SPEAKING SKILL

 SPEAKING SKILL

The development of speaking skill has an important role to play in the teaching of English. The ability to understand spoken English is needed in ordinary conversation, exchange of greetings and receiving orders as directions. The ability to speak English is needed in communicating with other people, foreigners and people from other states of the country. In the long history of the human race, the spoken form of language continued to be its dynamic aspect.

Speaking is a productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills is more complex than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words.

LISTENING SITUATION

There are three kinds of speaking situations in which we find ourselves.

          1. Interactive

          2. Partially interactive

          3. Non-interactive.

 

MICRO SKILLS

Some micro-skills are involved in speaking. The speaker has to:

1. Use correct forms of words. His may mean, for example, change in the tense, case or gender.

2. Put words together in a correct word sequence.

3. Use vocabulary appropriately.

4. Make clear to the listener the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, and object by whatever means the language uses.

FUNCTIONS OF SPEAKING/SPEECH

Speaking skill is the basis of good learning of the language. In fact, this strengthens the foundation of language learning. One who is good in oral work is expected to be in reading and writing. Speaking is the important groundwork for every other stage of learning English.,

 

TECHNIQUES OF SPEAKING SKILL

The following are the main techniques for speaking skills:

          1. Question-Answers – How do you get a foreign/second language learner to speak English? You may just ask the student to speak, ask him/her to speak something in English. You can even tell him/her what to say. He/she may or may not understand the meaning of the utterances he/she is asked to produce, but he/she will imitate what you told him to repeat.

Another way is to ask the student a question. He/she will try to answer if he/she realizes that he is being asked to answer a question. For this, he should understand what the question is, and he/she should have some mastery over the English phonology, grammar, and lexicon necessary to frame an appropriate answer. This is a more difficult task.

Asking and answering questions is an essential part of teaching, learning, and using any language. Asking questions and eliciting answers may be used for various purposes. First of all, asking questions enables the student to practise what he/she has learned. Secondly, you may ask questions to find whether the student understands the new vocabulary and the structures and whether he/she is able to use them appropriately.

You are a good speaker if you do not attract the attention of your listeners to how you say something, but to what you say. Remember also that it is the adequacy of fluency and communicative effectiveness that becomes the focus of speaking skill.

The ultimate goal of the speaking skill in English is to enable the learner to communicate his or her thoughts, ideas, and feelings via oral language to meet the needs faced by him or her.

2. Substitution – Substitution of a word, phrase or sentence by another is an elementary method that helps students to produce new utterances and to develop speaking skill.

Students repeat the sentence ‘This is a ball’ several times, and then are given some names of objects such as mat, cat, rat, one after another to substitute in the proper place. In place of ‘this’, they may be given ‘that’ and the students make the substitution and produce a new sentence ‘That is a mat’, ‘That is a cat’ and so on.

In this way, sentence framing is practised first, and then suitable slots in the frame are identified for substitution. When substitution is made, a number of new sentences are produced with ease by students.

Substitution of one word or phrase by another in the same slot in a frame is a common practice in speaking exercises at the beginners’ level.

From single word substitution, one may proceed to multiple word substitution in the same slot, without making grammatical changes in the frame. For example, This is a pencil. This is a long pencil.

Consider the following:

Let’s go to the cinema. (Theatre)

Let’s go to the theatre. (Library)

Let’s go to the library. (Football)

Let’s play football. (Hockey)

Let’s play hockey. (Pizza)

Let’s eat pizza. (Milk)

Let’s drink milk.

Likewise, we may proceed to multiple word substitution in the same slot which necessitates making some grammatical changes in the frame. For example, This is a cat – These are cats, etc.

Substitution drills can be made more complex as students learn more structures and words. Combining the substitution drill with processes of addition, deletion and transposition of words/phrases makes these more complex and challenging to students.

3 Role play.

4. By performing an action.

5. By showing a picture or chart.

6. By showing a film.

7. By giving an outline of a story.

8. Through oral composition.

9. Reproduction technique – It has the following main activities:

(a) The teacher produces a sound and asks the students to reproduce it. It is done first in chorus, then in groups and after that individually.

(b) The teacher speaks words one by one. The students listen to him and reproduce those words one by one. This practice is carried on in chorus in groups and then individually.

(c) The teacher speaks full sentences one by one. The students listen to him carefully. Then they are asked to speak those sentences. Sufficient practice is given to them.

 

ADVANTAGES OF SPEAKING AND LISTENING SKILL

1. It improves the comprehension ability of the students.

2. The students find a lot of pleasure and excitement in the oral approach.

3. They are able to develop the skill of speaking.

4. The students become good at listening. They try to listen comprehensively.

5. It lays the foundation of good speech.

6. It helps the students to form the habit of using correct sentence patterns or sequences.

7. It removes the hesitation and shyness of the speaker.

8. It makes the students active participants in the process of teaching-learning skill.

SUGGESTIONS FOR SPEAKING-LEARNING

         1. The classroom should be divided into small groups.

2. Good teachers should be there to teach the class as they can manage even the overcrowded classes.

3. The teacher should have a sympathetic and considerate outlook.

4. The teacher should try to make oral work interesting.

5. Activities through situations will help the students to learn language skills.