Speaking Skills

THE FOUR SPEAKING SKILLS
It is a common desire for all of us to speak a second language well. To do this we

need to know what skills are required to become a good speaker. This short article
will help you to understand four important skills that you need to develop:
1. FLUENCY. Fluency is about how comfortable and confident you are in speaking
English. If you can speak for an extended period of time, that is an indicator of strong
fluency. It is also about showing a clear connection between each point that you are
trying to make. This skill means that the listener can follow what you are saying and
does not get lost.
2. VOCABULARY. Of course, if you don’t have the words to say what you want to say,
then you cannot say it. Being a good speaker means constantly growing you’re
vocabulary. The more interesting words you know, the stronger your speaking skills.
The best way to grow your vocabulary is to read in English and make a note of any new
words that you encounter in a vocabulary notebook.
3. GRAMMAR. The dreaded G word! Grammar does matter and the fewer mistakes you
make, the better your speaking skill will be. However, do not worry about making
mistakes either! A good speaker does not have to use perfect grammar. Certainly,
though, it is a good idea to make sure that you have mastered the major tenses.
4. PRONUNCIATION. Pronunciation is a complex area, with a lot of sub skills that can
be practiced. The basic rule of thumb is that an average speaker can speak and be
understood. A skilled speaker can use the sub skills of pronunciation to emphasise and
make the communicative effect of their speech more impactful. The sub skills of
pronunciation include: word and sentence stress, intonation, rhythm and the use of the
individual sounds of a language. A good way to practice your pronunciation is to copy!
Simply listen to how someone with good pronunciation speaks, and try to imitate them
as closely as possible.
'I can understand my teacher's English, but when I speak to 'real people' I
can't understand them'. This is a comment I'm sure many teachers have
heard.
While it is a bit of an exaggeration, students clearly feel that classroom-based

speaking practice does not prepare them for the real world. Why do students
so often highlight listening and speaking as their biggest problems? Partly
because of the demands of listening and speaking and partly because of the
way speaking is often taught. It usually consists of language practice activities
(discussions, information-gap activities etc.) or is used to practise a specific
grammar point. Neither teaches patterns of real interaction. So what can we
do in the classroom to prepare students for real interaction?
 What do students need?
 Practical suggestions
 What language should I teach?
 How do I get students to use new language
 Further reading
What do students need?
 Practice at using L1 (mother tongue) strategies, which they don't

automatically transfer.
 An awareness of formal / informal language and practice at choosing

appropriate language for different situations.
 The awareness that informal spoken language is less complex than

written language. It uses shorter sentences, is less organised and uses
more 'vague' or non-specific language.
 Exposure to a variety of spoken text types.
 The ability to cope with different listening situations. Many listening

exercises involve students as 'overhearers' even though most
communication is face-to-face.
 To be competent at both 'message-oriented' or transactional language
and interactional language, language for maintaining social
relationships.
 To be taught patterns of real interaction.
 To have intelligible pronunciation and be able to cope with streams of

speech.
 Rehearsal time. By giving students guided preparation / rehearsal time

they are more likely to use a wider range of language in a spoken task.
Practical suggestions
 Transferring L1 strategies
When preparing for a spoken task, make students aware of any relevant
L1 strategies that might help them to perform the task successfully. For
example, 'rephrasing' if someone does not understand what they mean.
 Formal / informal language

Give students one or more short dialogues where one speaker is either
too formal or informal. Students first identify the inappropriate language,
then try to change it. Also show students how disorganised informal
speech is.
 Vague language
Using tapescripts of informal speech, focus on examples of vague
language.
 Different spoken text types

Draw up a list of spoken text types relevant to the level of your class.
Teach the language appropriate for each text type.
 Interactive listening
Develop interactive listening exercises. Face-to-face listening is the
most common and the least practised by course books. Any form of
'Live listening' (the teacher speaking to the students) is suitable.
 Transactional and interactional language

Raise students' awareness by using a dialogue that contains both. It
could be two friends chatting to each other (interactional) and ordering a
meal (transactional).
 Real interaction patterns

Teach real interaction patterns. Introduce the following basic
interactional pattern: Initiate, Respond, Follow-up. This is a
simplification of Amy Tsui's work. See Tsui (1994)
The following interaction could be analysed as follows:
A: What did you do last night? (Initiate)

B: Went to the cinema (Respond)
A: Oh really? (Follow-up)
What did you see? (Initiate)
B: Lord of the Rings (Respond)
Have you been yet? (Initiate)
A: No it's difficult with the kids (Respond)
B: Yeah of course (follow-up)
 Understanding spoken English

After a listening exercise give students the tapescript. Using part of it,
students mark the stressed words, and put them into groups (tone
units). You can use phone numbers to introduce the concept of tone
units. The length of a tone unit depends on the type of spoken text.
Compare a speech with an informal conversation. In the same lesson or
subsequent listening lessons you can focus on reductions in spoken
speech, for example, linking, elision and assimilation.
 Preparation and rehearsal

Before a spoken task, give students some preparation and rehearsal
time. Students will need guidance on how to use it. A sheet with simple
guidelines is effective.
 Real-life tasks
Try to use real-life tasks as part of your teaching.
What language should I teach?

Spoken language is both interactional and transactional, but what should
teachers focus on in class? Brown and Yule (1983) suggest the following:
 When teaching spoken language, focus on teaching longer transactional

turns. This is because native speakers have difficulty with them and
because students need to be able to communicate information
efficiently whether in their country or in a native-speaker country.
 Teach interactional language by using an awareness-raising approach.

For example, with monolingual classes by listening to a recorded
L1conversation before a similar L2 recording.
For recordings of native-speaker interactional and transactional
conversations, have a look at 'Exploring Spoken English' by McCarthy
and Carter (1997). It not only contains a variety of text types, but each
recording comes with analysis.
How do I get students to use new language?

Research by Peter Skehan on Task-based Learning shows that giving
students preparation time significantly increases the range of language used
in the performance of the task, whereas the accuracy of the language is not
as influenced. If this is so, then it seems sensible to give students preparation
time when encouraging them to use new language.
 Imagine you have been working on the language that would be useful
for the following task: 'Having a conversation with a stranger on public
transport'. You have now reached the stage where you wish students to
perform the task. Rather than just give students 10 minutes to prepare
and rehearse the task, give students guided preparation time.
A simple preparation guide for the task could be a few key questions
like:
How will you start the conversation?
What topics are you going to talk about?
How are you going to move from one topic to another?
How are you going to end the conversation?
After the preparation stage, students give a 'live performance'. This can
be in front of the class or group to group in a large class. This increases
motivation and adds an element of real-life stress.
 Another way of encouraging students to use new language in a

communication activity is to make a game out of it. Give students a
situation and several key phrases to include. They get points for using
the language.
Similarly, when working on the language of discussion, you can produce

a set of cards with the key phrases/exponents on. The cards are laid out
in front of each group of 2/3/4 students. If a student uses the language
on a particular card appropriately during the discussion, he/she keeps
the card. The student with the most cards wins. If he/she uses the
language inappropriately, then he / she can be challenged and has to
leave the card on the table.
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kayi-TeachingSpeaking.html
ACTIVITIES
https://eslflow.com/7-essential-speaking-activities.html

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THE FOUR SPEAKING SKILLS

It is a common desire for all of us to speak a second language well. To do this we

While it is a bit of an exaggeration, students clearly feel that classroom-based

 What do students need?

 What language should I teach?

 How do I get students to use new language

What do students need?

 Practice at using L1 (mother tongue) strategies, which they don't

 An awareness of formal / informal language and practice at choosing

 The awareness that informal spoken language is less complex than

 Exposure to a variety of spoken text types.

 The ability to cope with different listening situations. Many listening

 To be taught patterns of real interaction.

 To have intelligible pronunciation and be able to cope with streams of

 Rehearsal time. By giving students guided preparation / rehearsal time

 Formal / informal language

 Different spoken text types

 Transactional and interactional language

 Real interaction patterns

A: What did you do last night? (Initiate)

 Understanding spoken English

 Preparation and rehearsal

What language should I teach?

 When teaching spoken language, focus on teaching longer transactional

 Teach interactional language by using an awareness-raising approach.

How do I get students to use new language?

 Another way of encouraging students to use new language in a

Similarly, when working on the language of discussion, you can produce

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