Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T16:49:28.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Teaching speaking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2024

Get access

Summary

Goals and problems in teaching speaking

Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important. People who know a language are referred to as ‘speakers’ of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing. And many, if not most, language learners are mainly interested in learning to communicate orally. Classroom activities that develop students’ ability to express themselves through speech – mainly informal conversation – would therefore seem an important component of a language course.

It is very difficult to design and administer procedures that actually get students to talk: more so, in many ways, than to get them to listen, read or write. So let's start by defining the main goals of classroom activities that are designed to promote oral interaction, and the accompanying problems.

Goals

The students should actually talk a lot. As much time as possible during the activity should be taken up with talk by the students themselves. This may seem obvious, but in many activities, a lot of the time is actually filled with teacher explanations, pauses, reading texts or instructions, or classroom management issues.

The language used should be of an acceptable level. Students should express themselves in language that is relevant, easily understandable and reasonably accurate. This does not mean that everything has to be absolutely correct, only that it is free from pronunciation, lexical and grammatical errors that interfere with the fluent communication of meanings. (For a discussion of the teaching of pronunciation, see the last section of this chapter.)

Pause for thought

What, in your experience as either student or teacher, are some of the problems in getting students to talk in the classroom?

Comment

Some of the main problems I have come across are the following:

• Reluctance to speak in English in the classroom. A very basic problem is students’ lack of willingness to communicate (WTC) in English (Yashima, 2012). This can be rooted in a number of factors, including shyness, lack of confidence, aversion to speaking in front of an audience, fear of making mistakes or of losing face.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Teaching speaking
  • Penny Ur
  • Book: A Course in English Language Teaching
  • Online publication: 15 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009417594.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Teaching speaking
  • Penny Ur
  • Book: A Course in English Language Teaching
  • Online publication: 15 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009417594.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Teaching speaking
  • Penny Ur
  • Book: A Course in English Language Teaching
  • Online publication: 15 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009417594.010
Available formats
×