•Fikry Kamel Al-Faleet
What is speaking?
•Speaking is "the process of building and
sharing meaning through the use of verbal
and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of
•Speaking is a crucial part of second
language learning and teaching
Speaking in a second or foreign
language has often been viewed as
the most demanding of the four skills.
the teaching of speaking must aim at
the development of the
Oral skill classes at all levels are often
structured around functional uses of
of the speech
What Is "Teaching Speaking"?
What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach ESL
•1-Produce the English speech sounds and sound
•2-Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns
and the rhythm of the second language.
•3-Select appropriate words and sentences according
to the proper social setting, audience, situation and
•4-Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical
•5-Use language as a means of expressing values and
•6-Use the language quickly and confidently with few
unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency
How To Teach Speaking
•Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that
students learn to speak in the second language by
"interacting". Communicative language teaching and
collaborative learning serve best for this
aim. Communicative language teaching is based on
real-life situations that require communication. By
using this method in ESL classes, students will have
the opportunity of communicating with each other in
the target language. In brief, ESL teachers should
create a classroom environment where students have
real-life communication, authentic activities, and
meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This
can occur when students collaborate in groups to
achieve a goal or to complete a task.
Environment is essential
•Generally speaking, there are two factors to
affect students' speaking English in class. One is
they fail to find suitable words to express
themselves and the other is they are afraid of
making mistakes. Sometimes they make
mistakes when they are speaking because they
are shy and nervous. So good environment
helps the students to speak actively and
correctly. On the one hand, I try to ease my
students and remove their nervousness, fear
and anxiety with encouraging words.
•ways to build a free and lighted-hearted environment.
•1. I try to arrange the seats of my classroom in a circle or in
groups with the students facing each other not in rows and
•2. Let the students speak English sitting in their seats not
standing. They will not feel uneasy this way.
•3. At first stage, I allow the students to play their tape
recording they have prepared for a certain topic beforehand.
•4. I ask students to wear a mask they make for themselves to
protect them from embarrassment.
•5. Let students talk in the sound lab or on telephone without
seeing each other.
•6. Try to divide the students into pairs and groups according to
the different topics, if you can and also you can let them
prepare their "opinion", and then have a group spokesman
deliver the opinion.
•7. Set a day for no native language spoken.
Students prepare a certain number of cards and
they can write down those words or
expressions, which they can not convey in
English if they have. Later on we discuss those
words and expressions in class.
•8. Let the class have 5-10 minutes free talk at
the beginning of every class. Students can talk
about any interesting events, news or stories
they have read, listened and watched recently.
•It is essential to try to build an
atmosphere where the students no longer
feel shy, where they will voluntarily raise
their hands to ask a question and where
they will freely voice their own opinions.
Encouragement is necessary
•After students finish their speaking in class, teachers should
encourage them and let the students feel they have made some
progress with a sense of their fulfillment. I try to do these:
•1. Be firm in a gentle way and give them praise whenever they
are doing anything close to a good job.
•2. Be sincere and look for opportunities to find them doing
something right. Never get frustrated, angry and impatient.
•3. Be a nice, sensitive, and approachable person at all times.
Never single students out or put them on the spot.
•4. Treat them with kindness and respect. Smile a lot and value
their opinions. Never embarrass anyone for a laugh.
•5. Allow the students to be themselves rather than expecting
them to conform to your preconceived ideas about how they
should behave. Build their trust, take your time, and wait for
them to come to you.
•Of course you should point out some
apparent mistakes in their speaking,
for example, the incorrect words in
pronunciation or some serious
mistakes in grammar after they finish
Solving a problem
•Methods are important
•It is very important for the teachers to adopt as many
ways as possible to let students to practise English in
class. The success of this teaching strategy is due mainly
to the fact that the learners can choose what they want to
read, listen to, watch, and talk about in class.
•ways to do the practice.
•1. Free talk: First I try to choose those topics
that have something to do with their interest
and experience and also choose those subjects
that students understand that there is no "right"
answer, and the teacher is not judging their
ideas, such as holidays, nature, environment
and pollution. Sometimes let students have
complete freedom to choose the topics
whatever they want to talk about. They usually
like to talk about such topics as movie stars,
songs, music, magazines, sports and travel.
•2. Retelling: Ask students to retell a story
they have read, listened and watched.
•3. Role playing: Ask students to practise
situational dialogues by doing role plays,
such as in the medical clinic, at the
station, at the post office, in the restaurant
and in the shop
•4. Talking according to the picture: Show
students some cartoon pictures, or humorous
pictures. Let them talk freely.
•5. Short play: I find that students enjoy short
plays because students understand that the
atmosphere is cooperative -- students helping
each other understand the main points of the
reading. I asked my students to make a short
play about the text we have learned if possible.
•6-Watching and speaking: 1) Let students to
watch parts of cartoon film or some acts of TV
play without any sound and voice and ask some
of them to guess the meaning and talk about it.
2) Let one or two students watch and talk about
only pictures of film or TV play without any
sound. The other students imagine the scene by
listening to the students' talking with their backs
facing the TV set and then let them watch the
program to compare.
•7-Problem solving: Give students some
topic with some key words and ask them
to solve a certain problem. For example, if
you have these tools: a compass, a knife
and a tin, how can you survive in the
forest for a week?
•8. Games: Students love games. I try to choose
these games to have students practise.
•a) Twenty questions: One student has a word or
some expressions in his mind. Other students
guess the word by asking only general questions
and alternative questions. The student answers
them only with "yes" or " no". If the students
can guess the word or the expression in less
than twenty questions, they win, otherwise they
What Makes Speaking Difficult?
•Rate of delivery
•Stress, rhythm & intonation
Fluency vs. Accuracy
•Speaking at normal
or self-correction, and
with the smooth use
of connected speech
correct forms of
•What do you think is more important –
fluency or accuracy?
Choose the topic and the task
Give instructions or
training in discussion skills.
Keep students speaking the
Base tasks on
Tips for Teaching Speaking
•Use a range of techniques
•Capitalize on intrinsic motivation
•Use authentic language in meaningful
•Give feedback and be careful with
•Teach it in conjunction with listening
•Allow students to initiate communication
•Encourage speaking strategies
Principles of Teaching Speaking
•Provide something for the learners to talk
•Create opportunities for students to
interact by using groupwork or pairwork
•Manipulate physical arrangements to
promote speaking practice
Principles of Teaching Speaking
•Plan speaking tasks that involve
negotiation for meaning
•Design both transactional and
interpersonal speaking activities
•Personalize the speaking activities
•students actually have a strong desire to speak.
They are reluctant to speak because they are
afraid of making mistakes and failing to find
suitable words to express themselves well. If the
teach try to encourage them to speak by using
as many ways as possible and creating a good
language speaking environment, students will
speak actively, willingly and naturally. Speaking
as one of the four skills, can be mastered only
through practice. Practice makes perfect.