knowledge of language

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