INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL «GLOBAL SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS 2023: CENTRAL ASIA» ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN, APRIL 2023 77 clearly, fluently and efficiently contributes to the success of the learners in school and success in
their future life.
Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay considerable attention to teaching
speaking, rather than leading the students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment
where meaningful communication takes place is desired. In this regard the present article defines
and describes main types of speaking activities which can be used in English classes for developing
fluency.
The article also presents the analysis of those speaking activities and shows which of them
are more preferable by English language teachers.
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance,
for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have
continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However,
today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative
skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the
social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance.
In designing speaking activities or instructional materials for second language or foreign-
language teaching, it is also important to recognize the very different functions speaking performs
in daily communication and the different purposes for which the students need speaking skills.
Here are some techniques for developing students’ speech fluency in teaching English to
school students in Kazakhstan:
The following
speaking fluency activities make use of repetition and rehearsal and are
discreet activities. It is also possible for theme-based work over several days to develop into
fluency development opportunities. One of the most effective speaking activities are role plays,
drama, discussion, jigsaw activities, simulations, debates etc.
In
role plays activities , students are assigned roles and put into situations that they may
eventually encounter outside the classroom. As role plays imitate life, the range of language
functions that may be used expands considerably. Also, the role relationships among the students
as they play their parts call for them to practice and develop their speaking skills and
sociolinguistic competence. They have to use language that is appropriate to the situation and to
the characters.
Drama refers more to informal drama as it is used in the language classroom and not on
stage. The participants in the drama activities are thus learners and not actors. Drama provides an
opportunity for a person to express himself through verbal expressions and gestures using his
imagination and memory. Drama undoubtedly improves oral communication. As a form of
communication methodology, drama provides the opportunities for the students to use language
meaningfully and appropriately.
In
discussion activities the students may have an aim to arrive to a conclusion, share ideas
about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, the teacher sets
the purpose of the discussion activity, so students do not spend their time chatting with each other
about irrelevant things. This activity fosters speaking skills, critical thinking and quick decision
making. The students also learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while
disagreeing with the others.
Jigsaw activities are more elaborate information gap activities that can be done with several
partners. In a jigsaw activity, each partner has one or a few pieces of the "puzzle", and the partners
must cooperate to fit all the pieces into a whole picture. The puzzle piece may take one of several
forms. It may be one panel from a comic strip or one photo from a set that tells a story. It may be
one sentence from a written narrative. It may be a tape recording of a conversation, in which case
no two partners hear exactly the same conversation.