1. 3 The Elements of Speaking Skill
speak fully English in the classroom. This assumption has led the teachers to teach English with the first language such as Indonesian, and sometimes even with
Javanese. This poor condition of course does not give any benefit at all to the students. How can the students be able to speak English if they never heard the
teacher communicate in English? How can they be brave to speak English if the teacher never gives encouragement to the students to practice the language?
Surely hiring a native speaker to teach English is a good way to do, but of course it is not an easy way to do if the school financial cannot support it. Therefore, a
local teacher can be a replacement model of the native speaker. Teaching speaking can be a hard way to do if the students are not quite
familiar with the vocabulary. Therefore, as a teacher, we need to supply the vocabulary to the students, teach them how to say it, and how to apply it in the
real conversation. Since the language of speaking can be a bit different than the language of writing, the teacher should give the clear explanation about it. If the
students only imitate the words from the text book, the result is their language will sound very bookish. This is where the teacher’s part is highly needed to give more
examples about how to give more communicative language to the students. The teacher can start it by giving simple instructions in the classroom. Between the
instructions, ‘listen to the conversation and fill in the missing words’ and ‘I want you to listen to the conversation and after that I want you to fill in the missing
words. Do you understand?’, the second instruction sounds more communicative and spontaneous. Willis in Pawlak Klimzcak 2015 states that the features of
spontaneous interaction include repetition and checking moves are much more the kind of thing that would be produced in the real time and they are considered
important because in the real time those kind of things would be readily processed and the learners will find easy to understand and those are the kind of language
that good teachers use. If we want to teach speaking to the students, we need to pay attention to
several aspects. Willis in Pawlak Klimzcak 2015 mentions that there are three basic conditions that the teacher must pay attention if the aim of the lesson is to
teach conversation effectively. First, we must have a clear idea of what conversation is like. Is it conducted in the formal or non-formal situation? What
kind of expressions that the students can use? Therefore, we need to think of it carefully. Second, we must communicate this to our students. As a teacher, we do
not just give the task to the students without explaining what they are going to do. The students may be misled if the teacher does not give the correct direction.
Third, we must bring into the classroom samples of language which bear a real resemblance to spontaneous spoken language.
The role of the teacher is considered very important for the development of the students’ speaking skill. Richards 2012 says that there are three key factors
in successful language learning. They are teachers, materials, and the learners. The role of the teacher is to help the learners to acquire the language and the
skills. Without the teacher’s help the learners will not be able to achieve the progress even though they have worked hard. Teachers can be a great observer.
By being an observer, teachers may understand more about language learner’s cognitive, affective, and social needs from the theoretical ideas. Teachers may
take the observations from the conversations with students, information about their background, learning goals and assessment results. Teachers also should be
active in providing input, support, and feedback. Creating activities that enable the students to communicate with their classmates is only a part of the learning
experience that teachers can provide for the students. However, those activities will be considered not enough because they will not learn new skills and language
if there is little linguistic and background knowledge about them. Therefore, the role of the teacher is to structure the students’ learning experiences to support
their speaking development, in and outside the classroom. Teachers may do this by designing interesting and appropriate materials.
Materials in teaching speaking should be the materials that will support the second language speaking development. Richard 2012 states that there are three
categories of good materials for speaking. First, the materials should provide the speaking practice. They should provide contextualized, varied, and interesting
prompts and scenarios so that the talk can take place. Second, the materials should promote the language and skills learning. It means that the materials should focus
on selected elem ents of the talk, or model spoken texts to increase learners’
relevant linguistics knowledge and control of speaking skills. Third, the materials should facilitate meta-cognitive development. In other words, the materials must
raise the learners’ knowledge and control of learning processes, and can train them in using communication and discourse strategies.
Beside the teachers and the materials, the learners have their own important role. Richards 2012 says that to be a successful learner, teachers must encourage
the learners to take responsibility for managing their own learning and the improvement of their speaking skill. Learners can do it by developing awareness
about themselves as second language speakers, by better understanding the nature PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
and the demands of speaking. They also must critically consider the strategies that can facilitate their oral communication. Learners may work collaboratively with
their peers.