ARTICLE (Speaking skills and teaching strategies: the case of an EFL classroom)

Speaking skills and teaching strategies: the case of an EFL classroom

Intakhab Alam Khan King Abdulaziz

University Community college, Jeddah-Saudi Arabia.

                                                             Educational Technology

English is the lingua franca of the world, thus occupies an important place. English is a compulsion due to the reason that the knowledge of English is expected to enable us to establish intellectual, economic, social commercial and even diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.

According to authors such as Canale (1983), Nunan (1991, 2004) and Littlewood (2007), CLT (Communication Language Teaching) focuses on language as it is used in real contexts. Language for “real life” communication and so the students are given opportunities to express their ideas and opinions. The teacher acts as a facilitator during classroom activities so that students will ultimately be equipped with tools in order to generate a spontaneous language use outside the classrooms boundaries. It is rightly considered as the means of developing fluency in the real learning situation.

Step to speaking English and teaching strategies :

Topic.1: Introduce yourself The following questions are expectedly answered by the target learners:

·         What’s your name?

·         How old are you?

·         Where are you from?

·         What does your father do?

·         Where do you live?

·         How many brothers do you have?

·         Where do you study?

·         What are your hobbies?

Topic.2: Interview The following is a model of a job interview:

·         Can you tell me something about yourself?

·         What do you know about our organization?

·         Why do you want to work for us?

·         What can you do for us that someone else can't? 

The conclusion that strategies for learning/teaching speaking skill is extremely important in the modern educational scenario. The teachers should be able to use some technologies and motivate the target learners. Motivation is the most crucial issue of education in general in a place like Saudi Arabia, and technology can reinforce the learners to think positively about the learning of English as well. It is interesting to note that almost all the classrooms are well equipped with the latest technology so it becomes inevitable for teachers to integrate them and facilitate the target learners.