THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ON HOW TO DEVELOP

SPEAKING SKILL AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD

Department of English
Al-Quds Open University,
Jenin branch,West Bank,
PALESTINE.

Language is very important in our lives as it is the means by which people communicate.
Speaking skills are often considered the most important part of an EFL course. In foreign
language teaching and learning, ability to speak is the most essential skill since it is the basic
for communication. Speaking is one of the productive skills, which is the evidence of a
student that how much he or she is competent in a language. Moreover, much of the
communication is made through speaking. In short, learning a language remains incomplete
if one does not achieve competence in speaking. Speaking can be realized as the most
common way to convey the message to others and the ability to communicate effectively is a
basic requirement which needs to be taken seriously in English education. (Azadi et.al 2015)
Speaking is one of four basic skills in learning foreign language besides listening, reading
and writing. Normally, learners in an EFL context do not use the language in authentic
situations. They possess inability in communicating appropriately and correctly. This leads to
learners’ lack of self-confidence and avoidance when communicating with native English
speakers. (Oradee 2012)

Therefore, this paper will suggests some ways of developing the speaking skill of the
university students from a theoretical perspective.

1-Introduction

Language is very important in our lives as it is the means by which people communicate.
Speaking skills are often considered the most important part of an EFL course. In foreign
language teaching and learning, the ability to speak is the most essential skill since it is the
basic for communication. Speaking is one of the productive skills, which is the evidence of a

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 1|Page

student that how much he or she is competent in a language. Moreover, much of the
communication is made through speaking. In short, learning a language remains incomplete if
one does not achieve competence in speaking. Speaking can be realized as the most common
way to convey the message to others and the ability to communicate effectively is a basic
requirement which needs to be taken seriously in English education. (Azadi et.al 2015)
Speaking is one of four basic skills in learning foreign language besides listening, reading
and writing. Normally, learners in an EFL context do not use the language in authentic
situations. They possess inability in communicating appropriately and correctly. This leads to
learners’ lack of self-confidence and avoidance when communicating with native English
speakers. (Oradee 2012)

Therefore, this paper will suggests some ways of developing the speaking skill of the
university students from a theoretical perspective.

2-Speaking

According to Kayi (2006) speaking refers to the gap between linguistic expertise and
teaching methodology. Linguistic expertise concerns with language structure and language
content. Teaching speaking is not like listening, reading, and writing. It needs habit formation
because it is a real communication and speaking is a productive skill so it needs practicing as
often as possible. In Palestine students are required to read English at the primary, secondary,
and higher secondary levels for about twelve years. But their level of proficiency is below the
mark. They enter universities for undergraduate programs with a low proficiency in English.
After completing the graduate and postgraduate levels, they have to enter the job market. In
different interviews they are tested on their competence in English, but the results are often
disappointing. Moreover, most of the graduate and postgraduate students are not capable of
speaking good English, which is an evidence of one’s competence in a language. What is the
reason behind it? Obviously, there is something wrong in the method of teaching and
learning. At the university level, the students usually forget what they have learned at
secondary and higher secondary levels as most of the departments, except the English
Department, do not take proper care of developing the students’ skills of speaking in English.

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-
verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13)Speaking is an interactive
process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing
information (Brown,1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the
context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences,
the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. (Florez 1999)

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. However, today's world
requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills,

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 2|Page

because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social
and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance ,therefore, recent
pedagogical research on teaching students conversation has provided some parameters for
developing objectives and techniques.

Bygate (1997:vii) believes that speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill. Perhaps this is
because we can almost all speak, and so take the skill too much for granted. Speaking is often
thought of as a ‘popular’ form of an expression which uses the unprestigious ‘colloquial’
register: literacy skills are on the whole more prized. This relative neglect many perhaps also
be due to the fact that speaking is transient and improvised, and can therefore be viewed as
facile, superficial, or glib.

Lewis and Hill (1993:54) state that speaking is a process that covers many things in addition
to the pronunciation of individual sounds. Widdowson (1996:54) believes that speaking is
simply the physical embodiment of abstract system or of the grammatical system of language
or both. Burkart (1998:11) says that speaking is an activity which involves the areas of
knowledge, they are the mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary); it is the use of
the right words in the right order with the right pronunciation. The functions (transaction and
interaction); it is knowing the clarity of message is essential (transaction/information
exchange) and when precise understanding is not required (interaction/relationship building).
And the social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pause
between speakers, relative roles of participant); it is understanding how to take into account
who is speaking to whom in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason. Mackey
(2001:79) defines that speaking is an oral expression that involves not only the use of right
patterns of rhythm and intonation but also right order to convey the right meaning. While
Thornbury (2005: IV) says that speaking is an interactive and requires the ability to cooperate
in the management of speaking turn. Clark and Clark (1997: 223) state that in speaking, a
speaker expresses his thought and feeling in words, phrases, and sentences following a
certain structure which regulates the meaningful units and meaning of sentences. The
frequency of using the language will determine the success in speaking skill. In other word,
without practicing, it will be difficult to speak English fluently. In countries such as Palestine
where English is used as a foreign language and it is taught mostly as a compulsory subject in
educational program, the speaking skill is not duly treated, simply because of the time
limitation and attention to other skills i.e. speaking has not received much attention and often
does not receive due attention in final examinations.

Foreign language learners learning to acquire the oral proficiency in the target language may
have some problems, both internal and external. Internally, they may experience the feeling
of anxiety. They may feel reluctant to use the target language as they may be afraid of
making mistakes. They may have the feeling of discomfort using the target language as “it
deprives them of their normal means of communication” (Nascente, 2001, p.18).

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 3|Page

3--Teachers’ Objective of Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

A language teacher, according to Rivers (1968), should have the following objectives in the
teaching of a foreign language:

a. To develop students’ intellectual powers through foreign-language study;

b. To increase students’ personal culture through the study of the great

Literature and Philosophy;

c. To increase students’ understanding of how language functions and to bring him,

through the study of foreign language, to a greater awareness of the functioning of his
own language;

d. To provide the student with skills which enable him to communicate orally, and to
some degree in writing, with the speakers of another language and with people of
other nationalities who have also learned this language;

4--Principles for Teaching Speaking

a. Giving students practice with both fluency and accuracy. In accordance with Nunan
(2003, p55), accuracy is the extent to which students’ speeches match what people
actually say when they use the target language. Fluency is the extent to which
speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural
pauses, false start, word searches, etc.

b. Providing Opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and
limited teacher talk. Teacher should be careful about the participation of the student in
the class. He or she should encourage the student to speak in the class and provide
opportunities for them so that they may feel free to speak ignoring limitations. Nunan
(2003) has pointed out referring the result of a research: “…teachers do approximately
50 to 80 percent of the talking in classroom”.(p55)

He further suggested that pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the
amount of time that learners get to speak in the target language during lessons. One further
interesting point is that when the teacher is removed from the conversation, the learners take
on diverse speaking roles that are normally filled by the teacher such as posing questions or
offering clarification (Nunan 2003, p.55).

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 4|Page

 c. Designing class activities that involve guidance and practice in both transactional and
intersectional speaking.

When we talk with someone outside the classroom, we usually do so for interactional or
transactional purposes. Interactional speech is communicating with someone for social
purposes. It includes both establishing and maintaining social relationships. Transactional
speech involves communicating to get something done, including the exchange of goods and
/or services. Most spoken interactions “can be placed on a continuum from relatively
unpredictable” (Nunan1991, p.42). Conversations are relatively unpredictable and can range
over many topics, with the participants taking turns and commenting freely. In contrast,
Nunan states that “transactional encounters of a fairly restricted kind will usually contain
highly predictable patterns” (1991, p.42) and he gives the example of telephoning for a taxi.
He further says that interactional speech is much more fluid and unpredictable than
transactional speech. Speaking inside the classroom need to embody both interactional and
transactional purposes, since language learners will have to speak the target language in both
transactional and intersectional settings.

Fluency

Hedge (2000) defines it as the ability to respond coherently within the turn of conversation, to
link the words and phrases of the questions, to pronounce the sounds clearly with appropriate
stress and intonation and to all these quickly in ‘real time’ (Johnson ,1979). And it is called
‘fluency’. Hedge (2000) also includes fluency as a component of communicative
competence. In the classroom, particularly grammatical errors are tolerated during fluency-
based activities. However, it does not mean that CLT does not aim for a high standard of
formal correctness. According to Larsen-Freeman (2000), the teacher will note the errors
during fluency activities and return to the learners later with an accuracy based activity.

6-Developing of speaking skill

Providing students with a variety of situations and frequent speaking tasks plays a significant
role in the improvement of students’ fluency when speaking (Tam, 1997).

1-6 Group discussion is one of the best methods of learning speaking in foreign language. It
helps the students to improve their speaking skill. In group, the students will have opportunity
to use English among themselves and practice each other with their friends. Practicing
speaking with their friends will increase their confidence in saying some words without any
worry whether they say some words incorrect or not. Besides that, learning in group will
improve their vocabularies mastery. Argawati (2014)

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 5|Page

To improve students’ speaking, they should be given enough opportunities to speak in class.
So, teacher talk time should be less and student talk time should be more. It is important for
language teachers do not take up all the time. According to Nunan also, “Pair work and group
work can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get to speak in the target
language during lesson.” In this way, the students will get chance to interact and practice the
language with other students.

2-6 Teaching speaking through role play

Role play is a familiar technique that is usually applied in the classroom to

improve the students’ speaking skill. In role plays, students are assigned roles and put into
situations that they may eventually encounter outside the classroom. Because role plays
imitate life, it helps the students to develop real life speaking skills by imagining and
assuming the roles where they create a pretend situation, and they pretend to be some
different persons.

For English teachers, using role play technique can be used as one of activities that can
promote the students to speak.

3-6 Role of Communicative Language Teaching in developing speaking skill.

Communicative Language Teaching claims to develop the ability of learners to use language
in real communication. Brown and Yule (1983) characterize communication as involving two
general purposes –the interactional function, where language is used referentially to exchange
information. CLT, then, is directed at enabling learners to function interactionally and
transactionally in second language. The distinction between a weak and a strong version of
CLT parallels the distinction between task-supported language teaching and task-based
language teaching.

4-6 Use of target language to talk about language is the best strategy for learning spoken
language (Maguire et al., 2010). As for Thornbury (2007: 40), the process of developing
speaking skills consists of three stages:

• awareness – learners are made aware of features of target language

Knowledge • appropriation – these features are integrated into their existing knowledge-base,
• autonomy – learners develop the capacity to mobilize these features under real-time
conditions without assistance.

On the other hand Rivers (1968) :p159-160) has outlined some elements of speaking skill that
help L2 learners. These are discussed below:

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 6|Page

 a. Use of Dialogues

Use of dialogues can promote students’ speaking skills to a great extent. Different situations
can be offered to the student through dialogues, which is really conducive to them. Rivers
says “Many a student well trained in manipulation of language structures has found himself
completely at a loss in conducting a conversation with native speaker of the language because
the books from which he (and his teacher before him) learned the language forms failed to
emphasize the characteristic features of everyday spoken language and persistently used
archaic or pedantic turns of phrases.” (Rivers 1968: p167-68)

b. The Audio-visual Approach

Some teachers firmly advocate the use of some form of audio-visual aid in the teaching of
speaking, especially in the early stages. Because the audio-visual approach helps the students
promote speaking skills. Rivers says,” In its simplest form the audio-visual approach has
been employed for many years in classroom where objects, pictures, actions, and gestures
have been systematically used with aural-oral work to elucidate meaning… advocates of an
audio-visual approach put forward several reasons for considering the visual element
essential to the efficient learning and speaking”. (Rivers1968, p.175)

c. Conversation Groups and Foreign Language Clubs

Rivers emphasizes on forming conversation groups and foreign language club in order to
promote speaking skill. He says,” More intensive practice in the art of conversation can be
provided, at the advanced level, in small groups meeting together at regular intervals”.
(Rivers: 1968, p.202-205) Foreign language clubs can also help promote speaking ability of
L2 learners as there is interaction between the learners. Speaking ability can also be
developed in foreign language club, where students are forced into an effort at
communication in an informal atmosphere. (Rivers: 1968).

7-Suggestions for Teachers in Teaching Speaking

Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral language
according to Ryan (2001):

1-Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich
environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared
knowledge.

2-Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways
of student participation.

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 7|Page

3- Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step back
and observe students.

4- Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.

5-Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?"
in order to prompt students to speak more.

6- Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good job. I
really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice…"

7- Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking.
Correction should not distract student from his or her speech.

8- Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other
people who can help.

9- Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether
they need your help while they work in groups or pairs.

10- Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.

11- Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the
target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.

CONCLUSION

Teaching speaking is a very important part of foreign language learning. The ability to
communicate in a foreign language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the
learner in school and success later in every phase of life. Therefore, it is essential that foreign
language teachers’ pay great attention to teaching speaking by providing students with
adequate exposure with the language and with adequate motivation to communicate through
it. Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where
meaningful communication takes place is desired.

Speaking is the key to communication. By considering what good speakers do, what speaking
tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners report, teachers can help learners
to improve their speaking and overall oral competency.

DR. MUNTHER ZYOUD 8|Page

 With this aim, teacher should be aware of the problems that may face in conducting the
English speaking class; starts from the problem faced by the students and the teachers, in
addition, the problem from the language itself that is not spoken in the community.

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