Second Language Speaking

The episode discusses the importance of second language speaking skills and how it should be developed first. Different teaching methods, such as the audio-lingual method, are mentioned, along with various classroom activities to improve speaking abilities. The distinction between fluency and accuracy is highlighted, with fluency being the ability to quickly generate accurate ideas and convey them effectively. It is emphasized that both fluency and accuracy are necessary for proficiency in speaking a language. The conclusion is that effort is required from both teachers and students to enhance speaking abilities. Hi, this is Nohemy, and in today's episode, we will talk about a very interesting topic, second language speaking. As I was searching about it, I read a question that M. Lazarus mentioned in the Teaching English as a Second Language book, which is, how many languages do you speak? I'm pretty sure that you have been asked this question before, but why do you not ask how many languages do you read or write? Reading this information made me think that speaking is one of the most important skills that a second language learner should develop first. Therefore, let's talk a little bit more about this interesting topic, second language speaking. When learning a second language, it is important to pay attention to speaking, because it is the ability that students use to communicate orally. There are many ways to develop this skill within a student, but it will depend on the teacher's methodology. As an example, we can mention the audio-lingual method, which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing. This method uses dialogue as the main form of the language presentation, and the purpose is to improve pronunciation and, of course, to develop speaking abilities. Nevertheless, we can mention other classroom activities applications, such as role-plays, dialogues, oral presentations, discussion and group work, debates, shared conversations, and many others that help our second language learners to develop their speaking skills. Furthermore, I want to point out about fluency and accuracy. They are two important aspects, but completely different. As a student of a foreign language, I have seen many people who wanted to improve their fluency, and for them, it means to speak the language fast. I consider that fluency is important, but first we need to pay attention to the message we want to share, because what is the point to speak fast if your ideas are not accurate, if what you say doesn't make sense? Moreover, fluency is not about speaking fast. As H. N. Gargoyle in 2009 mentioned, fluency is about operating the language quickly. For me, this means that your brain works fast to create the ideas correctly, in other words, accurate ideas, so you use the proper word choice, proper grammatical structure, the correct tense, to connect the ideas to share an intended message. Basically, fluency and accuracy work together so you can be proficient at speaking a language. In conclusion, second language speaking as a session requires effort. Thus, students can be proficient when speaking. That is why, as teachers, we need to use the most appropriate techniques and tools to enhance speaking abilities within our students. Moreover, it is important to teach our students that fluency and accuracy refer to the way they convey their ideas at the moment of speaking. In other words, fluency is the capacity to connect to better ideas in our brain so then they can be spoken. So, this is what I have ready for today's topic. So, thank you so much for your attention and have a great day. Bye.