7.3. Speaking skills (methods of teaching)

The outline of the problem discussed

1. Speaking as an aim and a means of teaching.

2. The most common difficulties in speaking a foreign language.

3. Prepared and unprepared speech.

4. Psychological characteristics of speech.

5. Linguistic characteristics of speech.

6. Techiques for teaching speaking:

a) teaching monologue;

b) teaching dialogue.

1. The syllabus requirements for speaking are as follows: to carry on a

conversation and to speak English within the topics and linguistic material the

syllabus sets. This is the practical aim in teaching a foreign language. But it is not

only an aim in itself, it is also a mighty means of foreign language instruction and

presenting linguistic material: sounds, words and grammar items. It is also a means of

practicing sentence patterns and vocabulary assimilation. Finally it is used for

developing pronunciations habits and skills and, therefore, for reading and writing

since they are closely connected with pupils' ability to pronounce correctly what they

read and write. Thus speaking should be the most important part of the work during

the lesson. Properly used speaking ensures pupils' progress in language learning and,

consequently, arouses their interest in the subject.

2. Speaking a foreign language is the most difficult part in language learning

because pupils need ample practice in speaking to be able to say a few words of their

own in connection with the situation. The pupils rarely feel any real necessity to

communicate in English. The stimuli the teacher can use are often feeble and

artificial. The pupils are involved in fulfilling a great number of drill exercises which,

of course, are necessary but mere completing and constructing sentences is a sort of a

mechanical work. There must be occasions when the pupils feel the necessity to

inform someone of something, to explain something, to prove, to argue, etc. This is a

The teacher checks

comprehension and develops

speaking skills on the basis of the

text heard.

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psychological factor which must be taken into account when teaching pupils to speak

a foreign language.

Another factor is a linguistic one; the pupil needs words, phrases, sentence

patterns and grammatical structures stored up in his memory ready to be used for

expressing any idea he wants to. The teacher should stimulate his pupils with the

subject and by teaching them language material they need to speak about the

suggested topic or situation. The teacher should lead the pupils to unprepared

speaking through prepared one.

3. Pupils’ speech may be of two kinds: prepared and unprepared.

It is considered prepared when the pupil has been given time enough to think

over its content and form. He can speak on the subject following the plan made either

independently at home or in class under the teacher's supervision. His speech will be

more or less correct and sufficiently fluent since plenty of preliminary exercises had

been done before.

In schools pupils, however, often have to speak on a topic they are not

prepared for. As a result only the best of them can cope with the task. In such a case

to find the way out the teacher gives his pupils a text which covers the topic. Pupils

learn and recite it in class. They either reproduce the text or slightly transform it.

Reciting, though useful and necessary in language learning, has little to do with

speech since speaking is a creative activity and is closely connected with thinking,

while reciting is based only on memory. The main objective of the learner is to use

the linguistic material to express his thoughts. This is ensured by the pupils' ability to

arrange and rearrange in his own way the material stored up in his memory.

While assigning homework it is necessary to distinguish between reciting and

speaking, so that the pupil should know what he is expected to do at the lesson to

reproduce the text or to compile a text of his own. Consequently, the answer should

be evaluated differently. In reciting a text the teacher evaluates the quality of

reproduction, e.g. exactness, intonation and fluency. If the pupil is to speak on the

subject, the teacher also evaluates skills in arranging and rearranging the material

learnt. It is necessary to encourage each pupil to speak on the subject in his own way

and thus develop pupils’ initiative and thinking.

The pupils’ speech is considered unprepared when without any prevous

preparation he can:

- speak on a subject suggested by the teacher;

- speak on the text read or heard;

- discuss problems touched upon in the text read or heard, etc. There may be

other techniques for stimulating pupils’ unprepared speech. The teacher chooses the

most suitable ones for his pupils, for he knows their aptitudes, their progress in the

language and thinking abilities.

Prepared and unprepared speech must be developed simultaneously from the

very beginning; its interrelationship should vary depending on the stage of learning

the language. In the junior stage prepared speech takes the lead, while in the senior

stage unprepared speech should prevail.

4. The pattern of speaking the mother tongue and a foreign language is the

same and according to the scientists "it is a process, but not the substance"

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(N.Brooks) and "language doesn’t exist, it happens" (P. Strevens). So the teacher

should know under what conditions "it happens".

The psychological characteristic of speaking are as follows:

a) Speech must be motivated, i.e. the speaker expresses a desire to inform the

interlocutor of something interesting, important, or to get some information from

him. This is the case of inner motivation. Very often oral speech can be motivated

outwardly. So in teaching a foreign language it is necessary to think over the motives

which can make pupils speak.

b) Speech is always addressed to an interlocutor or a group of pupils. It

should contain, even if it is retelling, something new or personal. So the teacher

should supply his pupils with assignments which require individual approach on

their part.

c) Speech is always emotionally coloured for the speaker expresses his

thoughts, his feeling, his attitude to the subject. So the pupils are to be taught how to

use intonational means.

d) Speech is always situational for it takes place in a certain situation, so

real or close-to-real situations should be created to stimulate pupils speech.

5. Oral language as compared to written one is more flexible. It is relatively

free and is characterised by some peculiarities in vocabulary and grammar. Pupils at

schools are taught standard English, and not the colloquial one but still they should be

acquainted with some peculiarities of spoken language, otherwise they will not

understand it. This mainly concerns dialogues.

Linguistic peculiarities of dialogue are as follows:

a) the use of incomplete sentences (ellipses) in responses;

b) the use of contracted forms (doesn’t, won't, etc.)

c) the use of some abbreviations (lab - laboratory, maths, etc,);

d) the use of conversational tags ( well, you know, etc.);

There is a great variety of dialogues. They differ in structural correlation of

utterances, which may be full, partial and zero.

Here are the principal four structures;

a) Question - response (full correlation):

- Hullo! My name is Victor and what is your name?

- My name is Ann.

b) Question - question (partial correlation):

- Will you help me with this text, please?

- The text? Certainly. What shall I do?

c) Statement - statement (zero correlation):

- I'd like to know when we are going to go to the park.

- That’s difficult to say. He is always promising but never comes.

d) Statement - question (zero correllation):

- I'm going to the cinema tonight.

- Where did you get the tickets? Etc.

In teaching dialogue at school it is, necessary to differentiate between these

dialogical structural unities and take into account their peculiarities to make

instruction more effective.

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6. Since there are two forms of speaking (monologue and dialogue) and each

has its own peculiarities, we should speak of teaching them separately.

In teaching monologue the teacher should observe the following stages

according to the levels which constitute the ability to speak: 1) the statement

level; 2) the utterance level; 5) the discourse level.

1) At the first stage pupils learn how to make up sentences and how to make

statements. To develop this skill the following procedure may be suggested; pupils

are given sentence patterns to be filled with different words in connection with

situations. For example:

I can see a ... .

Pupil1: I can see a pencil.

P2: I can see a book.

P3: I can see a blackboard. Etc.

I am fond of ... .

PI am fond of ... .

P1:I am fond of music. P2, P3, P4, etc.

We are proud of ... .

Pupil1: We are proud of our country.P2, P3, P4, etc.

Pupils may be invited to perform various drill exercises within the sentence

pattern given:

- substitution: I have a book (a pen);

- extention: I have an interesting book.

I have an interesting book at home;

- transformation: He has a book.

He has no book.

- completion: If I have time I'll ... .

Each pattern is to be repeated many times with a great variety of changes in its

contents until the pattern becomes a habit. Pupils may also make statements of their

own within the situations suggested by the teacher:

- Give it a name:

Teacher: We write with it.

Pupil: It is a pen.

- Make statement on the picture (the teacher points to different pictures):

Pupil1: This is a cat.

Pupil2: This is a black dog. Etc.

- Say the opposite:

Teacher: I work at school.

Pupil: I do not work at school.

2) At the second stage pupils are taught how to use different sentence patterns

in an utterance about an object or subject offered. First they are to follow a model,

then they do it without any help. The teacher points to an object and asks pupils to

say something about it:

Pupil: This is a pencil. It is green. The pencil is long. It is on the table. This

is not my pencil. Etc.

The teacher may point to a boy and ask the other pupils to say what they

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know about him:

Pupil: This is a boy. He is a pupil. His name is Pete. Pete is 14. He lives ... etc.

Though the pupils’ utterances involve only 2-4 sentences, they logically follow

one another. At this stage pupils learn how to express their thoughts and attitude to

what they see and hear using various sentence patterns.

3) At the third stage pupils are prepared for speaking at discourse level, after

they acquired skill in making statements and in combining them in a logical

sequence. They can speak on a picture or a set of pictures, a film, comment on a text,

make up a story of their own. To help the pupils the teacher supplies them with visual

aids which can stimulate the pupils' speech through visual perception of the subject to

be spoken about.

These three stages in teaching monologue should take place through the whole

course of instruction. The amount of exercises at each stage is different as they are

aimed at reaching various purposes, first, how to make statements, then how to

combine various sentences in one utterance and, finally, how to speak on a suggested

topic.

When teaching a dialogue one should have a proper idea of a dialogical unit,

which is the smallest and significant feature of a conversation. A dialogue consists of

a series of lead-response units, where the response part may serve in its own turn as a

fresh inducement leading to further verbal exchanges:lead response inducement

response. A response may consist of more than one sentence. But the most

characteristic feature of a dialogue is that the lead-response units are closely

connected and dependent oil each other and structurally correlated (full, partial and

zero correlation). The lead is relatively free, while the response depends on the first

and does not exist without it. In teaching dialogue we should observe the sequence: a

lead-response unit a microdialogue a dialogue.

There are three stages in learning a dialogue: 1) receptive; 2) reproductive; 3)

creative.

1) At the first stage the pupils only listen to the dialogue several times for

better understanding, paying attention to the intonation. Then they read it.

2) At the second stage pupils enact the pattern dialogue. There may be three

kinds of reproduction;

-immediate, when pupils reproduce the dialogue in imitation of the speakers

while listening to it or just after they have heard it, the pupils are asked to learn the

dialogue by heart for homework;

-delayed: after pupils have learned the dialogue at home they enact the pattern

dialogue in persons (it is recommended that they should listen to the pattern dialogue

again to remind them of how it "sounds";

- modified, when pupils enact the dialogue with some modifications in its

contents (the more elements they change the better they assimilate the structure of the

dialogue).

The work should not be done mechanically. The use of visual aids may be

helpful. Besides pupils are expected to use their own experience while selecting the

words and phrases for substitutions. Of utmost importance is that pupils should speak

on the situation.

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The first two stages aim at storing up patterns in pupils’ memory for

expressing themselves in different situations within the topics and linguistic material

the syllabus sets for each form.

3) At the third stage pupils make up dialogues of their own on the topic or

situation suggested. This is possible provided pupils have a stock of pattern, a certain

number of phrases for starting a conversation, joining in, etc. The choice of stimuli is

of great importance here, as pupils very often know how to say, but cannot think what

to say. Therefore audio-visual aids should be extensively utilized.

In teaching speaking the problem of what form of speech to begin with and

what should be the relationship between monologue and dialogue. Some

methodologists give preference to dialogic speech in teaching beginners and they

suggest that pupils learn first how to ask and answer questions and how to make up a

short dialogue following a model. Others prefer monologic speech as a starting point,

when pupils are taught how to make statements, how to combine them into one

utterance in connection with the subject or situation offered.

As to the relationship between these two forms of speech, it should vary from

stage to stage in teaching speaking at school. In the junior stage dialogic speech, the

one which allows the teacher to introduce new material and consolidate it in

conversation, must prevail. In the intermediate stage dialogue and monologue must

be on an equal footing. In the senior stage monologic speech must prevail since

pupils either take part in discussion and, therefore, express their thoughts in

connection with a problem or retell a text read or heard. To sum it up both forms of

speech should be developed side by side with preference for the one which is more

important for pupils’ progress in learning a foreign language at a certain stage.