Improving Speaking Skills of Non-Native Learners Assignment

Improving Speaking Skills of Non-Native Learners - Assignment Example Teaching speaking skills can be very challenging as well as very difficult. Learning to speak with proper grammar usage and pronunciation generally has a long learning curve. The ability to speak proper English is essential for being successful and in one’s career. This essay would be discussing how to improve the speaking skills of non-native learners and make them speak more fluently and accurately and encourage them to acquire an English native speaker accent. In the essay, some important aspects which are discussed include the accent issues for non-native learners, the methods used by teachers to ensure quality learning, some of which are motivating the non-native learners, innovation of the teaching activities, using paused transcriptions and using regular supervision and feedback. Additionally, the importance of using the main conversational types as spoken message repetition; namely comprehension checks, comprehension checks and clarification requests, is elaborated in the essay. In order to tackle these aspects of life, proper communication in English is imperative. The non-native learners would also regularly need to communicate with employers, neighbors and colleagues in English. They might also have an objective of receiving higher education in a foreign country or get promoted in their jobs, hence for numerous purposes; non-native learners enroll for spoken English classes (Ignash, 1995). The non-native learners are sometimes successful in carrying out conversational English with sound grammar. However, their accent and intonation make their speech partly incomprehensible. According to Hughes ‘I have argued that because intonational meaning is central to a full understanding of spoken English, it deserves more attention in Applied Linguistics. If researchers are to better understand language acquisition, language production, listening comprehension, and discourse strategies in the context of communication as a whole, intonational meaning should be a central part of the program.