Teaching Speaking Skills in the Young Learners’ Classroom

Teaching speaking
What we have to keep in mind constantly when teaching young learners is the fact that they are a mixed class with varied abilities, motivations level, expectations, knowledge and different learning styles. Thus, we have to vary our approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold on to, expand and grow. To develop speaking skills basically need a closer look and further discussion among the teachers of young learner so that they will find guidelines to led students to get involved and interested in learning foreign language.
Learning to communicate in a foreign language, English for instance, is a process of very complex activities of language acquisition. For young learners, to start learning a foreign language is like to start learning one’s mother tongue. They need some more time to listen to a foreign language in the classroom and they should have also more chances to repeat some of the utterances they hear. According to Slattery and Willis in their book of English for Primary Teachers (2001:43), although repetition of set phrases does not mean that children are acquiring language, it is still very important. They argue that repetition prepares children for meaningful communication in several ways i.e. by helping them get used to saying English, by allowing them to practise the intonation pattern, and by enabling them to gain confidence, especially if the teacher gives a lot of praise. Accordingly, for teacher of YL it is suggested to open chances and more time for the learners to listen words, utterances, set of phrases as a process of developing learners’ speaking skill.
Teaching young learners is actually not as difficult as we imagine, they are like sponges, they absorb everything we say and how we say it. The ability of teachers in pronouncing every words, phrase and sentences is of vital important, since young learners will repeat exactly what they hear. It is believed that what young learners has been learned at an early stage is difficult to change later on. For this reason, the teacher can apply the rules i.e. slowly and steadily, through continual and constant revision and recycling. In addition, it should be cared by the teachers of young learners i.e. the relaxed and positive atmosphere of young learners’ classroom, as it is a decisive factor in achieving maximum results. There are many varied activities e.g. dialogues, songs, poems, rhymes, choral revision, and chants that can be adopted to grow students’ speaking abilities as well as to build their pronunciation. There should be paid more attention, when teachers of young learners applied the above-mentioned tools into their teaching practice i.e. that learners’ interaction as a way of learning. It means, teacher should emphasize and open as much chances as possible for the learners to practise pronouncing and speaking English either in the classroom or out of.
To be able to use English in communication, children need to acquire necessary vocabulary and structures. In the beginning stages of language learning, new vocabulary should be presented orally with extensive support of pictures, drawings, puppets, realia, video, and/or mime, gesture, facial expressions or acting out. Miming driving a car and presenting a picture of a car helps children grasp the meaning of ’drive’ and ’a car’ extremely quickly. So that, it is suggested that the teacher of young learner prepares materials for teaching young learners in the course of their pre-service teaching practice i.e. posters with town plans, masks with animal faces, puppets, puzzles, paper birthday cakes, birthday presents, balloons, videos that help all children learn the names of dangerous sports e.g. ’skydiving’, ’rock climbing’, ’rodeo riding’, ’scuba diving’ with big enjoyment.
Information gap activities provide appropriate opportunities for guided communication activities, while role plays lead children from fully to less controlled language use and prepare them for free speaking activities. ’Talking on the phone’ or ’having tea’ will intrinsically motivate children to take part in the activities because of the element of game and fun associated with them; if the classroom atmosphere is informal and non-competitive (Scott & Ytreberg 1990, 42), the activities will help children get ready for similar real-life contexts. Moreover, in such activities children don’t just use words, but also all other parts of speaking a language – tone of voice, stress, intonation, facial expressions, etc. (ibid., 41) which contributes to achieving fluency.