The major factors affecting speaking skill of first year english major students at vinh university and some suggested solutions tions improve their communicative competence

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
--------------------

Lê Thị Hơng

THE MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING SPEAKING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR
ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY AND SOME
SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
Những yếu tố chính ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm
nhất chuyên ngành tiếng anh tại đại học Vinh và một số biên pháp
tăng khả năng giao tiếp

Master Thesis in Education


Vinh, 2011

2


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
--------------------

Lê Thị Hơng

THE MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING SPEAKING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR
ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY AND SOME
SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
Những yếu tố chính ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm
nhất chuyên ngành tiếng anh tại đại học Vinh và một số biên pháp
tăng khả năng giao tiếp
Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 60.14.10

Master thesis in Education

Supervisor: ngô hữu hoàng


Vinh, 2011

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I could not complete my assignment without the great help and useful advice
from my teacher, my family as well as my friends.
Firstly, I would like to express my great thanks to y supervisor, Doctor Ngo
Huu Hoang for his enthusiastic help and expert advice.
Secondly, I would like to express my deep thanks to all the teachers in Foreign
Language Department of Vinh University for giving me helpful lectures that can be
considered very good source of background knowledge to support my ideas.
My thanks also go to my family as well as my classmates who have
enthusiastically helped and encouraged me during the time I conducted this work.
To everyone, thank you very much.

Vinh, June 2011

Le Thi Huong


ABSTRACT
This thesis is written on the topic: The major factors affecting speaking skill the
first year English major students at Vinh University and some suggested solutions to
improve their communicative competence.
The paper is divided into five main chapters: Chapter 1 is the general
introduction of the thesis. In this chapter, the information about the aims, scopes and
the research methods of the study are mentioned.
The second chapter is named Theoretical background. In this chapter, the theory
basement of the study is given and developed.
Chapter 3 is named Research Methodologies. This chapter is about all the
methods that are used to conduct this paper.
The fourth chapter is the analysis of the data from the survey conducted by the
objects of the paper. In this chapter, the author works on the statistics collected from
the survey and put it into evaluations.
The last chapter is recommendations and conclusion. In this chapter, the author
gives some suggested solutions to improve students’ communicative competence.
Besides, she also gives the conclusion and suggests the further researches.

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
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Figure 1: Communication strategies based on Faerch and Kasper’ classification (1983)
Figure 2: Learning strategies based on Wedden and Rubin’s classification (1987)
Figure 3: Students’ personalities
Table 2: Students’ strategies to speak English
Table 3: Students’ opinions about speaking topics

Table 4: Students’ favorite topics
Table 5: Students’ difficulty in creating sentences
Table 6: Students’ listening comprehension
Table 70: Students’ opinion about teachers’ teaching methods
Table 81: Teachers’ teaching methods in pre-speaking phase
Table 92: Teachers’ methods in speaking practice phase
Table 10: Students’ motivation to learn English
Table 11: Students’ recognition about the role of the target language
Table 12: Students’ recognition about the role of English
Table 13: Students’ interest in learning English
Table 14: Students’ interest in speaking English
Table 15: Students’ feelings when speaking English

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ABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Problem statement……………………………………............................................7
1.1. Rationale of the study ………………………………………...............................7
1.2. Aims of the thesis………………………………………………..........................7
1.3. Scope of the study…………………………………………..................................8
1.4. Research questions……………………………………………….........................9
2. Structure of the thesis…………………………………………………...................9
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Skills …………………………………………………………….......................10
2.1.1. Skills definition……………………………..………………….......................11
2.1.2. Speaking skill……………………………………………………....................12

2.1.2.1. Characteristics of speaking skill………………………………......................14
2.1.2.2.

Micro skills……………………………………………………………….15

2.1.2.3.

Learning speaking skill…………………………………………..……….15

2.1.2.4.

Teaching speaking skill………………………………………….……….16

2.2. Strategies…………………………………………………………..…………..17
2.2.1. Definition……………………………………………………………………18
2.2.2.

Learning strategies…………………………………………………………...20

2.2.3. Communication strategies………………………………………...………….21
2.2.3.1. Avoidance strategies ……………………………………………………...23
2.2.3.1.1. Phonological avoidance…………………………………………………24
2.2.3.1.2. Morphological strategies……………………………….……………….26

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2.2.3.1.3. Syntactic avoidance……………………………………………………..27
2.2.3.1.4. Lexical avoidance……………………………………….………………28
2.2.3.1.5. Topic avoidance………………………………………………..………..29

2.2.3.1.6. Message abandonment……………………………………..…….……...30
2.2.3.1.7. Meaning replacement…………………………………………….……..31
2.2.3.2.

Compensatory strategies…………………………………….…………..32

2.2.3.2.1. Code switching…………………………………………….….…..…….33
2.2.3.2.2.

Intralingua transfer……………………………………….….…...…….34

2.2.3.2.2.1.

Paraphrasing/ Circumlocution…………………….……….………..35

2.2.3.2.2.2.

Generalization………………………………………….….………..37

2.2.3.2.2.3.

Word coinage………………………………………….…..………..38

2.2.3.2.2.4.

Restructing…………………………………………….…….……...39

2.2.3.2.2.5.

Non-linguistic strategies……………………………………….……..40

2.3.

Communicative competence……………………………………………..…..41

2.3.1. Communicative competence……………………………………………..…..42
2.3.2. Components of communicative competence…………………..……..……...43
2.3.2.1.

Grammatical competence……………………………………..…..……...45

2.3.2.2.

Social linguistic competence…………………………………….….……46

2.3.2.3. Strategic competence…………………………………………….................47
2.3.2.4. Discourse competence……………………………………………...............48
CHAPTER 3: METHODS OF THE STUDY
3.1. Questionnaires…………………………………………………….......................50
3.2. Observation ……………………………………………………………..............51
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Overview of the survey……………………………………..…...........................52

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4.1.1. Aims of the survey…………………………………..........................................53
4.1.2. Informant and settings………………………………………............................54
4.2. Description of questionnaires………………………………................................55
4.3. Results and discussion………………………………………...............................57

4.3.1. Objective factors……………………………………….....................................59
4.3.1.1. Age..................................……………………………………………………60
4.3.1.2. Gender………………………………………….............................................60
4.3.1.3. Speaking strategies………………………………..........................................62
4.3.1.4. Speaking topic……………………………......................................................63
4.3.1.5. Language knowledge………………………...................................................64
4.3.1.6. Listening comprehension…………………………….....................................65
4.3.1.7. Teachers’ teaching methods………………….................................................65
4.3.2. Subjective factors………………………………................................................66
4.3.2.1. Motivation……………………………………................................................66
4.3.2.2. Interest……………………………………….................................................67
4.3.2.3. Self-confidence……………………………....................................................68
4.3.2.4. Personality………………………………………...........................................69
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Teaching Implications………………………………............................................70
5.1.1. Preparing lesson plan……………………..........................................................71
5.1.2.1. Suitable topics……………………………......................................................71
5.1.2.2. Audio aids………………………………………............................................73
5.1.2.3. Listening in motion……………………………..............................................74
5.1.2.3. Repeating hard work………………………………………............................74
5.1.2.4. Supplying students with speaking strategies……............................................75

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5.1.2.5. Knowledge foundation………………………….............................................76
5.1.2.6. Watching videos………………………………………..................................77
5.2.3.1. Discussions……………………………………..............................................78
5.1.3.2. Role-play……………………………………….............................................79
5.1.3.3. Simulations ……………………………………….........................................81

5.1.3.4. Information Gap……………………………...................................................81
5.1.3.5. Brainstorming………………………………………......................................82
5.1.3.6. Storytelling…………………………………………......................................82
5.1.3.7. Interview………………………………………..............................................84
5.1.3.8. Story completion………………………………..............................................86
5.1.3.9. Reporting………………………………………….........................................86
5.1.3.10. Playing cards……………………………………..........................................88
5.1.3.11. Using Pictures…………………………………............................................88
5.1.2. Giving feedbacks and correcting……………………….....................................90
5.2. Recapitulation…………………………………....................................................91
5.3. Suggestions for further researches………………………..…...............................92
REFERENCES
APPENDIX

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Problem statement
1.1. Rationale of the study
In the process of teaching and learning English, it is acknowledged that one
of the most important skills in learning English as well as other languages is speaking
skill. Speaking not only helps students improve their communicative competence but
also enables them to develop language skills such as listening, writing, and reading.
Thus, it is extremely important in teaching language especially teaching
communicative English.
Besides, in teaching reality, many teachers find it difficult to teach first year
students with speaking skill for the reason that they can hardly have chance to practice
this skill at lower levels. This fact is true at Vinh University in the progress of helping
students with accessing to direct communication and improving their communicative

competence at the very first stage.
To some extend, I try to conduct the study entitled “The factors affecting
speaking skill of first year students at Vinh University and some suggested
solutions to improve their speaking skill.” The author hopes that her study will be a
useful material that helps teachers improve their first year students with speaking skill.

1.2. Aims of the thesis
The aims of the study are as follows:
1. To investigate the factors affecting speaking skill of the first year students at
Vinh University.
2. To investigate the working mechanism of these factors on the students
through which the implications are introduced.

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3. To provide implications in English Language Teaching and make a
contribution to teaching materials.

1.3. Scope of the study
The study deals with the problems that first year students at Vinh University
students usually have when they speak English in the classrooms. These problems are
caused by certain factors that affect students’ speaking skill.

1.4. Research questions
In order to meet the aim of the study, the following research questions are
generated:
• What factors affect speaking skills of first year students at Vinh
University?
• What strategies should be used to improve their speaking skill?

• What are the solutions to improve students’ speaking ability?

2. Structure of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters as following:
• Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter deals with the author’s reasons for choosing the topic of the study,
the aims, scope and the structure of the study.
• Chapter 2: Literature review
This part contains chapters:
This chapter gives an overview on skills focusing on speaking skill, strategies
and theories on communicative competence.

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• Chapter 3: Methods
This chapter aims at stating the methods that the author applies to do the study.
• Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion
This chapter is entitled “Findings and discussions” which analyzes the results of
the questionnaires and gives the assessment on the factors affecting students’ speaking
skill.
• Chapter 5: Conclusion
The last chapter has the title of “Suggestions”, this chapter provides some
suggested solutions to help students overcome the difficulties in speaking lessons and
to improve their communicative competence.
Also, this part is about the summary of the main points presented in the study.
Additionally, the suggestions for further study are also mentioned in this chapter of the
thesis.
The study ends with the “References” which lists all the materials and sources
of the information used in the study and the “Appendix” in which the questionnaires

designed for students are mentioned.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Skills
2.1.1. Skills definition
Skill is a common term that is mentioned regularly in people’s daily life. Many
researchers have tried to find out the definitions of the term; there are a number of
definitions for this technical word therefore. However, the most commonly used one is
stated in the Wikipedia Encyclopedia; according to the writer, “a skill is
the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay
of time, energy, or both”.

2.1.2. Skill features
In the book named “Strategies and Skill in Learning a Foreign Language”,
Steven H. and Mac Donough (p. 34) claims that skills contain six general features as
following:
a. Performance: skills are about doing things. This is simple to see that a skill is a
capacity of performing a learned action such as singing with very high notes or
running with very rapid speed.
b. Specific application: one can be skilled at particular kinds of performances or
not others. By saying this, the author means that each person has his own ability
to do a particular things while other people can not do as well as he does.
Additionally, he himself only has the ability to do particular kinds of actions
whereas he cannot perform all the actions with this extreme ability. For
example, a singer can sing very well at very high notes or low ones, this is a
special ability that not many people can. However, he cannot run at the speed of
20 miles per hour as a professional runner.

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Also, Steven’s theory mentions different kinds of performance. They are:
Physical performance such as sports; psychomotor such as motor racing, flying
parachutes or sky diving; Intel lecture performances such as problem solving,
imagination; interpersonal performances such as persuading, socializing,
convincing

people

or

informational

performances

such

as

reading

comprehension.
c. Learnable: the skills are amenable to learning and possibly instruction. It is
clear to see that people can learn to perform the special ability in daily life by
practicing. Many singers loved by their sweet voice must learn from the
instruction of the singing coach or practicing again and again.
d. Alternative from people to people: There are individual differences in levels of

achievements. It is easy to explain this feature of the term. Each person has his
own ability and level of the achievement among people who have the same
ability differs after the same time of learning and practicing. For example, two
singers in the same course, with the same teachers and the same period of
training have different achievements after the course.
e. Performance is smooth, sensitive to feedback, integrated in time. This feature
shows the complicatedness of the performance. After a period of training, the
performance of the people become professional and it should be sensitive to
feedback because it depends on the understandability or the ideas of different
people.
f. Most of the time, skills lead to success. This feature is nearly taken for granted
because nearly everybody agrees that skills can bring people advantages in
working, learning, etc.
There may be various modes of language performance as skill such as the fourskill approach of Audio-Lingualism such as listening, reading, speaking and
writing. However, Steven thinks that “such terms are very general and not quite

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consonant with the use of ordinary language and the literature on skill acquisition
within psychology or “skill” in specific applications”. Steven takes Nuttal’s theory
(1982) as a brilliant example that uses the division between word attack skill and
text attack skill in the discussion of teaching foreign language.

2.2.
2.2.1.

Speaking skill
Speaking Skill definition
Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of

verbal and non-verbal symbol, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998, p 13). It is said
that speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. According to
Carol J. Orwig, speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. Like the other skills,
it is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing
words. For this skill, pronunciation is only a component among which make the
success of the conversation. The essential components ensuring the success of the
communication probably are pronunciation, intonation, accent, etc.
Speaking skill is considered the art of communications, it is a productive skill
that helps the speakers express their ideas. A person who has good speaking skills is
the one who can generate words that can be understood by listeners and for that good
speaking skill is a useful mean to make the utterances clear and informative.
The book “Language Teaching Techniques” published by English language
institute Victoria University of Wellington, a helpful book for the teachers teaching
English especially for those who focus on speaking skill, especially considers the
classroom situation. The book is a rally from the previous researches by Sharan (1980),
Johnson et al (1981) and Hill (1982). In the book, the view of speaking skill is clarified
in the classroom situations. The book says: “Speaking activities are very often used to
master content matter. Group work in most school classes is used not for the language
activities it provides, but because through trying to understanding texts, experiencing

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activities, producing material, or problem solving activities, learners master the content
matter of the subject they are studying”. It is possible to claim that in the classroom,
speaking skill can be effectively proved by the activities relating to the tasks for a
group of people such as discussion or group-work, pair-wok.
In addition, there are three ways that speaking activities can work to help the
learning of content matter mentioned in the book.

Firstly, the speaking activity involves the active processing of the content. A
simple version of this type of activity might involve learners working together to
answer a set of questions based on a given text or to solve a puzzle.
Secondly, the speaking activity requires previous mastery of the content. Some
jigsaw activities require learners to master material which they then teach to others in
the group. Each learner has a different piece of material to master and then teach. All
the pieces go together to make up a complete unit.
Last but not least, the speaking activity gives rise to the content which comes
mainly from the learners’ own experiences. This is particularly true where speaking
activities are used as a means to develop cultural awareness through the use of
humanistic techniques.

2.2.2. Characteristics of speaking skill
One of the researchers who have paid much attention on this oral skill is
Bygate. To show the characteristic of speaking skill, he investigates the characteristics
of spoken language. In his point of view, it seems that speaking skill has not been
identified as a research area as willingly as for example reading or writing. In other
words speaking is not completely accepted as a separate area (Bygate, 1998:20). This
idea may be supported by the above theory that speaking skill is the rally of different
components. According to him, speech is more commonly unplanned, contextualized,
informal and reciprocal than writing. It is clear to see that speakers usually have very

18


little time to prepare their utterances in a conversation. Bygate claims: “oral language
can be identified by certain features which are more prototypical of speech than of
writing”. Among these features, one of the most typical one is that speech is organized
by clauses, phrases and spoken utterances while writing is generally organized
according to whole sentences. In human’s daily dialogues, people do not have much

time to think of what they are going to mention or to plan how the information should
be sorted and this is the reason why they often have the common spoken utterances that
are usually short and expressive such as “really?”, “I don’t know”, etc. In addition,
spoken language is less formal in relation to vocabulary and grammar than written
language and it features words such as but , and that join words, phrases and clauses
whereas written language is characterized by subordination of clauses. Also, spoken
language is characterized by repetition of utterances, close relation to the context in
question and features of correcting speech.
Since speaking skill is the ability to start and to maintain a conversation, it
closely relates to the performance of the participants in a conversation. As Turner
(1998) writes: “If speaking is considered as a communicative performance, its
assessment should be based on scales and criteria which have been derived from the
performance of the speakers”.
According to Jack C. Richard, there are three speaking situations that people
can find themselves, they are interactive, partially interactive, and non-interactive.
Interactive situation is created when more than one speaker are involved in the
dialogue for example a group of people talking together in a cafeteria after the work.
The interactive situation may be face-to-face or not; face-to-face conversations occur
regularly in daily life, however phone calls can be seen as interactive situation although
the speaker and the listener are not speaking face-to-face. Another situation of
speaking is partially interactive; the typical situation is the act of teaching in the
classroom, teacher may explain the items for the students and then the teacher may ask
the students to implement some certain tasks to illustrate the item just explained. The

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last type of speaking situation is non interactive. This situation is usually the monodialogue when the speaker has no interaction with the listeners for example the TV
speaker speaks on the screen, he simply supplies the information without any
interaction with the audience.

2.2.3. Speaking subskills
The speaking skill is a complicated skill that contains a set of micro skills that
people should master if they wish to have a good speaking skill. These micro skills are
the subordinated skills that can be ministerial to the speaker’s oral skill.
Firstly, speaker should try to make the distinctive sounds of a language clearly
enough so that people can distinguish them. This includes making tonal distinctions.
Pronunciation is a very important component to help listeners understand what the
speaker really wants to express, listeners can only decode the meaning by recognizing
the sounds, so that the best way to make the speech easy to understand is making
sounds that are easy to recognize.
Secondly, to help to make learner’s speaking skill better, they also should use
stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so
that people can understand what is said. Rhythm, stress and intonation are important
factors to express speaker’s ideas; a good speaker is a person who knows how to use
rhythmic patterns and intonation appropriately.
Besides, using the correct forms of words is another good way to improve
learner’s speaking skill. This may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case, or
gender. For example, to indicate singular form of the noun “girl”, it can be said “She is
a beautiful girl”; however, it is not accepted when people say “they are beautiful girl”
but “they are beautiful girls”. The plural form of the noun “girl” must be “girl”, this is
commonly forgot by the students.

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Additionally, syntax is an essential element to remind, speakers should
remember to put words together in correct word order to make the utterances
grammatically correct. For example, Vietnamese speakers always say “she is a girl
beautiful” instead of “she is a beautiful girl” due to the effect of their mother tongues’

system.
For the oral skill, vocabulary is very important to transmit speaker’s ideas to the
listeners and this is the reason why speakers should be careful when using vocabulary.
Using a wide range of words can be a signal that the speaker has a good vocabulary
source so that he can use the glossary appropriately. Following that, various
vocabularies can make the utterances flexible and expressive.
However, vocabulary should be used in an appropriate way; speakers should use
the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship
to the conversation partner. Before speaking, speakers should determine the style of the
conversation: formal or informal and based on that, they can use acceptable words in
the situation.
Another micro skill that can help people speak better is making clear to the
listeners the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, by whatever
means the language uses. A grammatical sentence is taken for granted easier to
understand than a sentence that is hard for listeners to determine its parts. The place of
the part of speech can emphasize what the speaker wants to focus. There are definitely
some differences between these two sample sentences: “I want a house” and “A house
is what I want”. In the first sentence, “A house” is placed at the back of the sentence;
however, it is placed initially in the second one, the place can show the emphasis of the
speaker. In the second sentence, “A house” is emphasized so that the speaker does not
say in the normal way as in the first sentence.

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Following the above micro skill, this micro one is to make the main ideas stand
out from supporting ideas or information. This is to focus on the main ideas of the
conversation. Leading listeners to the key content of the conversation is very necessary
if the speaker wishes to achieve the goal of the conversation.
The conversation is like a river, it should have the flow to connect the ideas so

that listeners can follow the conversation. That is why speakers should have the skill to
make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what they are saying. The
connectors in this case are very useful means to make the separated utterances linked
and to make the conversation logical and easy to recognize the main contents.
Obviously, the micro skills are very important to contribute to the success of
speaking skill. To ensure the success of the conversation, mastering the set of micro
skill is considered a very good preparation. From the teaching reality, most of the
teachers advise their students to practice as separated one and combine the them in the
set.

2.2.4.

Learning speaking skill
Speaking skill is an integrated skill that combines many different aspects such

as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. so that not many students are good at this
skill. The fact of teaching shows that it is very important in daily communicating
however speaking is sometimes undervalued or, in some circles, taken for granted.
According to Jo Mac Donough (1995: 151) “speaking is often thought of as
“colloquial”, which helps to accounts for its lower priority in some teaching context”.
This is common fact in many countries including Vietnam. Students always focus on
other skills while paying very little time on this oral skill or even ignore it. However,
Jo Mac Donough says that this fact has changed since the globalization process enables
people to interact directly more often in English language. Agreeing with Jo’s view on
the importance of speaking skill, Grace Stovall Burkart (1998) claims that it is

22


necessary to supply students with the basic aspects of the skill. According to the

author, language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of
knowledge: They are Mechanics, Functions and Social and cultural rules and norms.
Mechanics including pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is the basic
aspect of speaking skill that are the basements to develop speaking skill. This aspect
help students use the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation. This
aspect focuses on the surface of the talk in terms of how the ideas are arranged, how
words are used and pronounced.
The second aspect of speaking skill that students are acquired to recognize is
functions. It includes transaction, interaction and performance. This aspect helps
students determine the type of the talk with certain criteria and purposes. This means
that knowing when clarity of message is essential if the talk is transaction or
information exchange and when precise understanding is not required if it is interaction
or relationship building or when there is no interaction if the talk is performances.
Another aspect that is not less important than the others is the social and cultural
rules and norms such as turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers,
relative roles of participants. This aspect supplies students with the background
knowledge to help them understand how to take into account who is speaking to
whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason. It is useful for them in
the choice of words, structures, etc.
In the communicative model of language teaching, teachers should 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, and also the sound forms of these sentences are
expressed in acceptable pronunciation.

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2.2.5. Teaching speaking skill

Speaking skill is such an important skill that many people consider speaking
ability the measure of knowing a language. Many people 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.
Hence, teaching speaking is very important but very hard work.
According to Hayirie Kaky, “teaching speaking” is a technical term that
requires learners a set of items to study. So what is meant by “teaching”? As far as he
stated in his theory, teaching speaking skill is to teach learners to:
-

Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns: Pronunciation is a
very important part in learning any languages including English.

-

Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and rhythm of the second
language:

-

Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social
setting, audience, situation and subject matter.

-

Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

-

Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

-

Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which
is called as fluency.

Jack Richards is a very famous professor at Cambridge University for his
lectures on Teaching Speaking Theory and Methodologies. According to his theory,
when teaching speaking skill, teachers should determine a set of the goals that the
course should be required to meet. And the course is only regarded to be successful one
when it satisfies a certain number of the set. Due to Jack’s theory, the first criterion

24


that a speaking class should have is that the activities address specific aspect of oral
skills. Oral skills contains three aspects, it may be interaction, transaction or
performance. A talk is considered interactions when it have the following
characteristics. Above all, that talk can create social interactions among people. And
then, the talk can address the face needs of participants. Every one has his own social
image that he wants to save and improve in front of the public; interaction talk is the
one that may address this social image of the people involved in the conversation.
Besides, an interaction talk has to focus on participants and their social needs such as
greeting, asking for permission, etc. In these circumstances, the social needs of the
participants are mentioned and become the main content of the conversation.
Meanwhile, a talk is a transaction when it simply gives or obtains information or gets
goods or services. Instead of focusing on people’s social needs, it focuses on the
message that the participants wants to transmit. Lastly, a talk is performance when
there is audience and speaker, the speaker must be single so that there is no interaction

in the talk and of course, the speaker must create a “product”, here, it may be a
welcome speech, class talk or business presentation, etc.
Coming back to the set of goals by Jack Richards, beside that the talk must
show the characteristics of one of three aspects mentioned above, the speaking class
should have sufficient language and other supports for the tasks such as supporting
vocabulary or structures that are useful for the topic. A speaking class usually consists
of three main phases: pre speaking, speaking and tasks; sufficient language and other
supports are supplied in the first phase. The pre speaking phase is to give students
necessary supplies in terms of vocabulary, structures as well as culture and social
knowledge.
Jack’s set of goals also highly promotes the balance of accuracy and fluency
activities. There are various activities in the class designed to develop students’
separated skill; Jack gives equal care to the accuracy of the content and the fluency of
technical speaking. Normally, accuracy is the content of the talk or the conversation

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