Why should we teach speaking skills in the classroom?
Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language or as Nunan (1991) wrote, “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language.” Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom, a fun and dynamic place to be: Speaking is fundamental to human communication.
Just think of all the different conversation you have in one day and compare that with how much written communication you do in one day. Which do you do more of? In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. Do you think this is a good balance? If the goal of your language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced in the language classroom.
Dealing with common arguments against teaching speaking skills in the classroom: students won’t talk or say anything. One way to tackle this problem is to find the root of the problem and start from there. If the problem is cultural, that is in your culture it is unusual for students to talk out loud in class, or if students feel really shy about talking in front of other students , then one way to go about breaking this cultural barrier is to create and establish your own classroom culture where speaking out loud in English is the norm. One way to do this is to distinguish your classroom, from other classrooms in your school by arranging the classroom desk differently, in groups instead of lines etc. or by decorating the walls in English language and culture posters. From day one teach your students classroom language and keep on teaching it and encourage your students to ask for things and to ask questions in English. Giving possible feedback also helps to encourage and relax shy students to speak more. Another way to get students motivated to speak more is to allocate a percentage of their final grade to speaking skills and let the students know they are being assessed continually on their speaking practice in class throughout the term.
A completely different reason for student silence , may simply be that the class activities are boring or are pitched at the wrong level. Very often our interesting communicative speaking activities are not quite as interesting or as communicative as we think they are and all the students are really required to do is answer (yes) or (no) which they do quickly and then just sit in silence or worse talking noisily in their L1. So maybe you need to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities you are using and see if they really capture student interest and create a real need for communication. Another way to encourage your students to speak in English is simply to speak in English yourself as much as possible in class. If you are shy about speaking English, how can you expect your students to overcome their fears about speaking English? Don’t worry if you are not completely fluent or don’t have that elusive perfect native accent, as Swain (1985) wrote : we learn to speak by speaking and that goes for teachers as well as students. The more you practice; the more you will improve your own oral skills as well as help your students improve theirs.
Losing control of the classroom on the other hand, is a different issue. Once again walking around and monitoring the students as they are working in groups can help, as you can naturally move over to the part of the classroom where the noise is coming from and calm the rogue students down and focus them back on the task without disrupting the rest of the students who are working well in their groups. If students really get too rowdy then simply change the pace of the class and type of activity to a more controlled task, for example a focus on form or writing task where students have to work in silence individually. Once the students have calmed down you can return to the original or another interactive group activity.
These are just some of the problems that teachers with large classes face when teaching speaking activities in the classroom. These problems are not new nor are the solutions offered above. Teachers all over the world continue to face the same hurdles, but any teacher who has overcome this difficulties and now has a large class of energetic students talking and working in English in groups together will tell you it is worth all the trial and error as well as the effort at the outset. If you believe in the importance of teaching speaking skills in the classroom but are having difficulties making speaking activities work in your classroom why not contact your local teaching associations or branch of TESOL. Maybe they run workshops for teaching speaking skills, or maybe they can put you in a contact with other teachers in similar situations but with more experience teaching speaking skills who will be willing to share their experiences with you.
By: DULCE GARCIA |T-I| MARIVELES NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL – CABCABEN Cabcaben Mariveles, Bataan
