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Materials for Developing Speaking Skills

AB English (Western Mindanao State University)

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Materials for Developing Speaking Skills

Speaking skills and the need for relevant materials

One way to actually understand the notion of speaking skills, as suggested by Bygate (1987, pp. 5-6), is by
viewing them into two basic aspects: motor- receptive skills and interaction skills.

- It actually involves our mastery of the sounds and structures not necessarily in any particular context the
way you’re trying to learn the sound , the sound system of English language we are mastering the

Motor- receptive skills- involves a mastering of sounds and structures not necessarily in any particular context.

- the way the time you're trying to learn the sounds, the sound system of the English language we are
mastering the motor receptive skill. We have drills, we read words, we pronounce, we correct our
mistakes, and the likes that is part of the motor receptive skills.

Interaction Skills – involves making decisions about what and how to say things in specific communicative
situations to convey the right intentions or maintain relationship.

- the world is so complex and people have different beliefs so many principles or so many backgrounds,
very diverse everyone is you know all the people already diverse everybody is

different from anybody so that's why the interaction skills it is another skill that we have to master aside
from the motor receptive skills in order for us to be able to create or to have a good communication

This perception can be further understood by observing that these two sets of skills must not represent ‘clear-
cut distinctions’, (Littlewood, 1981, p. 16) but from the start structure must be taught in relation to use
( Johnson, 1982, p.22)

Arguably, speaking skills are best developed when learners learn to eventually take control of their own
performance from an insider perspective rather than being constantly dictated by external manipulation.

- because if the Learners have the sense of ownership and they can take control of it then they will be able
to have a very good sense of probably they can communicate with others no and they have external
manipulation on the conversation that they are holding like they they know how to do it they know
when to what to say how to handle a conversation and the

Second language materials, as viewed by Tomlinson (2020, 2011), should be created not only by writers but also
by teachers and learners, in a creative process which stretches to the real classroom.

Tomlinson’s perception coincides nicely with Nunan’s (1989) view that teaching communication should be seen
as a process rather a set of products.

Closely related to what Breen (1984, p.47) calls the ‘process syllabus’

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-we have to always make sure you are part of the process of grafting the syllables through that we are certain
that the students are involved in the creation of the material because the theory the syllabus is one of the
materials.

According to the syllables when materials are scripted by a writer they appear in the form of predesign plan
rather than the final production and are open to reinterpretation by the users of that plan for example teachers
and learners.

- whoever is the user may have a different interpretation and may have a different implementation of the
syllables because he has to localize it and

It is through such interaction the pre-designed sketches can be best processed and earned conditions to develop
into appropriate materials that promote language learning.

-it's true we do have the pre-design um exemplars or sketches, curriculum guides for example in DepEd and we
have the pre-designed, so it will be it will reach to the hands of the teachers at the but what we will do is as
teachers we have to make sure that it's open for tweaking in a way that w e tweak it because we want to localize
it and we want to guide to be personalized or to really address the needs of the Learners

In other words task implementation in the classroom actually serves a practical tool for Relevant materials to be
jointly created

- so you get something out from this and something out from the other and you graph it the teachers will do it
together with the learner so that it will be irrelevant to the needs of the students

This understanding helps explain why many course book activities composed from the writer’s own assumptions
while is regarding the users of the books often have problems working in the real classroom.

If materials are constructed for speaking skills, the interactive process by th designer and the users should take
place through speaking, since it would be unrealistic for participants to simply sit there and silently imagine how
talk might work from a written script. So we have some

Speaking Strategies

Introducing a topic Oh, by the way…….

Responding positively It’s very nice of you; Ok, great.

Giving time to think Well, let me see……

Clarifying Sorry, what was that?

Correcting No, not……..

TRENDS IN MATERIALS FOR SPEAKING SKILLS

 Materials published over the past five decades have been clear indicators of how the key principles of
communicative approaches are incorporated into speaking activities.

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1. In the mid -1960s, the learning of linguistic systems was emphasized as the main method to master a
second language (Johnson, 1982), the 1970s witnessed a Developing Materials for Speaking Skills
409 ‘communicative revolution’ (McDonough, 1993, p.20) in which ‘meaningful activities’
(Mockridge-Fong, 1979, p.91 replaced mechanical language exercises.

2. The 1980s saw attempts to make the communicative approach less extreme, so as not to put too
much emphasis on use and ignore the learners’ need for linguistic knowledge (Morrow, 1983; Scott,
1983; Swan 1983, 1985; Dubin and Olshtain, 1986).

- Examples of the reaction against the strong version of the communicative approach were the criticism
that the new methodology was attempting to replace the structural approach (Dubin and Olshtain,
1986).

3. The early 1990s saw the idea of a multidimensional syllabus becoming more explicitly and
systematically addressed, which opened up new possibilities for encompassing a more
comprehensive series of teaching dimensions such as functions and notions, roles and skills, themes
and situations.

- The main purpose of this type of syllabus, as pointed out by (McDonough and Shaw, 1993, p. 50), is ‘to
build on a range of communicative criteria at the same as acknowledging the need to provide systematic
practice in the formal proprieties of the language’.

4. The recognition of learner differences and the importance of divergent responses in learning have
been reflected in materials developments over the decades.

- Educators and materials writers alike demonstrated a tendency to resist activities in which discussions
invite right and wrong answers because that would reduce learning complexity

 The concept ‘textbook’ might imply that teachers are somehow ‘deficient’ in their ability and knowledge
and thus have to solely rely on the textbook as their primary source of knowledge.

- if we are very bookish, it's really different when you talk about something and you experience then you
talk about something and you're just more on the theories there is no practical you don't have any
practical examples or situations that would make it more comprehensive

 A textbook can become a ‘tyrant’ within the classroom (Williams, 1983), demanding there be no room
for deviation from it or for personalized learning.

Since the classroom environment is often not heterogeneous but mixed to some degree in linguistic proficiency,
interpersonal skill, age, academic background, gender, personality, language aptitude, learning style and other
factors, one of the major concerns of language materials is the capability of ‘catering for the diversity of needs
which exists in most language classrooms’. (Nunan, 1991, p. 209).

- For example of this trend, let us examine three activity samples that deal with a similar theme, namely
describing objects, taken from three English coursebooks published in 1978, 1991, and 1999.

UTILIZING VERBAL SOURCES FROM REAL LIFE

Preparing materials might just be one-third of the job, that is providing opportunities for learning. Implementing
and modifying them are what helps bridge the gap between plans and effects.

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 To modify materials, besides printed sources such as magazine articles or pictures as a springboard for
communication, course developers can also utilize many verbal interactions taken from real life and in
the classroom.

One method to seek for practical teaching ideas, as suggested by Tay (1988) is by taping learners’ peer group
interaction in the target language and analyzing it.

 It is through this type of exercise that typical conversational difficulties or obstacles can be identified and
translated into problem- based strategies for the teaching verbal communication

Another method is by finding opportunities to compare naturally occurring conversations with the designer’s
versions which deal with the same topic.

 Researchers have provided evidence that many conversations composed from the writer’s own
assumptions of spoken language do not always reflect actual contexts of use, especially when they skip
over many essential strategies required by real- life communication situations.

Keeping a diary might also be a realistic way to collect resources for designing speaking activities with.

 Such resources can come from overhearing conversations in a public places, from radio or televisions
interviews, from watching drama or movies, or even from our interaction with native speakers in the
target language.

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