“The man invented language to satisfy his need to complain.”


                                                                                         Lily
Tomlin (1939 - )




Teaching Speaking




We have to accept that speaking seems to be the most important of all the four skills. Most foreign
language learners are primarily interested in speaking. Speaking is the subject of most complaints
later. E.g. “I have learned English for five years and I cannot speak at all!” Yet these people
usually forget that they still can listen, or read or even write. Anyhow speaking is a
“representative” skill and learners feel that it is what they really need when learning a foreign
language. Do the teachers satisfy their needs?


Children start to speak at the age of two approximately. At the age of nine to eighteen months they
produce one-word sentences. Two or more-word sentences lacking inflection and function words appear
till the age of four. Thus learning to speak is a long lasting process even in the native language.
When teaching the foreign language we cannot respect everything in the first stages of native
language acquisition though teaching should be as close to real life as possible. The pace should
be faster. Students are eager to speak from the very beginning. That’s why we may start with
complete simple sentences and we enrich the process of teaching by learning individual sounds and
single words.


Speaking is possibly the most demanding skill to teach. It’s difficult to choose, plan and organize
activities with students who in their native language are able to express so much. They can talk
about their emotions, they like to make fun, and they are able to talk about their expectations,
intentions and reactions. Now they expect to do the same in English but their word power is
limited. The teacher has to find the balance between the wish and the chance. Fortunately a good
textbook might be of great help. The teacher also has to cope with the lack of time devoted to
English speaking during the day. Most students have no other opportunity to speak English except
for school. In an English lesson there are more than twenty students in one group, which lowers the
chance to speak. Careful organization and methods of teaching bring good recipes enlarging the
chance to speak. In our daily life it is the dialogue which is used most frequently not the
monologue therefore pair work should be used as often as possible. It brings learning close to real
life. Group work can be offered for a change. The teacher shouldn’t be afraid of noise and buzzing
in the classroom. The value of the chance to speak is higher than a value of a silent disciplined
class. The discomfort of the noise pays.


Presenting new material

Students cannot speak unless they have at least the smallest word power. They obviously need to be
given language before they can start speaking themselves. At the initial stage students will
probably imitate the language heard or read without using their own creativity and imagination.


Pictures and drawings are used as a suitable teaching aid when we present new vocabulary, new
constructions.

Masks used by students may bring nice refreshment pretending some other people or animals have
entered the classroom and they talk to each other.

There are many photocopiable materials helping the teacher to provoke the young learners to speak.


Oral fluency practice

The teaching aids mentioned above can successfully be used when we want the learners to practise
speaking. A friendly atmosphere is very important at this stage. Students shouldn’t be afraid of
speaking; they shouldn’t be worried about making mistakes and of unpleasant criticism. Some
students might even be shy of the attention that their speech attracts.

To overcome the problems we may base the activity on easy language. We can involve pair-work or
group work enabling shy students to be “hidden” in the noise. We may choose the topic carefully to
stimulate interest. We can give some instructions and training in discussion skills in advance.


Oral testing

Testing speaking with learners is a very delicate task. It could easily discourage students to
speak at all. On the other hand students want to be evaluated. They want to know how good (hardly
ever how bad) they are at speaking and many of them even like to show off.

Firstly the teacher shouldn’t forget to do his monitoring whenever students speak in pairs. This
brings a great chance to encourage and praise.

Secondly individual mistakes shouldn’t be corrected during speaking. Fluency must be placed over
accuracy in natural speaking.