Public Speaking in EFL Class

Public Speaking Skill in EFL Class
A Short Guide to Effective Classroom Teaching Practices

By:
Udi Samanhudi

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Indonesia is a subject of dynamic due to the development of theories in teaching and learning methodology. The theories develop from time to time following the development of the need to maximize the learning process in order to attain the highest level of mastery of English.
Today, one of the important issues in English language teaching is the ability of English teachers to encourage students to use rather than to study the language, to talk in English rather than talk about English. This issue of teaching in EFL brings an implication to the choice teaching methods we as teachers take and implement in our classroom teaching practices. Thus, following the competence based curriculum (CBC), teachers of English are encouraged to be competent in the four major skills of English one of which is speaking. This ability, in general, is interrelated with our communication skill as teachers.
As English teachers we have, at least, two important responsibilities, pedagogical and managerial one. To support us maximizing these roles, communication skill is an important asset. The ability to communicate our ideas will influence our roles as teachers in the class. As communication skill is indispensable, it is therefore crucial for us, teachers, to keep sharpening our communication skill. Our ability to pass the message across to those listening to us cannot be underestimated. As a tutor, we should try to access ourselves to know if our communication skills are great or need a little sharpening. Sharpening our communication skills is something that can be achieved with practice and since our teaching requires students to become at least near fluent within a short period, we probably want to do any sharpening we have to do quickly and make sure changes to our persons do not affect classes.
This book is compiled to help future English teachers learning in English Departments to be familiar with principles of public speaking which can be applied in their future teaching practices. This book is also compiled due to the fact that the knowledge of the public speaking principles has a very tight correlation with the success of teachers in helping their students learn in the class. These knowledge and skill, in short, helps us understand how to let our message across and understood easily by our students.

Defining Public Speaking

In our daily life, we talk a lot with many people in our surrounding. We, adults, for example, spend about 30 percent of our waking hours in conversation (Lucas, 2000). In dealing with other people through a conversation, we tend to use different ways of speaking for different purposes. We will merely tell something when the purpose of the speaking is to inform, persuade when the purpose is to convince that something is right or better and so on.
We are sometimes unaware that in conversing with other people, we are actually perfecting the art of conversation from time to time. This is mainly aimed at facilitating our ideas to be shared with others. When talking with other people, we need to employ a wide range of skills like organizing our thought logically, tailoring our message to other people, telling a story for maximum impact and adapting to listener feedback.
The activity, after all, is also termed as Public Speaking. As it is known that public speaking has been defined differently by many experts. Lucas in The Art of Public Speaking proposes a definition of public speaking as the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence or entertain the listeners. This definition shows us that a public speaking activity is done for different reasons and purposes. In one occasion, it is intended to inform and in some other occasions, it is done for influencing and convincing other people. In other words, it can be said that the purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act and to simply telling a story.
Another definition of public speaking is shared by King (2002) who views public speaking as a various type of linguistics acts where the audience consists of more than one individual, including public speaking, oration and quotation. This definition then gives us a light that public speaking is closely related to the use of language in various context of situations.
So what is the nature of public speaking for us as English teachers? In my opinion, public speaking for teacher is much related to his or her role as an actor, counselor, motivator and some other important roles who tries to facilitate a conducive learning atmosphere. A teacher of English as a public speaker will have to be able to manipulate language in the classroom in order to motivate, to share and to arrange everything in a good order to facilitate learning.
As a teacher of English, our job is not only teaching in front of the classroom which means that we act as a teaching teacher. It is indeed, our job as a teacher is of a multifaceted things that interrelate each other in order to help students to be successful English learners. The following is figures describing English teachers’ roles in general.


Figure I: Roles of English Teachers
Referring to the roles of teachers above, it is clearly seen that teachers of English, as other teachers do, have multifaceted roles both in and outside the classroom that change from one activity to another, or from one stage of an activity to another. If we, teachers, are fluent at making these changes our effectiveness as teachers is greatly developed (Harmer, 1983). To maximize those roles above, teachers, again, need to have a good communication skill because each role demands them to do so. Therefore, communication in this sense, is a key factor to reach an ideal goal teachers wish to achieve.

Public Speaking and Conversation
In many ways, public speaking is the same as an ordinary conversation we usually do in our daily interaction with other people. It needs the same skills used in a conversation. In other words, people who can communicate well in their daily conversation can learn to communicate just as well as in public speaking. The following are skills we need in perfecting our public speaking as well as our ordinary conversation (Lucas, 2000).
a. Organizing our thoughts logically.
Organizing our thought in delivering a certain message in and outside a classroom is an important skill in our daily conversation or public speaking. This skill is mainly focused on making information to be delivered is more systematically arranged in our thought.
b. Tailoring our message to our students.
This skill is focused on how a message is delivered, say what you say to whom. This also will help you to the choice of words or expressions based on context of situations.
c. Telling a story at a maximum impact
This skill refers our way to build up our story (material given to our students), adjusting our words and tone of voice to get the best effect.
d. Adapting to a listener feedback
A good way to sharpen our communication skill is through listener feedback adaptation. Adapting to a listener feedback means we are being sensitive with our students’ facial expressions, physical reactions and their verbal.
Instead of those similarities, public speaking and conversation, is many ways, are also not identical. A different point between conversation and public speaking mostly lies on rules beyond those two things. Here are some differences between a public speaking and an ordinary conversation.
a. Public speaking is more highly structured. It usually imposes strict time limitation on the speaker. In most cases, the situation does not allow listeners to interrupt with questions or commentary. The speaker must accomplish his or her purpose in the speech itself. In brief, public speaking demands more detailed planning and preparation.
b. Public speaking requires more formal language. In public speaking, jargon slang and bad grammar have only a little space. This means that formal language is highly demanded.
c. Public speaking requires a different method of delivery. This shows us that public speaking demands us to adjust our voices to be heard clearly throughout the audience.

Public Speaking Skill in an EFL Class
As an English teacher, our job is not only about transferring information or knowledge to our students, but it is also about activating them as human being who have critical thinking faculty. This means that we, as teachers, need to be able to encourage them to be independent learners who can think for themselves long after they leave their classroom.
To do so, effective teaching and learning process in the classroom is paramount. In this manner, we as teachers need to know how to motivate our students to learn better and at last become a successful learner.
A common problem that, we as English teachers, commonly face is passive students. Many of them find it hard to express their opinion, ask for some questions that finally hinder them learning better during the progress of the course. The other implication of such a situation is a low achievement in English mastery our students reach.
As good English teachers, strategic efforts need to be done in order to help our students learn easily. The key point of all is an effective way of transferring of knowledge or information from us to our students. To do so, our knowledge on principles of effective Public Speaking will help us to transfer the information we have easily. Here are principles of effective Public Speaking to be implemented in our classroom.
Don not overestimate what our students know
Before giving a presentation aimed to inform something new for our students, it is much better if we look back our students. Ask questions like “are they quite familiar with this topic?”. This question will help us not to overestimate our students as our audience. Some experts recommended preparing a speech as if the audience had never heard the subject. That may be a bit extreme, but is one way to make sure that we define every special term, clarify every idea, illustrate every concept and support every conclusion. We cannot go wrong by following the news reporters code : “ Never overestimate the information of your audience; never underestimate the intelligence of your audience”.
Relate the subject directly to our students as the audience
Our way of speaking will be different from one type of audience with other type of audience, from one place to another place. This means that, as a teacher, we need to adjust our speaking with our students’ background. Dealing with fresh students starting their study in the first semester, our way of speaking will be different, in some way, with those speaking in front of the fifth semester students. Their knowledge on English, their exposure on English atmosphere and their expectation which demands us to speak differently!
Therefore, relating our subject to our students’ background as our audience will be very helpful in our effort transferring knowledge and information to them. Doing this, effective teaching and learning can be reached.
Do not be too technical
What does it mean to say that an informative speech is too technical? It may mean the subject matter is too specialized for our students as the audience. Any subject can be popularized-but only up to a point. The important thing for a speaker to know is what can be explained to ordinary students as the audience and what cannot.
Avoid abstraction
Avoid abstraction means that we use description to help our students easily understand things being explained. We can also make a comparison in order that our students can easily “view” abstract concepts we deliver to them.
Personalize our ideas
This guideline means that we personalize our concepts or materials. Remember that people love people, people are interested to people. So, when we are teaching to inform our students personalize our ideas through stories, sharing experience and dramatization.
Those principles above are some alternatives of choices to begin creating a good atmosphere of teaching and learning. It is therefore good for us as teachers to give those principles a try.

Mr. Young in Action

English Education Department is so glad to have Mr. Michael Young, a lecturer at the Florida University who is now conducting his research in Untirta. During his visit in Unitrta, Mr. Young becomes a volunteer lecturer at the English Education Department.

English Training for Non English Teacher

SMAN I Pamarayan Serang is currently holding a three-month English training for the Non-English teachers within the school of SMAN I Pamarayan. This program is held as a form of preparation for Bilingual class program. The principal supports the program very much. Bravo for Mr. Ade Nurulhuda and just good luck for the program.

Motivating Students

Motivating Learners
Understanding Language Acquisition

To become engaged learners, students need to understand that learning a language is not the same as learning about a language. When students think of the language as a school subject like any other, they may learn a great deal about its vocabulary, grammar, and sentence and discourse structure, but the language will not become a true medium of communication for them and won’t engage them very deeply. Students need to understand that learning a language means becoming able to use it to comprehend, communicate, and think – as they do in their first language.

Students also need to recognize that language learning takes place in stages. Interpretive skills (listening, reading) develop much more quickly than expressive skills (speaking, writing), and the ability that students covet most -- the ability to speak the second language fluently -- requires the longest period of growth.

All language learners have to work through a sequence of "approximate" versions called interlanguages (ILs), each of which represents a level of understanding of the target language. Understanding the features of ILs can help teachers and learners understand and monitor the language learning process.

Uniqueness: ILs vary significantly from learner to learner in the early stages of language learning. Learners impose rules of their own on the oral and written input they receive. Each learner does this differently, combining emerging understanding of the rules of the new language with ideas derived from the first language and other information that comes from their individual situations and backgrounds.

Systematicity: As learners begin to develop proficiency in a language, they make errors in systematic ways. For example, once students learn the inflections for a single class of verbs, they may apply them to all classes indiscriminately. These errors are based on systematic assumptions, or false rules, about the language. When students become aware of this aspect of their language skill development, they often appreciate and even ask for overt error correction from the instructor.

Fossilization: Some false rules become more firmly imprinted on the IL than others and are harder for learners to overcome. Fossilization results when these false rules become permanent features of a learner’s use of the language.

Convergence: As learners' rules come to approximate more closely those of the language they are learning, convergence sets in. This means that learners who come from different native language backgrounds make similar assumptions and formulate similar hypotheses about the rules of the new language, and therefore make similar errors.

Instructors can help students understand the process of language skill development in several ways.

(a) Focus on interlanguage as a natural part of language learning; remind them that they learned their first language this way.

(b) Point out that the systematic nature of interlanguage can help students understand why they make errors. They can often predict when they will make errors and what types of errors they will make.

(c) Keep the overall focus of the classroom on communication, not error correction. Use overt correction only in structured output activities. (See Planning a Lesson for more on structured output.)

(d) Teach students that mistakes are learning opportunities. When their errors interfere with their ability to communicate, they must develop strategies for handling the misunderstanding that results.

If you maintain the attitude that mistakes are a natural part of learning, you will create a supportive environment where students are willing to try to use the language even though their mastery of forms is imperfect.
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Promoting Engagement in Language Learning

Language teachers promote or discourage students' engagement by the ways they define successful language learners. When the successful language learner is one who can pass tests and make good grades, learning about the language is all that is required and success is defined by mastery of rules and forms. When the successful language learner is one who has the ability to use the language to accomplish communication goals, success is defined as making the language one’s own.

To promote engagement in language learning:

* Encourage students to use the language spontaneously to communicate ideas, feelings, and opinions
* Identify informal out-of-class language learning experiences
* Ask students to evaluate their progress in terms of increases in their functional proficiency

Students’ motivation for learning a language increases when they see connections between what they do in the classroom and what they hope to do with the language in the future. Their attention increases when classroom activities are relevant to their other interests.

To make these connections, begin by having students list the ways they may use the language in future. Have them include both the ways they plan to use it and other ways that might arise. Ask them to be as specific as possible. For each way of using language, ask them to list specific communication tasks that they will need to be able to do. Use these purposes and tasks as the basis for task-oriented classroom communication activities.

Some lower level students will respond that they don’t plan to use the language – that they are taking the course to fulfill a university language requirement. Encourage these students to develop an imaginary scenario for themselves in which they have some reason for using the language. In doing this, some students may think of ways in which they really might use it, and others will come to understand that purpose is an integral part of language learning.

Sample Ways of Using a Language

* When traveling in a country where it is spoken
Tasks: ask for directions (and understand responses), purchase tickets and book hotel rooms, read signs and informational materials

*

To study at a university in a country where it is spoken
Tasks: understand lectures, take notes, read academic materials, talk with other students (social and academic talk)
*

To become knowledgeable about the history and culture of a country where it is spoken
Tasks: read about history and culture, understand plays, movies, and other performances, interview people from the country
*

To provide legal assistance to native speakers who are immigrants to this country
Tasks: gather personal statistical information, explain legal requirements, explain social and cultural expectations, describe procedures, understand and answer questions.

Another way of making language instruction relevant and interesting to students is to find out what topics they are studying and draw materials for reading and discussion from those fields. However, remember that reading and discussion do not always have to be about serious issues or academic topics. Students enjoy talking about movies and television programs, vacation plans, famous people, and other popular culture topics.

Finally, don't be afraid to drop a topic if students' interest begins to fade. Ask them to suggest alternatives. When students know that they have some control over what they do in the language classroom, they take ownership as engaged learners.

Achieving Success with Learning Strategies

Students learning a language have two kinds of knowledge working for them:

* Their knowledge of their first language
* Their awareness of learning strategies, the mechanisms they use, consciously or unconsciously, to manage the absorption of new material

Students differ as language learners in part because of differences in ability, motivation, or effort, but a major difference lies in their knowledge about and skill in using "how to learn" techniques, that is, learning strategies. Classroom research demonstrates the role of learning strategies in effective language learning:

* Good learners are able to identify the best strategy for a specific task; poor learners have difficulty choosing the best strategy for a specific task
* Good learners are flexible in their approach and adopt a different strategy if the first one doesn’t work; poor learners have a limited variety of strategies in their repertoires and stay with the first strategy they have chosen even when it doesn’t work
* Good learners have confidence in their learning ability; poor learners lack confidence in their learning ability
* Good learners expect to succeed, fulfill their expectation, and become more motivated; poor learners: expect to do poorly, fulfill their expectation, and lose motivation

Learning strategies instruction shows students that their success or lack of it in the language classroom is due to the way they go about learning rather than to forces beyond their control. Most students can learn how to use strategies more effectively; when they do so, they become more self reliant and better able to learn independently. They begin to take more responsibility for their own learning, and their motivation increases because they have increased confidence in their learning ability and specific techniques for successful language learning.

Instructors can tap into students’ knowledge about how languages work and how learning happens – their metacognition -- to help them direct and monitor the language learning process in two ways:

*

By encouraging them to recognize their own thinking processes, developing self-knowledge that leads to self-regulation: planning how to proceed with a learning task, monitoring one's own performance on an ongoing basis, and evaluating learning and self as learner upon task completion. Students with greater metacognitive awareness understand the similarity between the current learning task and previous ones, know the strategies required for successful learning, and anticipate success as a result of knowing how to learn.
*

By describing specific learning strategies, demonstrating their application to designated learning tasks, and having students practice using them. In order to continue to be successful with learning tasks, students need to be aware of the strategies that led to their success and recognize the value of using them again. By devoting class time to learning strategies, teachers reiterate their importance and value.

To teach language learning strategies effectively, instructors should do several things:

* Build on strategies students already use by finding out their current strategies and making students aware of the range of strategies used by their classmates
* Integrate strategy instruction with regular lessons, rather than teaching the strategies separately from language learning activities
* Be explicit: name the strategy, tell students why and how it will help them, and demonstrate its use
* Provide choice by letting students decide which strategies work best for them
* Guide students in transferring a familiar strategy to new problems
* Plan continuous instruction in language learning strategies throughout the course
* Use the target language as much as possible for strategies instruction

See Planning a Lesson for information on integrating strategy instruction into a language lesson.

Teaching Culture

Teaching Culture

Of all the changes that have affected language teaching theory and method in recent years, the greatest may be the transformation in the role of culture. This change reflects a broader transformation in the way that culture itself is understood.

Traditionally, culture was understood in terms of formal or "high" culture (literature, art, music, and philosophy) and popular or "low" culture. From this perspective, one main reason for studying a language is to be able to understand and appreciate the high culture of the people who speak that language. The pop culture is regarded as inferior and not worthy of study.

In this view, language learning comes first, and culture learning second. Students need to learn the language in order to truly appreciate the culture, but they do not need to learn about the culture in order to truly comprehend the language. This understanding can lead language teachers to avoid teaching culture for several reasons:

* They may feel that students at lower proficiency levels are not ready for it yet
* They may feel that it is additional material that they simply do not have time to teach
* In the case of formal culture, they may feel that they do not know enough about it themselves to teach it adequately
* In the case of popular culture, they may feel that it is not worth teaching

In contemporary language classrooms, however, teachers are expected to integrate cultural components because language teaching has been influenced by a significantly different perspective on culture itself. This perspective, which comes from the social sciences, defines culture in terms of the knowledge, values, beliefs, and behaviors that a group of people share. It is reflected in the following statement from the National Center for Cultural Competence:

NCCC defines culture as an integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interacting and roles, relationships and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group; and the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations. The NCCC embraces the philosophy that culture influences all aspects of human behavior. (Goode et al., 2000, p. 1)

In this understanding of "deep culture," language and culture are integral to one another. The structure of language and the ways it is used reflect the norms and values that members of a culture share. However, they also determine how those norms and values are shared, because language is the means through which culture is transmitted.

The communicative competence model is based on this understanding of the relationship between language and culture. Linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence each incorporate facets of culture, and the development of these competences is intertwined with the development of cultural awareness. "The exquisite connection between the culture that is lived and the language that is spoken can only be realized by those who possess a knowledge of both" (National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project, 1999, p. 47).

Teaching English Grammar

Teaching Grammar

Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well.

Many people, including language teachers, hear the word "grammar" and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. They associate "good" grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral presentations, and "bad" or "no" grammar with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige forms.

Language teachers who adopt this definition focus on grammar as a set of forms and rules. They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them. This results in bored, disaffected students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context.

Other language teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition, tend not to teach grammar at all. Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way. They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read, and use the language in communication activities. This approach does not allow students to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding of what grammar is and how it works in the language they already know.

The communicative competence model balances these extremes. The model recognizes that overt grammar instruction helps students acquire the language more efficiently, but it incorporates grammar teaching and learning into the larger context of teaching students to use the language. Instructors using this model teach students the grammar they need to know to accomplish defined communication tasks.