Importance of speaking skills

Importance of speaking skills

''Speaking means conveying the message through words of mouth.''

We speak when we want to express our ideas, desires and to establish social relationships.

This skill is also called'' Oral skill'' or'' Communication skill''. This is very often neglected in our schools.

Most of the students cannot speak English with each other. They feel shy; they are afraid of committing mistakes. The classes are so large that every student cannot get a chance to speak. To develop this skill, the students need  practice. Speaking practice is usually done in pairs and groups.

Speaking skills in communication:

To develop speaking skills different types of exercises may be used in the classroom. as listening and speaking go side by side, there should be at least two persons for communication. For an effective practice of speaking it is better than the students should speak to each other independently. They may be asked to talk about themselves, their families, their daily programs, their likes, and their dislikes. Pair work, group work, and informational activities are three main techniques that have proved very useful in teaching oral English

Some commonly used activities:

Some most commonly used activities are as follows:

• Drills

• Dialogues

• Roleplay

• Information gap exercises

• Chain stores

• Short lectures

• Discussion

1.Drills:

The students are given a structure and are asked to repeat it.  They are fairly repetitive a d not very creative. However, they are a good practice for students to speak. They can be used to practice simple statements.

2.Dialogues:

A Dialogue is a conversation between two persons. The students may be asked to talk and  introducing themselves to each other. They may ask each other’s personal questions about their lives and dislikes.

3.Roleplay

This is also a form of dialogue. In this type of exercise, the students are asked to play the role of different persons and talk to each other. For example, a student may act as a shopkeeper and the other as a customer in a shopping situation. This exercise will encourage the students to speak in real-life situations.

4.Information gap exercises:

This is important  form of dialogue. In this type of exercise, one person has some information which the other person does not have. So, there is an information gap. To fill up this gap one person asks the questions and the other answers these questions.

5.Chain stores:

In this type of exercise, the teacher gives the first sentence of the story and the students go on adding sentences to it. For example, the teacher says:

Once there was a crow

A student will add the sentence:

He was very thirsty.

In this way, the story will be completed. Every student will get a chance to speak.

6.Short lectures:

The students may be given some easy topics by their teachers. They will prepare them in  written form. They will come to the stage and deliver a lecture for two minutes before the class.

7.Discussion:

This is the advanced stage of speaking. The teacher will give some topics to different groups of students. He will give them instructions on how to proceed. The students will discuss the topic. Then the teacher will ask the leader of the group to give the result of their discussion.

How to improve speaking skills:

To develop speaking skills, different types of exercises may be used in the classroom.

• Pair work technique:

• Group work technique:

• Information gap activities

1.Pair work technique:

Pair work is an activity between two persons. The teacher divides the whole class into pairs. He assigns the task to each group of students and gives them clear instructions on what they are to do. Every student works with his partner. He gets the activity completed within the fixed time limit. Pair work is usually concerned with language practice, for example, questions and answers through a dialogue. One student should ask the question and the other should answer. Then they can change the role. The teacher will give them an example:

• What happens if you eat unripe fruit?

• What happens if you eat too much?

• What happens if you sit in the sun for so long?

2.Group work technique:

Group work is an activity carried out by a group of persons. In group work the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together usually there are four or five students in each group. As in pair work, all the groups work at the same time. Group work is based on a task such as problem-solving. This is a much freely activity and aims to develop fluency in speaking. For example:

The teacher will name some persons such as a doctor, a teacher, an engineer. Then will ask the groups to discuss some questions:

• Which of these people earns the most money?

• Who do you think should earn the most money and why.

• When the groups have finished the discussion, the teacher will ask one student from each group to report on what they have decided.

3.Information gap activities:

To develop the speaking skills a few model dialogues are used. The students are asked to converse with each other and attain fluency in speech. Communication means the exchange of information. To achieve communication, information gap activities are suggested.

• According to'' Alan Matthew'':

An information gap is a situation in which one speaker knows the information, not known by another.

Such activities are usually done by students working in pairs. The activity can then work in three ways:

• One student has some information and the other has to find it out by asking the question.

• One student has some information, and tells it to the other student.

• Both students have different information and they tell their information to each other. For example; Two students belonging to two different areas of Pakistan, talking about their areas.

Books to improve English speaking skills:

There are many books which help students to improve their speaking. These books are as follows;

• Practice makes perfect English conservation by jean Yeats

• Speak English Like an American by Amy Gillet

• Spoken English (English Improvement for success) by Alison Reid

• Effortless English: learn to speak English like a native by A.J Hoge