The Nature of Teaching Speaking

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d. The Principles of Teaching Speaking

There are many principles in teaching speaking. Those will be the foundation for the teacher to design the classroom techniques and activities. Bailey 2003 as cited in Nunan 2003, pp. 54-56 states five principles of teaching speaking. They are: 1 Be aware of the differences between second language and foreign language learning contexts Bailey 2003 notes that the challenge of teaching speaking in foreign language learning context is that the students will not have many opportunities to use the target language outside the classroom. It is because the target language is not the language used to communicate in their community. Since English is a foreign language in Indonesia, the students here also do not have many opportunities to use English to communicate. One of the opportunities in which they can speak in English is when they practice it in class. Therefore, teachers must be able to design the teaching and learning activities that enable the students to practice the language maximally. 2 Give students practice in fluency and accuracy Students must be given the opportunities to use the language in order to develop their accuracy and fluency in learning the language. When the students speak in the target language accurately, it means that their speech in the target language matches the other speakers ’ speech. Students speak in the target language fluently means that they speak in the target language quickly, confidently, with few hesitation or unnatural pauses, false starts and word 21 searches. In order to help the students to be fluent in speaking, teachers should give the students opportunities to speak. Teachers must provide various activities that can enable the students to use the language and practice it. Teacher should be able to allocate the time effectively. Moreover, if the only opportunity the students have to speak in English is just in the class during the English lesson. Teacher must give understanding that making mistakes is a natural part of learning a new language. Feedback that is given to the students should be in the correct way. Bailey 2003 states students cannot develop fluency if the teacher keeps interrupting the students’ speech to correct the students’ oral errors. 3 Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limiting teacher talk In teaching speaking, teachers should minimize their domination to talk in the class. In other words, teachers have to give opportunities to the students to speak a lot. Bailey 2003 suggests that “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” p. 55. It means that the pair work and group work are very effective to make the students speak when they learn the language in class. Students usually feel more comfortable, relaxed and free to speak with their friends in groups rather than in whole class. Therefore, teachers must provide many activities that enable the students to speak and practice the language with their friends.