16 10 expressing a particular meaning in different grammatical forms, and
finally 11 using cohesive devices in spoken discourse. On the other hand, the macro skills of speaking are 1 appropriately
accomplishing communicative functions according to situations, participants, and goals, 2 using appropriate styles, registers, implicature, redundancies,
pragmatic conventions, conversation rules, floor-keeping and yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistic features in face- to- face conversation,
3 conveying links and corrections between events and communicating such relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events, and feelings, new information
and given information, generalization and exemplification, 4 conveying facial features, kinesics, body language, and other non verbal cues along with
verbal language, and 5 developing and using a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing
how well the interlocutor is understanding the speaker. Teachers of English need to consider the macro-and micro-skills of
speaking above in teaching their students to perform to speak in English. Each of the points in the macro- and micro-skills above are worth paying attention
since they together create an ideal speaking performance.
d. The Difficulties of Speaking
In terms of learning language, learners may come across problems with speaking activities. Ur 1991 declares that there are at least four problems
17 students have in relation to speaking activities. Those are inhibition, nothing to
say, low or uneven participation and mother-tongue use. It cannot be denied that speaking a target language especially a foreign
language might be interrupted by some inhibition. Ur 1991:121 argues that speaking activities require some degree of real-time exposure to audiences.
Thus, learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in the classroom, worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism
or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts. Besides, learners may also complain that they have nothing to say even
if they are not inhibited. This problem might be related to the absence of the purpose of speaking. The students may argue that they have no motive to
express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking. Another problem with speaking activities is the low or uneven
participation. Since there is only one participant that can talk at a time if she or he is to be heard, in a large group, each of the participant has only very limited
talking time. This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all.
The last but not least problem is the mother-tongue use. In a class in which most or all of the students share the common mother tongue, the use of
mother tongue may dominate. The students tend to use their mother tongue since it is easier and they might feel unnatural to speak to one another in a
foreign languag e. Besides, it is because they feel less ‘exposed’ if they are
speaking their mother tongue.
18 On the other hand, since speaking has smaller units as what has been
mentioned earlier, students might come across difficulties at any level or any unit of speaking. Brown 2000: 270 states that there are at least eight
difficulties in speaking. Those are clustering; redundancy; reduced forms; performance variables; colloquial language; rate of delivery; stress, rhythm and
intonation; and interaction. Each of those difficulties may become the barriers for the students to be able to speak both accurately and fluently. That is why
then teachers should notice these and do something to help students overcome these. The following paragraphs explain each of the speaking difficulties
declared by Brown 2000. Clustering is the state in which a speaker of a certain language does not
really separate the words they speak. It implies that fluent speech is phrasal other than word by word. Students can organize their output both cognitively
and physically through such clustering. Redundancy literally refers to the state in which a speaker says something
more than is needed. In other words, the speaker says something unimportant which might make what she or he is saying ineffective because of having too
much information. However, she or he indeed has an opportunity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy of language. The point here is that
students are required to deal with redundancy of language. They can use it but then the question will likely be about how they will do so.
The third point is reduced forms which include contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc. This is important for the students in order to make their
19 English sound natural. What has been wrongly practiced is that teachers tend
to teach formal English to the students as an anticipation of academic writing. However, if students are less introduced to this, their English will sound
bookish. Then, the difficulty they might find is how to use this wisely. Next, performance variables should also be mastered by the students.
These will benefit the speakers― the students in this case― when they need to think of what they want to say or generally mentioned as holding the floor
while communicating. These will allow them to manifest a certain number of performance hesitations, pauses, backtracking and corrections. The implication
to the teachers is then to teach these variables to the students so they will be able to develop a strategy in communicating.
The fifth point is colloquial language which literally refers to informal and more suitable expression to be used in an informal situation. This is used
more widely in a spoken form rather than in a written one. Teachers should make sure that their students are reasonably well acquainted with words,
idioms, and phrases of colloquial language and that they get practice in producing these forms.
The next point is the rate of delivery. This is another salient characteristic of speaking fluency. The teachers should help students achieve an acceptable
speed along with other attributes of speaking fluency. The teachers should make sure that the students are able to have the expected rate in delivering their
meaning within a communication.
20 Another important point that students may find it difficult is the
combination of stress, rhythm and intonation in speaking. In order for them to perfectly deliver their meaning, they need to employ the appropriate stress,
rhythm and intonation because these three things may result in other meanings if they are not carried on successfully. In other words, in an oral
communication, these three points contribute something in the meaning delivery.
Finally, besides all of those difficulties that the students may come across, interaction should also be considered. This implies that in a speaking
class, the students should be trained to handle a real interaction instead of speaking meaninglessly. According to Brown 2004, this is because learning
to produce waves of language in a vacuum―without any interlocutor― would rob speaking skill of its richest component i.e. the creativity of conversational
negotiation. The difficulties that the students may come across in practicing to speak
elaborated above need to be paid attention to in order for teachers to anticipate their students’ obstacles in learning. By anticipating the students’ learning
obstacles, teachers are expected to be able to facilitate the students to master speaking in English.
21
2. Teaching Speaking
