Speaking is a communicative process of developing and exchanging meaning through the use of words in oral form explaining a wide range of situation. It is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Speaking comprises of one of the four skills of communication. As we all are aware of the fact that English is globally used as a medium of communication which has gained momentum with the emerging trend of internet world, speaking skills should be developed in a more effective way along with three other skills namely Listening, Reading and Writing in-order to enhance communication. This would be beneficial to the native as well as non native speakers of English. In the Indian context, the capability to communicate in English has become important because of its relevance in getting jobs and sitting for campus interviews. We find some Bollywood movies which give emphasis on speaking English like ‘English - Vinglish ’ . It reflects the psychological constraint of an individual who is unable to speak English and hence making efforts to join English classes. This can be a challenging task for all the people who want to learn a non native language .Though Speaking skill is one of the most important skills of communication, yet it is deprived of its importance in our Indian classroom especially in technical institutions where the learners are future engineers and it is expected that the engineering students would acquire the speaking skill from the activities which are discussed in the class. As a result,, these young engineering students and learners of the English language fail to acquire proper training and skill which decreases their confidence to communicate in English

1. IMPACT OFTEACHING
SPEAKING SKILLS TO
INDIAN TECHNICAL
STUDENTS
Dr. Deepanjali Mishra
Assistant Professor
School of Humanities
KIIT University, Bhubaneswar

2. TOPICS TO BE COVERED
• Importance of Communication
• Concept of Speaking Skills to Engineering students
• Problems of Indian Native Speakers
• Overcoming the problems
• Conclusion

3. IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION
• Communication is the process by which the sender
sends the message to the receiver through a medium
which results in an understanding response. There are
basically four skills of communication LSRW namely,
Listening, Speaking, reading and Writing. Of all the skills,
Speaking skills plays a pivotal role in enhancement of
communication process, however this skills isn’t easy to
comprehend. Lots of practice is involved if one needs to
have a mastery over this skills.

4. THE SPEAKING APPROACH
• Speaking is a communicative process of developing and
exchanging meaning through the use of words in oral
form explaining a wide range of situation. It is a crucial
part of second language learning and teaching.
Speaking comprises of one of the four skills of
communication. As we all are aware of the fact that
English is globally used as a medium of communication
which has gained momentum with the emerging trend of
internet world, speaking skills should be developed in a
more effective way along with three other skills namely
Listening, Reading and Writing in-order to enhance
communication.

5. ENGLISH AS A MEANS OF
COMMUNICATION
• English has spread widely all over the world, first
because of the influence of the British Empire and,
second due to the pre-eminence of North American
influence in the world. In Europe, English has
advanced as an international language especially after
World War II, leaving behind other preeminent
languages such as French. English is now used by
millions of speakers for a number of communicative
functions across Europe. It has become the preferred
language in a number of ambits like international
business or EU institutions.

6. • English seems to have been adopted as the language of
globalization these days as the language of global
culture and international economy (Graddol, D. 1997: 4).

7. OBJECTIVES OF TEACHING
SPEAKING SKILLS TO
ENGINEERING STUDENTS
Getting placement
Higher studies
Motivation
fundamental component of human communication
Tackling arguments against teaching speaking skills
Enhancing grammatical context
Improving English Fluency

8. PROBLEMS OF INDIAN STUDENTS
WHILE SPEAKING
• Environment
• Grammar
• Lack Fluency
• Inhibition
• Mother tongue Interference

9. OVERCOMING THE PROBLEMS
• Communicative Approach
• Humanistic approach
• Comparing languages
• Wall posters
• Talking about language
• Conducting Activities

10. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
• This approach encourages teachers to insist on the use
of English in the classroom, but by constantly nagging
students to ‘speak English’ we may prove to be
counter-productive. With teenagers we try to immerse
them in English and give them plenty of opportunities to
acquire the language. As children get older they develop
a variety of different learning strategies. While they will
always be open to language acquisition, they also start
using conscious learning strategies.

11. THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH
• Allow for an first language environment in the class
which may either be clearly defined area where students
can retreat somewhere in order to express themselves in
• Their first language
• allow time (e.g. the first or last five minutes of any
lesson) that is free for discussing their learning, the
topics of the lesson, or just telling their teacher and
fellow students a funny story that would take forever to
tell in English and would lose all the humour, etc

12. COMPARING LANGUAGES
• The ability to compare their own language to English
may help them overcome obstacles that mother tongue
interference usually creates. Translating single words or
sentences can lead to greater understanding

13. WALL POSTERS
• Students can collate words on posters that either:
have direct translations and are very similar in both first
language and English
false friends – words that seem similar but are actually
different in meaning and often cause confusion
words that they often want to use but find hard to
remember in English – students can choose their own
criteria for such word banks.

14. TALKING ABOUT LANGUAGE
• When students are asked to do grammar exercises, or
write together in English, or to do any work where they
need to think about how English works, this is a situation
when students may benefit from being allowed to use
their mother tongue together. In these situations
students often usefully explain grammar/lexis to each
other, share ideas about how English works and actually
engage in a much deeper exploration of language than
one that might occur when their teacher tries to prohibit
use of English

15. • Traditional songs
Students (in pairs or threes) choose a song in their own
language and translate into English (an added challenge
is to try to make it still hummable to the original tune).
• Soap operas
Similarly students choose a scene from their favourite
soap opera or movie and translate into English. They
can act these scenes out in front of the class later.
• The above activities encourage students to focus on
translating meaning and appropriate register, not just
translate single words.

16. • Dubbing
Students can do the soap opera activity using a videoed
episode of the programme, turn down the sound and
speak over their English versions (this may be more
appealing to more self-conscious students).
• Interpreters
In threes, students take on the roles of an interviewer, a
famous person who can only speak MT and an
interpreter. They must carry out an interview with the
interpreter facilitating the communication.

17. • Tourist / Alien role plays
• In pairs students are (a) themselves (b) a visitor from
another country or planet where only English is spoken.
• (a) must explain an L1 instruction, menu, set of rules,
advertisement etc to the visitor

18. MINIMAL RESPONSE
• Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic
phrases that conversation participants use to indicate
understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses
to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of
such responses enables a learner to focus on what the
other participant is saying, without having to
simultaneously plan a response. This can be one way to
encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help
them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can
use in different types of exchanges.

19. CONCLUSION
These are just some of the problems that teachers with
large classes face when teaching speaking activities in
the classroom. These problems are not new nor are the
solutions offered above. Teachers all over the world
continue to face the same hurdles, but any teacher who
has overcome these difficulties and now has a large
class of energetic students talking and working in
English in groups together will tell you it is worth all the
trial and error and effort at the outset.

20. REFERENCES
•
1. Celce-Murcia. M. (2001). Teaching English as a
Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed). USA:
Heinle&Heinle.
2. Long M.H & Richards, J.C. (1987). Methodology in
TESOL. USA: Heinle&Heinle.
3. Nunan. D. (1991) Language Teaching Methodology.
UK: Prentice Hall International (Chapter two & three)
4. Tanner .R. & Green.C.(1998) Tasks for teacher
education. UK. Addisson Wesley Longman. Ltd.