Introduction

The teaching of speaking and listening has been neglected in the ESL (English as a

Second Language) classrooms for a period of time. This has led to a void where it has

affected the language teachers and students. It is hard what modal or what criterion to

consider during the teaching of speaking and listening activity. Malaysian teachers are

experiencing a season of drought on what to teach and how to teach these two skills in the

classroom.

The importance of listening in language learning has changed over the past years.

Listening used to be overlooked and teachers assume that listening abilities would be

acquired during the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation practice. This is quite surprising

as abilities to listen play an equal role as abilities to speak in successful communication.

What is ‘speaking’? Speaking is ‘the process of building and sharing meaning

through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts’ (Chaney, 1998, p.

13). What is ‘teaching speaking’? Teaching speaking is to teach our learners to produce the

English speech sounds and sound patterns. Using word and sentence stress, intonation

patterns and the rhythm of the second language. Selecting appropriate words and sentences

according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter. Organizing their

thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence. Using language as a means of expressing

values and judgments and using the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural

pauses, which is called as fluency. (Nunan, 2003)

What is ‘listening’? Listening is the process of receiving, constructing meaning from,

and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages. (Brownell, 2002, p. 48). What is

‘teaching listening’? Listening is an essential skill for communication. It is necessary to

understand what we hear in order to keep a conversation with someone or about something.

The idea to teach listening is to improve the hearing (Brown, DH, 2007 p. 299).

Listening and speaking requires concentration, which is the focus to any activity. A

person who incorporates listening and speaking with concentration is actively listening and

speaking, they are responding to one another and that encourages communication. Many

teachers tend to talk too much and this defeats the purpose of allowing the students to learn

by listening or speaking. Rather than turning the session into a mini-lecture, teachers must

encourage their students to speak and listen actively.

Problems in Teaching Listening

The importance of listening in language learning is worth considering since when you do

not listen you will never learn anything new.

Among the four skills, second language learners often complain that listening is the

most difficult to acquire. Both listening and reading are receptive skills, but listening can be

more difficult than reading. The problems they encounter are:

1. Different speakers produce the same sounds in different ways, e.g. dialects and

accents, stress, rhythms, intonations & mispronunciations.

2. The listener has little/no control over the speed of the input of the spoken material

3. The spoken material is often heard only once (unlike the reading material)

4. The listener cannot pause to work out the meaning

5. Speech is more likely to be distorted by background noise (e.g. round the classroom)

or the media that transmit sounds

6. The listener sometimes has another task while listening, e.g. note-taking

Other problems in listening are;

(a) inadequate attention to the auditory information,

(b) inappropriate listening situations: distractions and noises,

(c) difficulty to distinguish speech sounds, and

(d) incompetence in recalling phonemes and manipulating them explicitly.

A great number of students believe that listening is the most difficult skill and they

start to panic when they hear the word listening or see a CD player. But on the other hand

students, who learn from what they hear, usually achieve better results at listening. According

to Yagang (1994), the problems in teaching listening are according to the four following

factors: the message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting. Furthermore, a

numbers of research have been carried out to pick out the problems in listening. The

problems were believed to cause by the speech rate, vocabulary and pronunciation

(Higgins, 1995). Apart from the above problems, I believe the following are also some

problems in teaching listening. First of all, the students find it hard to understand proper

names as they have never heard about it before. In other words, they have no background

knowledge about what they are listening. The second problem is believed to rise from the

unfamiliar, uninteresting and too long listening which makes the students feel strange,

discouraged and bored of what they are hearing. The last one is assumed to be about the

sound connections and intonation spoken by native speakers with different accents.

Problems in Teaching Speaking

Teaching speaking has a purpose or we can say that we want to teach how to

communicate to achieve a particular end, for example, expressing ideas and opinion,

expressing a wish or desire to do something.

Speaking is a productive skill. Accuracy and fluency are the two important aspects of

speaking. Nunan (1991) wrote, "Success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a

conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or

do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-

motivated and lose interest in learning. Teaching speaking is the main concern of the English

language courses prescribed in schools. For instance, making students able to communicate

orally, and making them able to understand and use the language functions prescribed in the

curriculum are two major general objectives of the English Curriculum.

What makes teaching speaking difficult is it just because the language, English. It is a

foreign language and the use of it is very seldom. We can see easily many things in our life

using English in the written form and it does not need to be read aloud, so we do not need to

be embarrassed. These are the problems found in speaking

a. Students do not want to talk or say anything, they are shy about talking in front of other

students, and they suffer from a fear of making mistakes and therefore losing face in

front of their teachers and their friends.

b. Students keep using their own language. This happens because they want to

communicate something important to their friends.

c. It is difficult to handle students in large classroom. The students hardly get a chance to

practice the language, and difficult for them to ask and receive individual attention they

need.

d. Students are not discipline in classroom. Some students do not pay attention to the lesson

given, they just talk with each other and make some noises.

e. The materials are not suitable for the students.

f. Students have low motivation to learn English. The development of communicative

skills can only take place if learners have motivation.

These are just some of the problems that teachers face when teaching speaking

activities in the classroom. These problems are not new. Teachers all over the world continue

to face the same hurdles, but any teacher who has overcome these difficulties will tell you it

is worth all the trial and error and effort at the offset.

Is the Teaching of Listening and Speaking Neglected

Listening and speaking is much neglected in language teaching and learning.

However, people have come to realize the importance of listening and speaking in language

learning and teaching and have accumulated much expertise and insights on how learners

develop their listening and speaking skills and how listening and speaking should be taught.

The school where I did this survey, is where I have been teaching for 11 years. SK

Taman Sutera is located at the edge of the Danga River. The school has 4 floors and 12

classes. The school has 31 teachers and 364 students. 2TesL graduates and 3 non optionist

teach English in this school.

A questionnaire survey (see Appendices 1 and 2) was done among 2 teachers in the

school. From the findings and interview, I see we have neglected the listening and speaking

in the classrooms. Most teachers find it tiresome doing these activities as it takes time and

English being the second language most teachers translate the activity.

4.1 Teaching Hours

From the findings of the survey, on how many hours a week do they teach Listening

and Speaking, both the teachers, PremaNair and Laura Amos spend one hour to one and half

hours per week on Listening and Speaking skills. This is in accordance to our KSSR syllables

where each skill is given an allocation of 2 to 3 periods per week. The aim of this component

is to develop the pupils’ ability to listen and respond to different stimuli. It also aims to

develop pupils’ ability to listen and to speak in various contexts, both in and outside the

classroom.

When it comes to planning a listening or speaking lesson, Laura Amos integrates both

skills. This is what she says “….Integrating this both skills together in a lesson is easier

than splitting them. It is easier to get the pupils to listen to whatever I have got to present to

them and to get them to respond to me in return. Integrating this both skills together in a

lesson is easier than splitting them. My lessons are based on the guidelines given in text

books.” PremaNair incorporates her both listening and speaking skills as she says, “… I

teach a weak class, so I incorporate this both skills, my students are mostly Orang Asli and

I need them to respond and hear. I will usually find activities where I can use both skills

together. The internet has many such activities and I usually modify the idea to suit to my

pupils… ”

4.2 Method of Teaching Listening

Both teachers have different methods for teaching listening. In listening, Laura Amos

teaches using pictures or charts. She exposes the pupils to the content of the topic. She shares

a little about the pictures and the activities that can be seen in the scene and tries to expand

the pupils’ minds and ideas to think out of the box by relating to other things which are not in

the pictures but are interconnected to one another. In her during listening lesson, she shares a

lot about the general knowledge which is related to the subject. Other times she does listening

comprehension, where she reads from the text, stories and passages from the text book, and

requests the pupils to listen to her intonation, pronunciation and expression. For level 1,

especially year 1 and year 2 pupils, Laura Amos does a lot of singing. She sings to them and

requests them to listen and capture the rhythm and the lyrics of the song. Apart from the

singing she puts in some actions and induce some simple steps in order to draw their attention

and keep them focused. She emphasizes on the pupils listening to her and watching her

mouth movement when she teaches phonics. I have seen how Laura Amos teaches and I am

sometimes simply amaze what her year 1 pupils, especially the weak pupils, have achieve.

Madam PremaNair on the other hand uses very simple steps in her listening lesson.

She does a lot of singing to her level 1 pupils and also uses videos. Her students are smarter

and they can understand when she plays a video clip. Planning her listening lesson is not a

problem for Prema Nair as her students are very capable and they do understand how to

listen when teacher reads a text, shows a video clip or sing songs from current artist.

4.3 Method of Teaching Speaking

Both the teachers merge their speaking lessons with listening. They indeed both go together

like hand in glove. This is good and will not bore the pupils. Laura Amos says that “…

speaking skill is always involved after I have shared and exposed the pupils to the content

for the day. I get the pupils involved by constantly asking questions related to what I’ve

shared or about the pictures shown….. Sometimes, after reading a text, I question pupils

related to the passage read. I drill out their opinions and ideas about the content of the text

read. For example categorising and sharing what are the advantages and disadvantages of

a certain thing that can be found in the text….” Laura Amos makes her students to speak, if

it is in broken or pieces of English mixed with Malay, Chinese or Tamil. She does not laugh

or criticize but encourages and tells them the correct usage, word, phrase or sentence that

need to be corrected. This has motivated many students in her class to speak English bravely.

Prema Nair on the other hand uses a lot of lead-ins, warmers, fillers and other techniques to

develop speaking. She has many great ideas as she has been teaching for 10 years. Most of

the KSSR courses she has attended and currently she is the only recipient in our school to

achieve Band 1 in the recent CLP exam. Madam Prema Nair always experiments new

techniques and applications which she catches on the educational webpage and she practices

on the pupils. Apart from that she has been awarded twice for her innovative presentation at

the district level. She says when in teaching speaking, she speaks less and encourages the

pupils to speak more. She rewards them when a pupil has accomplish speaking fluently, this

she says to encourage them to speak more.

4.4 Students Reaction towards Listening/Speaking

When discussing about this question, about the students’ reaction towards listening

and speaking, both teachers gave a long sigh. Among the four skills these the listening and

speaking skills take up time to prepare and coordinate. This is what Prema Nair has to say,

“Usually my pupils would feel excited and be serious in the class when I conduct a

listening lesson. They want to know what teacher is talking about and it also helps them to

answer the questions in the comprehension questions which I always put up in my creative

power point slides. Most of my pupils would feel speaking lesson is an interesting lesson

because they would be happy to share their ideas with teacher and peer friends in the class.

Normally I will ask them to speak and not bother about their grammatical mistakes while

they are talking in class.” Prema Nair does a lot of activities, not only base on the text book

but activities which she gleans from the internet too. She has a collection and module on

listening and speaking for years 1, 2 and 3 and currently she is compiling a module for year 4,

as she says KSSR is here to stay so why not make a way, so that others and even I will be

better in teaching listening and speaking to our pupils.

Miss Laura Amos, who has only 3 years of teaching and is a major science has put in

a lot of effort to teach English. Since our school, SK Taman Sutera was lacking English

teachers, she volunteered to be an English teacher. Speaking is a major problem in my school

as we have many pupils from Kampong Bakar Batu, Kampong Sungai Danga and children

from the low cost flats in Jalan Simbang. This may be a hindrance or a setback or even a

depression case for a young graduate like Laura Amos, but she took it all into stride and she

now can look back and sit back at her laurels. Many parents from the village has come up to

her and given her their thanks. Laura Amos has this to say about listeing, “I think my pupils

enjoy the lesson when it involves singing and storytelling. Some of the pupils enjoy

listening to stories when it is told with expressions and actions…. pupils get bored when

the subject shared is not in depth enough or things that are common to them. It is

paramount for teachers to be ahead of them and be more knowledgeable than them when

it comes to any topic. It could be about cartoons, video games, technology, movies or even

football…. People say, ‘knowledge is powerful’, but I believe applying the knowledge

relevantly is even more powerful and impactful.”

On speaking she says, “I feel most of the children like to talk, they want to be heard,

they seek teacher’s attention, and they want to share and desire to talk. What bounds them

is not their lack of ideas or opinions but rather the barrier of language. A lot of pupils shy

away from voicing out their feelings and thoughts, due to their limitations when it comes to

communicating in English. Many of them lack confidence in speaking in English.

Therefore, when it comes to speaking lesson, I welcome ideas though at times it comes in

the forms of other languages. I always restructure their ideas and present them back in

English.”

4.5 Improvement to the Teaching of Listening and Speaking

Both the teachers agree there is room for improvement in teaching listening and

speaking. It takes great effort, time and sacrifice for improvement. Prema Nair says that

using technology in the classroom would help the teacher perform better, make the class

come alive that’s what our KSSR syllables is all about fun learning. In speaking, she

recommends teachers to use their smart phones and iPads and all their gadgets to record

phonic sounds which will help pupils to pronounce the words more clearly and correctly.

This is better than downloading from the internet as the voices are foreign and pupils tend to

get confuse and using the microphone is always a hit with children when coming to speak.

Laura Amos also agrees with Prema Nair on the use of technology in class for listening and

speaking skills. Laura Amos says that technology and new interesting methods will draw

pupils’ attention. On speaking, Laura Amos, uses role-plays as this encourages the pupils to

speak. They get excited and are thrilled when they come to the front as a group to act out.

Conclusion

Jack C. Richards in his book Teaching Listening and Speaking from Theory to

Practice says that, the most important question in teaching of speaking and listening skills is

how we can help learners to move beyond the level of neglect to attention. Teaching of

listening and speaking have changed considerably over the years. It is the two skills which

have been badly neglected and never cultivated properly. Listening and speaking skills were

never given any importance compared to reading or writing. Most teachers feel as long as the

pupil can read and write and score the A, the teacher has achieve its award, but many do not

know that the basic of reading and writing comes from listening and speaking. If a pupil

cannot hear and talk, how can he or she read or write. It will the case of many vernacular

schools when they drill the pupils to memorize for their exams. I am glad with this new

KSSR syllabus that listening and speaking skills are stressed out. They have allocated time

for each skill and teachers find it easier to teach. Teachers need to come to a point and stress

out the importance of teaching listening and speaking in order it would not be neglected. "If

speaking is silver, then listening is gold." -- Turkish saying

References:

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https://www.academia.edu/3694962/Teaching_and_Learning_English_as_a_Foreign_

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1. Harmer, Jeremy. How to teach English. New ed. England: Pearson Longman, 2011.

99-112. Print.

2. Brown, Douglas H. Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to language

Pedagogy. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 31-35. Print.