The Nature of Speaking in the Classroom: An Overview

Abstract

This article is a short review of a vital asset in the language acquisition process. It addresses speaking as a language skill that is used to be disregarded for many years with traditional instructional approaches to language acquisition or learning. This article probes into the main two types of speaking which are speaking in terms of use and speaking in terms of usage. It also addresses the significance of speaking activities in improving learners' language proficiency. To achieve this aim, the present paper is divided into seventh subsections. The first subsection provides an operational definition of speaking. The second subsection tackles two major types of speaking, namely speaking in terms of use and speaking in terms of usage. The third deals with the significance of adopting speaking activities in the classroom. The fourth probes into the various roles teachers play during speaking activities in the classroom. The fifth reviews the main components of communicative competence as cited by Canale and Swain (1980). The sixth explores the different conversational strategies speakers and students can resort to while speaking. The last subsection looks into the major speaking performances employed by teachers in their classrooms namely imitative, responsive, transactional, and interpersonal, to name but a few. The paper concludes with a sketchy sum up of what has been reviewed and addressed in this paper.