Speaking Skill

Definitions

According to Bygate (1987), the term oral expression involves making the correct choices when
using language forms, following the right order, sounding in a way that is similar to that of
native speakers, and producing the right meanings that can be understood 5 by the listener. For
him, speaking is a skill that all people use when they are interacting among each other; therefore,
speaking is regarded as the most important skill that learners require in order to be able to speak
fluently in the classroom situation (p.5).

In addition to the previous definitions, Hedge (2000, p.261) considers speaking as, “a skill by
which they [people] are judged while first impressions are being formed.” This means that
speaking is an important skill because it has given more attention in both first and second
language and because it reflects people’s thoughts and opinions.

Thriving communication needs specific process that leads to successful speaking. The process
starts with a source or the speaker who encodes the message which goes through the channel to
be decoded, and received by the hearer. The hearer then responds to it through giving a feedback.
Hedge (2000, p. 261) defines speaking as “a skill by which people are judged while first
impressions are being formed.” That is to say, speaking is a crucial skill which needs more
attention in both first and foreign language because it reflects people’s thoughts and
personalities. Speaking therefore, is said to be a dynamic and productive skill.

New idea: New book: Practical English language Teaching. David Nunan, 2003. Writer:
Kathleen M. Bailey,

What is speaking?
If you have learned a language other than your own, which of the four skills-listening, speaking,
reading, or writing-did you find to be the hardest? Many people feel that speaking in a new
language is harder than reading, writing, or listening for two reasons. First, unlike reading or
writing, speaking happens in real time: usually the person you are talking to is waiting for you to
speak right then. Second, when you speak, you cannot edit and revise what you wish to say, as
you can if you are writing. In language teaching, the four skills are described in terms of their
direction. Language generated by the learner (in speech or writing) is referred to as productive.
Language directed at the learner (in reading or listening) is called receptive. Another important
idea is the channel, which refers to the medium of the message (aural/oral or written). Thus,
speaking is the productive aural/oral skill. It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to
convey meaning. Teaching speaking is sometimes considered a simple process. Commercial
language schools around the world hire people with no training to teach conversation. Although
speaking is totally natural, speaking in a language other than our own is anything but simple.
Spoken language and written language differ in many significant ways. Here are some key
contrasts (van Lier, 1995, p. 88):
a. Spoken language: Auditory, Temporary; immediate reception, Prosody (rhythm, stress
intonation), Immediate feedback, Planning and editing limited by channel
b. Written language: Visual, Permanent; delayed reception, Punctuation, Delayed or no feedback
Unlimited planning, editing, revision
Given these differences between writing and speech, you can see why people who learn a
foreign language largely from textbooks often sound bookish when they speak.
Principles for teaching speaking

1. Be aware of the differences between second language and foreign language learning contexts.

Speaking is learned in two broad contexts: foreign language and second language situations. The
challenges you face as a teacher are determined partly by the target language context.

A foreign language (FL) context is one where the target language is not the language of
communication in the society (e.g., learning English in Japan or studying French in Australia).
Learning speaking skills is very challenging for students in FL contexts, because they have very
few opportunities to use the target language outside the classroom. Sometimes foreign language
learners traveling in countries where their target languages are spoken find that they can neither
understand native speakers nor be understood. There is an old story of the college freshman who
struggled with introductory French and then with intermediate French. When he finally passed
that course, his parents were so proud they sent him on a trip to Paris. When he got to Paris, he
discovered that no one there speaks or understands intermediate French! A second language (SL)
context is one where the target language is the language of communication in the society (such as
English in the UK or Spanish in Mexico). Second language learners include refugees,
international students, and immigrants. Some second language learners (especially those who
arrive in their new country as children) achieve notable speaking skills, but many others progress
to a certain proficiency level and then go no further. Their speech seems to stop developing at a
point where it still contains noticeable, patterned errors. These can be errors in grammar,
vocabulary, pronunciation, or any combination of problems that affect the learners’ ability to
communicate by speaking.
2. Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy.

Accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people actually, say when they
use the target language. Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and
confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches, etc. In language
lessons—especially at the beginning and intermediate levels learners must be given opportunities
to develop both their fluency and their accuracy. They cannot develop fluency if the teacher is
constantly interrupting them to correct their oral errors. Teachers must provide students with
fluency-building practice and realize that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new
language.

3. Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and
limiting teacher talk.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that teachers do approximately 50 to 80 percent of the

talking in classrooms. It is important for us as language teachers to be aware of how much we are
talking in class so we don’t take up all the time the students could be talking.

Pair work and group work activities can be used to increase the amount of time that learners get
to speak in the target language during lessons. One further interesting point is that when the
teacher is removed from the conversation, the learners take on diverse speaking roles that are
normally filled by the teacher (such as posing questions or offering clarification).

4. Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning.

Research suggests that learners make progress by communicating in the target language because
interaction necessarily involves trying to understand and make yourself understood. This process
is called negotiating for meaning. It involves checking to see if you’ve understood what someone
has said, clarifying your understanding, and confirming that someone has understood your
meaning. By asking for clarification, repetition, or explanations during conversations, learners
get the people they are speaking with to address them with language at a level they can learn
from and understand. Check more above site

New idea: New book: H. Dougblas Brown, 2004. Language Assessment Principles and
Classroom Practices. Brown. H. D. (2004). Language Assessment Principles and Classroom
Practices. Pearson Education: Longman.

Basic Types of Speaking:

1. Imitative At one end of a continuum of types of speaking performance is the ability to simply
parrot back (imitate) a word or phrase or possibly a sentence. While this is a purely phonetic
level of oral production, a number of prosodic, lexical, and grammatical properties of language
may be included in the criterion performance. We are interested only in what is traditionally
labeled "pronunciation"; no inferences are made about the test-taker's ability to understand or
convey meaning or to participate in an interactive conversation. The only role of listening here is
in the short-term storage of a prompt. just long enough to allow the speaker to retain the short
stretch of language that must be imitated.

2. Intensive. A second type of speaking frequently employed in assessment contexts is the

production of short stretches of oral language designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow
band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationships (such as prosodic elements—
intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture). The speaker must be aware of semantic properties in order
to be able to respond, but interaction with an interlocutor or test administrator is minimal at best.
Examples of intensive assessment tasks include directed response tasks, reading aloud, sentence
and dialogue completion; limited picture-cued tasks including simple sequences; and translation
up to the simple sentence level.

3. Responsive. Responsive assessment tasks include interaction and test com-prehension but at
the somewhat limited level of very short conversations, standard greetings and small talk, simple
requests and comments. and the like. The stimulus is almost always a spoken prompt (in order to
preserve authenticity), with perhaps only one or two follow-up questions or retorts:

A. Mary: Excuse me, do you have the time?

Doug: Yeah. Nine-fifteen.

B. T: What is the most urgent environmental problem today?

S: I would say massive deforestation.

C. Jeff: Hey, Stef, how's it going?

Stef: Not bad, and yourself?

Jeff: I'm good.

Stef. Cool Okay, gotta go.

4. Interactive The difference between responsive and interactive speaking is in the length and
complexity of the interaction, which sometimes includes multiple exchanges and/or multiple
participants. Interaction can take the two forms of transactional language, which has the purpose
of exchanging specific information or interpersonal exchanges, which have the purpose of
maintaining social relationships. (In the three dialogues cited above, A and B were transactional,
and C was interpersonal.) In interpersonal exchanges, oral production can become pragmatically
complex with the need to speak in a casual register and use colloquial language. ellipsis, slang,
humor, and other sociolinguistic conventions.

5. Extensive (monologue). Extensive oral production tasks include speeches, oral presentations,
and story-telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly
limited (perhaps to nonverbal responses) or ruled out altogether. Language style is frequently
more deliberative (planning is involved) and formal for extensive tasks, but we cannot rule out
certain informal monologues such as casually delivered speech (for example, m' vacation in the
mountains, a recipe for outstanding pasta primavera, recounting the plot of a novel or movie).

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Publications Page 6 THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING SKILLS IN ENGLISH
CLASSROOMS
__________________________________________________________________________
PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO Lecturer in English, English Language Centre, King Faisal
University, Al-Hasa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Importance of Speaking Skill

The Importance of Speaking Skills In the present global world, communication plays a
vital role in getting success in all fields. Language is used as a tool for communication. Perfect
communication is not possible for people without using a language. Moreover, people cannot
achieve their aims, objectives, and goals without using proper language to communicate.
Therefore, there is a need for a language to communicate with others those who live all around
the globe. As English is considered the international language and it is spoken all over the world,
it serves the purpose of communicating with the people who live in different regions, states,
countries, and continents of the world.

Speaking skill is the most important skill to acquire foreign or second language learning.
Among the four key language skills, speaking is deemed to be the most important skill in
learning a foreign or second language. Brown and Yuke (1983) say, “Speaking is the skill that
the students will be judged upon most in real life situations”. Regardless of its importance,
teaching speaking skills have been undervalued and most of the EFL/ESL teachers have been
continuing their teaching of speaking skills just as memorization of dialogues or repetition of
drills. Nevertheless, the modern world demands for the requirement of communication skills for
the learners and the English teachers have to teach the ELLs the needed skills so that they will
improve their abilities in speaking and perform well in real-life situations. In the present
EFL/ESL teaching environment, oral skills are completely neglected whereas employability
depends more on communication than technology. As very less priority has been given to the
important elements of language such as phonological, morphological, semantic and syntactic
aspects, it has become a major impediment for the ELLs to acquire the speaking skills among the
learners of English. So far, more concentration has been given to reading and writing skills. After
realizing the importance of oral communication skills, more emphasis is now laid on developing
the speaking skills of the learners to pursue their studies successfully and excel in their fields
once they finish their education. Moreover, English is the language of getting opportunities for
employment and getting success to achieve the desired goals in life.

According to Bueno, Madrid, and Mclaren (2006: 321), “Speaking is one of the most
difficult skills language learners have to face. Speaking is considered the most important of the
four language skills of English. Even the learners learn the language for so many years; they find
it difficult to speak in real time situations when it is demanded. There are many reasons to
overcome this. First of all, the ELLs should understand the importance of speaking skills and try
to acquire them as they need them to compete in this competitive world.

Among the four basic skills of the English language, speaking seems to be difficult
because the speakers have to produce sentences on the spur of the moment. It is quite difficult for
foreign or second language learners to produce sentences without learning the grammatical
structures and having proper knowledge of adequate vocabulary. Therefore, the English language
learners of EFL/ESL face many problems in speaking grammatical sentences in English. Since
speaking skills play a dominant role in communication, people try to learn these skills in order to
communicate well with the entire community all around the world.

Moreover, these speaking skills are also useful for learners when they have to settle down
well in their professions. In the modern world, it has become quite common to prove the
candidates’ talents at the time of their job interviews and many of the selections are based on the
performance of the interview. The job aspirants have to participate and prove themselves in
debates and group discussions where the performance or oral communication skills of the
candidates are primarily measured. Besides, the professionals have to give oral presentations as
they have to promote the products or their companies or give training to the other colleagues.
Furthermore, an effective speaker can inspire the audience a lot and gain the complete attention
of the audience and maintain the same tempo until the end of his/her speech. So, the audience
involves completely in the speaker’s speech and they sometimes forget the real world and put
their complete concentration on the speech. So, speaking skills play a vital role as everything
depends on the way how people communicate their messages with others.

Speaking skills are the most essential skills for all the learners who wish to learn English
to enhance their career, improve business, build confidence levels, get better job opportunities,
make public speeches, attend interviews, participate in debates and group discussions, give
presentations and so on. In the present modern world, everything is linked with speaking skills.
One who has good talent in speaking can conquer the whole world. Having good communication
is the passport to get better employment opportunities. In the modern interviews, the real talent
of the job aspirants is tested through their performance in group discussions, debates,
presentation skills and so on. Therefore, job seekers have to acquire good oral communication
skills in order to grab better opportunities. Once the learners practice these speaking skills in
their EFL/ESL classrooms, they get the mastery of these skills and perform well in the activities
in and outside their classrooms. Let us discuss the purpose of teaching speaking skills in English
classrooms.

Book: Methodology in Language Teaching

An anthology of Current Practice edited by Jack C, Richards and Willy A, Renandya.
2002. Cambridge University Press.

FACTORS AFFECTING ADULT EFL LEARNERS’ ORAL COMMUNICATION

1. AGE OR MATURATIONAL CONSTRAINTS

The interactive behavior of EFL learners is influenced by a number of factors. Age is one of the
most commonly cited determinant factors of success or failure in L2 or foreign language
learning. Krashen, Long, and Scarcella (1982) argue that acquirers who begin learning a second
language in early childhood through natural exposure achieve higher proficiency than those
beginning as adults. Oyama’s study (1976) also shows that many adults fail to reach nativelike
proficiency in a second language. Their progress seems to level off at a certain stage, a
phenomenon which is usually called “fossilization” – the permanent cessation of second
language development. This shows that the aging process itself may affect or limit adult learners’
ability to pronounce the target language fluently with nativelike pronunciation (Scarcella &
Oxford, 1992). Even if they can utter words and sentences with perfect pronunciation, problems
with prosodic features such as intonation, stress, and other phonological nuances still cause
misunderstandings or lead to communication breakdown. Adult learners do not seem to have the
same innate language-specific endowment or propensity as children for acquiring fluency and
naturalness in spoken language.

2. AURAL MEDIUM

The central role of listening comprehension in the L2 or foreign language acquisition process is
now largely accepted. And there is little doubt that listening plays an extremely important role in
the development of speaking abilities. Speaking feeds on listening, which precedes it. Usually,
one person speaks, and the other responds through attending by means of the listening process.
In fact, during interaction, every speaker plays a double role – both as a listener and as a speaker.
“While listening, learners must comprehend the text by retaining information in memory,
integrate it with what follows, and continually adjust their understanding of what they hear in the
light of prior knowledge and of incoming information” (Mendelsohn & Rubin, 1995, p. 35). If
one cannot understand what is said, one is certainly unable to respond. So, speaking is closely
related to or interwoven with listening, which is the basic mechanism through which the rules of
language are internalized. The fleetingness of speech, together with the features of spoken
English – loosely organized syntax, incomplete forms, false starts, and the use of fillers –
undoubtedly hinders EFL learners’ comprehension and affects the development of their speaking
abilities.

3. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS

Many cultural characteristics of a language also affect L2 or foreign language learning. From a
pragmatic perspective, language is a form of social action because linguistic communication
occurs in the context of structured interpersonal exchange, and meaning is thus socially regulated
(Dimitracopoulou, 1990). In other words, “shared values and beliefs create the traditions and
social structures that bind a community together and are expressed in their language”
(Carrasquillo, 1994, p. 55). Thus, to speak a language, one must know how the language is used
in a social context. It is well known that each language has its own rules of usage as to when,
how, and to what degree a speaker may impose a given verbal behavior on his or her
conversational partner (Berns, 1990). Because of the influence or interference of their own
cultural norms, it is hard for nonnative speakers to choose the forms appropriate to certain
situations. For instance, in Chinese culture, paying a compliment to someone obligates that
person to give a negative answer (such as “No. It is not so good.”) in order to show “modesty,”
whereas in North American culture such a response might be both inappropriate and
embarrassing. In addition, oral communication, as mentioned, involves a very powerful
nonverbal communication system, which sometimes contradicts the messages provided through
the verbal listening channel. Because of a lack of familiarity with the nonverbal communication
system of the target language, EFL learners usually do not know how to pick up nonverbal cues.
As a result, ignorance of the nonverbal message often leads to misunderstanding. The following
example is a case in point. One day, when a Chinese student heard “Let’s get together for lunch
sometime,” he immediately responded by proposing to fix a specific date without noticing the
native speaker’s indifferent facial expression. Undoubtedly, he was puzzled when his
interlocutor left without giving him an expected answer. It is evident that the student had not
understood the nonverbal message, which illustrates that the sociocultural factor is another
aspect that greatly affects oral communication.

AFFECTIVE FACTORS
“The affective side of the learner is probably one of the most important influences on language
learning success or failure” (Oxford, 1990, p. 140). The affective factors related to L2 or foreign
language learning are emotions, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety, attitude, and motivation. L2 or
foreign language learning is a complex task that is susceptible to human anxiety (Brown, 1994),
which is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, and apprehension.
Speaking a foreign language in public, especially in front of native speakers, is often anxiety-
provoking. Sometimes, extreme anxiety occurs when EFL learners become tongue-tied or lost
for words in an unexpected situation, which often leads to discouragement and a general sense of
failure. Unlike children, adults are concerned with how they are judged by others. They are very
cautious about making errors in what they say, for making errors would be a public display of
ignorance, which would be an obvious occasion of “losing face” in some cultures, as in China.
Clearly, the sensitivity of adult learners to making mistakes, or fear of “losing face,” has been the
explanation for their inability to speak English without hesitation.

COMPONENTS UNDERLYING SPEAKING EFFECTIVENESS

Language proficiency is not a unidimensional construct but a multifaceted modality, consisting

of various levels of abilities and domains (Carrasquillo, 1994, p. 65). Hymes (1971) also assumes
that L2 learners need to know not only the linguistic knowledge, but also the culturally
acceptable ways of interacting with others in different situations and relationships. His theory of
communicative competence consists of the interaction of grammatical, psycholinguistic,
sociolinguistic, and probabilistic language components. Building on Hymes’s theory, Canale and
Swain (1980) propose that communicative competence includes grammatical competence,
discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence, which reflect the
use of the linguistic system and the functional aspects of communication, respectively. In the
framework of Canale and Swain (1980), we can show graphically the abilities underlying
speaking proficiency

1. GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE

“Grammatical competence is an umbrella concept that includes increasing expertise in grammar

(morphology, syntax), vocabulary, and mechanics. With regards to speaking, the term mechanics
refers to basic sounds of letters and syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation, and stress”
(Scarcella & Oxford, 1992, p. 141). In order to convey meaning, EFL learners must have the
knowledge of words and sentences: That is, they must understand how words are segmented into
various sounds, and how sentences are stressed in particular ways. Thus, grammatical
competence enables speakers to use and understand English-language structures accurately and
unhesitatingly, which contributes to their fluency.

2. DISCOURSE COMPETENCE

In addition to grammatical competence, EFL learners must develop discourse competence, which
is concerned with inter-sentential relationships. In discourse, whether formal or informal, the
rules of cohesion and coherence apply, which aid in holding the communication together in a
meaningful way. In communication, both the production and comprehension of a language
require one’s ability to perceive and process stretches of discourse, and to formulate
representations of meaning from referents in both previous sentences and following sentences.
Therefore, effective speakers should acquire a large repertoire of structures and discourse
markers to express ideas, show relationships of time, and indicate cause, contrast, and emphasis
(Scarcella & Oxford, 1992). With these, learners can manage turn taking in conversation (see
Figure 1).

3. SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

Knowledge of language alone does not adequately prepare learners for effective and appropriate
use of the target language. Learners must have competence which involves knowing what is
expected socially and culturally by users of the target language; that is, learners must acquire the
rules and norms governing the appropriate timing and realization of speech acts. Understanding
the sociolinguistic side of language helps learners know what comments are appropriate, how to
ask questions during interaction, and how to respond nonverbally according to the purpose of the
talk. Therefore, “adult second language learners must acquire stylistic adaptability in order to be
able to encode and decode the discourse around them correctly” (Brown, 1994, p. 238).

4. STRATEGIC COMPETENCE

Strategic competence, which is “the way learners manipulate language in order to meet
communicative goals” (Brown, 1994, p. 228), is perhaps the most important of all the
communicative competence elements. Simply put, it is the ability to compensate for imperfect
knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and discourse rules (Berns, 1990). With reference to
speaking, strategic competence refers to the ability to know when and how to take the floor, how
to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the conversation, and how to clear up
communication breakdown as well as comprehension problems.

Nuan: Nunan TESOL Methods, 2015

2. Give Students Practice with Both Fluency and Accuracy

Accuracy refers to the extent to which the learners’ speech is grammatically acceptable, with
clear, intelligible pronunciation and appropriate choice of vocabulary.

Fluency is the extent to which the learner can speak at an acceptable speed with few false starts
and hesitations. It is important to give learners opportunities to develop both aspects of their
speaking. When coaching for accuracy, it is important to correct errors of pronunciation,
vocabulary, and grammar, either by interrupting the speaker or by noting errors and providing
feedback on them after the speaker has finished. When engaging students in fluency practice,
encourage the learners to get their meaning across without worrying too much about accuracy –
just as long as their speech is comprehensible and they can convey to the listener what they want
to say. When assessing a second language speaker’s performance, judges sometimes use a third
criterion: complexity. This is usually measured in terms of the ability of the speaker to use more
complex grammatical structures such as relative clauses. You needn’t concern yourself with this
criterion right now. I have mentioned it because you may come across it in your reading.

4.Provide Opportunities for Students to Talk by Using Group Work or Pair Work, and
Limiting Teacher Talk

This principle rests on the notion that you learn to speak by speaking. Pair and group work are
the most effective way of increasing students’ talking time. The only other way of giving
learners an opportunity to speak in class would be for the teacher to address each student in turn.
This is not an effective use of time. In a sixty-minute class, with a group of thirty students, if the
entire lesson was devoted to this mode of instruction, each learner would receive less than two
minutes of talking time. Pair and group work have a number of other advantages. For example, if
carefully constructed, they maximize opportunities for learners to negotiate meaning. (This
concept of negotiating meaning is explained below.) They also give learners the opportunity to
engage in genuine conversation, developing skills in turn taking, speaker selection and change
and so on. Speaking as a social activity is thereby promoted. Depending on your teaching
context, you may find that learners don’t want to talk to each other, they want to talk to the
teacher. My students sometimes say, “I don’t want to speak to other students because I don’t
want to learn their mistakes.” In fact, there is no solid evidence that learners learn each other’s
mistakes. In terms of teacher talk, considerable research has demonstrated that teachers take up
between 50 and 80 percent of class time in speaking. While this may be great for providing
learners with comprehensible input, it does little, if anything, to facilitate the speaking ability of
the learner. 4. Plan Speaking Tasks that Involve Negotiation of Meaning The negotiation of
meaning refers to the interactional work that speakers do to clarify misunderstandings or to pre-
empt potential misunderstandings. This process goes on all the time in normal conversation, and
is such an automatic process that we usually don’t even notice that we’re doing it. Here are some
examples.

SPEAKER A: I watched Mad Men last night.

SPEAKER B: Did you say Mad Men?

SPEAKER A: Yes.

SPEAKER A: Do you know what autodidact means?

SPEAKER B: Sorry?

SPEAKER A: Autodidact. Do you know what it means?

SPEAKER A: Tony was full of himself last night. In fact, he was as pleased as a lizard with a
gold tooth, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER B: I have no idea what you mean.

Nunan TESOL Methods, 2015:

David Bohlke (2014) provides a complementary perspective on what it means to have

competence in speaking another language. He identifies four componential skills: phonological
skills, speech function, interactional skills, and extended discourse skills. For L2 learners to
communicate effectively, they must have a reasonable command of grammar and vocabulary.
But this knowledge alone is insufficient. Learners need to learn a wide range of other skills. Four
skill areas of speaking competence are required for effective communication (Goh, 2007).

1. Phonological skills. Learners need to be able to blend the phonemes of the language they are
learning. In addition, they must use appropriate stress and intonation.

2. Speech functions. Learners need to achieve specific communicative functions in social and
transactional exchanges such as agreeing with someone, asking for clarification or offering a
reason.

3. Interactional skills. In face-to-face exchanges, learners must manage interactions by regulating

turn taking, redirecting the topic, and negotiating meaning, in addition to initiating, maintaining
and closing a conversation.

4. Extended discourse skills. Learners must often produce long stretches of uninterrupted
language and they need to structure what they say so it is easy for others to follow. This requires
the use of established conventions for structuring different kinds of extended spoken language
such as narrative, procedural, expository, or descriptive discourse. In addition to these four skills,
the use of conversation management strategies can lead to more effective speaking. These may
be strategies for enhancing one’s message such as asking questions in different ways in order to
be less direct, or dealing with communication breakdowns, such as rephrasing to clarify
meaning. Such strategies have been identified and categorized and are now part of the syllabi of
several language textbooks. (Bohlke, 2014: 123)

Assessment of speaking skill

Nunan (2015) “When assessing a second language speaker’s performance, judges sometimes use
a third criterion: complexity. This is usually measured in terms of the ability of the speaker to use
more complex grammatical structures such as relative clauses. You needn’t concern yourself
with this criterion right now. I have mentioned it because you may come across it in your
reading”
Introduction

Learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking. Though the ability to

speak the target language seems a challenging task. It involves more than knowing the

grammatical and semantic rules. Learners should learn the knowledge of how native speakers use

the language in context and real-life situations, where they are able to interact. The purpose of

speaking is to make social contract and engage with people as well as the ability to hold a

conversation. It is not necessary if someone know English, we assume that they can speak it.

Knowing the language means the ability to use it in communication because speaking is the

production and dominate the four skills.