1.

Introduction
1.2. Background to the study
Language is primarily speech. A very large number of languages in the world are only
spoken with no writing script. Majority of languages even with writing scripts use
their spoken forms more than the written ones. It is an agreed fact that language is
learnt by speaking it first after a lot of listening to the sounds, words, phrases and
sentences from the surroundings (Anuradha, Raman & Hemamalini 2014).
Listening and speaking are the fundamental skills, and if only the foundation is firm,
the edifice built on it will be durable. In mother tongue, children get a very natural
opportunity of listening and speaking in their surroundings. Thereafter, they are sent
to school learn reading and writing skills. But, in the case of communication
classroom, the available environment of the learner is mother tongue in his
surroundings; therefore, the teaching learning strategy should differ greatly. Hence,
there is a need of paradigm shift on teaching and learning speaking skill through focus
deviation towards oral orientation, training the teachers, and developing suitable
curriculum (Suchdeva 2011).

1.3. Statement of the problem

Speaking proficiency has received the greatest attention among both the language teachers
as well as the language learners; this because speaking is a crucial part of the language
learning process. The major goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency.

Mozambique is a Portuguese speaking country, located in the southern Africa where is

surrounded by English speaking countries, this fact makes Mozambique and the
population to be in an island because of the language and being constantly challenged, in
a globalised world then there is a necessity to have the people speaking English language
to facilitate the communication with the neighbouring countries. So the Mozambican
government introduced the English language teaching in the Mozambican schools.

This process has found difficulties because the students are more exposed to their mother
tongue or to their first language that can be a local language or Portuguese, what makes
the students to use their first languages in class, turning difficult the process of teaching
and learning speaking English, considered as a foreign language by the majority of the
people who do not find a reason to learn it but they know that is the international
1
 language. If the students know the importance of learning English then why there is no
success in teaching speaking skills?

1.4. The objectives of the study

1.4.1. General objective
 To investigate how effective the methods of teaching speaking skills are.
1.4.2. Specific objectives
 To study the methods to teach Speaking Skills;
 To study the role of the teacher and the students in English language teaching and
learning;
 To analyse the problems behind the process of teaching and learning speaking
skills.

Limitations of the study

During the process of producing this dissertation we faced some difficulties which hindered
the process, among them we mention: lack of books what made the author to use the internet
which increased the cost to do this work, the lost of the first draft of the work, and the long
distances that the author had to walk to collect the data.

Definition of the key words

Communication is the act of conveying meanings from one entry or group to another
through the use of mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic rules.

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values,
and preferences.

Teaching is the concerted sharing of knowledge and experience, which is usually organized
within a discipline and, more generally, the provision of stimulus to the psychological and
intellectual growth of a person by another person.

World wide studies

Globally, there is debate that majority of high school graduates cannot speak English
Language (Alonzo, 2014; Sarwar, et al., 2014; Alharbi, 2015). Even the bright students who

2
get high scores in written examinations are unable to express themselves orally in English
language (Sarwar et al, 2014).

In Kenya, students lack communicative and linguistic competence and often code switch to
use Sheng, Kiswahili and English languages during conversation or in group discussions in
class (Abenga, 2005: Gudu, 2010). A research done in Kenya by Mwamba (2005) found out
that many students in secondary schools were shy and preferred remaining quiet in class
because they were unable to express themselves properly in spoken English.

This observation is consistent with that of Richards (old.fltrp.com/down//080403001.pdf)

who found that learners who have no linguistic competence often speak slowly, take too long
to compose utterances, do not participate actively in conversation, their spoken English
language do not sound natural, have poor grammar and pronunciation.

Similar observation was made by Alharbi (2015) in Saudi Arabia where learners have low
oral skills

due to absence of authentic language learning situations outside and inside classroom.
According to the author,

there are several factors that influence learning of speaking skills for instance use of mother
tongue outside and

inside classroom environment, low status of English in a country, learners’ negative attitude
towards English.

3
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

How to teach speaking skills

Introduction

This chapter presents the studies and ideas of different authors around the world, starting by
defining speaking, principles of teaching speaking, activities, the role of the teacher and the
students.

2.1. What is speaking?

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 in an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and

receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Speaking is a
crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years,
teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to
teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today’s
world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students’ communicative
skills, 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.

Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second
language by “interacting”. Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve
best for this aim.

Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations learn that require

communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of
communicating with each other in a target language. In brief, ESL teachers should create a
classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and
meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in
groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.

4
2.2. Beliefs about developing speaking skills

According to Rao (2012), the experts believe about developing skills that:

 Of the four skills, listening and speaking are taught and learnt in quick succession.
The teacher introduces the language item in the class and he learners situationalize it;
 Speech is the best introducing to other language learning skills. Learning through
speaking is a natural way of learning a foreign language;
 Speech is important because it provides the opportunity for the practical usage of a
foreign language;
 Speech brings fluency, correction hen accuracy among EFL learners; and
 It enables the teacher to use the class time economically.

For most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous with knowing that language.
Nevertheless, “speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the most
demanding in a second or foreign language difficult?

Brown (1994) labels speaking as the most challenging skill for students because of the set of
features that characterized oral discourse:

 Contractions, vowel reductions and elision;

 The use of slang and idioms;
 Stress, rhythm and intonation;
 The need to interact with at least one other speaker.

The most difficult aspect of spoken English is that it is always accomplished via interaction
with all least one other speaker and this is one reason why many of us were shocked and
disappointed when we used our second or foreign language for the first time in real
interaction: we had not been prepared for spontaneous communication and could not cope
with all of its simultaneous demands.

Speaking is an “activity requiring the integration of many systems… all these factors combine
to make speaking a second or foreign language a formidable task for language learners… yet
for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill” (Bailey and Savage 1994: 6-12).

There are numerous daily life situations where people need speaking, such as talking o
someone face to face, communicating face to face, communicating through the phone,

5
answering questions, asking for directions, in shops, meetings or chatting with their friends,
to name a few. People spend great deal of their time interacting with more people and, each of
these situations requires different register according to the formality of the moment.

We speak for many reasons – to be sociable, because we want something, because we want
people to do something, to do something for someone else, to express our feelings or opinion
about something, to exchange information, to refer to an action or event in the past, present,
or future, he possibility of something happening, and so on (Lindsay and Knight, 2006: 58).

However, human communication is a complex process. People need communication when

they want to say something, transmit information or need to speak. Speakers use
communication when they want to express or inform someone about something. They use
language according to their purpose and it is necessary for there to be a listener and a speaker
for effective communication. (Harmer, 2007:46).

Harmer. J. also explains that:

When speaking, we construct words and phrases with individual sounds, and we also use
pitch change, intonation, and stress to convey different meanings (2007:29).

This skill is the most complicated due to the fact that speakers who have to interpret not only
the message that other speakers try to express, but also take into account other possibilities
explained in the following quotation:

Speakers have a great range of expressive possibilities at their command. Apart from the
actual words they use they can vary their intonation and stress which helps them to show
which part of what they are saying is most important. By varying the pitch and intonation in
their voice they can clearly convey their attitude to what they are saying, too; they can
indicate interest or lack of it, for example, and they show whether they wish to be taken
seriously. At any point in a speech event speakers can rephrase what they are saying; they can
speed up or slow down. This will often be done in response to the feedback they are getting
from their listeners who will show through a variety of gestures, expressions and interruptions
that they do not understand.

And in a face to face interaction the speaker can use a whole range o facial expressions,
gestures and general body language to help to convey the message (Harmer, 2007: 53).

6
Apart from the formerly mentioned expressive possibilities, L1 speakers use some
mechanisms to facilitate their speech. These mechanisms are not too easy for L2 speakers and
consist of simplifying the language making simple structures: they usually omit parts of a
sentence and use idiomatic expressions to facilitate their oral fluency and fillers and hesitation
devices are also frequent. In order to compensate their difficulties, L1 speakers can correct
themselves, reformulate or rephrase sentences, a frequent kind of 23 alteration accepted by
the community of speakers (Bueno, Madrid and McLaren 2006: 325).

Spoken English cannot usually be planned or organized, unless is preparing a speech or a

presentation, there is not much time for reflection so; it is frequently full of repetitions,
pauses, incomplete sentences, hesitations or fillers. It needs the response of another speaker or
listener, it usually comes into the form of turns and when speakers are talking, they must also
pay attention to gestures, intonation, stress or even pauses that other speakers are doing
because are clues to understanding the meaning of what they are trying to say.

In relation to the activities in order to develop the speaking skill, there are many ways to
promote oral skills.

2.3. Principles of teaching speaking skills

According to Anuradha et al (2014), following are the principles of teaching speaking skills:

 Encourage students to speak right from the first day. If not, as early as possible not to
wait till she teaches them a stock of words, phrases or sentences.
 Tolerate the students if some of them simply repeat what they say.
 If a student gives one word answer to any question, bear it for the time being.
 Let the learners speak actively with whatever English knowledge they have.
 Propose structures/phrases/words and let the learners use it in different situation and
drill as much as possible.
 Encourage back-chaining or tail-forwarding technique to make long sentences by
combining more than ten sentences.
 Organize role play and pair work as much as possible and supervise the learners to
correct the active ones and activate the passive ones.
 Be well prepared in advance in terms of lesson planning, activities and tasks.
 Let the learners commit errors and mistakes at the primary stage. Interrupting and
correction hinder fluency and discourage the learner.
7
  Individual weaknesses should be taken into account and the teacher should be
sympathetic in outlook for individual attention.

2.4 Classroom activities and tasks for practising speaking skills

2.4.1. Dialogue

Dialogue is a classroom technique used for practicing functions of language like greeting,
agreeing, disagreeing, apologizing, suggesting, asking information etc.

Example

Person A Person B
Hello Antonio! Hello Santos!
How are you doing? Fine, thank you
Where are you going? To the library, will you come with me?
I am sorry; I am going to submit my Okay, no problem. Can you come my home
assignment. this evening?
Anything special? Yes, today is my birthday.
Oh really, happy birthday to you! Thank you. Don’t forget to come.
Okay, bye! See you.

2.4.2. Role play

Role play is a popular technique used in the lasses to practice speaking skills in the class.
There are three types of role pays, which clues, totally guided and free type.

Task 1 (with clues type)

eg: A traveller wants to reserve a ticket from Chimoio to Maputo and he is at the bus station
counter.

Place- bus station

People- traveller and the clerk

Role play- as a traveller you ask for the fare, time of departure, time of arrival, the place of
boarding etc.

Language- could you tell me…………………………………………………………….....?

8
What time…………………………………………………………………………………..?

Where does it………………………………………………………………………………?

Will it…………………………………………………………………………………….?

Task 2 (totally guided): to practice how to report ‘wh’ questions. Students will be guided to
think about that he had just returned from an interview and his father is asking how the
interview was. He pair will play the role of father and son:

Father: hi daw it!

Son: hi dad!

Father: how did the interview go?

Son: it was not bad

Father: well, what did they ask you?

Son: they started with what my name was.

Father: didn’t they see your application?

Son: yes they did. They wanted to know why I had applied for a job. They wondered why I
wanted to give up the present job. The director asked how long I had been working at my
present work.

Father: what did you say?

Son: I tried to satisfy them………………………………………..

Task 3 (free type): the teacher would instruct to play the following roles:

Doctor and patient in the hospital (in pair)

Police inspector inquiring the neighbours of the burglary (4 people).

2.4.3 opinion/ideas

When we ask for opinions on controversial topics or situations, a lot of discussion can be
generated. The learners may be divided into groups who discuss and come out with their
opinions. Here, students have a lot of language to communicate their ideas.
9
Task: discuss in your groups and come out with your opinions on the following statement:

“The present day youths are completely distracted from studies due to the internet”.

2.4.4. Problems (group work)

Problems are good sources for making the learners speak. While engaged in gripping the
problem, they have to use the language to solve it.

Task: find out what it is:

1. It has three eyes. It cannot see. It has food and water inside. The water is very sweet. It
is very difficult to break it what is it?
2. It has a lot of teeth. It does not bite. It is made of plastic or wood. You stand in front
of the mirror and use it every day. What is it?

2.4.5. Surveys and interviews

This is also an interesting function based technique in which an interviewer or surveyor try to
find out a person’s test, preferences, attitudes, information etc.

Task (information activity): students will be given census work, develop a conversation with
the people to get the information.

2.4.6. Visual comprehension

The learners will be provided a picture. After a careful observation they have to answer the
questions asked by the teacher.

Ask (questions):

What do you see in this photograph?

What are the people doing?

Have you ever seen or visited to this kind of landscape?

What kinds of tourism sites are available in Ethiopia?

2.4.7. Dreams or Ambitions

Each learner has her own dreams and ambitions of life. This can be used as a good breeding
10
point for interaction. He activity is open ended which leads to a lot of speaking Kumary
(2014), students should be asked to look at these pictures and answer the questions.

Here are some questions that a teacher to the students:

 Is there any importance of dream in life?

 What is your dream of life?
 What is your ambition to do if you get your dream?
2.4.8. Rhymes and tongue twisters

This is play way method acculturate English. We can teach learners through recitation of
rhymes in an enjoyable manner. Finally, it adds for speaking skill.

Rhymes tongue twisters

Betty bought some butter

But the butter was bitter

So, Betty bought some better butter

To make the bitter butter better

2.4.9. Songs

The learners enjoy songs and it can be used for developing EFL speaking skill. For instance
to practice simple question forms this may be beautiful used. The teacher can take advantage
of it asking the students to talk about their idols, the history of there favourity songs and to
sing their favourity songs.

Hence, a number of activities may be provided to the students to develop their speaking skills.

2.5. Teachers’ and students’ role

2.5.1. Teachers’ role
According to Anuradha et al (2014), teachers play significant role in stimulating interaction
and developing speaking skills. The roles are as follows:
 The teacher must be fluent and accurate in spoken elements of language so as to be a role
11
 model for the learners.
 The teacher asks questions to stimulate students to practice the target language. Throwing
questions and compelling them to answer something is one of the types of oral drills.

Further, encouraging students to ask questions to he teacher and peers is also a good
technique to propel discussion and involve learners to speak.

Examples

How was your day?

Was yesterday Monday?

When will she come here?

Have you ever……………?

 The teacher brings chart containing pictures in the classroom. Teaching aids like charts
containing pictures are good stimulators of interaction in the classroom. The teacher
highlights that part of the chart which breeds discussion in the class.

Example

 The teacher brings a chart containing picture of a bakery. The model is ‘he wants to by
some bread’. If the teacher points to biscuits, students will say, ‘he wants to by some
biscuits’. And so on.
 The teacher uses language laboratory (if available) for students speech practice through
repetition, whatever they listen with earphone.

Example

Learners sit at the booths that have one cassette player. The teacher plays the cassette and the
learner listen the same. Afterwards, learners are asked to respond-repeating a
word/phrase/sentence, answering a question and so on. The responses are recorded, the
teacher listens it and notes down the weaknesses and strengths of the students and shows
them directions.

 The teacher narrates a story or a joke in the classroom and evokes the learners to do the same.
The narration is corrected by the students and the teacher if mistake is done. This way the
interest to speak may be kindled among students.
12
 The teacher uses minimal pairs (pairs of words differing by one single sound) to teach some
difficult sounds in the classroom with the help of familiar sounds of the students.

Example

The familiar sound/I/ sound to be learnt /3:/

Bid bird Lint learnt Tin turn

Fist first Kid curd

 The teacher focuses more on oral drills. He introduces a language item and the learners
situationalize it.

Example

Students listen and understand a language item (word, phrase or sentence) proposed by the
teacher.

An order is followed for oral practice – first in chorus, then in groups and then individually.

2.5.2. Learners’ Role

Speaking is an art to achieve it, students should:

 Be conversational and courteous in conventional greetings and other expressions.

 Ask questions and answer them too to maintain dialogue with other classmates and the
teacher.
 Strive for building vocabulary, acquiring fluency and achieving accuracy.
 Make an attempt for better pronunciation, appropriate intonation and stress in the
expressions of ideas and feelings.

2.6. Teaching pronunciation

Pronunciation refers to speaking a language with appropriate stress, rhythm and intonation
and it should be taught scientifically. Good pronunciation in a speech is an ornament of a
person and a passport to the cultured society. The reasons of defective pronunciation of the
learners EFL are – pronunciation discarded curriculum, absence of well pronounced teachers,
13
and dearth environment and few difficult sounds (Sachdeva 2011).

2.6.1. Principles of Teaching Pronunciation

According to Sachdeva (2011), the principles of teaching pronunciation are as under:

 Pronunciation is learnt through imitation; therefore the teacher should be a role model in
pronunciation. He should be well versed in stress, rhythm and intonation practically.
 The teacher should have the ability to compare the mother tongue of the learners with the
sounds of English so that she can handle the peculiarities of ELT.
 The style of ELT should be natural.
 The speed of teacher’s pronunciation should be moderate in ELT class.

2.6.2. Activities to improve pronunciation

Drills, minimal pairs, and reading aloud are some of the activities to improve the
pronunciation.

2.6.3. Pronunciation drills

There are two types of pronunciation drills – recognition drills reproduction drills. The
learners are firstly given a chance to recognize the sound and then they are asked to produce
he sounds. Audio aids like record player can also be used for this purpose.

2.6.3.1. Minimal pairs

A B

Pen Pin

Tin Thin

Tree Three

2.6.3.2. Explanation of Position of Different Organs of Speech

Position of different organs of speech should be explained to the learners. Difference between
mother tongue sounds and EFL sounds should be explained clearly.

2.6.3.3. Reading aloud

It provides listening to the learners. The teacher selects such a text which is likely to be
14
mispronounced by the learners. First students rectify the mistakes and if not, it will be done
by the teacher. Good models of listening by L1 experts through tape record may be forwarded
to students.

Sufficient listening to good reading will help the students acquire excellent pronunciation
(Suchdeva 2011).

In Mozambique, the system of education has interfered with teaching of English language
because of loaded curriculum. The curriculum does not provide enough time for learners to
practice using language in context due to large number of students in class, students’ low
proficiency and cultural related factors (Al-Hosni 2014; Alharbi, 2015). Consequently it
encourages the use of traditional teaching approaches by teachers because enable teachers to
cover the syllabus in good time (Lumala, 2007; Ngagi et al, 2014). Krashen (2005)
recommend that learners should be motivated so that they do not feel threatened. Al-Hosni
(2014) observe that anxiety and unwillingness to learn by learners in speaking skills lesson
are the two main obstacles for learning English. These are caused when learners fear being
negatively evaluated in error correction in front of their friends. In addition, those learners
with low proficiency and rate self as ‘poor’ become more anxious and are not willing to
communicate (Ibid).

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

Introduction

This chapter presents the methodology used to produce the data, the population of the
15
research, the sample and sampling procedures, the data collection instruments and how the
data analyses would be done.

3.1. Research Design

According to Dawson (2002), “the research methodology is the philosophy or general

principle which guides the research”.

3.1.1. Research type

This research was regarded on the quantitative and qualitative research through the participant
observation, whereby questionnaire will be the mediator to guide he researcher to get the data.

3.2. The population

The population of the current research was the secondary school students and their respective
teacher in a total number of 900 students and 5 teachers, case study at Samora Machel
secondary school grade 11 students and teachers.

3.3. The sample of the study

The researcher involved a total number of 900 students and English teachers during the
process of collecting the data.

3.4. Sampling procedure

The selection of the participants was made following the following procedures:

The involved students were given a mini test; those who got higher marks were chosen in
number of 70 students and 4 teachers, this was the final sample.

3.5. Data collection instruments

In order to collect data, the questionnaires were administered to all of the participants in the
sample group by the researcher in order to provide them with the necessary explanations.

The participants were briefly informed of the purpose of the research and its instrument. They
were also told to mark the statements sincerely as it was extremely important for the
credibility and the reliability of the research.

In the oral interview, three questions were asked to the participants.

16
3.6. Analysis of data

The analyze of the data collected was made using the statistical package for social sciences
(SPSS 14.0).

To analyze and describe the data obtained the researcher used the frequency of the responses
given by the respondents transforming it in percentage and giving meaning to the results
found.

CHAPTER IV PRESENTATION AND ANALYSE OF THE DATA

Introduction

This chapter presents the results of the data collected and its respective discussion. Starting
with the questionnaire of the teachers, the questionnaire to the students.

17
Presentation of data from the teachers’ questionnaire

1. It is difficult to teach speaking.

Among the 4 teachers 3 said yes justifying that the fact that the students are exposed
to Portuguese and their local languages most of the time and the fact Mozambique is a
Portuguese speaking country, it makes hard to teach English because of the difference
of the sounds. This number corresponds to 75% of the respondents and only one
corresponding to 25% answered negatively.

25%

Yes
No

75%

2. The number of students per class.

The teacher A said that he had 79 students in his class

Teacher B said that he had 74 students in his class

Teacher C said that he had 81 students in his class

Teacher D said that he had 78 students

According to this answers the average of students is 78 students.

3. Some difficulties faced when you are teaching speaking

18
 Teacher A B C D
Difficulties Lack of didactic Shortage of the Large class size Large class
material, to teach didactic material, management, size, lack of
in two languages. conditions of the move around didactic
classroom. the class, material.
shortage of
didactic
material.

4. Some activities that you have promoted to your students to improve speaking

Teacher A B C D
Activities Story telling, Interviews, story Group work, Group work,
drama, group telling, role play, interviews, role role play,
work. group work. play, group drama,
Drills, minimal work, etc. interview.
pairs.

According to English language scholars, use of learner-centered classroom activities

including group discussions, speeches, storytelling, drama, debates, poem recitation, songs,
and tongue-twisters could alleviate the problem of low oral skills (Johnson, 2006, Villegas
and Lukas, 2002, Gathumbi and Masembe, 2005; Okech, 2005). These classroom activities
improve student’s active participation, motivate and expose students to authentic use of
English language in context. Many researchers have also proven that students are much more

ready to interact with each other with more complex responses than with their teacher
(Achmad and Yusuf 2014: 151) ‘students feel comfortable working, interacting and making
mistakes with their partners rather than with their teachers and corrective feedback from
peers are found to be less daunting than the correction by teachers.

This study therefore sought to establish classroom activities employed and how they are used
by teachers in form three English lessons to enhance learners’ active participation in
secondary schools.
19
 5. The didactic materials that are provided by the school are enough

For this question all the teachers said or answered negatively, saying that the school does not
provide them enough didactic material, the teacher are the ones responsible to look for and
produce their own didactic material, what makes the process of teaching and learning
difficult.

6. The main difficulties that your students are facing in their process of learning
The main difficulties faced by the students

Teacher A B C D
Students Assimilate Lack of Translate Difficulties of
difficulties English didactic English speaking or
language material; sentences to producing
sounds; difficulties to their mother English sounds
Produce their assimilate tongue because they
own words. English sentences. differ from
sounds. their mother
tongue sounds.

The problem of poor spoken English language among Form four graduates has led to a
general feeling that there is a need to re-examine the teaching of English language in
Secondary Schools (Mwamba, 2005). According to many researchers, the reasons for poor
speaking skills could emanate from lack of emphasis on speaking skills in the curriculum
since it is not examined in national examinations, teachers’ own limited English proficiency,
class conditions that do not favor oral activities and limited opportunities outside class for
practicing using English language (Mwamba, 2005; K. I. E, 2002; Kioko and Muthwii, 2001;
Alharbi, 2015; Bashir et al., 2011; Soureshjani and Riahipour, 2012; Alharbi, 2015).

7. How long did you take being trained? Was it enough time?

Teacher A B C D
Training years 5 years 5 years 4 years 4 years
20
 All the teachers agreed that the time that they took being trained was enough but the
time they took doing practice was not enough for them to interpret or to put in practise
what they learned.

8. The students participate in the lessons voluntarily.

All the teachers said yes but the majority do not participate voluntarily, the teacher is obliged
to indicate students to participate in class. There are students who participate voluntarily.

9. The students are given enough time to practice their English.

Once again the teachers contrasted in their answers, three (3) of them said no, justifying that
the number students per class vs the time given does not correspond; on other hand it is hard
to give enough time the students to practice their English in a large class size. This number
corresponds to 75% and one said yes, sustaining that he gives group activities for them to do
in class. Corresponding to 25%.

25%

No
Yes

75%

10. How much do they speak in English lessons using English as mean of interaction
in the classroom?

All the teachers agreed that the students always use English as a mean of interaction in

21
classroom. But there is part of the students do it sometimes but with difficulties. There are
groups of students in all classes that do not participate actively in English language
interaction in class. Students are worried about making mistakes fearful of criticism, or
simply shy. Students have no motivation to express themselves… only one participant can
talk at a time because of large classes and the tendency of some learners to dominate while
others speak very little or not at all… learners who share the same mother tongue tend to use
it because it is easier and because they feel less exposed if they speak their mother tongue
(Hosni, 2014: 123).

11. Some students do not participate as volunteers in the lessons, in your viewpoint
what is hindering?

The main reason pointed by the teachers was the lack of confidence, and difficulties in
pronouncing English words, because they differ from their mother tongue words (L1 or
L2) mainly because of the difference between writing and speaking.

Due to lack of assessment of speaking skills, learners do not pay attention to it thus graduates
have low oral skills (Sarwar, et al., 2014). Researchers observe that speaking is the most
difficult skill for most learners who learn it as a second or foreign language due to their low
proficiency (Alonzo 2014; Alharbi 2015; Al-Hosni, 2014; Zhang 2009). Al-Hosni (2014)
identifies factors causing speaking difficulties as:

Students are worried about making mistakes fearful of criticism, or simply shy. Students have
no motivation to express themselves… only one participant can talk at a time because of large
classes and the tendency of some learners to dominate while others speak very little or not at
all… learners who share the same mother tongue tend to use it because it is easier and
because they feel less exposed if they speak their mother tongue (Hosni, 2014: 123).

22
Presentation of data from Students’ Questionnaire

1. The teacher give you enough time to read English texts

For this question 41 out of 70 students said always, corresponding to 59%, 20 students
said sometimes 29% and the rest of 9 students responded never.

Sufficient listening to good reading will help the students acquire excellent pronunciation
(Suchdeva 2011).

2. You can speak in English

Only 12 students responded that they could speak very well corresponding to 17%, 52
said that they could speak more or less which corresponds to 74% and the others 6
said very bad meaning that they could not speak English corresponding to 9%.

3. You do understand what your teacher says

48 students do understand very well what the teacher says while 15 said that they understand
a bit it means that they do not understand a lot, whereas the others 7 they understand very
bad.
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According to Anuradha et al (2014), teachers play significant role in stimulating interaction
and developing speaking skills. The roles are as follows:
The teacher must be fluent and accurate in spoken elements of language so as to be a
role model for the learners.

The teachers were able to teach speaking to their students according to the majority number
of students who answered positively to the questions, they follow the rules or principles of
teaching speaking.

4. It is difficult to speak in English

39 students answered that it is difficult to speak in English, whereas the others 31 said no.

Those who said yes they point the fact that the sounds of English language differ from their
mother tongue language sounds. Those who said no justified that they practice it when they
are at home with other classmates, with friends because they dream to live in an English
speaking country and some would like to journey to many countries. Some said that they do
not speak it is not important for them to learn it.

5. Your colleagues help you speaking

35 students answered always, 28 answered sometimes and 7 answered never. These answers
give power to the principle that students are much more ready to interact with each other
with more complex responses than with their teacher.

According to, (Achmad and Yusuf 2014: 151) ‘students feel comfortable working, interacting
and making mistakes with their partners rather than with their teachers and corrective
feedback from peers are found to be less daunting than the correction by teachers. This study
therefore sought to establish classroom activities employed and how they are used by teachers
in form three English lessons to enhance learners’ active participation in secondary schools.

6. Your teacher teach you speaking

66 out of 70 students corresponding to 94,3% responded that the teacher always teaches them
24
speaking, 3 answered sometimes corresponding to 4,3% and 1 said never corresponding to
1,4%.

The learner centered classroom activities also encourage shy learners to speak by
communicating face to face, work independently, minimal involvement of the teacher hence
improve their speaking skills through practice (Alharbi, 2015: Achmad and Yusuf, 2014).

Pair work, group work, role playing and interviews … encourage shy students to participate
and discuss their opinions with their classmates instead of only with teachers. Employing
various techniques in the classroom also challenges students and caters for diversity in
students’ learning styles (Alharbi 2015: 109).

7. Point some activities you do in the classroom

The activities that the students mentioned were: listening to the teacher pointed by 37
students, group work mentioned by 25 students and telling short stories pointed by 8 students.

Accordingly, (Jyothsna&Rao 2009) mention repetition of rhymes, look and say, oral
composition, pronunciation drills, read aloud, open ended stories, narration, description
(festivals, celebrations, occasions) are important practices to improve speaking skills.
Moreover, according to Kumari (2014), a variety of function based activities and tasks can be
used to develop speaking skills which are given as under:dialogue, role play, opinion/ideas,
problems/ group work, surveys and interviews, visual comprehension, dreams/ ambitions and
Songs.

8. Your teacher gives home work concerning speaking

Yes 31 students said that, 34 said sometimes and 5 said no.

9. You have participated in some speaking competition

All the students said never. Meaning that they never participate in an English speaking

25
competition. The Samora Machel secondary school students are not exposed to situations
where they can show off their English, where they can get experience to speak the language
and chance to hear other students pronunciations. As much as a learner is exposed to a certain
language much is the chance to speak it correctly. It is said that we can not make part of a
certain culture without practice it. This kind of event is what would help them to improve
their speaking fluency.

10. It is important to speak English for you

43 students said yes, it is important to speak English language because they dream to go
abroad in the future.

11. You have materials that help you in learning speaking

The students answered that they do not have materials that help them in learning English

Once again in Mozambique there is lack of English books for the learners to learn and the
teachers to teacher, it is important to provide more material to the schools and libraries around
the country.

12. You have participated in a theater competition

All the students never participated in an English theatre competition. It proves that there
are no promotion of the language in the country in terms exposition, opportunity to speak
or use it, by introducing this kind of activity would motivate some students to learn
speaking and developing speaking.

26
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusion

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

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language clearly and efficiently
contributes to the success later in every phase of life. Therefore, it is essential that language
teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking. Rather than leading students to pure
memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication taking place
is desired. With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed before can contribute
a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life. These
activities maker students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their
learning more meaningful and fun for them.

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Recommendations

To the Ministry of education

The Ministry of education and human development should:

 Design programs to promote English language in the Mozambican schools;

 Provide didactic materials adequated to the reality;
 Train teachers to teach speaking skills;
 Build schools with classroom prepared to receive language learners.
 Reduce the number of students per class by building more schools.

To the schools head masters

The school head masters should:

 Design programs to promote English speaking competition

 Provide enough didactic material for a language learning class;
 Observe lessons frequently in order to help the teachers to improve their methods of
teaching.

To the teachers

To the teachers we recommend:

 To design lesson plans according to the class reality;

 The teachers should know their students;
 Create a good environment for the students ti learn;
 Motivate your learners frequently;
 Evaluate your learners English speaking skills in order to find their difficulties and
solve them.

28
6. References
1. Anuradha, RV, Raman, G, &Hemamalini, HC. 2014. Methods of Teaching English.
Hyderabad: Neelkamal Publications.
2. Brown, H.D. (1994) Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language .

Bueno, A, D. Madrid and N. McLaren, (eds). (2006) TEFL in Secondary

Education.Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada.

3. Celce – Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.

Boston, MA: Heinle&Heinle Publishers;

4. Harmer,J. (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching. 4th ed. London:
Longman.

5. Jyotsna, M&Rao, SN.2009.Methods of Teaching English. Guntur: Sri Nagarjuna

Publishers.
6. Kumari, AV. 2014. Methods of Teaching English. Guntur: New Era Publications.

29
7. Rao, VK. 2012. Techniques of Teaching English.Hyderabad:Neelkamal Publications.

8. Suchdeva, MS. 2011. A New Approach to Teaching of English in India. Ludhiana:

Tandon Publications.

9. Abenga, S. B. Elizabeth, (2005). The Adoption and use of new Educational

Technologies in the training of English primary teachers in T.T.C.s in Kenya,
Unpublished PhD Thesis, Moi University Press.

10. Alharbi, A. Heba, (2015). Improving Students’ English Speaking Proficiency in Saudi
Public Schools. International Journal of Instruction Vol. 8.

11. Al Hosni, Samira, (2014). Speaking Difficulties Encountered by Young EFL Learners.
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL)
Volume 2.

12. Achmad, D. & Yusuf, Y. Q. (2014). Observing Pair-work in An English Speaking

Class. International Journal of Instruction. January 2014, Vol.7 No. 1.

13. Gathumbi, A. and Masembe, S. C. (2005) Principles and Techniques in Language

Teaching, Nairobi: Jommo Kenyatta Foundation.

14. Mwamba, Richard, (2005). An investigation into factors that hinder the instruction of
oral communication skills in English Kenyan secondary schools: A case of Kisii
district’’. Eldoret Moi University; (Unpublished M.Phil thesis)

15. Zhang, Shumei, (2009). The role of input, interaction and output in the development
of oral fluency. English language Teaching, 2(4), 91-100.

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31
 APPENDICES

QUESTION GUIDE

TEACHERS’ QUESTIONNAIRE

12. Is it difficult to teach speaking? If yes why?

13. How many students do you have in class?
14. What are some difficulties you face when you are teaching speaking?
15. What are some activities that you have promoted to your students to improve
speaking?
16. Are the didactic materials that are provided by the school enough?
17. What are the main difficulties that your students are facing in their process of
learning?
18. How long did you take being trained? Was it enough time?
19. Do the students participate in the lessons voluntarily? If not why?
20. Are the students given enough time to practice their English?
21. How much do they speak in English lessons using English as mean of interaction in
the classroom?
22. The students do not participate as volunteers in the lessons, in your viewpoint what is
hindering?
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Students’ Questionnaire

Choose A, B or C

13. Does your teacher give you enough time to read English texts?
A. Sometimes___ B. always____ C. never
14. How much can you speak in English?
A. Very well B. more or less C. very bad
15. Do you understand what your teacher says?
A. Very well B. not a lot C. very bad
16. Is it difficult to speak in English?
A. Yes B. no
17. Do your colleagues help you speaking?
A. Sometimes B. always C. never
18. Does your teacher teach you speaking?
A. Sometimes B. never C. always
19. What are some activities you do in the classroom?
33
 A. telling short stories B. listening to the teacher C. group work
20. Does your teacher give home work concerning speaking?
A. Yes B. no C. sometimes
21. Have you ever participated in some speaking competition?
A. Never B. once to twice C. more than three times
22. Is it important to speak English for you?
A. Yes B. no
23. What are the materials you have that help you in learning speaking?---------
24. Have you participated in a theater competition?----------------------------------
25. Do your parents help you with the English language?--------------------------------

34