Nursing Program THEORETICAL REVIEW
20 purposes.
6. Produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery 7. Monitor your own oral production and use various strategic devices-pauses, fillers,
self-corrections, backtracking-to enhance the clarity of the message. 8. Use grammatical words classes nouns, verbs, etc, systems e.g. tense, agreement,
pluralization word order, patterns, rules and elliptical forms. 9. Product speech in natural constituents-in appropriate phrases, pause groups, breath
groups, and sentences. 10. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
11. Use cohesive devices in spoken discourse. 12. Accomplish appropriately communicative functions according to the situations,
participants, and goals. 13. Use cohesive devices in spoken discourse.
14. Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization,
and exemplification. 15. Use facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues along with
verbal language to convey meanings 16. Develop and use a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key words,
rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is understanding you
c. The Importance of Speaking in English Speaking skill is used for oral communication. Richards and Renandya
2002 state that speaking is used for many different purposes and each purpose involves different skill. For casual conversation, speaking skill is used to make a
social contact with others, to establish rapport or to have chit chat each other among friends. But in a more formal situation, speaking skill is used to discuss
with others, seek and express opinions, persuade someone about something, give instruction or to get
things done, describe things, complain about people‟s behavior, and make polite requests p. 201.
Still in Richards and Renandya 2002, it is stated that speaking in a language is difficult for foreign language learners since learning speaking in
effective oral communication needs the ability to use the language appropriately in social interactions. The diversity of the interactions involves not only verbal
21 communication but also paralinguistic elements of speech such as pitch, stress,
and intonation p. 204. This can be the reason for the researcher to include also in the AFORN exercises which lead the students to practice their pronounciation.
Nursing department of Poltekkes Yogyakarta include speaking skill in the syllabus which focus on using speaki
ng skill to fulfill the student‟s academic skill and support the student‟s professionalism as a nurse then. Speaking ability is the
main purpose of English subject in nursing department of Poltekkes Yogyakarta. So, it is very important for the writer as one of the English teachers in Poltekkes
Yogyakarta to conduct a teaching method which encourage and support the students in nursing program to have good speaking competence. Richards 2008:
21 states that the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second language learners or foreign language learners because consequently, the
learners evaluate their success in learning a language by looking at their spoken language proficiency. As we know that, in Indonesia, English is still considered
as foreign language EFL. This condition influences the students‟ competence in English, especially in speaking. It is difficult to EFL learners, especially adults, to
speak the target language fluently and appropriately. Shumin as cited in Richards and Renandya 2002 emphasizes that
communication activity in a classroom encourages how to listen to others, how to talk with others, and how to negotiate meaning in a certain context.
Communication in the classroom is embedded in meaning-focused activity. This requires teachers to tailor their instruction carefully to the
needs of learners and teach them how to listen to others, how to talk with others, and how to negotiate meaning in a shared context. Out of
interaction, learners will learn how to communicate verbally and nonverbally as their language store and language skills develop p. 208.
22 Shumin as cited in Richards and Renandya 2002 also suggests one form
of speaking activities. He suggests small talk. It functions to create a sense of social communion among peers or other people. So, at the beginning, adult EFL
learners should develop skill in short, interactional exchanges in which they are only required one or two utterances at a time like when a nurse greet the patients
p. 208. d. Core of Speaking Skills
Knowing about grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and discourse is not enough for language learners. They need to implement their knowledge into an
action or practice, then it will become a skill in language. There are four categories of core speaking skills that learners need to develop Goh Burns,
2012: 58-59. The four categories are seen in the following table.
Table 2.3 Four Categories of Core Speaking Skill Adapted from Goh Burns 2012
Core skills Specific skills