24
d. Characteristics of Teaching Speaking Effectively
There are some characteristics of teaching speaking effectively that should be known by the teacher. First, the teachers should provide meaningful materials
and tasks that interest the students to promote their speaking autonomy. Therefore, the more meaningful materials and tasks are for the learners involved,
the better the outcome will be. Second, the teachers should provide an opportunity for the students to
participate in the classroom activities. Good speaking classrooms are ones where learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high and the language is at
an acceptable level. In other words, the teacher has a role as a facilitator of learning whose job it is to set the stage for learning, to direct movement of
students’ ideas, to turn them on to their own abilities, and to help channel those abilities in certain purpose. However, there are some reasons why learners are
unwilling to participate in speaking classroom activities: the students perceive themselves to be at low proficiency level, they worry about making mistakes and
the resultant derision from peers, teachers may be intolerant of silence, turn-taking is uneven across the class and input is incomprehensible Tsui in McDonough and
Shaw, 2003: 142. So, it is important for the teachers to pay attention with some conditions that make the students are unwilling to participate.
Third, the teacher provides the students with feedback and correction if they are needed. In most EFL situations, the students are totally dependent on the
teacher for useful linguistic feedback and correction Brown, 2001: 275. Where students are involved in their own speaking activities, there is a good chance that
25
their understanding of the feedback which their teacher gives them will be greatly enhanced as their own awareness of the learning process increases. But, the
teachers have to realize that reacting to absolutely every mistake that student makes maybe it will be de-motivate that student. It means judging just the right
moment to correct or intervene. In conclusion, the meaningful materials and tasks that interest students to
promote their speaking autonomy, the students’ participation during activities in classroom, and the chance to have a feedback or correction in right moment are
some indicators in effective teaching speaking process.
e. Students’ Common Problems in Learning Speaking