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CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL SPEAKING ACTIVITY
IN ESP CLASSES
Mirzaakhmedova Nigora Ashimovna,
teacher of the department
“Foreign languages” of TIACE
Abstract
There are really simple and popular ways to study English speaking with a better
result. Each of them can be applied many small techniques. Due to the limitation of this
research, only the capability of some techniques in studying English-speaking skill will
be presented. The capability will concentrate on some suggested techniques to help
students to take more pleasure and effectiveness in learning speaking skill.
Annotatsiya
Ingliz tilini yaxshiroq o'rganishning oddiy va mashhur usullari mavjud. Ularning har
biri ko'plab kichik texnikani qo'llashi mumkin. Ushbu tadqiqotning cheklanganligi
sababli, faqat ingliz tilida so'zlash qobiliyatini o'rganishda ba'zi usullarning imkoniyatlari
taqdim etiladi. Imkoniyat o'quvchilarga nutq mahoratini o'rganishda ko'proq zavq va
samaradorlik olishga yordam beradigan ba'zi tavsiya etilgan usullarga e'tibor qaratadi.
Аннотация
Действительно существуют простые и популярные способы изучения
разговорного английского с лучшим результатом. К каждому из них можно
применить множество мелких техник. Из-за ограниченности этого исследования
будут представлены только возможности некоторых методов изучения
английского языка. Возможности будут сосредоточены на некоторых
предлагаемых методах, которые помогут учащимся получать больше удовольствия
и эффективности от изучения навыков разговорной речи.
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Speaking seems one of the most important aspects in language learning: people who
know a language are referred to as speakers of that language, as if speaking included all
other kinds of knowing and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily
interested in learning to speak. Teaching speaking is not an easy job. Some teachers get
very involved with their students during a speaking activity and want to join in too. There
is nothing wrong with teacher getting involved of course provided they do not start to
dominate. Although it is probably better to stand back so that the teacher can watch and
listen to what is going on, students can also appreciate teacher participation at the
appropriate level – in other words, not too much.
I. Teacher’s Roles. According to Byrne (1997:2), the teachers also need to know
their roles in teaching speaking. They have specific roles at different stages, as follows:
1) The presenting stage (when the teachers introduce something new to be learned), the
teachers play a role as informant. 2) The practice stage (when the teachers allow the
learners to work under their direction), the teachers have a role as conductor and monitor.
3) The production stage (when the teachers give the learners opportunity to work on their
own).
Besides these three roles of each stage, there is another key role that cuts across
them: namely, the teachers as motivator. The teachers must be able to motivate their
students in order to arouse their interest and involve them in what they are doing. There
are some factors which determine their ability to improve their students’ speaking skill,
namely: their performance (the mastery of teaching skills, the selection and presentation
of topics and activities, the teacher’s personality).
II. Characteristics of Successful speaking activity. The goal of teaching speaking
is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood,
using their current proficiency to the fullest. They also should observe the social and
cultural rules that apply in each communication situations. According to Ur (1999: 120),
there are some characteristics of a successful speaking activity: 1. Learners talk a lot. As
much as possible of the period allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk.
This may seem obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses. 2.
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Participation is even. A minority of talkative participants does not dominate classroom
discussion: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are evenly distributed. 3.
Motivation is high. Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested in topic and
have something new to say about it, or just because they want to contribute to achieving
a task objective. 4. Language is of an acceptable level. Learners express themselves in
utterance that is relevant, easily comprehensive to each other, and of an acceptable level
of language accuracy.
III. Problems with Speaking Activities. According to (Lynch, Tony, 1996:121-
122), there are some problems faced by the learners in speaking activities. The problems
include inhibition, the lack of theme to be spoken, the low of participation, and the use of
mother tongue. Those problems can be explained as follows: Inhibition. Unlike reading,
writing and listening activities, speaking requires some real time exposures to an
audience. Learners are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language in
the classroom, such as worried about mistakes, fearful of criticism, or shy of the attention
that their speech attracts. The lack of theme to be spoken. Some learners get the
difficulties in thinking of anything to say, they have no motivation to express themselves
beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking. The low participation. Only one
participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard. In a large group, this means that
each one will have only very little time to talk. This problem is compounded by the
tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all. The
use of mother tongue. In a number of classes, the learners share the same mother tongue.
They may tend to use it because of some reasons. Firstly, it is easier. Secondly, it feels
unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language. The last, they feel less “exposed”
if they are speaking their mother tongue. If they are talking in small groups, it can be quite
difficult to keep using the target language.
IV. Solutions for the Problems of Speaking Activities. There are some solutions
that can be selected to overcome the problems in speaking activity (Lynch, Tony,
1996:121-122). These are:
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1) Use group work. This increases the sheer amount of student talk going on in a
limited period of time and also lowers the inhibitions of students who are unwilling to
speak in front of the full class. It is true that group work means the teacher can not
supervise all students speech, so that not all utterances will be correct, and students may
occasionally slip into their native language; nevertheless, even taking into consideration
occasional mistakes and mother tongue use, the amount of time remaining for positive,
useful oral practice is still likely to be far more than in the full-class-set up.
2) Base the activity on easy language. In general, the level of the language needed
for a discussion should be lower than used in intensive language learning activities in the
same class. It should be easily recalled and produced by the participants, so that they can
speak fluently with the minimum of hesitation. It is a good idea to teach or review
essential vocabulary before the activity starts.
3) Make a careful choice of topic and task to stimulate interest.
4) Give some instruction or training in discussion skills. If the task is based on group
discussion then include instructions about participation when introducing it. For example,
tell students to make sure that everyone in the group contributes to the discussion appoints
a chairperson to each group who will regulate participation.
5) Keep students speaking the target language? Teachers might appoint one of the
groups as a monitor, whose job is to remind participants to use the target language, and
perhaps report later to teacher how well the group managed to keep it.
On the whole, the clearer the purpose of the discussion the more active participants
will be. A good topic is one which students can relate using ideas from their own
experience and knowledge. It should also represent a genuine controversy. Some
questions or suggested lines of thought can help to stimulate discussion. A task is
essentially goal-oriented. It requires the group, or pair, to achieve an objective that is
usually expressed by an observable result such as brief notes or lists, a rearrangement of
jumbled items, a drawing, and a spoken summary. Overall, using interactive activities has
become one of the most effective ways of improving speaking skill.
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References
1. Byrne, Donn. 1997. Teaching Oral English. England: Addison Wesley Longman
Limited.
2. Fraser, M.A. (1991). Communication language teaching: The State of Art.
TESOL, Quarterly.
3. Gate, M. (2003). Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education;
Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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