THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF VARIABLES (Dependent Variable: Speaking Skill)

 Dependent Variable: Speaking Skill

COMMUNICATION

Ramos (2019) cited by George et al. (2018) people are in constant interaction with people from other countries who possess other cultures, and languages so information and communication technologies (ICT) have increased. However, keeping good communication with others can lead to problems and misunderstanding. Ramos (2019) cited by Dimbleby, R. & Burton, G (1992) claim that communication allows people to express their ideas, feelings, opinions, and comprehend other people’s. Generally, language is used with the purpose of making and understanding sign. In other words, communication is the result of exchange messages.

Communication can have a variety of meanings or characteristics, depending on how it relates to different actions and situations, or phenomena and takes into consideration the level of human relationships. Ramos (2019) cited by Moţăţăianu (2018) claims that communication can be defined as the entire process of exchange information and meaning among people in a concrete situation. This process occurs in stages (coding, transmission, reception, decoding, and feedback). Thus, this cycle is supported by mechanism, is irreversible, and involves interaction.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

English language is the main language of several countries. According to Gelderen (2006) the English language is recognized one important language around the world.

 ‘The British Empire may be in full retreat with the handover of Hong Kong. But from Bengal to Belize and Las Vegas to Lahore, the language of the sceptered isle is rapidly becoming the first global lingua franca.’ Millennial retrospectives and prognostications continued in the same vein, with several major newspapers and magazines finding in the subject of the English language an apt symbol for the themes of globalization, diversification, progress and identity addressed in their special editions. (Crystal, 2003, p. 1)

Nowadays the English language has become one of the languages more spoken around the world with many purposes such as travel, business, education, communication and so on. Likewise, this foreign language opens several doors and opportunities for people who are looking for achieving great goals.

The importance of the ability to speak or write English has recently increased significantly because English has become the de facto standard. Learning the English language has become popular for business, commerce and cultural reasons and especially for internet communications throughout the world. English is a language that has become standard not because it is widely used by many information and technology industries and recognized as being standard. The call center phenomenon has stimulated a huge expansion of internet-related activity establishing the future of India a cyber-technological super-power. Modern communications, videos, journals and newspapers on the internet use English and have made ‘knowing English’ indispensable. (Ahmad, 2016, p. 480)

PRODUCTIVE SKILLS

Productive skills are also called active skills and they are always presented when people are acquiring a foreign language even they are constantly present in the mother tongue. Productive skills mean to convey information that a speaker produces in a spoken or written way. These skills cannot exist without receptive skills. When people are learning a foreign language the receptive skills take place at first. After that, the productive ones are next in this process and if one does not appear, the final outcome will not be complete. Most speakers of a foreign language are aware of the relationship between speaking and writing which are productive skills, and they are useful to complete the process of acquiring a new language. Therefore, it is necessary to implement communicative activities in order to promote communicative competence in the language. Finally, these changes made by the teacher can create an environment and a good atmosphere for students and encourage them in the learning process by making the learning process interactive and innovative that helps teachers to fulfill the objective planned for the course.

SPEAKING SKILL

Speaking means to produce the language in a spoken way, it focuses on convey information or a message to other people through their voice. Nunan (1991) assumes that.” to most people, mastering the art of speaking is the single and most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language, and success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language” (p. 39). In the same way, Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams (2011) mention that that speaking includes using speech to communicate messages to others. People speak with different motives; such as answering anything, asking for directions, clarifying any fussed word, greeting people, and so on.

Besides, Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams (2011) say that there is one way to engage students in the learning process in order to speak in English and develop this skill, they have to follow some steps such as:

1) Execute warm up activities to introduce a new topic, based on the grammatical structure that will be studied.

2) Give students with some tasks and activities where they can practice a new grammatical structure.

3) Finally, develop straightforward activities where students can work without any problem.