Types of Classroom Speaking Performance

blocks of language. So, it is obvious that in speaking class, teacher should not only teach students “what to say” but also “how to say’ which mainly includes grammatical knowledge, vocabulary building and proper pronunciation. It is also stated that at the same time the teacher should not bore the students to deal with lifeless, repetitious drills. It means that if the teacher wants to focus on fluency and he needs to drill students, he should be able to make any drilling he does as meaningful as possible. 2 Techniques should be intrinsically motivating What happens in the field, often students do not know or understand why their teacher asks them to do certain activities. They merely do whatever their teacher asks them to without knowing the benefits they can get from the activities they have done. Consequently, many students become passive and unmotivated. Good teachers should motivate students by helping them to see how the activities will benefit them. 3 Techniques should encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts It is stated that it is not easy to keep coming up with meaningful interaction. The teacher succumbs to the temptation to do, says, disconnected little grammar exercises where he goes around the room calling on student one by one to pick the right answer. It takes energy and creativity to device authentic context and meaningful interaction, but with the help of quite a store house of teacher resource material, it can be done, even drills can be structured to provide a sense of authenticity. 4 Techniques should provide appropriate feedback and correction. In this case, Brown 2001: 275 states that in most EFL situations, students are totally dependent on the teacher for useful linguistic feedback. It is important to take advantage of teacher’s knowledge of English to inject the kinds of corrective feedback that are appropriate for the moment. 5 Techniques should capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening. According to Brown 2001: 275, many interactive techniques that involve speaking will also of course include listening. He also suggests that the teacher should not lose out on opportunities to integrate these two skills. Further, he states that as the teacher is perhaps focusing on speaking goals, listening goals may naturally coincide, and the two skills can reinforce each other. Skills in producing language are often initiated through comprehension. 6 Techniques should give the students opportunities to initiate oral communication. It is asserted that a good deal of typical classroom interaction is characterized by teacher initiation of language. We ask questions, give directions, provide information, and students have been conditioned only “to speak when spoken to”. Part of oral communication competence is the ability to initiate conversations, to nominate topics, to ask questions, to control conversations, and to change the subject. He also suggests that as we design and use speaking techniques, we should ask ourselves if we have allowed students to initiate language. 7 Techniques should encourage the development of speaking strategies. The concept of strategic competence is one that few beginning language students are aware of. They simply have not thought about developing their own personal strategies for accomplishing oral communicative purposes Brown, 2001: 276.

e. Assessing Speaking Performance

The students’ oral performance covers some components of ability such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and language function. The descriptions of five components as well as the range of the scores can be seen in the following scoring rubrics. Table 1: The Scoring Rubrics FLUENCY Speak in fast rate without a lot of hesitation 3 Speak in acceptable rate with rare hesitation 2 Speak in a slow rate with a lot of hesitation 1 GRAMMAR Errors in grammar are quite rare, use complex structure 3 Errors in grammar quite rare, use simple structure 2 Errors in grammar frequent, use incorrect structure 1 PRONUNCIATION Errors in pronunciation are quite rare 3 Errors in pronunciation are frequent 2 Use incorrect pronunciation 1 VOCABULARY Use rich and proper words 3 Use standard and proper words 2 Use limited and unacceptable words 1 LANGUAGE FUNCTION Function performed properly , correct target form 3 Function performed properly, partially correct 2 Function performed not properly, incorrect 1