By: Jalal Nasser Salman Swadi Alghalib

Third class (A)

Morning study

Developing Speaking Skills

“Out of the world's approximately 7.5 billion inhabitants, 1.5
billion speak English — that's 20% of the Earth's population,” according to
(Lyons). This fact expresses the great importance of English as a global
language as well as being the most widely used language in the world. The
English language has four skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Speaking skill, particularly, is seen according to Ur (1996, p.120), “Of all the
four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems
intuitively the most important”. Speaking is being capable of speech,
expressing or exchanging thoughts through using language. Speaking skills
can be developed by following some certain techniques.
Initially, speaking skills can be enhanced through reading. Reading
provides learners with huge amounts of vocabulary, which subsequently
improves learners’ speaking skills. By learning new vocabulary items
throughout reading, learners can develop a better speaking style. Students
through reading develop in both fluency and accuracy of expression in their
speaking. Also, reading adds to the learners’ conversational style; where it
helps them to choose the correct structures for using some items of
language. As (Mart) asserts “Through reading language learners will have
vocabulary knowledge which will facilitate their speaking performance and
their usage of structure in the target language will develop.” To sum up,
one of the profoundly useful ways to improve one’s communication skills is
extensive reading.
Further, using podcasts can improve one’s speaking skills. Listening to
podcasts initially improves the listening skills; however, it also enhances
speaking. For example, after a person listens to a podcast, he/she can
record themselves summarizing the podcast. Summarizing podcasts by
saying them out loud undoubtedly enhances one’s speaking skills. Also,
listening to podcasts supplies the listener with new vocabulary items, which
he/she can use in communicative situations. In short, listening to podcasts
develops one’s vocabulary which ultimately helps developing the speaking
skills.
Lastly, the best way to improve speaking is to speak! Speaking, to a
partner or to one’s self, definitely helps to improve many sights of speaking
skills. By speaking a lot, one can improve his pronunciation, his intonation,
as well as his rhythm. All the vocabulary one may get and all the grammar
rules acquired by a person should be applied and practiced by speaking on
daily basis. Furthermore, Speaking repeatedly allows a person to recognize
his grammatical, Structural, and pronunciation mistakes. This, thus, helps a
person to get a mastery over different skills in language, especially
speaking. To conclude, speaking repeatedly and on daily basis inevitably
leads to improvement in speaking skills.
All in all, speaking skill is the most important skill in developing one’s level
in the English language. Three techniques are seen to be superior to other
techniques respecting the development of the speaking skills. These
includes reading, in its different forms, listening to podcasts, and finally
speaking on daily basis.
References:
Mart, Çağr. “Developing Speaking Skills through Reading.”
< http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v2n6p91p>

MUTONONO, ELENA. “3 Unique Ways to Improve Your Speaking with English

Podcasts.”<https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/learn-english-
podcast/#:~:text=When%20you’re%20done%20listening,will%20help%20your%20monologue%
20skills.>

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory.” Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.