facilitated discussion among a small group of stakeholder designed to
obtain perceptions in a defined area of interest in a permissive, non-threatening environment.

The Focus groups are an opportunity for students to have discussions rather than lectures;
conversations rather than note taking. It gives the student a chance to express feelings they may not
discuss in a whole group setting. It is a great method, when used correctly, to obtain meaning and
insight of the student when discussing certain facts or events (Thackeray & Neiger, 2004).

c) Socratic Circle / Seminar

Lesley Lambright (1995, p.30) defines the S.C as an exploratory intellectual conversation centered
on a text (cited in M. Copeland 2005). As for Adler (1984, 17 – 18), the S.C consist in questioning
students about something they have read so as to help them improve their understanding of basic
ideas and values. Right from the start, the S.C proved to be a successful strategy for holding fruitful,

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well-targeted discussions and for drawing on the untapped reservoirs of knowledge that people
decidedly hold inside.

Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion
questions about the text. On seminar day, students sit in a circle and an introductory, open-ended
question is posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the
conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with textual evidence. There is no
particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with
others.

You will need to use several types of questions to engage and elicit a detailed understanding.

QUESTION TYPE EXAMPLES

What do you mean when you say X?

Clarification
Could you explain that point further? Can you provide an example?

Is there a different point of view?

Challenging assumptions
What assumptions are we making here? Are you saying that… ?

Can you provide an example that supports what you are saying?
Evidence and reasoning
Can we validate that evidence? Do we have all the information we need?

Are there alternative viewpoints?

Alternative viewpoints
How could someone else respond, and why?

How would this affect someone?

Implications and consequences
What are the long-term implications of this?

What do you think was important about that question?

Challenging the question
What would have been a better question to ask?

d) Tick – tack – toe

The students are divided into two teams, one represents naught (O) and the other represents cross
(X). The teacher will make some words in the nine grids on the blackboard. The words can be verb,
adjective, to be, noun, and many others. The teacher tells the students that they can choose the words
and make a sentence based on the words. If the students can make a sentence and mention it, they
can put sign (O) or (X) on their tic tac toe grid. Tic Tac Toe is a simple game, and use simple
material. If this game is played optimally by both players, it will make a tie. However, many players
still enjoy it. And this game can be made more complex by increasing the size of the board.

e) 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)

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 f) Think – Pair – Share
Think-pair-share (TPS) is a collaborative learning strategy where students work together to solve a
problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. This strategy requires students to
(1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmates.

g) Public Speaking
It is a presentation that's given live before an audience. Public speeches can cover a wide variety of
different topics. The goal of the speech may be to educate, entertain, or influence the listeners. Often,
visual aids in the form of an electronic slideshow are used to supplement the speech. This makes it
more interesting to the listeners.

A public speaking presentation is different from an online presentation. The online presentation is
available any time. A public speech is typically limited to a specific time or place. Online
presentations often use slideshows. Or they use pre-recorded videos of a speaker. This includes
recordings of a live public speaking presentation).

Because speaking in public is done before a live audience, you need to consider some special factors.
We'll touch on those shortly. Now you've got an understanding of the meaning of public speaking so
let's take a quick look at the history of (and the importance of) public speaking.

h) Set/ Extempore Speech

Extempore speech is something which is spoken without any prior preparation or rather delivered on
the spot. (sometimes a minute or two is given to organize the speech)

Following things are evaluated in an extempore speech:

 How quickly one can imagine and speak on the topic

 How one begins and ends the speech creating an impression on the audience
 Confidence - measured by the tone, hand gestures and facial expressions of the speaker
 Clarity of thought
 Stage presence and how one connects with the audience

i) 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.

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 j) 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.

k) 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 characteristic of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students
will be open to sharing new ideas.

l) 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.

m) 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.

n) Story Completion
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students 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.

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 o) Reporting News
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.

p) Sports Commentary

In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer, sportscaster, or play-
by-play announcer) gives a real-time commentary of a game or event. In the classroom, the teacher
can exploit different types of sports videos to teach speaking. The videos are selected and graded on
the basis of different categories, such as: speech rate/fluency, interest, learning level, etc.

q) 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.

r) 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.

s) Find the Difference / Comparative talk

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.

t) Debate
Debates as a teaching tool can be traced back to ancient Greece, with the Sophists, Protagoras, and
Aristotle as the earliest pioneers (Vo & Morris, 2006). Today, debates exist in countless forms in any
society, ranging from government debates, court proceedings, to debates in media and everyday life
where individuals present opposing views through social interaction (Fallahi & Haney, 2011). As an
instructional method, debating involves students in expressing their opinions from two competing
perspectives with the goal of contradicting each other‟s arguments (Chang & Cho, 2010). It is very
helpful in developing argumentative, comparative, competitive, and persuasive talk.

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4. Teaching speaking skills - overcoming classroom problems

The most frequently addressed reasons why students don‟t speak in EFL classes pose the
challenge of teaching speaking:

a) It‟s easier to speak my own language.

b) The teacher always corrects me when I say something.
c) I don‟t want to make a mistake in front of the whole class.
d) It‟s not „cool‟ to speak English.
e) The teacher doesn‟t motivate me to speak in English.
f) I can‟t say what I want to say in English, so I need to use my own language.
g) The teacher can‟t hear me anyway. Why should I bother?
h) It‟s stupid to try and communicate in English. It‟s much easier to communicate in the language we all
understand.
i) I have no reason for learning English so trying to speak it is a waste of time.
j) I don‟t want to practice speaking English with people who speak my language.

Problems that are commonly observed in the language classroom are related to individual
learners‟ personalities and attitudes to the learning process and learning speaking in particular. They
can be defined as follows (Ur 1995: 121):
a) inhibition – fear of making mistakes, losing face, criticism; shyness;
b) nothing to say – learners have problems with finding motives to speak, formulating opinions
or relevant comments;
c) low or uneven participation – often caused by the tendency of some learners to dominate in
the group;
d) mother tongue use – particularly common in less disciplined or less motivated classes,
learners find it easier or more natural to express themselves in their native language.

As many teachers‟ observations indicate, the above situations occur in language classrooms
regardless of the level of proficiency or the number of students in the group. Moreover, every learner
enters any learning and communicative environment with his or her entire personality additionally
shaped by their prior learning and communicative experiences, both positive and negative. This
individual dimension is particularly noticeable among older and more advanced learners who often
have a good insight into the nature of their individual difficulties, an accurate assessment of the skills
they have already developed and, consequently, clearly defined needs.

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

a) 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.
b) Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of
student participation.
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 c) Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step back and
observe students.
d) Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.
e) Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in
order to prompt students to speak more.
f) 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…"
g) Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking.
Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.
h) Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other
people who can help.
i) 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.
j) Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
k) Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the
target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.

5. Conclusion
All in all, when planning a speaking skills lesson, be aware that using language in speech is not
necessarily practice of speaking as a language skill. Developing the range of competencies that make
„a good speaker‟ takes focus on the ways that we speak to different people, and the ways we
construct what we are saying. This is independent from the grammar and vocabulary we use in real
life, so should be kept separate from pure language input in the language classroom.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND REFERENCES

●●●
The material has been developed based on the SECONDARY SOURCES.
Nothing and no part of it is an Original Work of mine.
●●●

Adler, M. J. (1984). The Plaidia program : an educational syllabus : New York, Macmillan.

Anuradha, R.V., Raman, G. & Hemamalini, H.C. (2014). Methods of Teaching English. Hyderabad:
Neelkamal Publications

Brown, H. D. (2003). Teaching by Principles, San Francisco State University, Third Edition.

Lackman, K. (2010). Teaching Speaking Sub-skills. Retrieved from

KenLackman.com: http://www.kenlackman.com/files/speakingsubskillshandout13poland_2_.p
df

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Lambright, L. (1995). Creating a dialogue : Socratic seminars and educational reform. Community
college journal V65 n4, 30-34.

Piccolo, L. (2010). Tips for Successful Speaking Activities in the ESL Class. Retrieved from
Suite101: https://suite101.com/a/tips-for-successful-speaking-activities-in-the-esl-class-
a262535

Thornbury, S. (2007). How to Teach Speaking. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Ur, P. (1995). A Course in Language Teaching. Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

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