OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS IN TEACHING

LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF ENGLISH

a) Introduction

Four skills need to be developed in language learning and teaching: speaking, listening,

reading, and writing. When one of these skills is not developed adequately, language learning and

education will be incomplete. In most expanding circle countries where English is taught as a

second language, instruction focuses on grammar and reading skills in-classroom activities. As a

result of these inadequate education practices, students in these countries learn languages without

speaking and listening skills. However, these abilities are the most significant parts of the

languages. When the first language acquisition takes into consideration, the importance of

listening and speaking can be understood. While babies acquire a language, they first listen to the

speech of the people around them. After a certain period, they can start speaking without learning

reading and grammar. Of course, it does not mean that the other two skills are not crucial for

foreign language acquisition. However, for language teaching to be successful, necessary

importance should be given to listening and speaking skills. According to Hedge, listening

accounts for 45% of a person's communication; speaking constitutes 30%, reading 16 %, and

writing 9%(Hedge, 2000, as cited in Snow, 2007).Although there are some obstacles to

improving these skills, there are also different approaches to the solution in and outside the

classroom.

b) Difficulties in Developing Listening Comprehension

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 It is challenging to develop listening skills because, as Yang states, internal and external

factors affect listening comprehension. While internal factors are the pattern of the sounds,

vocabulary, grammar barriers, listening customs barriers, external factors are psychological

quality, teachers, cultural background, and interest in English listening(2002). In addition to these

factors, teachers' performing listening activities from slow audio recordings can be added to the

difficulty faced by the students. When students meet the daily conversation, they cannot catch the

gist of the speech and do not understand the topic. The reason for this failure is that students are

unfamiliar with the real-life conversation.

Inadequate listening practice is another cause of the problem. It makes it difficult to

comprehend some elements in daily conversations. According to Snow (2007), some of these

difficulties are hearing small differences between English sounds, learning reduced forms of

pronunciation, attending to intonation or emphasis cues, adjusting to regional, class, or group

accents, understanding vocabulary by listening to it, understanding grammar structures,

understanding rapid speech, developing a range of cultural background knowledge. It can be

clearly seen that the problem stems from the inadequacy of the listening skill, the unfamiliarity

with daily speaking style, and the inadequate level of the student.

c) Aproaches to Teaching Listening

Teachers should develop some strategies to handle these difficulties. First of all, in and

outside the classroom context should be considered separately. Students do not need to catch

every word uttered in English when they listen to native speakers. Because people cannot hear

each of the words and phrases even in their native language, some pragmatics factors may play a

role in this problem, such as; context, noise, dialectic, etc. English learners should cope with this

problem, like a native speaker of a language. Students should learn to catch the gist of the

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utterance. Hadley claims that it is like a puzzle; it is not necessary to know every piece of the

puzzle to comprehend all of it. If the right pieces are put on the puzzle, the big picture can be

guessed(Hadley, 2001, as cited in Snow, 2007)

As mentioned before, a slow speaking style is preferred in the classroom activities by

teachers. However, the teacher should abandon this method and make students listen to spoken

English in the real world. In today's technology age, it is effortless to find materials to improve

listening skills in the classrooms. Most importantly, teachers should give due importance to the

listening skill. Much time should be allocated for the classroom activities.

No matter how much teachers give importance to classroom activities, it is inevitable

that the school activities are insufficient. As Yang (2019) describes listening skill is a complex

and active process in which students must be able to distinguish emphasis, stress, and intonation,

know grammar, understand vocabulary, and do them instantly. As a result, students should do

out-classroom activities at the same time. Nowadays, thanks to advanced technology, there are

countless opportunities to do practice at home. For example, every family has more than one

smartphone, and there are useful applications to improve listening comprehension. Teachers may

assign their students to use this application and study regularly. Another option is watching

English movies. Students are exposed to the dialogues of native speakers, speaking in natural

environments, and learn the language from its source. Besides, watching movies is an enjoyable

way to learn. On the other hand, if teachers do not choose the film and the method, this

technique can be unuseful, and the teachers may not realize their target. To be successful,

teachers should choose a fragment or scene of a suitable movie for the students' level. Otherwise,

the whole film can be tedious and challenging to understand. Teachers should also choose target

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vocabularies and explain them to their students before the movie. Finally, teachers should get

feedback about the target vocabulary and films after the assignment is done at home.

d) Difficulties in Developing Speaking Comprehension

Most English language learners complain about their speaking skills. Although they

know the target language's extensive vocabulary and the grammar of this language, they cannot

speak English at all or fluently. Even if these students understand complex academic texts, they

have difficulties using their knowledge while speaking in English. There are many reasons for

speaking challenges. As Rosio (2012) points out, speaking and listening skills in different

languages are complex and rough to improve.

Ur (1996) stated the areas where speaking in a foreign language is problematic and

grouped them into four categories. First, unlike listening, writing, and reading skills, an

interlocutor is also needed to develop speaking skills. Students' anxiety prevents them from

speaking. Students with shy characteristics hesitate to speak in front of their friends. These

students are also afraid of making mistakes. They may be worried or embarrassed that their

friends are paying attention to his speech. Another problem is that there is nothing to talk about.

Apart from being shy and embarrassed if the students have nothing to say about the topic, they

can avoid. The third problem is low or irrelevant participation. If only one person is speaking in

group work and if the others are only in the hearing mode and not participating, that person will

be dominant in the group and the others will either speak little or not. As a result of this situation,

while the students who can speak English become better, others cannot improve their speaking

skills. Finally, students tend to speak their mother tongue in the classroom. Because other

classmates understand and speak the same language. Mother tongue sounds natural and easy to

them. It can be difficult for them to discipline themselves.

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 According to some studies results, some of the target language deficiencies are another

cause of the problem. Students cannot speak English because of a lack of grammar and

vocabulary. Their vocabulary may consist of passive words. When they try to speak English, they

may not remember the English equivalence of the utterances. Some of the steps should be taken

to solve these problems in and out of the classroom settings.

e) Aproaches to Teaching Speaking

Like listening skills in speaking skills, activities inside and outside of the classroom

should be evaluated separately. Firstly, teachers should create an environment where students can

speak comfortably in the classroom. Students ought to speak English in school as much as

possible to improve their speaking skills. However, time is insufficient to allow the students to

talk for a long time. There are some strategies teachers may follow in the class. Class discussion

is one of them, but every student may not find the opportunity to express themselves. As a result

of this technique, only students who already speak English take the initiative and improve their

speaking skills. The teacher should give pairs or small group tasks to the students and ensure that

everyone tries to speak English.

Snow (2007) suggests some activities can be applied in the classroom. These are

memorization of materials, choral drill, classroom chat, model-based dialogues, presentations,

role-plays, surveys, interviews, cocktail parties, pair or small-group tasks, debates, large group

discussions. All these methods have both advantages and disadvantages. Teachers should observe

their students professionally and choose these methods according to their needs and personalities.

Most of all, teachers should notice timid students and make these students speak in the classroom.

Teachers should not let these students be overwhelmed by active students.

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 Getting students to do activities outside of the classroom is not as easy as in school.

Teachers can give assignments to the student in listening, but speaking is the challenging one.

First of all, getting feedback is hard, and teachers cannot check their performances. If teachers

assign students to record their conversations, they can measure their students' achievements.

However, since the classroom time is insufficient, it will be difficult for the teacher to evaluate

these records. Snow(2007) points out some speaking practices outside of the class, such as

memorization, finding native practice partners, discussions, conversation activities, group

discussions, etc. Teachers should not be content with a limited time in the classroom; they should

definitely do outdoor activities and follow these activities.

f) Conclusion

Although four skills need to improve to learn a language, speaking and listing have

special significance among these abilities. Unfortunately, most English as a Foreign Language

(EFL) countries' education systems does not teach students these abilities. Suppose teachers of

these countries comprehend the importance of listening and speaking. In that case, they apply

some strategies in and outside of the classroom so that their students can learn English properly.

Besides, they also explain the importance of these two skills to their students. They do their best

to teach these abilities with classroom and outside activities.

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 REFERENCES

Rosio, S.A (2011-2012). The İmportance Of Teaching Listening And Speaking Skills, Máster En
Formacıón Del Profesorado De Educacıón Secundarıa Oblıgatorıa, Bachıllerato, Formacıón
Profesıonal Y Enseñanzas De Idıomas
Snow, D. (2007). From language learner to language teacher: An introduction to teaching
English as a foreign language. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
Alexandria, VA
Ur, P (1996). A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge Teacher Training and Development
Series Editors. Marion Williams and Tony Wright
Yang, X. (2019). On the Obstacles and Strategies in English Listening Teaching. Theory and
Practice in Language Studies. Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 1030-1034.