opinions, and other information in variety of contexts, people can use a verbal language such as utterances and non verbal language such as gestures.
Dealing with speaking, Brown 2001: 267 argues that when someone can speak a language it means that he can carry on a conversation reasonably
competently. He also states that the benchmark of successful language acquisition is almost always the demonstration of ability to accomplish pragmatic goals
through an interactive discourse with other speakers. When someone wants to have oral communication, there are some criteria
that need to be noticed. Nunan 1989: 32 states that successful oral communication involves developing the following aspects
a. The ability to articulate phonological features of the language
comprehensibly. b.
Mastery of stress, rhythm, and intonation pattern. c.
An acceptable degree of fluency. d.
Transactional and interpersonal skills. e.
Skills in taking short and long speaking turn taking. f.
Skills in the management of interactions. g.
Skills in negotiating meaning. h.
Conversational listening skills successful conversations require good listeners and good speakers
i. Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for
conversations. j.
Using appropriate conversational formulae and filler.
3. Criteria of Good Speaking
In a real life situation, when a person speaks language fluently, it means that he she has good speaking ability. However, it is not only fluency that can be
used to assess someone’s speaking ability. There are four criteria according to Brown 2001: 268 to assess speaking ability. Those four criteria are:
a. Pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way a certain sound or sounds are produced Longman dictionary, 2002: 429. It covers the way for speaker to produce clear
language when they speak. To be able to have successful communication, the speaker of a language needs to be able to understand each other with relative ease
Nunan, 2003: 112. It means that the speaker has to be able to give clear message to the listener. Therefore, teaching pronunciation that includes stress, rhythm, and
intonation is very important in speaking. b.
Fluency Fluency is also an important aspect in speaking. Fluency is the ability to
speak quickly and automatically Harris and Hodges, 1995: 14. It implies that fluent speaker is a person who can use the language quickly and automatically in a
conversation. In other words, fluency is the ability to keep the conversation going naturally. Thus, the activities focused on fluency are needed to be conducted by
the teacher. c.
Accuracy Accuracy is the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences or
utterances Longman Dictionary, 2002: 204. Brown 2001: 268 adds that a speaker is said to be accurate if he she produces clear, articulate, grammatically
and phonologically correct language. It means that to speak accurately the speaker needs to follow the rules of the language such as grammar and structure.
d. Vocabulary
A set of lexemes, including a single word, compound words, and idioms Longman Dictionary. 2002: 580 that are typically used when talking about
