TEACHING SPEAKING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

This article is aimed to describe what teaching speaking English is and the problems
faced by the teachers and students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Speaking
is one of important skills that need to be acquired by students of EFL because
sometimes success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in
the (target) language. Teaching students to speak English might become a problem
for some EFL teachers. This is not an easy task for teachers to make their students
speak because the language is not spoken in the community and also they have less
exposure to the language itself. Just as Harmer said (1998:52), to facilitate students
with the ‘new’ language, teachers should have students exposed to the language,
understand its meaning, understand its form (how it is constructed) and practice it.
Therefore, in order to encourage their students to speak, teachers must do something
different than they usually do in teaching other skills. Teachers can create more
enjoyable speaking class by doing some activities such as role-play, discussion or
some kinds of games to promote students’ speaking ability.