3. Speaking
a. The Teaching of Speaking
Before discussing teaching of speaking, it is necessary to define what speaking is, in order to have enough understanding about speaking as a general. Speaking is
the productive auraloral skill Nunan 2003:48. Speakers talk in order to have some effects on their listeners. Speaking skill or oral communication is typified as an
activity involving two or more people as the participants are hearers and speakers having to react to what they are and make their contributions at high speed Johnson
and Morrow, 1983:70. Paulstan and Bruder 1976, in her book, defined speaking as a competency to communicate in the target language.
As cited from Kathleen M. Bailey in Nunan 2003:54-56, there are five principles in teaching speaking. First, be aware of the differences between second
language and foreign language learning context. A foreign language context is one where the target language is not the language of communication in the society. It is
very challenging for students who learn English as a foreign language because they do not have enough opportunities to use English as the target language. A second
language context is one where the target language is the language of communication in the society. Second, give students practice with both fluency and accuracy. In this
case, the students will have better progress by extensive practice. Third, provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work and limiting
teacher talk. Fourth, plan some speaking tasks which involve negotiation for meaning. The last, design some class activities that involve guidance and practice in
both transactional and interactional speaking. The difference between interactional and transactional speaking is on the purpose. When the purpose is interactional, it is
focusing on maintaining and establishing social relationships, but in transactional speaking the focus is primarily on the meaning of the message. According to Nunan
1991:42, interactional speech is much more fluid and unpredictable than transactional speech.
b. Role Plays
According to Paulstan and Bruder 1976:70, role plays are exercises where the student is assigned an untrue role from which he has to improvise some kind of
behavior toward the other role character in the exercise. They also stated that role play has four basic elements that are; situations, roles, useful expressions and
background knowledge. Golebiowska 1990:5 confirmed that role play is a communicative activity in which the learners are given a task to complete. In order to
ensure a lively and unpredictable course of activity, the learners are told who they are and what their opinions are.
Littlewood 1981:50 said that in role playing, learners are asked to imagine themselves in a situation that could occur in their daily activities or outside the
classroom. They are asked to adopt a specific role from this situation. They are asked to act as if the situation really exists.
Albert P’Rayan 2007 stated that a role play is an activity in which the participants or students of a language course assume the roles of some imaginary
characters and, as a team, create a story based on a situation and enact the play in front of an audience. Through this activity the students can practise certain language
functions and learn speaking skills. Moreover, he proposed some features of a good role play as listed in the next page.
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