1. 2 The Nature of Speaking

to make the circle complete. Knowledge can be understood and memorized but only skill that can be imitated and practiced. 2. 1. 2. 3 The Elements of Speaking Skill Speaking also has great connection between what to say and how to say the words. Many students claimed that they found difficulties in delivering their ideas in English because they did not know what to say. They had the idea in their mind but it was very difficult to express the idea orally. They also did not know where to start the utterances. This is where the elements of speaking skill will take the most part in making the conversation. There are five elements of speaking skill, namely pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Nation Newton 2009 state that pronunciation includes the articulation of individual sounds and the distinctive features of sounds, stress and intonation. Meanwhile, Avery Ehrlich 1992 mention that since every country has their own original accent, studying pronunciation as the native-like may not be perfect; however, ignoring pronunciation can totally be a great loss for students. Based on socio-cultural factors, they state that there are some countries that still keep their original accent as the mark of their own cultural identity. That is why we can find several dialects of English based on the place where they live, such as British English, American English, Australian English, etc. The sound system of the native language really can affect the students’ pronunciation in three ways. First, when the students meet the sounds in English which are not the part of their first language. Second, when the students find that the rules of combining the sounds into the words are different with the students’ first language. Third, when the students meet the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI patterns of stress and the intonation which are quite different with the students’ first language. Learning pronunciation probably will be a very hard activity for the students especially when they learn English pronunciation. It happens because the English spelling system often fails to represent the sounds of English in direct manner. It means that often the sounds that we hear and the letters that we see on a page are quite different. However, with more practice especially in the classroom, it is hoped that the students will get used to hear the native sound like. Grammar is one of the elements which is quite important to learn. Grammar is a study of rules to combine the words into sentences. Although some people think that grammar is not quite important to learn for speaking ability, it gives a lot of differences when we speak in grammatically correct or not. A student who learns English at school definitely will have more knowledge about grammar than a person who learns English autodidactic maybe from the movies, books, or songs. Even though it does not guarantee that the student who learns English at school will be more fluent in speaking English than a person who learns English autodidactic. However, a person who speaks English in grammatically correct definitely shows more knowledge in English rather than those who do not. Vocabulary is the basic knowledge that the students have to master before they can develop their speaking skill. Vocabulary is a thing that we need to create the utterances and it is usually ruled by certain pattern to make the words are meaningful easy to understand. Since vocabulary is really important to learn, then there will be no development in speaking skill if the students do not improve their vocabulary. Vocabulary has a strong connection with speaking skill in which the more the students know about the words then the more they can improve their