Speaking Skills - 1

SPEAKING SKILLS
1. INTRODUCTION

Speaking is a productive (creative, useful) skill because a speaker needs a listener. So,
it is more complex than listening. It often follows listening. The more you listen, the more
you speak. In Pakistan and most of other countries, it is a neglected skill. As, Martin Bygate
observes in his book ‘Speaking’ that speaking is ‘an undervalued skill’, because we can
almost all speak, and so take the skill too much for granted. Further, he says that this relative
neglect may perhaps also be due to the fact that speaking is transient (temporary, momentary)
and improvised, and can therefore be viewed as facile, superficial, or glib.
However, it is observed by researchers that speaking is a skill which a learner requires
to communicate. As, Martin Bygate observes that our learners often need to be able to speak
with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions (contact,
communication). It is the skill by which they are most frequently judged, and through which
they may make or lose friends. It is the vehicle par excellence of social solidarity (unity,
harmony), of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business. It is also a
medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly
conducive (favourable, advantageous) to learning. Perhaps, then, the teaching of speaking
merits more thought.
TEFL focuses the teacher’s attention to facilitate the oral expression of students.
Teacher should know a variety of strategies and exercises to ensure that each student is
getting enough and relevant practice in speaking English to develop fluency and confidence.
Fluency is not the only objective or aim of oral proficiency but accuracy of pronunciation
comes along with it. If the F.L.L. (Foreign Language Learner) wants to speak with the native
speakers or others, the teacher should help them to acquire following sub-skills involved in
speaking process:-
 Good pronunciation of individual sounds
 Appropriate selection of vocabulary
 Correct stressing of words. e.g. ‘I want to go out’.
 Correct grammatical patterns
 Good features of connected speech e.g. ‘I’m going out’
 Appropriate pace or proper word-linking. e.g. ‘No, I’m a student.’
 Effective cohesion i.e. linking between ideas. Idea should match the situation

2. BASIC PROCEDURES OF TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS

Following basic procedures should be adopted to teach speaking skill. An oral lesson
which aims to teach new structures or functions is often divided into three stages, commonly
known as the presentation stage, the practice or accuracy practice stage and the production,
freer or fluency practice stage.

 PRESENTATION STAGE
It is also known as pre-speaking stage. At this stage, usually, the
teacher does most of the talking and the student listen. Following procedures
should be adopted at this stage by the teacher:-
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• Build up the situational context. This can be done through the use of
pictures, a dialogue, a tape, chatting, etc.
• Elicit the new language from the students or tell it to them.
• Focus the student’s attention on the marked situation.
• Check the students’ understanding of the concepts behind the new
language.

 PRACTICE STAGE
It is also known as while-speaking stage. At this stage, the role of the
teacher is to provide maximum practice within controlled, but realistic and
contextualized framework. Following procedures should be adopted by
teacher at this stage:-
• Provide the guidance for utterances.
• Give clear and realistic prompts
• One or two brief drills to allow practice with the form of the language.
• One or two controlled communicative activities to consolidate
(combine, join, unite) the meaning of the new language.

 PRODUCTION STAGE
At this stage, the students are allowed to use new language in freer,
more creative ways. The procedures involved at this stage are:-
• To allow students to work at their own pace
• To motivate students
• To check how much has really been learnt

3. TECHNIQUES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS

 DIALOGUE
Dialogue is the best tool or technique which a teacher can use to present
conversational language. Dialogues are useful for the development of accuracy
and fluency in speech. One technique is to write the names of the two dialogue
characters on each side of the blackboard and to stand by the appropriate name
as you play part. A teacher can change hats as he/she goes from one side of the
blackboard to the other side and this could be enjoyable for the learners.
A surprisingly popular technique used to enhance oral fluency is the ‘disappearing
dialogue’ technique. It is founded on sheer memorization. It consists mainly of the
cumulative rubbing-out of bits of a blackboard dialogue. The simplest way is to write the
dialogue in three imaginary columns, so that erasing from right to left is done quickly and
easily. You challenge pairs of students to remember it as you successively (one after another,
in sequence) rub out column 3 and column 2.
Similarly, Donn Byrne in ‘Teaching Oral English’ lists ten steps in presenting new
language through a dialogue.
1 . Establish the setting
2 . Establish personal link with situation
3 . Pre-teach selected items
4 . Set a listening task
5 . Ask the students to listen.
6 . Ask the students to read silently as they listen.
7 . Ask the students to listen and repeat.
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8 . Explain any difficulties.

9 . Ask the students to practice saying the dialogue.
1 0 . Get the students to dramatize the dialogue.
The other techniques used for practicing the new langue or to enhance speaking skill
of learners are as follow:

Information Gap Activities

In this technique, students are given different bits of information. By sharing this
separate information, they can complete a task, each student asks the other for their missing
pieces of information:-

The Store Inventory

Store List A
Apples
5 Meters
3 Liters
Bananas Store List B
15 Kg.
Milk.
Cloth.
1 Dozen.

In the pairs the students might work like this:-

A. How many apples are there?
B. 15 Kg. (A writes 15 Kilos in his list and B writes Apples in his list)
B. How much milk do you have in your list?
A. 3 Liters (B writes 3 Liters in his list and A adds Milk)

Communicative Games
These include a set of sample activities out of which some are described in terms of
the actions which the participants have to perform in order to complete the tasks. For
example:-
1. Describe and draw
2. Describe and arrange
3. Find the difference
4. Ask the right question
In ‘describe and draw’ activities, one student describes a picture, and the others draw it. In
‘Describe and arrange’, one student describes a structure made of rods, match sticks or simple
objects and the others reconstruct it without seeing the original. For ‘Find the difference’ two
students each have a picture, one slightly different from the other. Without seeing each
other’s pictures, they must winkle out (extract, draw out, get out) the differences.

Oral Drills
Oral drills are another way for developing speaking skill. Examples are given for
question-and-answer drills. For example, four phase drills consisting of
Q-A-Q-A:
A. Is Salman English?
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B. No, he isn’t.
A. Where is he from then?
B. He’s Pakistani.

Discussions
These include group work and are considered as important techniques.
For example, a teacher can ask the students to ‘look at the given picture and say what you
think is happening.’ Martin Bygate calls such type of techniques as ‘project-based interaction
activities’.

Role-play Technique
It is a free student activity. Students produce their own language. For example, one
student has lost a bag. He is at the police station reporting it to the police. The other student is
police officer, and asks for details.