(SKKN 2022) HOW TO IMPROVE STUDENTS SPEAKING SKILL WHILE TEACHING OTHER SKILLS

Today's world requires that the goal of learning speaking English should develop students' communication skill so that students can express themselves and use the target language to stat

I INTRODUCTION

1 The reason why the topic is chosen

Speaking is a crucial part of language learning The mastery of speaking skill in English is a priority for many second or foreign language learners Nowadays, many learners even consider the ability to speak the language is the aim of language learning They often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English courses on the basic of how well they feel they have improved in the spoken language proficiency Despite its importance, for a long time, teaching speaking has been under valuated Traditional teaching methods have seemed to emphasize the learning of language system (rules of grammar and, lists of vocabulary items ) as a goal in its own right and failed to give learners an ability to gain realistic experiences in actually using the language knowledge gained Moreover, very often when people study a language, they accumulate a lot of 'up-in the head' knowledge, but then find that they can't actually use this language to express what they want to There seems to be some difficulties in moving language from 'up-there' knowledge to actively usable language Without experience in using the language, students may tend to be nervous about trying to say things Nowadays things have been different Today's world requires that the goal of learning speaking English should develop students' communication skill so that students can express themselves and use the target language to state opinions, express their feelings and exchange information Many new teaching methods have been introduced and applied to serve the basic need of English learners Among them, communicative approach and learner - centered approach seem to be the most effective ways to teach oral communication And we should apply these methods in teaching the four skills and focus on designing speaking

activities in appropriate stages of English lessons while teaching other skills so that students always have a lot of chances to practice speaking while learning English

In Viet Nam, there has been also a reform in teaching English in secondary schools as well as High schools The new series of textbooks presently used in secondary schools and high schools were designed in view of communicative language teaching method The topics of the lessons given in the textbooks are really interesting and based

on real - life situations that require communication

In spite of many efforts of teachers and others, the results we get from our students are unsatisfactory Students still complain that they find speaking lessons really stressful and thus speaking is a difficult skill

to master Many students, after studying English for years, have left school without being able to speak an intelligible sentence Therefore, in this writing I would like to tell you how to improve the students’ speaking skills while teaching English so that we can help students to improve their speaking skills But first of all, I would like to introduce something about the teaching and learning environment of the place where I teach

2 The teaching and learning environment.

2.1 Advantages:

Like some other regimes, there are some advantages and disadvantages for the teaching and learning of the language in my school

First, the students are very eager to learn the language They say that they want to learn English to listen to music, to read books, and especially

to communicate with foreigners This is to say that they have intrinsic motivation towards the learning and practicing speaking English

Second, it is the objective factors that influence the students' learning motivation The fact that our country has opened trade relations

with all countries in the world and implemented the policy of encouraging domestic and private investment and the joining WTO of our country have been an impetus for the students to learn to communicate in English for their jobs in the future In other words, this factor has motivated the students greatly

Third, as I have said above, the new series of textbooks were designed to serve communication need of students as well as in view of communicative language teaching method So students really have a lot

of chances to practice in real situations

Finally, high school students have been provided with necessary language knowledge such as vocabularies, grammatical rules as well as language competences so that they can have the ability to communicate in English in certain situations

2.2 Disadvantages

Besides the advantages discussed above, there are plenty of difficulties that affect the learning and teaching of the language in my school

To begin with, there are too many students in a class Normally, each class contains more than 40 students In addition, all of the classes are fixed with rows of desks This makes it difficult for teachers to organize communicative tasks and keep control of the class

Second, most of the students are not good at the language, especially their communicative competences are poor although they have been exposed to the new curriculum since they were in secondary school Normally most of them don’t know how to talk about the topic given They can’t make up the ideas to express in English because their vocabularies, structures are still limited Furthermore, they often look for

a specific word rather than using simple language to describe what is meant,

so it takes them a lot of time to be able to speak up a whole sentence

Many students find it very difficult to show their ideas in English due to nervousness and lack of confidence in front of the class They feel shy, they are afraid of being laughed at, being lost face with their friends when they have mistakes As a result, the class is tense and passive because students don’t want to say out their thought

Then although English is one of the core subjects, which are compulsory in final examinations at certain stages of the school education system, speaking skill is not usually included in their exams so sometimes students just learn English for written exams not for communication as the aim given

Grade Number of

students

Mark 5 and over Under mark 5

3 Statistics.

According to the survey carried out at the beginning of this school year, more than 70 % of the students reported that they are worried about their English They said that they could hardly make a simple conversation in English or express what they thought Importantly, most of them assumed that like writing, speaking is also difficult for them to master

II SOLUTIONS

1 Improving students’ speaking skill while teaching speaking itself.

There are many rules we must remember while teaching speaking so that we can help students improve their speaking skill:

1.1 Firstly, we must make sure that students feel safe and confident while they express themselves

Personally I think that, the first thing that teachers have to do to help students improve their speaking skill is that they have to help them overcome their feelings of shyness and nervousness when practicing English in their class One of the best ways to solve this problem is to put them in 'safe' situations in class where they are inspired and encouraged to try using the language from their 'store' Organizing communicative activities in pairs, in groups is also an effective way to serve this aim Working in pairs, in groups, students will feel less anxious than when they are 'on show' in front of the whole class together Moreover, pair - works and group - works can help shy students who would never say anything in a whole class activity have the confidence to open their mouths Students can also learn from each other's new ideas so that they will have something

to speak in front of the class later Another thing that teacher should remember to help students have confidence in speaking is teacher's positive corrections and feedbacks Making errors is a natural and unavoidable part of the learning process, but how to correct the students’ errors is particularly important You need to provide appropriate feedbacks and corrections, but don't interrupt the flow of communication Take notes while pairs or groups are talking and address problems to the class after the activity without embarrassing the student who made the error We can also write the errors on the board and ask who can correct it Teachers should encourage their students to speak whatever they can and focus on what they have got right, not on what they have got wrong We should also help them to develop positive attitudes towards their friends’ errors and to correct themselves Teachers should try to develop for themselves positive strategies of error corrections When students achieve success in oral communication, they will feel confident, secure and enjoy learning English; they will have confidence to take part in communicative activities later

1.2 Secondly, we must pay attention to warm - up activities

Warm - up is also an important part which contributes to the success

of a speaking lesson Warm - ups help our learners put aside their daily distractions and focus on English If they haven't used English all day, they may take a little while to shift into it Warm ups also encourage whole -group participation which can build a sense of community within the -group and they can help to arouse student' interest in speaking We should vary warm - up activities to attract our students' attention and interest because if they feel good about the lesson from the beginning they'll make a good contribution to it These may be a discussion, a picture describing activities

or playing a game, brainstorming, …etc In order to have a good preparation, the teacher does different things to arouse students’ interest, brainstorming, musical warmer, word card, etc Before a new lesson I often motivate the students by chatting to them about the topic of interest, giving them preparation tasks or quick warm-up to get them in the right mood for speaking Brainstorming is one of the simplest, but the most effective kind

of motivation because it takes a short time I can write key words on the blackboard and the class is encouraged to think of ideas, words, phrases associated with them

Example 1 : Speaking in unit 12 - English 10

When I teach speaking in unit 12 - English 10, I may present a picture of a famous singer or musician and asks them the following questions

1 Who is she?

2 Do you like her?

3 If not, who is your favorite singer?

4 What kind of music does she sing?

5 Teacher leads in new lesson

Example 2 : Speaking - Unit 15 - English 12

Teacher may raise some questions and ask students to discuss in pairs:

1 Do you think that women are as intelligent as men?

2 Do they have equal rights in the family and in the society?

Students ask and answer in pairs, then some students present their answer, teacher leads in new lesson

Example 3 : Speaking - unit 6 - English 12

T asks students to play a guessing game:" Find someone who "

Teacher divides the class into 2 groups:

Teacher gives some information about some popular and interesting jobs in the society and asks student to guess what job it is Each time they can guess they got one point

1.3 Thirdly, students must be well-prepared and instructed before they practice speaking.

Another point that makes it difficult for students to practice speaking is that their knowledge of the language is poor and they don't have ideas to talk about the topic; (their language competences, vocabulary and grammar are limited) so in order to help students practice, teachers have to provide them with necessary language input and give students clear instructions

Example 1: Task 2 – speaking - unit 7 - English 12

Teachers have to present some verbs used with the collocations given in the task by asking students to do the matching

Teachers also have to elicit the meaning of some words or phrase in the task Example 2: Speaking - unit11 - English 10

Before students practice, teachers have to present the form and use of conditional sentences type 3 which is used to express a regret about what you did in the past

Example 3 : Speaking - unit3 - English 12

Teacher presents some ways of giving and responding to compliments

Giving compliments Responding to compliments

You really have a beautiful

blouse, Barbara

Thank you, Phil That's a nice compliment

What a beautiful blouse it is! You've got to be kidding! I thought

it was terrible How beautiful you are! Thanks, Peter It's nice of you to say so Congratulation You've played so

well today!

Thank you Your compliment is really encouraging!

Your hairstyle is terrific

1.4 Fourthly, Varying communicative activities is also important

As I have just presented above, effective methods of teaching indirectly encourage oral interaction and they can provide motivation The direct way to promote oral communication is to provide students with opportunities to participate and to communicate with each other so that students can learn the language from speaking The more opportunities of speaking the language they have, the more fluent they become Actually, various activities in each lesson adds interest to students and can help with making students more dynamic and active In speaking, students will be motivated if teachers provide them with various communicative activities Below are some common speaking activities that I often carry out in my classes to make my speaking lessons more interesting and to motivate my students in practicing English:

a) Discussions: In a discussion students may aim to arrive at a conclusion,

share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant

to this purpose In a discussion teacher can form groups of 4 or 5 students Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large group because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups Generally speaking, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on

b) Role - play: One other way of getting students to speak is role - playing.

Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role - play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel

c) Information gaps: In this activity students are supposed to be working in

pairs One student will have the information that the other partner does not have and the partner will share their information Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language The aim of this activity is to get learners

to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanges of information and opinions

d) Brainstorming: This helps students produce ideas in a limited time The

good characteristics of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas Brainstorming

is one of the simplest, but the most effective kind of motivation because it takes a short time Teacher can write key words on the blackboard and the class is encouraged to think of ideas, words, phrases associated with them

e) Storytelling: students can briefly summarizes a tale or story they heard

from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Storytelling fosters creative thinking

f) Interviews: Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with

various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students

so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions

g) Reporting: Before coming to class, students are asked to read a

newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class

h) Group planning tasks: An example of this is planning a party or an

excursion for the whole group In this activity, teachers should allow them a good amount of time to prepare for a presentation in which they attempt to persuade the rest of the class to agree with their arrangements

i) Picture Narrating: This activity is based on several sequential pictures.

Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating

j) Picture Describing: One way to make use of pictures in a speaking

activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it

is in the picture For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, then

a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills

1.5 Last but not least, we should also pay attention to these points: