Therefore, founded on the three definitions of speaking above can be concluded that the characteristics of spoken language is different from the
characteristics of writing language in the aspect of production and in the social aspects. Speaking is known as a communicative activity that requires
reciprocal and physical face-to-face interaction between at least two speakers and in order to master speaking competency learners not only have to be able
to master speaking skill but also to be able to master its sub-skills for maintaining social interaction between the speakers and for achieving a
successful communication.
2. Types of Spoken Discourse
There are two kinds of discourse that commonly used in Indonesian English National Syllabus; transactional discourse and interactional discourse.
Based on basic competition of Kurikulum 2013 especially in the term of social competition the objective of teaching English in Vocational High School is
achieving ability to use English language for transactional and interactional function.
5
Therefore, based on that statement students of Vocational High School in Indonesia are required to be able to produce and to understand both
of transactional and interpersonal discourse. The classification of English language discourse in Kurikulum 2013 is
similar with Richard’s statements about the classification of spoken discourse. According to Richard, spoken discourse are classified into two: interactional
and transactional. Interactional discourse gives more attention on maintaining good interaction between the participants than on giving the information to the
participants. On the contrary, transactional discourse focuses on using language to communicate the information to other participant.
6
Based on the explanation above can be summed up that interactional discourse is social interaction oriented. It means that the purpose of
communication is to build a good interaction among the participant and less
5
Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia No. 70 Tahun 2013, p. 86.
6
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory, Cambridge: University Press, 1996, p. 130.
concern on communicating the information itself. On the other hand, transactional discourse is message oriented, it means that the purpose of
communication among the speakers is communicating the information in effective, accurate and coherence way.
On the other hand, as stated by Nation and Newton speaking interactions classify into transactional speaking and interactional speaking. Transactional
speaking is known also as formal speaking; whereas interactional speaking is known as informal speaking.
7
This argumentation shows the classification of speaking based on the degree of formality of the language being used in
speaking and the purpose of speaking itself. In interactional speaking, speakers commonly use informal language. In this interaction building
relationship among the speakers seems more important than conveying speakers’ message. On the contrary, in transactional speaking, speakers
commonly use formal language and give more focus on using language items for conveying their message to the other speakers than maintaining social
relationship among the speakers. Furthermore, Nation and Newton explanation about transactional and
interactional speaking which has been mentioned before is similar with Farrell statements in his book
“Succeeding with English Language Learners”. He said that there are two reasons why people engage in communication: first is
interpersonal reason and second is transactional reason.
8
Through that statement can be concluded that there are some reason why people keep
communicating: the first reason is they want to socialize with people around them interpersonal reason and the second reason is they want to exchange
the information about something specific with people around them transactional reason.
Furthermore, there are other spoken discourse which is known as long- turn and short-turn spoken discourse. Brown and Yule in their book
7
I. S. P Nation, J. Newton, Teaching ESLEFL Listening and Speaking, New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 120- 121.
8
Thomas S. C. Farrell, Succeeding with English Language Learners: A Guide for Beginning Teachers, California: Corwin Press, 2006, p. 74.
“Teaching the Spoken Language” explain that a long-turn discourse consists of a long utterance that may end as long as hour’s lecture; meanwhile a short-
turn discourse consists of only one or two utterances. A short-turn speaking discourse commonly unburden the speakers while producing its structure;
whereas a long-turn speaking discourse commonly demanding the speakers while producing its structure because they have to be responsible to produce a
sequence of well-structured utterance for helping their listeners to draw a coherent representation of their messages.
9
The explanation above shows that spoken discourses are classified into two: short-turn and long-turn spoken discourse. Short-turn spoken discourse
consists of short utterances and because of its simple form the speakers commonly do not find any serious difficulties while creating its discourse. On
the contrary, long-turn spoken discourse consists of longer utterances than its predecessor and because of its complicated form the speakers can feel a
burdensome feeling for producing long and complicated structure. S peakers’
burden when producing long-turn spoken discourse not only comes from speakers’ responsibility for achieving cohesion and coherence of the discourse
but a lso comes from speakers’ responsibility for assuring that their listeners
achieve their messages clearly. In consequence, from the explanations of experts above can be concluded
that there are many kinds of speaking discourse based on its function, they are: transactional discourse which concerns on information exchange,
interactional discourse which concerns on maintaining social relationship among the speakers, long-turn discourse and short-turn discourse which
concern on the length and the complexity production of conversational structures.
3. Techniques for Teaching Speaking
