you talks to is waiting for you to speak right then. Second, you cannot change the words you wish to say when you are speaking like in writing.
Based on some theories above, it can be synthesized that speaking is an activity involving 2 or more people in whom the participants are both the
listeners and the speakers having to act what they listen and make their contribution at high speed. This skill is important because it regards learners
to the measure of knowing language. The fluency of learners in conversation is defined as the success of acquiring the ability of language rather than to
write, read, and comprehend oral language.
2. The Features of Speaking Skill
The ability to speak fluently presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language
‘on the spot’. Harmer proposes four language features that are necessary for spoken production, these are:
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a Connected speech. In connected speech individual sounds of English are not
pronounced in their full forms. They are liable to changes due to the influence of surrounding sounds, stress patterns and other aspects of
spoken language. Thus they may be subject to assimilation, omission, addition of another sounds in linking, weakening. In order to sound
naturally, learners should be engaged in practising the aspects of connected speech.
b The use of expressive devices. Spoken interaction comprises not only the spoken word verbal
expression but also the use of non-verbal expression the “body language” and paralinguistic aspects e.g. features such as stress,
intonation or changes in intensity of voice. Speakers employ these
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Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching :Third Edition. England, Longman, 2001, p. 269-271
devices to in order to help convey the intended meaning and promote the contact with their interlocutors. Students should be able to use at
least some of these expressive devices. c The use of lexis and grammar.
The use of common lexical and grammatical features can be found in spontaneous speech when performing certain language functions.
These “lexical phrases”, as Harmer refers to them, perform various communicative functions. Teachers should therefore consider what
phrases could be of practical use to their students. Consequently, they can provide students with phrases of the particular function suitable for
different contexts such as expressing opinions, making suggestions, agreeing, disagreeing, apologizing, talking on the telephone etc.
d The use of negotiation. The interaction involves negotiation of meaning. In order to be
comprehensible, speakers use various means to check understanding, e.g. by repetition, clarification of meaning, structuring their speech etc.
Listeners participate in the speaker’s effort to be intelligible by signalling that they do not understand, asking for clarification
In addition, Harmer states the speaker’s productive ability involves the knowledge of language skills such as those discussed above, success is also
dependent upon the rapid processing skill. Those are rapid processing skill that involves language processing, interaction and information processing.
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a Language Processing Effective speakers need to be able to process language in their own
heads and put it into coherent order so that it comes out in forms that are not only comprehensible, but also convey the meanings that are
intended. b Interacting with others
The most speaking involves interaction with one m ore participants. This means that effective speaking involves with listening and
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Ibid., p. 271
