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PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL
Abdullajonova Sabrin UzSWLU,
First English faculty Course-1,
Group-2207 Supervisor:
Inogamova Nafisa
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the difficulties and causes perceived by English Department
students in learning speaking and the efforts made by them to overcome their
difficulties. The prevalent problem faced by the students was ‘lack of vocabulary’,
while ‘being afraid of making mistakes’ was the prime cause of problem which
hindered them to speak.
Keywords:
speaking, difficulty, cause, effort, solution.
In learning English language, speaking is one of the skills that need to be mastered by
students in order to be able to have good communication with others. Speaking is
considered as a necessary skill, because it plays essential role in facilitating students
in mastering English. It helps students to express themselves better when speaking.
Nunan (1991) explained that for most people, mastering speaking skill is the most
essential aspect of learning a foreign language. Furthermore, according to Mc
Donough and Shaw (2002:126) “in many contexts, speaking is often the skill upon
which a person is judged at face value". It means, people can often judge our language
competence from your speaking skills in preference to any other language skills.
Speaking is considered difficult to apply compared to other skills. As a matter of fact,
there are many students who had learnt English from high school even university still
find it difficult to express their idea in oral form. They can read or write better, but
face some difficulties in speaking caused by linguistic problem.
The factors causing the speaking problems are lack of general knowledge, lack of
speaking practice, fear of mistake, lack of words usage and grammar practice, low
motivation, low participation, reading laziness, shyness, less dictionary usage,
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nervousness, fear of criticism, and unfamiliar words pronunciation.
Horwitz’s conceptualization of speaking problem in Asman (2011), explained six
factors that contribute to speaking problems, they are classified into two linguistic and
nonlinguistic problems. Linguistic problems are divided into three called lack of
vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Nonlinguistic problems also classified into
three called fear of making mistake, lack of confident, and apprehension of other
evaluation.
The lack of vocabulary leads to communicative barriers, particularly the majority of
the second and foreign-language speakers struggle to speak the language due to
insufficient vocabulary. Far more common reason for getting stuck for words, though,
is lack of adequate active vocabulary. Active, unlike passive, vocabulary is the
vocabulary that you can use in speech and writing. In a nutshell, vocabulary is
important because it's the basis of all language. It's the raw building blocks that we
can use to express our thoughts and ideas, share information, understand others and
grow personal relationships. As for preventing this problem, the suggestions proposed
by Brown (2001) can be considered, namely the lecturers allocate specific class time
to vocabulary learning, help students to learn vocabulary in context, play down the
role of bilingual dictionary , encourage developing strategies for determining the
meaning of words, and engage in “unplanned activities".
If you’ve ever tried to speak a foreign language you would probably have realized that
apart from learning the vocabulary and the grammar, just being able to pronounce the
words can be a challenge in itself. Foreign words feel different in our mouths because
we probably have not had much practice making the sounds of that language or certain
sounds don’t exist in our language. However, whatever language we are learning we
can be sure that other people are having similar, if not the same, problems - especially
if we speak the same first language. Stressing individual words incorrectly, stressing
the wrong words in a sentence, pronouncing certain consonant sounds incorrectly,
mixing up short and long vowel sounds are the major problems in pronunciation. Here
are some tips for you to practice and perfect your pronunciation.
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1.
Listen! Listening to examples of authentic speech is the most obvious way to
improve your own pronunciation.
2.
Record yourself.
3.
Get to know the phonemic chart.
4.
Use a dictionary.
Another factor comes from psychological or nonlinguistic problems called: Lack of
confident and fear of making mistake. Horwitz (1986:127) claim that “the
psychological component contributes at least as much and often more to language
learning than the linguistic aspect”.
The fear of making mistakes becomes worst when somediv in the past had
pinpointed your poor speaking skills. The consciousness is so high that you might
shun away from communication, just to avoid embarrassment or humiliation.
When you come to this juncture, it becomes practically impossible to improve your
spoken English, simply because you are not speaking the language enough. So, what
is the way out? How can you deal with anxiety of making mistakes when speaking
English?
Altering your mindset is the solution.
No matter how good you know English, if you are afraid from within you cannot
communicate effectively. The fear and anxiety of making mistakes, makes your
language learning skills worst.
"Do one thing every day that scares you."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
This quote lays down the first rule of overcoming your fear. Speak English
irrespective of your fear. Nothing bad can happen, you will only soar with greater
vocabulary and much better speaking skills. The best way to practice this is to put
yourself at ease by having a conversation with a person you are comfortable with. The
fear of embarrassment will not arise if you are in the company of a friend who would
not judge you by your English speaking skills. Practice speaking English with him/her
as much as you can.
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Based on the findings, it can be concluded that a student is able to learn only when
they speak and should be encouraged to speak. First, a student must understand there
are no mistakes but only learning experiences. Second, as they gain experience in the
second language there will be fewer learning experiences. Perfect practice makes
perfect product- errorless communication. Humans learn far more from correcting
their "mistakes" than straight learning. Encourage students to never give up learning!
References
1.
Nunan, D. 1991 Language Teaching Methodology. A Textbook for Teachers.
New York: Prentice Hall International.
2.
Mc Dounough and Shaw.(2002). Material and Method in ELT. London: Oxford
University Press .
3.
Horwitz, E. K. (2001). Language Anxiety and Achievement, Annual Review of
Applied Linguistics.
4.
Horwitz, E. K., Howitz, M. B., & Cope, J. A. (1986). Foreign language
Classroom Anxiety, the Modern Language Journa.
5.
Heriansyah, H. (2012). Speaking Problems Faced by the English Department
Students of Syiah Kuala University.
6.
Хакимбаева, О. К. "ОБРАЗ ЖЕНЩИНЫ И МУЖЧИНЫ ВО
ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЗМАХ
РУССКОГО
И
АНГЛИЙСКОГО
ЯЗЫКОВ." Multidiscipline Proceedings of Digital Fashion Conference. Vol.
2. No. 1. 2022.
