Speaking
Skill
A. Definition of Speaking
Tarigan (1990:3-4) defines that
speaking is a language skill that is developed in child life, which is produced
by listening skill, and at that period speaking skill is learned.
Based on Competence Based Curriculum
speaking is one of the four basic competences that the students should gain
well. It has an important role in communication. Speaking can find in spoken
cycle especially in Joint Construction of Text stage (Departmen Pendidikan
Nasional, 2004). In carrying out speaking, students face some difficulties one
of them is about language its self. In fact, most of students get difficulties
to speak even though they have a lot of vocabularies and have written them
well. The problems are afraid for students to make mistakes.
Speaking is the productive skill. It
could not be separated from listening. When we speak we produce the text and it
should be meaningful. In the nature of communication, we can find the speaker,
the listener, the message and the feedback. Speaking could not be separated
from pronunciation as it encourages learners to learn the English sounds.
Harmer, (in Tarigan, 1990: 12)
writes that when teaching speaking or producing skill, we can apply three major
stages, those are:
1)
Introducing
new language
2)
Practice
3)
Communicative
activity.
Speaking has been regarded as merely
implementation and variation, outside the domain of language and linguistic
proper. Linguistic theory has mostly developed in abstraction from context of use
and source of diversity. Therefore, Clark and Clark (in Nunan, 1991: 23) said
that speaking is fundamentally an instrument act. Speakers talk in order to
have some effect on their listener. It is the result of teaching learning
process. Students’ skill in conversation is core aspect in teaching speaking,
it becomes vitally aspect in language teaching learning success if language
function as a system for expression meaning, as Nunan (1991:39) states that the
successful in speaking is measured through someone ability to carry out a
conversation in the language. We confess that there are many proponent factors
that influence teaching speaking success and there are many obstacle factors
why it is not running well.
According to Ladouse (in Nunan,
1991: 23) speaking is described as the activity as the ability to express
oneself in the situation, or the activity to report acts, or situation in
precise words or the ability to converse or to express a sequence of ideas
fluently. Furthermore, Tarigan (1990: 8)
said that “Berbicara adalah cara untuk
berkomunikasi yang berpengaruh hidup kita sehari-hari”. It means that
speaking as the way of communication influences our individual life strongly.
From the explanation above, the
researcher concludes that speaking is what we say to what we see, feel and
think. When we feel something, we want someone can hear us. So, in this process
we can call it is an interaction between two sides.
When someone speak to other person,
there will be a relationship. The relationship itself is communication.
Furthermore, Wilson (1983:5) defines speaking as development of the
relationship between speaker and listener. In addition speaking determining
which logical linguistic, psychological a physical rules should be applied in a
given communicate situation”. It means that the main objective of speaking is
for communication. In order to express effectively, the speaker should know
exactly what he/she wants to speak or to communicate, he/she has to be able to
evaluate the effects of his/her communication to his/her listener, he/she has
to understand any principle that based his speaking either in general or in
individual.
Based on the statements above the
researcher infers that if someone speaks, he/she should understand what is
he/she about. In this section, the writer should develop ideas or build some
topics to be talked and to make other responds to what speakers says.
Stern (in Risnadedi, 2001: 56-57)
said watch a small child’s speech development. First he listens, then he
speaks, understanding always produces speaking. Therefore this must be the
right order of presenting the skills in a foreign language. In this learning of
language included speaking, there is an activity of speaker or learner and it
has to have an effect to build speaker’s or learner’s desires and express how
his/her feeling and acting out his/her attitudes through speaking. Thus the
learning of speaking can not be separated from language.
On the other hand, speaking can be
called as oral communication and speaking is one of skills in English learning.
This become one important subject that teacher should given. That is why the
teachers have big challenge to enable their students to master English well,
especially speaking English in class or out of the class.
Wallace (1978:98) stated that oral
practice (speaking) becomes meaningful to students when they have to pay
attention what they are saying. Thus,
the students can learn better on how to require the ability to converse or to
express their ideas fluently with precise vocabularies and good or acceptable
pronunciation.
Speaking ability is the students’
ability in expressing their ideas orally which is represented by the scores of
speaking. Speaking is only an oral trail of abilities that it got from
structure and vocabulary, Freeman (in Risnadedi, 2001: 56-57) stated that
speaking ability more complex and difficult than people assume, and speaking
study like study other cases in study of language, naturalize many case to
language teachers.
B. Speaking is Productive Skill
Speaking is the productive skill. It
cannot be separated from listening. When we speak we produce the text and it
should be meaningful. In the nature of communication, we can find the speaker,
the listener, the message and the feedback.
Speaking cannot be separated from
pronunciation as it encourages learners to learn the English sound.
C.
Assessing
Speaking
Assessment is an ongoing process
that encompasses a much wider domain. Whenever a student responds to a
question, offers a comment, or tries out a new word or structure, the teacher
subconsciously makes an assessment of students’ performance. Written work-from
a jotted down phrase to a formal essay is performance that ultimately is
assessed by self, teacher and possibly other students (Brown, 2003:4).
Brown (2003:141) states as with all
effective tests, designing appropriate assessment tasks in speaking begins with
the specification of objective or criteria. Those objectives may be classified
in term of several types of speaking performance:
1.
Imitative
At one end of a continuum of types
of speaking performance is the ability to simply parrot back (imitate) a word
or phrase or possibly a sentence. While this is purely phonetic level of oral
production, a number of prosodic, lexical and grammatical properties of
language may be conclude in the criterion performance.
2.
Intensive
A second type of speaking frequently
employed in assessment contexts is the production of short stretches of oral
language designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical,
phrasal, lexical of phonological relationship (such as prosodic
element-intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture). Examples of extensive assessment
tasks include directed response tasks, reading aloud, sentence and dialogue
completion limited picture-cued task including simple sequences and
relationship up to the simple sentence level.
3.
Responsive
Responsive assessment tasks included
interaction and test comprehension but at the somewhat limited level of very
short conversations, standard greetings and a small talk, simple request and
comments and the like.
D.
Technique of
Teaching Speaking
Harmer (in Tarigan, 1990: 13) writes
that when teaching speaking or producing skill, we can apply three major stage,
those are:
1.
introducing
new language
2.
practice
3.
communicative
activities.
When introducing new language, the
teacher should find out the genre or the text, which is meaningful. In this
stage teacher can ask students to pronounce the unfamiliar words, find out the
meaning of the expression used in the text.
Other technique used for teaching
speaking:
1.
information
gap by using pictures
2.
by using
photographs
3.
by using
song
4.
by using
mysterious thing
5.
Educational
drama which covers miming, role play, the empty chair, simulation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Language Assessment Principle and Classroom
Practice. New York: Longman. Get
the Book Here
Departemen Pendidikan Nasional.
2006. Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan
(KTSP). Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan Nasional. Get the Book Here
Nunan, David. 1991. Research Methods in Language Learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Get
the Book Here
Risnadedi, (2001), “Developing Students` Speaking Ability”. Journal
of SMP Negeri 17 Pekan Baru. (7).
56-58.
Tarigan, H. Guntur. 2008. Berbicara: Sebagai Suatu Keterampilan
Berbahasa. Bandung: Angkasa. Get
the Book Here
Wallace, D’Arcy-Adrian. 1978. Junior
Comprehension 1. England: Longman. Get the Book Here
Wilson, S. 1983. Living English
Structure. London: Longman. Get
the Book Here
