Stop Treating Speaking Like One Giant Skill

Does “Improve your speaking skill” feel too… big? I know as a student how hard it is to get yourself motivated to speak your new language aloud. I’m a long-term solo Mandarin learner, am currently raising a kiddo in French immersion, and I have a background in teaching English as an Additional Language in the classroom. I’ve scrabbled at that rock face myself, and have been a sherpa for others doing the same. I argue that there is more than one path up the mountain we call Speaking; breaking the monolith of this skill down into categories (paths) is critical for figuring out which tools you need to be successful in scaling it, and then you can utilize different strategies along the way. Such strategies can be applied by teachers who add them to their existing “toolbox of teaching”, and they can also work for solo adult learners whether or not they are taking classes currently.

Level-setting

The first thing we need to know in order to be successful is that this mountain has no summit. There is no peak. You can always learn more, go farther, expand your knowledge further. This is true in our native languages as much as it is in our additional one(s). So just being told “More! More!” can leave students secretly frustrated, thinking “But how? How?! More of -what-?”. The overarching goal of “improve my speaking skill” is too vague. So let’s break it down.

Choosing your path

The Speaking skill can be broken down into four, some might say five, subcategory areas:

Social speaking

We all have natural conversations from small talk to deeper, more personal conversations in our own native language. Social speaking demands that we are able to interpret social cues and express our thoughts and feelings to another person or a small group, such as friends or coworkers. Can your students do that in their target language, too (or you yourself, if you’re solo-learning)?

Small talk is obviously commonly taught in any beginner class, but what can you do to break past the “What’s your favourite food?” conversation? A great way to do that is to lean into writing, or “pre-writing”, first. Writing is, of course, a slower process than speaking, so you have the chance to spend time with your thoughts and refine them and maybe teach yourself some useful, meaningful new vocabulary along the way. Choosing to get better at heart-to-heart conversations could look like setting a goal to journal weekly and then reading those journal entries aloud to a friend who speaks your target language and inviting further conversation from that, for example.

Some might consider “professional speaking” (referenced above as the could-be 5th category), as in, the ability to function in a workplace setting - like being a participant in a small meeting - to be its own category separate from Social Speaking, but I am not sure how important it is to separate the two because even in a semiformal meeting you will use small talk and share opinions and even feelings.

Functional speaking

Functional speaking is similar to social speaking, but the focus is narrower and there’s a clear goal with these types of interactions, such as ordering a pizza (very important functional skill, I argue!). Social speaking doesn’t always need to end up in a certain place for it to be considered a successful conversation, whereas t’s necessary to master functional speaking to get things done in day-to-day life. Can your students (or you) get from A to B in a conversation where accuracy is key?

One might think that functional speaking should “come before” social speaking, and that is how most people learn a new language. However, it is interesting that although functional speaking is often easier to practise because it tends to be more predictable and formulaic, some people still find themselves more comfortable “shooting the breeze” in a meandering conversation (social speaking) than keeping specific information straight with a stranger and working toward a desired outcome (functional speaking).

Most teachers use information gap activities to practise functional speaking because they provide a clear structure and goal. However, to push this skill further, learners can try less scaffolded “mission” tasks where they have to decide what information they need and how to obtain it. For example, they might take a message for someone else, or do a task like contacting three hotels to compare prices, availability, check-in times and cancellation policies. Recording yourself during these tasks can be especially helpful because success depends on accuracy: did you get the right information, ask the right follow-up questions and achieve your goal? Unlike recording social speaking, which can feel more personal or make you self-conscious, recording functional speaking gives you a clear benchmark to review and improve.

Giving presentations

Plenty of people who are fluent in their native language will never give a highly publicised speech or presentation to a live audience, but can your students communicate ideas in small- or large-group settings if need be?

In life in general, students are far more likely to need the ability to present findings, make arguments or teach a bit of information to smaller groups than they are to give formal speeches. That means having strategies to build these skills matters.

TIP! You can help your students relax a bit by reminding them that most people could probably use a little touch-up in this skill area in their native language as well!

For students who want to become experts at giving speeches or even pursue something like Toastmasters, practising in front of a mirror can be useful. However, a shallow-end-first approach to becoming more comfortable presenting outside the safety of one’s bedroom mirror might be to start by finding ways to do public narrations, such as by offering to read children’s books to your child’s bilingual preschool play group as a warm-up stage.

Creative speaking

Creative speaking may touch on social speaking as well, but it requires there to be some ability to make-believe or anticipate the next step in the conversation, or scene, on some level. In other words, creative speaking is about generating original ideas, stories, descriptions or perspectives in the moment. Could one of your students be the type to find joy in this aspect of communication?

This could include role-play, improvising a scene, making up a game, doing a character voice, performing a narration, etc. A fun and collaborative way to exercise creative speaking is to do story chains (with a partner or group, students take turns adding one part to a story).

Here are some variations:

• Each person adds one sentence.
• Each person must include a random word.
• Each person has to introduce a problem or unexpected event.

This helps learners think quickly, use their imaginations, and respond to others’ ideas. For more specific examples, do a search for the instructions to the fun and silly “Fortunately, Unfortunately speaking game” or the “Warning! Speaking game.”

An extra boost

The hidden motivation in knowing that these categories exist is that you now have the option to take the seemingly massive topic of “Get myself to speak Mandarin aloud...more” and whittle it down to goals that can be measured in a less intimidating way compared to when we get excessively vague or general. If you teach these categories, you can ask your students if they feel better thinking of the (sometimes “nebulous”-feeling) speaking skill in these ways.

Do you think some students might feel relief if they realise that they care more about some of these categories than others?

This might be a mindset shift you can offer them: You are allowed to prioritise what’s important to you when you devise your own study plans. It’s easier to get better at speaking when you can pick a type of speaking that matters to you, because once you identify it, you can know where to focus your energy and see more clearly what an achieved goal in that area really looks like. And then, you can continue on to improve the other subcategory areas, coming from a place where you have so many more speaking experiences already under your belt.

You could ask your students to do a personal ranking of the categories to see which focus would bring them the most joy. Knowing they can start from what feels motivating for them and build from there could be just the thing to get them embracing all the paths ahead.

Before we pack up for the day

Just a quick reminder that if you want to dive much deeper into the topic of Speaking, check out our episode 6 of Fluent•ish, the Podcast. In Episode 6, we break down: 

• The difference between receptive and productive skills
• Why it’s okay (and even normal) to start with more listening than speaking
• How to improve your speaking clarity, rhythm, and flow
• What "Lexical Chunks" are and why they matter
• Why you don’t need to sound exactly like a native speaker to be understood
• How to use self-assessment questions to tailor your next study steps
• Key Speaking and Pronunciation subskills—like sentence stress, filler words, mouth placement, and improvisation. 

You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or view the vlog version on YouTube. And - quick reminder - as a subscriber to our email list you have access to the accompanying freebie materials from that and every episode of Fluent•ish inside Our Little Freebie Library!

Until next time!
下次再见!