Teaching Speaking Skills

The aim of teaching a foreign language is to make students able to communicate well. Speaking is one of the four skills of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process. As a consequence of the fact that the communicative approach is increasingly used in EFL situation, we underline the importance of students’ communicative competence. Learners have serious problems in mastering the communicative skills due to the fact that curricula pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary. Listening and speaking skills are not considered as important parts of many course books and teachers do not seem to pay attention to these skills while designing lessons. Speaking levels of learners are different from each other as this ability is affected by crucial factors. In many English language classes, the methods focusing on grammar are used for teaching and this method has proved inadequate to the demands for producing efficient English speakers. Speaking is a complex and dynamic skill that involves the use of several simultaneous processes and a speaker needs to almost instantly activate knowledge and skills. In spite of its undisputed importance, speaking has been a rather neglected skill in second language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment. It is now widely accepted that speaking should be the basis of teaching practice and this is a serious challenge for English teachers; however, it is crucial in the development of English language communicative competence. However, there has been an increased focus on the speaking ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and teaching. This paper will briefly analyse the causes that create difficulties in speaking classes, in particular in the case of the advanced level of foreign language proficiency students. The difficulties examined concern the choosing of the appropriate framework and approach and suggest some speaking activities which seem appropriate for advanced language learners. Finally the paper will focus on a particular case that of preparing students for speaking tests they may sit for.