STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING
SPEAKING SKILLS
Many language
learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language. These
learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than
the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking
as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in
terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication.
Language learners need to recognize
that speaking involves three areas of knowledge:
a. Mechanics
(pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): Using the right words in the right
order with the correct pronunciation
b. Functions
(transaction and interaction): Knowing when clarity of message is essential
(transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not
required (interaction/relationship building)
c. Social
and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses
between speakers, relative roles of participants): Understanding how to take
into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and
for what reason.
In the
communicative model of language teaching, instructors help their students
develop this body of knowledge by providing authentic practice that prepares
students for real-life communication situations. They help their students
develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected
sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts. Students often think that the ability
to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a
crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach
students speaking strategies -- using minimal responses, recognizing scripts,
and using language to talk about language -- that they can use to help
themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their 3 confidence in using it. These instructors help
students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
1.
Using
minimal responses
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability
to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while
others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to
participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can
use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful
for beginners. Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that
conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and
other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such
responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying,
without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2.
Recognizing
scripts
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable
set of spoken exchanges -- a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments,
invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural
norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges
involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In
these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that
follows it can often be anticipated. Instructors can help students develop
speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations
so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in
response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students
practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.
3.
Using
language to talk about language
Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to
say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize
that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students
overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for
clarification can occur in any 4 type of interaction, whatever the participants'
language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and
phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check.
