Gec1033.docx

THE WEAKNESS OF CONVENTIONAL METHOD IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL We learn to speak by speaking. If you are shy about to speaking English, how can you expect your students to overcome their fears about speaking English? Swain (1985 : 3), Task for Teacher Education. UK: Addisson Wesley Longman. Ltd.

The frequent complaint mainly in secondary schools is that learners do not respond, or take too long a time to respond, or speak too softly. Yap, Kok Keong (1979 : 18), Listening and Speaking: Problems and prospects in the Malaysian Context. Unit Bahasa-Bahasa.

Many educators have been voicing complain that educational system is too dependent upon examination. It is often said that students study and teachers teach not the subject, but how to pass the examination. Katchen (1979 : 5), Language Teaching and Learning Styles. Across Cultures ILE, Hong Kong. Sometimes the planned curriculum is not realistic and well beyond what can be expected to be accomplished by poor learners. There is no real “spoken grammar” the teacher can use to guide him or her. For the non-fluent teacher, therefore, it is far easier pretending to teach

Strevens (1987 : 6), The Nature of Language Teaching. Newbury House Publishers, New York.

The teacher is not teaching students higher level skills, for one reason or another, and students are simply practising the language they use all the time. Boredom then sets in, students lose interest, and errors become fossilised. Strevens (1987 : 7), The Nature of Language Teaching. Newbury House Publishers, New York.

Teachers are sometimes unclear about what the real aims of the lesson are. The student may then be expected to speak English, with the teacher unaware that reading and speaking make different demands and no teaching of spoken skills has occurred. Strevens (1987 : 7), The Nature of Language Teaching. Newbury House Publishers, New York.

The curriculum is centrally controlled. Teachers often complain about the insufficient time they have for English, but cannot do much about it because the time allocation is centrally controlled. Strevens (1987 : 8), The Nature of Language Teaching. Newbury House Publishers, New York.

Refers to the guarded and taciturn behavior of students who refuse to speak, as the “shyness syndrome”. Ian G. Malcolm (1987 : 5), UK: Addisson Wesley Longman. Ltd.

Learner-centred classrooms where learners do the talking in groups and learners have to take responsibility for using communicative resources to complete a task are shown to be more conducive to language learning than teacher-centred classes. Long M.H & Richards, J.C. (1987), Methodology in TESOL. USA: Heinle&Heinle.

TAN KAI XIN S4