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). It is an interactive process because it requires the involvement of another person unlike in listening, reading or writing. As Bygate (1987) defines “Speaking skill is not only producing the utterances, but it is the complete process of constructing meanings, producing utterances and receiving and processing information with confidence” (p.18). Yet, “speaking” in early 1970s was interpreted in general as repeating after the teacher, memorizing a dialogue or responding to drills, reflecting the sentence-based view of proficiency prevailing in the audio-lingual and other drill-based or repetition-based methodologies.
“The emergence of communicative language teaching in the 1980s lead to change views of syllabi and the methodology, which continue to shape approaches of teaching speaking up to date. Grammar based syllabi were replaced by communicative syllabi, built around notion, functions, skills, tasks, or other non-grammatical organizations” (Richards & Rodgers, 2014, p. 63). Hence, the aim of teaching speaking shift to improve students’ ability to express themselves and to make them aware of social and cultural rules appropriate in diverse communicative situations.
Communicative teaching materials include group activities, information-gap activities, and role plays and improvisation that can provide a source for practicing, sharing, obtaining information, and for carrying out real-world transactions. “These activities include ranking, values clarification, brainstorming, and simulations” (Richards, 2016, p.43). Louma (2004) states that “speaking is the most difficult language skill as a person’s speaking ability is usually judged during a face-to-face interaction, in real time, between an interlocutor and a candidate” (p.1). Therefore, speaking skill has a distinct role in the curriculum of language teaching. Yet, “the majority of ESL teachers’ think of it as the most difficult skill to be practiced, since it is an interactive process which needs the ability to co-operate in the management of turn-taking” (Nazara, 2011, p.24).
Apart from the challenges regarding the development of speaking skill, the confidence of students in speaking has also become an area of concern in the ESL context. Generally, the ESL students do not have the chance to engage in speaking and their exposure to an English speaking atmosphere is rather limited. Primarily, the majority of the ESL learners do not use English in day today life. Secondly, the opportunities to exert the language in communication are limited. As a result, “the opportunity to put into practice what was learned in the classroom is slim” (Nazara,2011 p.18). Therefore, when speaking in English in the classroom, ESL learners often showcase a lower confidence level.
Krashen (1985) in his Affective Filter Hypothesis states that low motivation, low self-esteem and debilitating anxiety will ‘raise’ the affective filter and form a ‘mental block’ that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition (p.43). Therefore, factors such as “culture, anxiety, and fear of peer reaction and L1 transfer affect learners’ willingness to take part in oral communication a lot” (Richards, 2016, p.64). Moreover, the lack of confidence in speaking the target language has become a crucial issue in the ESL context.
References
Bygate, M. (1987). Speaking. Oxford University Press: London.
Chaney, A. L. (1998). Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8.
Krashen, S. (1997). The comprehension hypothesis: Recent evidence. English Teachers Journal-
_Israel-, 17-29.
Luoma, S. (2004). Assessing speaking. Ernst Klett Sprachen.
Nazara, S. (2011). Students’ perception on EFL speaking skill development. JET (Journal of
English Teaching), 1(1), 28-43.
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching.
Cambridge university press.
