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The importance of English speaking skills
The importance of English speaking skills
The importance of English speaking skills
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Introduction
Enhancing EFL learners' speaking proficiency and fluency has always drawn the attention of both learners and specially instructors. Becoming a more fluent speaker of English is a very highly ranked goal among learners of English. The learners should bear in mind that becoming a fluent speaker of a language is a gradual process which requires a lot of persistence and practice. Fluency and accuracy can be regarded as two opposing plates of a weighing scale: as one side goes up, the other goes down. The learners maybe able to significantly increase their fluency by temporarily disregarding accuracy. We can only help our students become fluent after we have enlarged and restructured our concept of what fluency means. Since the instructors
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1), and it can be beneficial to learners’ academic achievement as well as professional success (Saunders & O’Brien, 2006). As an important aspect of language skills, English speaking should not be devalued but be “developed in its own right” (Goh, 2005, p. 105). Therefore, good speaking competence is essential to English learners, especially for those English majors at normal universities, for English teaching is likely to be their lifelong career.
(Chambers, 1997,p.536) contrasting fluency to accuracy, There has been a remarkable use of the word fluency in ELT contexts.
Speaking competence mainly covers speaking accuracy and fluency.
Speaking accuracy indicates “the extent to which the language produced conforms to target language norms” (Yuan & Ellis, 2003, p. 2), which involves the correct use of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Speaking fluency refers to the ability to produce the spoken language “without undue pausing or hesitation” (Skehan, 1996, p. 22).
Concerning improving speaking fluency and accuracy, Wang (2007) stated that speaking occurs spontaneously and transiently in real time, so producing spoken language can be very time-constraint. They could be influenced by cognitive factors, linguistic factors and affective
“Let Them Talk!” written by Wayne E. Wright is an article that focuses on the idea of promoting English Language Learners (ELL) oral-language skills in the classroom instruction time to improve their literacy and academic achievement. Too often are an ELL’s speaking and listening skills overlooked and not given enough attention to, even though it is one of the most important parts of communication. Wright encourages teachers working with ELL students to allow time for the student to adjust, not to pressure them into their language development, respect their various stages, bring them into whole class and small group discussions, correct simple language errors in speaking that impeded comprehension, and have them interact and communicate in the classroom for meaningful purposes.
Teachers who work with English Language Learners know that academic language takes longer to achieve proficiency in than does conversational language. On average, ELL students need at least two years to achieve conversational language and, five to nine years to develop academic language proficiency. Many English words ELL students are exposed to in school, they have not yet learned or even heard in their first language, which makes transference of knowledge impossible. The vast differences in the ability to use conversational versus academic language can be a hindrance to these students and have lasting effects on their academics and therefore, their lives.
In many cases, only the verbal aspects are taken into consideration. This is usually referred to as verbal intelligence or verbal fluency, and is commonly a reflection of an individual's overall linguistic intelligence
All students begin school with different levels of literacy development; English-speaking natives have obtained oral language proficiency in English which helps t...
racie Allen of the comedy team of Burns and Allen was once asked how one should speak French. She replied, “Well, you speak it the same way you speak English; you just use different words.” When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation, building background, and comprehensible input, we can indeed teach our future English language learners all the right moves with all the right words.
The purpose of this assignment is to explain the impact of English language learners in the classroom. As a foreign student, English language learner in the United States faces multiple challenges for achieving academic success. To successfully complete a task, they need to master both English as a language and how it is used in core content classes especially when they are an adult. When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation,
Solley, J. (2014, February 18). Literacy for the 21st century: fluency. [Presentation] Powerpoint presented during in-class lecture. Davie, FL.
The research on fluency has been both extensive and a labor of love by those who carry the passion of obtaining true automaticity and generalization in the realm of reading fluency and comprehe...
Being different from other species in the world, we, the human, occupy our own language and thought. We use the words that we have learnt to express what is in our mind, as well as the emotion since we learnt how to talk. In modern days, the conversation skills is more and more emphasized and it becomes one of the skills that we need to possess in order to survive. Therefore, learning how to speak and why we need to speak appropriately becomes the tasks that we need to consider in our live.
Many researchers like Krashen (1985), Harmer (2007), and Turnbull (2001) emphasise that in most EFL (English as a foreign language) environment, a teacher’s English proficiency ...
Lennon, P. (2006, October 27). Investigating Fluency in EFL: A Quantitative Approach*. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb00669.x/abstract
Language is a tool for people communicating; with its development and increasing diversity, people gradually become unsatisfied by using language, as a communication method, barely to understand, instead, they are eager to interpret. They would like to know a person’s personality through his or her language speaking; they are more intended to judge others through the superficial language skill. An invisible standard continuously forms that people who have a higher language skill deserve more respect and may lead more self-confidence. However, this fact is highly controversial due to various sources which depict the correlation between language, especially English competence, and a person’s self-competence.
Accuracy is a key component of fluency. Accuracy is the ability to read by recognizing the words automatically without mistakes. (Rasinski, 2003). Actually, fluency is an integral part of accuracy. To reach the stage of fluency, the reader must first achieve a level of accuracy in reading. Reading accurately means automatic reading without errors. For the reader to reach this stage, the reader must practice reading constantly, especially repeating words that the reader does not know. Repetition helps the reader to memorize and pronounce the word correctly, helping to read it correctly automatically, and then reach the fluency stage. Historically, the conditions of emergence of this standard could be linked to early efforts of scholarly works psychologically, philosophically, and sociologically. One rote of this standard could be linked
But just speaking fluently will not be enough. To develop our language skills of English and personality, we have to be very confident on what we talk and be a patient listener towards another person so as to what he is talking. One of the important factors is the body language. Speaking only with your words isn’t enough, we ought to coordinate our movements of eyes and hands with the words we speak to have an effective image of our visualizations of the speech. How to do so? We have to maintain eye contact with the person and a proper body language which includes head tilting, the movement of our fingers and arms, shaking of our hands and also scratching of feet and chin. When we talking it has to be a fluent interaction with others therefore one must think before we speak. We must always use simple words while talking as it creates an impression of effortless speech. We must choose polite and gentle words as it sprinkles the tinge of softness in our character. These characteristics will surely help to shape the personality but to hold it remains another vital component that is, confidence. Being positive will make us more confident. This will help us to give your best in whatever we do. We have to be confident than what we think we are, because our confidence level will reflect in our character. Being confident will make us more independent and will help us to face the crowd. Confidence
People live in the world of communication. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Moore, 1997), communication is defined as, “The activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information”. The significance of communication can be found within the context of a human existing as a social being. As a human being manages his or her life in the course of the interaction between other members of the entire society, communication is inevitable. Communication occurs through the medium of a language and it is presented in two different forms which are written and spoken (Brown & Yule, 1983: 1-10). The importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over the written performance capability. It is because the ability to speak a language reflects a person’s personality, self image, knowledge of the world, ability to reason, skill to express thoughts in real-time (Luoma, 2004: ix). These days, due to the global trend of internationalisation, the ability to communicate in English is needed as an essential skill. Whenever the international exchange happens, the use of spoken English entails. However, it is not always an easy task for people who use English as a second language to be able to speak to the level of a native speaker. They have to perfectly understand the sound system of English, have almost instant access to proper vocabulary and be able to place words together intelligibly without hesitation. Moreover, they also have to perceive what is being said to them and need to be able to respond appropriately to acquire amiable relations or to accomplish their communicative goals (Luoma, 2004: ix). Therefore, non-native English speakers encounter these barriers and they are subject to make mistakes often. In relation to this matter, this essay argues that there are socio-cultural factors as well as linguistic factors that affect non-native speakers’ communication in English. It provides analysis of several different situations when the use of spoken English has generated miscommunication problems in regards to author’s personal experience.