A SEMINAR ON SPEAKING SKILLS

Communication is an integral part of human life which is totally unavoidable. They should be able to express themselves inorder to survive and excel in the society. For this purpose of communication they need languages. There are fourfold major language skills. They are :-

Ø   Listening

Ø   Speaking

Ø   Reading

Ø   writing

Among these fourfold functions of language, speaking deserves a special mention. Because 80% of human communication takes place through the medium of speaking. Here, I am trying to analyze what speaking is and how can we achieve the skill of speaking as well as how can we evaluate this. The paper starts by define speaking and later move on to the sub skills and is concluded with the ways or methods to evaluate one’s ability to speak.

Speaking Skills

Communication is an inevitable part of human life. For the purpose of communication we use languages. Language is not something ‘in-built’ in human beings. It is a learned behavior as well as it is culturally transmitted. Language is conventional and human beings tend to acquire language inorder to communicate with their fellow beings.

Hence language is a system of sounds and words. We use both written and spoken forms of language for communication. But we need some special skills inorder to achieve proficiency in language. Those special skills can be called as the fourfold skills of language (LSRW). It is very important to attain these fourfold language skills in learning any language.

Here, our concerned topic is the skill of speaking which comes right after the skill of listening in the fourfold skills of language. It is very important to attain the skill of speaking in learning any language. Because a lion share of the human communication takes place through the medium of speaking. Especially in this modern world of fastest growing technology more importance is given to speaking skills rather than any other language skill.

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information. Speaking is the transmission of communications. It is often spontaneous open-ended and dynamic. Speech as well as written form of language has its own structure, form and skills. There are number of subskills one needs to attain the ability to speak fluently and efficiently. Articulation, Lexis, Grammar etc are some subskills which come under the skill of speaking.

Speaking requires not only linguistic competence but also sociolinguistic competence. For oral communication normally there should be a speaker and a listener who may change their roles in a conversation.

The speech habits, expressions and the knowledge of the speaker about the topic etc have an effective impact on the success of any exchange. He must be able to anticipate and produce what is expected, depends on the particular situation or the context. Turn taking, rephrasing, providing, feedback or redirecting etc are some important factors in determining one’s ability to successfully delivering an exchange.

A speaking lesson should include 5 important elements or it should be comprised of 5 steps. They are:-

Ø   Preparation

Ø   Presentation

Ø   Practice

Ø   Evaluation

Ø   Extension

In a classroom set up dialogues and conversations are the most important and commonly used speaking activities, though a teacher can opt for a variety of many other activities. Some of them are listed below:-

Ø  Imitative

In this task the learner is supposed to imitate the teacher. He can simply imitate simple sentences and phrases said by the teacher. This enables the learner to attain clarity and accuracy.

Ø  Intensive

This also involves repetition of commands or requests. This focuses on specific phonological and grammatical points.

Ø  Responsive

This implies the responses produced by the learner. Yes or no questions are example for this.

Ø  Transactional

This task suggests verbal transactions. Eg: Role- play, debate etc.

Ø  Interpersonal

This promotes the sociolinguistic aspect of the speaker. Role-play, personal interview etc are examples.

Ø  Extensive

This implies lengthy verbal expressions like speech, oral reports etc.

These tasks can be used in both ways, independently or in a sequence. The selection depends on the learner’s needs.

When presenting these tasks the teacher should inform the students about the language function in the context. The teacher should also be careful about not to overload the students with a lot of new materials and a task over another. This may make the student tedious as well as they may get distracted.

Sub Skills

Ø  sound

To get a sound knowledge as well as fluency in English the learner should have a deep knowledge in the sound system of English. The English sound system consists of 12 vowels, 8 diphthongs and 24 consonants. Diagrams, charts etc can be used as equipments to teach the sound system. The teacher is advised to tell short stories and oral reports based on the age and taste of the learners. It will help the students to learn and practice good English with right pronunciation as well as to help them identify different sounds.

Ø  stress

Students should be made aware of the importance of stress in practicing speech. Because it have the ability to change the meaning of a word. A stress will help us to detect whether the word is a noun or an adverb.

Ø  Intonation

Intonation will influence the meaning as well as effect of the utterance or speech.

Ø  Rhythm

Rhythm is quite significant in speech. It has an important role in delivering meaning to a sentence.

Ø  Vocabulary

To attain fluency in speaking vocabulary is very important. Reading short stories and other genres of literature will be helpful in improving vocabulary.

Ø  Grammar

A sound knowledge in basic grammar is essential to achieve the quality of fluency in speaking. This helps the learner to arrange and re-arrange the vocabulary he already knows, in an appropriate manner.

Proper pronunciation is very important in speech. For students who learn English as their second language have a great difficulty in learning or practicing proper pronunciation. Practicing Received Pronunciation (RP) is an effective remedy for this.

Teaching pronunciation can be made more easy by imitating good models of speeches, songs etc. Listening to English movies and songs is also effective. Educational games can also be used for the purpose.

Brain storming, role-play, storytelling, drama etc are excellent speaking activities which can be easily conducted in class room set ups.

Evaluating Speaking Skills

There are certain elements which we can use as criteria to evaluate speaking skills. Some of them are listed below.

Ø  Pronunciation

By pronunciation  we can easily understand whether the speaker is a native speaker or not. It is one of the basic qualities one need to achieve in learning language.

Ø  Lexis

Vocabulary  or lexis helps to detect whether the speaker is a native speaker or not as well as their social status and proficiency in language.

Ø  Accuracy

Accuracy is a basic criteria in evaluating one’s speaking skills. Grammar plays the crucial role here.

Ø  Interaction

The ability to respond is checking here. One should be able to listen to what others are saying or what is happening around and should know to respond in the appropriate manner.

Ø  Fluency

Fluency is judged on the base of the ease of communication. Long gaps and pauses in one’s speech indicates the lack of fluency.

These factors denote the totality of one’s speaking ability. Based on these factors we can comprehend or evaluate one’s speaking ability to some extent.

Some barriers to attain speaking skills in classroom context are listed below.

Ø  Large classroom strength

Ø  Lack of individual attention

Ø  Unavailability or inaccessibility of language labs

Ø  The general tendency to avoid learning new words

Ø  Teachers are generally afraid that the process is time consuming

Ø  Writing skill is given more importance than speaking

Ø  Lack of trained teachers with fluency

Ø  The process of training to inculcate speaking skills is highly time consuming. Hence they cannot fit in the syllabus

When it comes to the scoring procedures, we can depend the five point rating scale adapted from Luoma. In this each stage can be matched to scores.

The five-point rating scale is as below:-

Ø  Effective communication and high competency in task performing

Ø  Generally effective communication and competently performed task

Ø  Communication can be said to be effective to some extent as well as somewhat effective competence

Ø  Communication generally not effective and generally poor task performance competency

Ø  Sheer absence of effective communication at all as well visibly poor competency to perform task

Analytic method of scoring procedures implies the comparison of one’s performance with one another learner’s performance. Hence it demands high competency inorder to win or to achieve. One needs to excel inorder to be successful in this method. The level of intelligence is a prominent factor in this method.

In contrast to the analytic scheme, the global impression marking scheme does not judge one learner in relation to the performance of other learners. This scheme sets specific classifications and searches for the sparkle of excellence in every learner, by accepting him as a free person. Individuality plays a vital role here. There is no necessary minimum in this scheme.

Conclusion

Speaking as a part of our daily life is inevitable to anybody except for those who are differently abled and use other means of expressions to communicate. Therefore it is highly significant to acquire the skill of speaking inorder to survive as well as to excel. There are a lot of techniques to attain the skill as well as well as barriers. But we can overcome the hindrances and can master the skill of speaking by following some simple techniques. By examining certain aspects we can evaluate the ability of speaking too. Scoring procedures are also there in relation with evaluation.

Bibliography

Viswanath, Harsha; Sajitha(2014).English Language Teaching Approaches And Skills. Dept of English, Milad-E-Sherief Memorial College. Kerala

Dr.Sivarajan, K; T.V.Ramakrishnan, K.Mridula (2012). English Language Education. Calicut University. Calicut

Webliography

http://teachingmonster.com/benefits/articles

http://www.skillsyouneed.com

http://area.dge.mec.pt/gramatica/whatspeakingis.html