Unit 8 Speaking

  Unit 8 

Speaking 

(Taken from: https://pixabay.com/photos/businessman-man-afraid-angry-3036181/)

Speaking forms part of the four language skills. It is about producing language rather than receiving it.

Speaking is the use of speech to communicate meanings to others.

According to Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams (2011), there are some things that we usually do when speaking. For example, we pronounce words, we use the language to ask and give information as well as answering questions, to do that we need to know grammar and vocabulary, use of the word and sentence stress as intonation too. Sometimes we paraphrase the things we listen. Hesitation is another thing we do because the ideas come quickly and they do not stay for long.

Speaking and its subskills are the act of using grammar, vocabulary, and functions, and appropriately registered, connected speech, body language that is very important to express oneself, produce text types, fluency, and interaction with others. All these subskills are used to communicate something.

Some interactive strategies that help to express our speech such as body language that involves gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, and movements. Functions are required too, some reasons to speak are to clarify what a person wants to say, to ask others’ opinions, to agree, and to interact. Turn-taking in this strategy intonation and body language helps to know when the other participant can talk. When someone cannot understand the message, paraphrasing is one option to do.

The features of connected speech are necessary to convey messages such as intonation, stress, linking, and contractions. For successful oral communication, fluency avoids listeners to get bored and to understand the message without hesitation. Accuracy helps to deliver clear information. Appropriacy talks about the level of formality in which a speaker can feel comfortable in the situation he is. Text types are needed to develop a perfect conversation, there are phone calls, presentations, or tell a story.

(Video taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAU2zx2Ri_M)

From this Unit, I learned about speaking, this skill helps us to communicate what we think. In addition, it is very important to use body language to help listeners to comprehend the interaction. Hesitation is something that most speakers do, it is inevitable because we are thinking while speaking, and sometimes getting ideas is difficult. Appropriation is another feature that people have to develop and to be in a perfect time with the correct words.

As future teachers, Gantenhammer, D. (2015, November 12), recommend some activities.

One activity that we can use is storytelling. In this part, students will use body language to interpret it as well as intonation and stress in words and sentences to give the necessary impact of the story. 

Another activity can be impromptu speaking. This activity develops a turn-taking strategy because students will have a picture and a number in which they have to speak about it and respect their turn.

Bibliography

Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Tkt, Teaching Knowledge Test, course: modules 1, 2 and 3. Cambridge University Press.

Gantenhammer, D. (2015, November 12). 12 Fun Speaking Games for Language Learners. https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/12-fun-speaking-games-language-learners.

Extra material:

Bolen, J. (2020, September 9). Kids ESL Speaking Games: Top 20: ESL Speaking Activity. https://eslspeaking.org/kids-esl-speaking-games/.

Bolen, J. (2020, October 21). Top 26 English Conversation Activities for Adults: ESL Conversation. https://www.eslactivity.org/top-7-english-conversation-activities-for-adults/.