The Characteristics of Good Speaking Activities The Types of Speaking Activity

b. Speech is very slow and uneven, except for short or routine sentences; frequently punctuated by silence or long pauses. c. Speech is frequently hesitant and jerky; sentences may be left uncompleted. d. Speech is occasionally hesitant, with some unevenness caused by rephrasing and groping for words. e. Speech is effortless and smooth, but perceptibly nonnative in speed and evenness. f. Speech on all general topics as effortless and smooth as a native speaker. 5 Comprehension a. Understand too little to respond to conversation initiation or topic nominations. b. Understand only slow, very simple speech on topic of the general interest; requires constant repetition and rephrasing. c. Understand careful, somewhat simplified speech directed to him or her, with considerable repetition and rephrasing. d. Understand everything in normal educated conversation, except for very colloquial or low-frequency items or exceptionally rapid or slurred speech. e. Understands everything in informal and colloquial speech to be expected of an educated native speaker. 15

4. The Characteristics of Good Speaking Activities

The characteristic of good speaking activities according to Brown and Yule have shown that, broadly speaking, spoken communications are essentially 15 Jack C. Richard and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 222-223. „transactional’ or „interactional’. Transactional language is said to be that which contains factual or propositional information. Typically, written language is transactional. Example of transactional language would be a policeman giving direction to a driver or of someone filing an insurance claim. In each case the message has to be very clearly communication. 16 The characteristics on successful speaking activity according Penny Ur are: 1.Learners talk a lot. As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk. 2.Participation is even. Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed. 3.Motivation is high. Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective. 4.Language is of an acceptable level. Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy. 17

5. The Types of Speaking Activity

Marianne Celce-Murcia classifies speaking activities and materials into four types: a Drills, or linguistically structured activities Prator classifies classroom activities for ESL English as a second language learners by means of continuum, with “manipulative” activities at one extreme and communicative at the other extreme. Although today, in ESLEFL English as foreign language classroom throughout the world, communicative activities tend to more effectively meet the goals of 16 MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, p.155. 17 Penny Ur, A Course in language teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 120. curriculum, also useful are “manipulative” activities, or those which provide the student with “prepackaged” structure by mean of teacher, tape or book. Such activities need not be void of meaning, as were some of the more classic manipulative techniques associated with the audio-lingual approach, with its repetition drills and pattern practices. Rather, it is possible to contextualize such activities so that they are predominately rather then wholly manipulative and thus meet some of requirements of a communicatively oriented design. In controlled practice the teacher can model the form to be produced, providing necessary linguistically correct input. The students are then allowed to practice the material, and the teacher follows up by reinforcing the forms practiced. What is important is that students are allowed to speak about what is true, real, and interesting. b Performance activities “Performance” activities are those in which the student prepares beforehand and delivers a message to a group. A good example of such an activity is the student speech, which could be made as specific in content as necessary. An EST course, for example, might require students to explain a process or experiment; a course in conversational or “social” English might assign students to simply tell a story from their own experience in casual and social setting. A variation on the speech given by one person is assigning two or more people to deliver a talk. Role-plays and dramas, if performed in front of the class, can also function as “performance activities”. Finally, debates can serve as an opportunity for a classroom performance activity for immediate and advanced learners. c Participation activities “Participation” activities can be some of the most diverse and interesting in the oral communication repertoire. These are activities where the student participates in som e communicative activity in a “natural setting.” One of the commonly used participation activities is the guided discussion, where the instructor provides a brief orientation to some problem or controversial to some problem or controversial topic, usually by means of a short reading. Students in small groups discuss the topic, suggesting possible solutions, resolutions, or complications. d Observation activities These are activities in which a student observes and or records verbal and nonverbal interactions between two or more native or fluence speakers of the target language. This technique is useful for building student apriciation and awareness of language as it is actually used in the real world, and since the student is taking the role of nonparticipant observer, he or she is free to concentrate on the subject without fear performence errors, a problem for beginners, whose productive skills usually lag behind their receptive capabilities. 18

B. Communicative Language Teaching CLT

Freeman proposes a communicative language teaching aims broadly to apply the theoretical perspective of communicative approach by making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication. 19 To know exactly about CLT, the writer will discuss about what is the meaning of CLT? 18 Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English As Second or Foreign Language Boston: Heinle Heinle Publisher, 1991, pp. 128-132. 19 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching UK: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 121. 1 The Definition of CLT Central to an understanding of communicative language teaching is an understanding of the term communicative competence. Coined by sociolinguist Hyme to include knowledge of sociolinguistic rules, or the appropriateness of utterance, in addition to knowledge of grammar rules, the term has to be come used in language contexts to refer to the ability to negotiate meaning-to successfully combine a knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic and discourse rules in communicative interaction. 20 A major strand of CLT centres around the essential belief that if students are involved in meaning-focused communicative tasks, then „language learning will take care of itself’, and that plentiful exposure to language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it are vitally important for student’s development of knowledge and skill. 21 Based on the definition above the writer states that CLT is one of methods which design to help the English learners to use the target language for daily communication that can improve the student’s knowledge and skill especially in speaking skill. 2 The Purpose of CLT Freeman clarifies the goal of CLT is to enable students to communicate in the target language. To doing it students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings, and function. 22 According to Hymes the goal of the communicative language teaching is to develop communicative competence. In his view, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to; 1. Whether and to what degree something is formally possible 20 http:www.jstor.orgpss1476834 21 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching …,p. 69. 22 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles In Language Teaching UK: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 128. 2. Whether and to what degree something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available 3. Whether and to what degree something is appropriate adequate, happy, successful in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated 4. Whether and to what degree something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails. 23 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers describe in their book that communicative purposes may be of many different kinds. What is essential in all of them is that at least two parties are involved in an interaction or transaction of some kind where one party has an intention and the other party expands or reacts to intention. 24 The writer assumes that the purpose of the communicative language teaching is developing communicative competence which establishes an interaction and transaction activity. 3 The Characteristics of CLT The most obvious characteristic of CLT is that almost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent. Students use the language a great deal through communicative activities such as language games, pictures strip story and roles play. 25 Littlewood states, “Ones of the most characteristics features of communicative language teaching are that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language ”. 26 23 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p.159 24 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and …, p.154 25 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles In Language Teaching UK: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 129. 26 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in …, p.155 According to Richards and Rodgers, analysis of theoretical base of communicative language teaching offer the following four characteristics of a communicative view of language: 1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning 2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication 3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses 4. The primary unit of language is not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse. 27 Based on the three opinions above the writer makes one of the basis assumption of characteristic of CLT is everything that is done is often carried out learners in true communication situation. 4 Several techniques of CLT Littlewood distinguishes betwee n “functional communication activities” and social interaction activities” as major activity types in communicative language teaching. Functional communication activities include such tasks as learners comparing set of pictures and events in a set of picture; discovering missing features in a map or picture; one learner communication behind a screen to another learner and giving instruction on how to draw a picture or shape, or how to complete a map; following direction; and solving problems from share clues. Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, skits, improvisations, and debates. 28 According to Morrow, activities that are truly communicative have three features in common: information gap-the students in the groups did not 27 MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, pp.153-154 28 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, approaches and methods in language teaching New York; Cambridge University Press, 2001, p.166. know what the picture contained. They had a choice as to what their prediction would be and how they would word it. And they received feedback not on the form but on the content of the prediction, by being able to view the picture and compare it with their prediction. 29 Based on the previous paragraph the writer states, if effective teaching speaking skill trough CLT has many techniques. So she has to make a decision, what kinds of techniques are suitable for CLT? 1.Several Techniques in CLT There are many effectiveness techniques in communicative language teaching to improve student’s speaking skill, as in Diane Larsen and Freeman’s book, they are reviewing many techniques and materials. These are authentic materials, scrambles sentences, language games, picture strip story, and role play. 30 But the writer just uses some of them, they are language games, picture strip story, and role play a. Language game Games are used frequently in CLT. The students find them enjoyable, and if they are properly designed, they give students valuable communicative practice. 31 Speaking activities based on games are often useful way of giving students valuable practice, especially, although by no mean exclusively where younger learners are involved. Game-based activities can involve practice of oral strategies such as describing, predicting, simplifying, asking for feedback, through activities such as filling questionnaires and guessing unknown information. a Filling questionnaires 29 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles In Language Teaching UK; Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 129. 30 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles … , Pp. 132-134. 31 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles … , p. 133. One such activity based on questioneres can be found in Interaction: an interaction workbook where learners have to decide what constitutes job satisfaction. They have to decide first of all what criteria would lead to job satisfaction and then the class is divided into 4 or 8 equal, A to D or A to I for example. Each group then decides which jobs are going to be discussed own parents’, husband’s, wife’s and so on. Each group has to interview members of another group and then learners have to discuss who of the group they interviewed has the best job. The questionnaire can include details of job, the approximate salary, the hours worked, distance to work, holiday entitlement, what fringe benefits are included and so on. At the end of the activity each group can tell the rest of the class about the best job that they found. They then compare these and decide which is the best in the whole class and why. Successful completion of the type of activity clearly depends on the effective communicative use of the language and of the sharing of information amongst the participants. b Guessing Unknown Information The Describe and Draw principle is based on a series of plans and diagrams which one student has to describe to another so that the latter can complete t he task. The idea behind this „describe and draw’ communication activity is to give learners practice in handling, by means of oral description and drawing in pairs, a core of material of non-verbal data, i.e. maps, plans, shapes, graphs. The activities are motivated by the fact that many EFL learners have difficulty when trying to handle this sort of data in the spoken form. 32 c Guessing games The teacher asks one student to think about something he or she has done. The rest of the class guesses what it is. 1 Time Teacher: Maria, you know what time you went to bed last night? Don’t tell us. We’ll guess. Carlos: at 11 o’clock? Maria: no. [Earlier] Chang: At 10:30? Maria: No. [Later] Etc. 2 Birthday Teacher: Armando, tell us the month of your birth, but not the day. Armando: March Teacher: Let’s guess the date. Ingrid: March 10 th ? Armando: No Paolo: March 19 th ? Armando: No Etc. 33 b. Picture strip story Many activities can be done with picture strip stories. In this activity one student in a small group was given a strip story. She showed 32 MCDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: a Teacher Guide, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, p.163. 33 Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valetta, classroom techniques: foreign languages and English as a second language, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977, p.240. the first picture of the story to the other members of her group and asked them to predict what the second picture would look like. The activity just described is an example of using problem-solving task as a communicative technique. Problem-solving tasks work well in CLT because they usually include the three features of communication. What’s more, they can be structured so that students share information or work together to arrive at a solution. This gives students practice in negotiating meaning. 34 The other experts applies strip story activity by using short story or anecdote select that has exactly the same number of sentences as there are students in the class. Each sentence is written on a separate strip of paper. if the same story is used with several classes, the sentences may be typed on a stencil, dittoed, and then cut into strips. The strips are randomly distributed to the students. Each student must memorize the sentence of his or her strip. Then the strips are collected. The students move around, speaking only the target language, and ask each other questions until they have reconstituted the original story. The teacher’s role is merely that of facilitator; it is recommended that the teacher remain silent during the reconstruction activity. 35 c. Role-play Role-play is very important in CLT because they give students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in the different social role. 36 Teacher use the term role-play to refer to a number of different activities, ranging from simple dialogues prompted by specific 34 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles … , p. 134. 35 Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valetta, classroom techniques …, p.238 36 Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques And Principles … , pp. 133-134 information on role cards to more complex simulations which pass through a number of stages. 37 Role play material are often written specifically to get learners express opinions, to present and defend points of view and to evaluate arguments based on the notion of what Prabhu calls an opinion gap, in that the activity involved the learner in formulating an argument to justify an opinion for which there is no one objective way of demonstrating the outcome as right or wrong. 38

C. Grammar Translation Method

1. The Definition of GTM The grammar translation method which was first named as such in Germany in 1780 introduced the idea of presenting students with short grammar rules and word lists, and then translation exercises in which they had to make use of the same rules and words. Grammar translation still has relevance today, though it is not practiced as a method in the same way. But most language learners translate in their heads at various stages anyway, and they can learn a lot about a foreign language by comparing parts of it with parts of our own mother tongue. However, a total concentration on grammar-translation stops students from getting the kind of natural language input that will help them acquire language since they are always looking at L1 equivalents, and it fails to give them opportunities to activate their language knowledge. If they are always translating the language, they are not using the L2 for communication. The danger with Grammar-translation, in other words, is 37 Tricia Hedge, Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 278. 38 McDonough and Christopher Shaw, Material and Methods in ELT: A Teacher Guide, Cambridge: Blackwell Publisher, 1993, p.165. that it teaches people about language but doesn’t really help them to communicate effectively. 39 Harmer wrote in his book about a number of features of the grammar translation method are worthy commenting on. In the first place, language was treated at the level of the sentence only, with little study, certainly at the early stages, of longer texts. Secondly, there was little if any consideration of the spoken language. And thirdly, accuracy was considered to be a necessity. 40 2. The Purpose of GTM There are many purposes of GTM they are: a. Helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature. b. It was also hoped that, through the study of the grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and that this familiarity would help them speak and write their native language better. c. Finally, it was thought that foreign language learning would help students grow intellectually; it was recognized that students would probably never use the target language, but the mental exercise of learning it would be beneficial anyway. d. A fundamental purpose of learning a foreign language is to be able to read literature written in the target language. e. Students need to learn about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language. 39 Jack C. Richard and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 Pp. 48-49 40 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language …, p. 63. f. It is believed that studying a foreign language provides students with good mental exercise which helps develop their minds. 41 3. The Characteristic of GTM 1 The goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read its literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development that result from foreign –language study. Grammar-translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and text into out the target language. it hence views language learning as consisting of little more than memorizing rules and facts in order to understand and manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language. “the first language is maintained as the reference system in acquisition of the second language. 2 Reading and writing are the major focus: little or no systematic attention is paid to speaking or listening. 3 Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading text used, and words are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study and memorization. In a typically grammar-translation text, the grammar rules are presented and illustrated, a list of vocabulary items are presented with their translation equivalents, and translation exercises are prescribe. 4 The sentence is the basis unit of teaching and language practice. much of the lesson is devoted to translating sentences into and out of target language, and it is this focus on sentence that is distinctive feature of 41 http:faculty.ksu.edu.safallayExtra20materials20Eng20406Chapter20Two20 20The20Grammar-Translation20Method.pdf the method. Earlier approaches to foreign language study use grammar as aid to the study of texts in a foreign language. But this was thought to be too difficult for students in secondary schools, and the focus on the sentence was an attempt to make language learning easier. 5 Accuracy is emphasized. Students are expected to attain high standard in translation, because of “the high priority attached to meticulous standard of accuracy which, as well as having an intrinsic moral value, was a pre requisite for passing the increasing number of formal written examination tha t grew up during the century”. 6 Grammar is taught deductively- that is, by presentation and study of grammar rules, which are then practiced through translation exercises. In most grammar-translation texts, a syllabus was followed for the sequencing of grammar points trough out the text, and there was attempt to teach grammar in an organized and systematic way. 7 The student’s native language is the medium of instruction. It is used to explain new items and to enable comparisons to be made between the fo reign language and the student’s native language. Consequently, though it may be true say that grammar translation method is still widely practiced, it has no advocates. It is a method for which there is no theory. 42 4.Several Techniques in GTM 1 Translation of a literary passage a. Students translate a reading passage from the target language into their native language. 42 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, approaches and methods in language teaching New York; Cambridge University Press, 2001, Pp.3-5. b. The reading passage then provides the focus for several classes: vocabulary and grammatical structures in the passage are studied in subsequent lessons. c. The passage may be excerpted from some work from the target language literature, or a teacher may write a passage carefully designed to include particular grammar rules and vocabulary. d. The translation may be written or spoken or both. e. Students should not translate idioms and the like literally, but rather in a way that shows that they understand their meaning. 2 Reading comprehension questions a Students answer questions in the target language based on their understanding of the reading passage. b The questions are sequenced so that the first group of questions asks for information contained within the reading passage. c The second group of questions requires students to make inferences based on their understanding of the passage. d The third group of questions requires students to relate the passage to their own experience. 3 Antonymssynonymsa a Students are given one set of words and are asked to find antonyms in the reading passage. b Students could also be asked to find synonyms for a particular set of words. c Students might be asked to define a set of words based on their understanding of them as they occur in the reading passage. 4 Cognates a. Students are taught to recognize cognates by learning the spelling or sound patterns that correspond between the languages. b. Students are also asked to memorize words that look like cognates but have meanings in the target language that are different from those in the native language. 5 Deductive application of rule a. Grammar rules are presented with examples. b. Exceptions to each rule are also noted. Once students understand a rule, they are asked to apply it to some different examples. 6 Fill-in-the-blanks Students are given a series of sentences with words missing. They fill in the blanks with new vocabulary items or with items of a particular grammar type, such as prepositions or verbs with different tenses. 7 Memorization a. Students are given lists of target language vocabulary words and their native language equivalents and are asked to memorize them. b. Students are also required to memorize grammatical rules and grammatical paradigms such as verb conjugations. 8 Use words in sentences In order to show that students understand the meaning and use of a new vocabulary item, they make up sentences in which they use the new words. 9 Composition a. The teacher gives the students a topic to write about in the target language. b. The topic is based upon some aspect of the reading passage of the lesson. c. Sometimes, instead of creating a composition, students are asked to prepare a précis of the reading passage. 43 The writer concludes that this method is still applied by many English teachers in the school. However, they know if Grammar-translation cannot help learners to communicate effectively and to improve their speaking ability.

5. The Implementation of Using CLT and GTM in Teaching Speaking to the