Learning Speaking Skill Theoretical Review
feelings, to give commands, to make jokes, to agree or complain about something. This is also in line with Widdowson 1996: 59 who declares that the skill of
speaking involves both receptive and productive participation. Receptive aspect of speaking is the skill which is conventionally referred to as‟ listening‟. While,
productive aspe ct of speaking referred to as „saying‟. It can be concluded that
speaking has a productive part when one participant in an interaction assumes the active role of speaker.
Speaking is a two-way process between producing language and receipting it. It is in line with Bygate 1997:5 that there are two ways which
something we do in oral skill. They are motor-perceptive skills and interactional skills. Motor-perceptive skills involve perceiving, recalling, and articulating in the
correct order of sounds and structures of the language. Then, interactional skill is a skill that uses the knowledge and basic perceptive skills to achieve the
communication. It involves the making decisions of communication, for example; what to say, how to say, and whether to develo
p it, in accordance with one‟s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others. In line with
Bygate, Brown and Yale as quoted by Nunan 1989:26-27 begin their discussion on the nature of spoken language by distinguishing spoken and written language.
It is stated that written language is characterized by well-formed sentences which are integrated into highly structured paragraph. Spoken language, on the other
hand, consists of short, often fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciations. In conclusion, speaking is the two-way process of productive and
receptive skill, which include the use verbal and non-verbal language to to deliver messages, opinions, or feelings. When people are having a conversation with
others, they include the process of producing language and receipting messages. Therefore, speaking is one of important elements of communication because it
could be used as the medium of social interaction. In mastering speaking, it is necessary to understand some skills that
underline it. There are some micro-skills and macro-skills of speaking which need to be considered in learning speaking. The micro-skills refer to producing the
smaller chunks of language such as phonemes, morphemes, words, collocations, and phrasal words. The macro-
skills imply the speaker‟s focus on the larger elements: fluency, discourse, function, style, cohesion, nonverbal communication,
and strategic options. The micro-skills and macro-skills of speaking, according to Brown 2004: 142-143, are presented on the following table.
Table 2.1. Micro-skills and macro-skills of Speaking Microskills
1 Produce difference among English phonemes and allophonic variants.
2 Produce chunks of language of different lengths.
3 Produce English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed
positions, rhythmic structure, and intonation contours. 4
Produce reduced forms of words and phrases. 5
Use an adequate number of lexical units words to accomplish pragmatic purposes.
6 Produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery.
7 Monitor one‟s own oral production and use various strategic devices-
pauses, fillers, self-corrections, backtracking- to enhance the clarity of the message.
8 Use grammatical word classes nouns, verbs, etc, systems e.g. tense,
agreement, pluralization, word order, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
9 Produce speech in natural constituents: in appropriate phrases, pause
groups, breath groups, and sentence constituents. 10
Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms. 11
Use cohesive devices in spoken discourse.
Macroskills 12
Appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations, participants and goals.
continued PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Table 2.1 continued 13
Use appropriate styles, registers, implicature, redundancies, pragmatic conventions, conversation rules, floor-keeping and
–yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistic features in face-to-face conversations. Convey links and
connections between events and communicative such as relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feelings, new information and given information,
generalization and exemplification.
14 Convey facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues
along with verbal language. 15
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.
The above table shows that the students need to learn language as well as its function. It is expected that showing the micro-skills and macro-skills of
speaking to them could help them convey and negotiate meaning of language. Speaking is a very demanding activity for all ages of learner which is
used for oral communication. Speaking skill needs a lot of practice. According to Pinter 2005, speaking practice starts with practicing and drilling set phrases and
repeating models. Therefore, the learners need to practice with different activities in classroom in order to encourage them to develop their proficiency in speaking
so that they are able to communicate effectively. Brown 2001 classifies that there are five basic types of speaking. The first type is imitative. Imitating is for
focusing on some particular element of language form rather than for the purpose of meaningful interaction. Drills offer students an opportunity to listen and orally
repeat to certain strings of language that may pose some linguistic problems. It covers the ability to imitate a word of phrase or possibly a sentence. The second
one is intensive. Intensive speaking includes any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspects of language.
Responsive, this type means that students give short replies to initiate questions or PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
comments. These replies are usually sufficient and do not extend into dialogue. It includes interaction and comprehension test but at the somewhat limited level of
very short conversations, standard greeting and small talk, simple request and comments. The stimulus usually happens in a spoken at the appointed time in
order to maintain authenticity. The next is transactional dialogue which has the purpose of conveying
or exchanging specific information. Then, interpersonal dialogue is carried out more for the purpose of maintain and sustaining social relationship than for the
transmission and information. The last type is extensive monologue. This type of speaking covers extensive oral production tasks includes oral reports or
presentations, summaries, short speech, and storytelling. In this type, the language style is frequently deliberative and formal. The five types of speaking that
previously explained can be implemented in classroom speaking activity.
c. Learning Speaking
In learning to speak a foreign language, learners should understand the context on how the native speakers use the language. Richard and Renandya
2002 state that learners must acquire the knowledge of how native speakers use the language in the context of structured interpersonal exchange, in which many
factors interact. In English as a foreign language EFL context, speaking is a crucial part of English language learning and teaching which needs special
attention and instruction. When people communicate with others, their intention to speak is to express their ideas, thought, and feeling. It makes others understand
what they feel and what they think. Nunan 2003 says that in order to communicate well, people should understand with whom they are speaking.
In learning speaking, learners should be able to determine the purpose of their speaking so that it might influence the way of their speaking. Richard and
Renandya 2002 define that the purpose of speaking can be describing things, complaining people‟s behavior, making polite requests, or entertaining people
with jokes or anecdotes. Those different purposes for speaking infers knowledge of rules on how spoken language reflects the situation in which the speech occurs,
th participants involved and their relationship, and the activities of the speakers are involved. Therefore, it can be inferred that learners have to be able to
understand the purposes of their speaking in order to be able to speak fluently and appropriately.
In terms of learning the speaking skills, learning speaking is important to learners‟ language acquisition and academic learning. People are able to
communicate with language by two ways, acquisition and learning. Krashen and Terrel 1983 state that language acquisition is knowing the language by
subconscious process while learning language is knowing the language by conscious process. In this case, learning and teaching are related to each other. To
learn means knowing something while teaching is letting learners know something. Language cannot be separated from language taching. Brown 2000
states that teaching cannot be defined apart from learning, teaching is guiding and facilitating learning. Therefore, in the context of language learning, teachers
should be able to guide and facilitate students in using the language in communication. In the same line, Brown 2001 explains that in teaching
speaking, teachers need to show the details of how to convey and negotiate the meaning of language. It means that the teacher should have good techniques to
teach the students so that they can learn language easily. The objective of teaching speaking is to help learners communicate in the
target language. The reach the goal, teachers should follow certain principles for teaching speaking, which could be useful for developing speaking tasks and
materials for them. Nunan 2003: 54-56 sets the principle of teaching speaking. First, the teachers should be aware of the difference between second and foreign
language. In learning speaking, the teachers should understand the context of second language and foreign language situation. The second language situation
means the target language that is used in communication in the learners‟ society. Meanwhile, the foreign language context means the target of language that is not
used in communication in the learners‟ society. Second, the teachers should give students chances to practice with fluency and accuracy. Next, the teachers should
provide opportunity for students to talk in group or pairs in which teache r‟s talk is
limit. The purpose is to give the opportunity to the students to talk more in order to facilitate them to communicate with others. Fourth, the teachers should plan
speaking tasks to involve negotiation of meaning. It involves checking to see the understanding what people said, clarifying the students‟ understanding, and
confirming that someone has understood the meaning. Last, the teachers should design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both
transactional and interactional speaking. According to the principles above, the teachers should facilitate students
with tasks and activities which encourage them to negotiate meaning, to try out PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
what they know, to produce more language, and to take part in group work activities. Moreover, the English teachers need to give motivational feedback
when they make mistakes. They should guarantee the students to use the target language both accurately and fluently. They also should give chance for them to
experience transactional and interactional language. This may help them to survive in social interaction and professional life.
The principles in teaching speaking are important to enhance speaking in the teaching and learning process. In order to keep on the intentional
communicative class, the teacher should considers those principles. The principles also help teacher to design the appropriate materials. Brown 2001: 275-276 also
suggests some principles for designing speaking techniques. First is using techniques that cover the spectrum of learner needs, from language-based focus
on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning, and fluency. This principle concerns with how to make meaningful activities without throwing away
the learners‟ needs. It means that the teacher should maintain balance among accuracy, fluency, and meaning. The second is providing intrinsically motivating
techniques. It is generally occurred that the students do not understand the objective of doing tasks giving and benefit of achieving linguistic competence.
The teacher should give them understanding about them in order the students are interested and motivated to learn better. It means that the teacher should link the
students‟ interest and their need for knowledge to achieve the competence. The next is encouraging the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts.
Teaching and learning activities will be more interesting if the teacher provides students with authentic context and meaningful interaction. The teacher should
give the students the mater ials that are relevant to the students‟ knowledge,
experience, and interest. It means that the meaningful interaction is important to encourage the students‟ willingness to speak in the target language. The fourth
principle is providing appropriate feedback and correction. The teacher should give feedback appropriately now since the most EFL students are totally
dependent on the teacher. The next is capitalizing the natural link between speaking and listening. As the teacher focuses on the speaking goals, listening
goals may naturally precede. Skills in producing language are often initiated through comprehension.
The sixth is giving students opportunities to initiate oral communication. It means that the activities should give a lot of opportunities for the students to
initiate the target language. The last principle is encouraging the development of speaking strategies. This means that the students do not have to worry about their
low level of proficiency since they will build their personal speaking strategies for accomplishing oral communication purposes. In conclusion, the teaching of
speaking should motivate the students to practice both fluency and accuracy activities for meaningful purposes. Thus, the English teachers have to use
encouraging and motivating techniques that support the students in learning speaking.
d. Learning Speaking using Technology
As the development of technology today has given many advantages for people‟s life style, many experts and educators of institution believe that
technology can be employed in educational sectors to support the teaching and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
learning activities. Technology has a significant role in teaching and learning process. Bajcsy 2002 says that technology in teaching and learning as an enabler
and suggests that technology can work to help organize and provide structure for material to students; help students, teachers, and parents interact, anytime and
anywhere; facilitate and assist in the authentication and prioritization of Internet material; and simulate, visualize, and interact with scientific structures, processes,
and models. Related to speaking, technology can serve as media for learning speaking
skill. By implementing the use of technology in learning speaking in the classroom, students will be motivated to learn more. Technology improves
motivation to create authentic task to motivate, and it can be carried out by creating a reason from speaking in target language, and broadening the audience
base. Technology can also increase communication which equipped with audios, videos and activities that are boosting the learners‟ ability to speak. In this case,
the students have opportunity to record their performance, they can be able to evaluate their performance and practice more. In the same line, Banares 2010
pro poses the benefits of recording the students‟ performance for example students
have more speaking practices, the students pay more attention to pronounce the words since they will be listened to the rest of the group, motivation is high since
the students are digital authors of the course content, shy students are not left behind. In this case, the students are able to recognize their speaking product. By
recording their performance, the students will know what they do and what they need to improve their speaking skill.
In regard with advanced development of technology, there is an opportunity to develop mobile learning model to support the teaching and learning
process. Therefore, the researcher intended to conduct a study by utilizing a mobile technology to develop learning model to support the students in learning
speaking skill.