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CHAPTER ONE
THEORIES ON SPEAKING

1. The Nature of Speaking

Speaking as one of productive language skills is
commonly defined as the ability of using a language orally.

Speaking skill is usually considered by the language learner to
be the most important goal in learning a language. In fact of

all languages, speaking skill plays a crucial role in learning and
understanding the language. To most people, mastering the art

of speaking is the single most aspect of learning a second or

foreign language, and the success is measured in terms of the
ability to carry out a conversation in the language.

According to Brown (2004: 104) speaking is a productive
skill that can be directly and empirically observed and those

observations are colored by the accuracy and effectiveness of

test-taker listening skill, which necessarily compromises the
reality and validity of oral production. Meanwhile, Brown

and Yule, in Richards (2001: 64) state that speaking is classified
into three: talk as interaction, talk as transaction, and talk as

performance. Each of these speech activities is quite distinct in

term of form and function and requires different teaching
approaches. According to Turk (2003: 9) speaking is the direct

route from one mind to another, and is the way we usually
choose when we want to ask a question, or give an explanation.

Furthermore, Bryne (1998: 8) states that oral communication
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