Using Self-Talk Strategy in Teaching Speaking
For EFL Learners
Abstract
This article gives a brief overview of the research on strategy called “Self-Talk
Stategy” as an external factor in the process of foreign language learning
especially in teaching speaking skill. Starting from the premise that
“Self-Talk Strategy” can contribute more in achieving higher achievement in
speaking, the writer presents brief and complete theoretical overview to reach
advance understanding both of “Self-Talk Statergy” and teaching speaking skill
in order to help teacher and others educational individual in teaching foreign
language especially speaking skill. Finally, some possibilities for further
research are presented, as well as implication for the teaching practice.
Keywords : Self-Talk Strategy, Speaking Skill, Teaching Speaking Skill
1. Introduction
Speaking is one of the most crucial
language skills should be mastered by foreign language learners. It is because speaking
is a way to communicate with the others all around the world. The students are
obligated to have qualified speaking skill in English in order that the
students are able to widen their insights. Speaking can be defined as an
ability to utter our ideas and opinions properly in a particular language. By
having a qualified speaking skill of English, the students are able to express their
ideas by applying the appropriate way and choosing the correct vocabularies of
English. These are the reasons why the speaking skill is crucial and taught for
the students in educational institution especially in high school. According to
Hayriye Kayi in her journal, speaking is a crucial part of second language
learning and teaching; it is because mastering speaking skill has goal that the
students can improve their communicative skills, because, only in that way,
students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural
rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. But, learning speaking in
English by foreign language learners is not an easy thing to do and becomes
very hard when the students do not know the effective way to learn it. It is a
responsibility of a teacher in teaching English to the students especially
speaking skill until the students finally master it.
Based on writer’s observation, many
students are unable to have qualified speaking skill of English which is not
only influenced or caused by the internal causes such as their interests,
self-concepts, motivations, or self-confidences, but also the external cause
such a classroom setting by the teacher including teaching and learning
strategy. Most of the teachers were failed to teach speaking appropriate with
the goals because many of them are still using the old concept of teaching
speaking which concerned on students in memorizing the vocabularies. This is
happened because of many reasons such as lack of knowledge about the
appropriate learning strategy and inability to apply the learning strategy in
the learning process. To solve these problems, the writer would like to
introduce a learning strategy that can help teachers in teaching speaking
successfully, called self-talk strategy which is not concerned with students’ memory
of vocabularies but the students’ activeness that motivates more themselves to
speak English and even affects their self-confidences and fluency.
Self-talk strategy is a strategy
that all people use when they are faced with new situation and as they carry
out known tasks and routine. There are two kinds of self-talk, they are
negative self-talk and positive self-talk. Negative self-talk can lead to low
self-efficacy and can discourage the students from completing, or even
attempting new task. On the other hands, positive self-talk can empower the
students because reassuring oneself may enable the students to do more than
they expected possible (Chamot et al, 1999).
Therefore, trough this paper the
writer will talk about two main points; they are the concept of self-talk
strategy and the implication of self-talk strategy in teaching speaking.
2. The Concept of
Self-Talk Strategy
In teaching speaking skill to the
foreign language learners, the teacher should know variety of learning strategy
which can make significant progress for the students’ ability. One of the
strategies that can be applied to increase students’ ability in speaking is
that self-talk strategy which has been explained generally before. Before
applying this strategy in learning process, the teacher should understand well
about it, starting from the definition, the purpose, kinds of self-talk, and
the advantages that are offered by the strategy.
Self-talk is an activity convincing
yourself about what you are going to do, others defined self-talk as a strategy
in which the adult describes what he or she is doing. Rough definition stated
that self-talk is an activity talking to yourself whatever you appear in your
mind. Self-talk also means making positive statements like “I can do this” to
help oneself get trough challenging task (Barnhardt, 1997). There are many definitions
of self-talk that are stated by the experts, but one for sure that self-talk is
a strategy used to leads the higher self awareness which affects students’
emotion and knowledge ability.
Every learning strategy has its own
purpose to reach. Self-talk is also constructed with several purposes that should
be achieved by the students. There are two main purposes of self-talk -to
increase self-efficacy and to build self-perception or direction- that need to
be reached by the students. The first purpose is that to increase
self-efficacy. In learning process, students’ attitude is the element that must
be considered by teachers. The students should be active, interested, and
motivated in learning. All of this can be possessed if the students have good
self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the learners’ or students’ beliefs about their
ability to accomplish a task. Self-efficacy forms the basis for self esteem and
learning motivation. In learning a language, students with high self-efficacy
will confidently believe that they have a power and ability to learn a language
and perform a skill, thus admitting failure from the beginning (Barnhardt, 1997).
Positive high self-efficacy also helps the students to be successful in
learning process especially language learning and become motivated to seriously
study the language and master the language skills. Highly motivated students
study hard to achieve what suppose to be achieved in learning a language, do
not afraid to face the difficulties, and feel very happy and satisfied on what
they have achieved by their own efforts. While students with low self-efficacy,
believing on themselves to have inherent low ability, choose less demanding
tasks and do not try hard because they believe that any effort will reveal
their own lack of ability. So, the correct application of self-talk can direct
students to have high self-efficacy. The second purpose is that to build self -perception
or direction. By applying self-talk strategy in learning process, the students
will be educated to build perception about their selves and direct them to
attempt what they dream about. A good self- perception will lead the students
to regard themselves as a person who is full with abilities and capable enough
to complete every wish they have. If the students have had a good self-
perception, they will automatically direct themselves to step forward to the
bright future, reach their dream, be successful, and live financially
comfortable. On the other hands, students that direct themselves into the bad
self- perception will feel hopeless most of the time and have big percentage of
failure in accomplishing a task or solving a problem. So, teachers must well
understand the purpose of self-talk in order they can lead the students to
complete it in the right way and get qualified achievement.
Before applying
self-talk strategy, teachers should know the kinds of self-talk itself in order
that they do not lead the students into the wrong way and apply a wrong
self-talk. There are two kinds of self-talk, they are positive self-talk and
negative self-talk. Positive self-talk is the self-talk that can encourage
students’ self-confidence and can empower them with the strength to do more
than they expected possible. In the early age of children, positive self-talk
can disclose the opportunity to develop receptive language. It is because young
preschool children talk out loud of themselves as they play and explore the
environment. Vygotsky’s socio cultural theory (1934/1987; cited in Daugherty
&White, 2008) on cognitive development maintains that children’s private
speech is used for self-direction and that this language is the foundation for
later complex mental activity. Also known as inner language, self instruction
or self talk, it serves to link words, actions and ideas, and facilitates planning,
critical thinking and executive functioning (Winsler, 2007). Meanwhile, for
school age children or students, positive self-talk can lead them reassuring
themselves which help them more than they could because even they cannot do the
task perfectly they can probably do some of it (Zakin, 2007). For example, if
the students are given a task to retell their most excited experience in front
of the class, but they feel nervous and become blank; they can silently say,
“Don’t give up on this, I can do it.” This example is one of the positive
self-talk that can help students to reduce anxiety by reminding themselves of
their progress, resources available to them, and their goals. On the other
side, negative self-talk can decrease students’ confidence about their ability
and loss of belief about the power they have. Negative self-talk can lead to
low self-efficacy and can discourage the students from completing, or even
attempting new task. Students with negative self-talk will easily give up and
get many failures. That is why; teachers’ role in using self-talk is that to
lead students to use the correct self-talk.
Self-talk gives many
advantages for students who apply it rightly. It can build strong mentality
which is much needed in learning process. By applying the positive self-talk,
students can construct their mental to face any task and problem. They will
hardly try to find the problem solving and trough whatever way they can. Such
hard effort can only be done if the students believe on themselves. The other advantages
of self-talk is that decreasing shyness and fear. Many students feel shy when
they are asked to perform a skill or speak up in front of other people; this is
one of the learning obstacles that must be removed. The correct application of
self-talk can be a solution for this problem so that the students will be brave
enough to show up in front of people because they are the one who convince
themselves that they can do it. Self-talk can also decrease students’ fear.
Many students decide to not showing themselves or answering a question that are
asked by teacher because they are afraid of making mistake. They are afraid of
humiliating themselves if they do something or answer a question wrongly. If
the students are fear to make a mistake, it means the learning process is not
running well. Self-talk can significantly solve this problem and create
students centered learning successfully. Self-talk also teach students to have
self-responsible where they are fully responsible for the success of their performance.
Moreover, students who take responsibility for
their learning and exhibit self-management characteristics, are active and
involved, and practice self-encouragement or positive self-talk are likely to
realize success in acquiring a language from a distance (Hurd, 2000). So,
trough this article writer would like to discuss about self-talk strategy
further in the area of teaching speaking skill to the foreign language learners.
3.
The Implication of Self-Talk Strategy in Teaching Speaking
Of all
the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking
seems intuitively the most important: people who know language are referred to
as ‘speakers’ of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of
knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily
interested in learning to speaking (Ur, 1996). That is why teaching speaking
skill to the foreign language learners is very important. It is because a
person’s ability in mastering language is firstly valued trough his or her
quality of speaking skill. The competence and fluency in delivering idea or
thought, speaking, in English can be one of the intellectual capitals for the
students in facing the global world. The
way how to learn speaking English fluently can be done by practicing speaking
English in every occasion and place personally and applying the learning
strategy in learning process at school. Here, the teacher’s roles are very
crucial in the matter of guiding the students to apply the strategy and successful
in mastering speaking (Riyanto, 2005).
A teacher
should explicitly introduce a strategy that the students can use to help them
more in attempting a task. Before applying a learning strategy- in this case- a
self-talk strategy in language teaching, a teacher must first introduce and
make the students well-known about it. Although self-talk is a strategy for
skill performance, but it should be well understood by the students on how to
apply it and what they will get after applying it. In applying self-talk
strategy in speaking class, a teacher should has knowledge of his or her roles
in self-talk and the steps or procedures of applying self-talk strategy.
Self-talk
as one of the productive learning strategies cannot be applied directly by the
students themselves. They need a model and clear instruction on how to apply it
so that they do not practice it on the wrong way. This is the teacher’s role in
introducing and giving instruction to the students the way of applying
self-talk strategy in speaking class and realizing them on the advantages that
they get after applying it well. Before starting the class, the teacher should
introduce the self-talk strategy first to the students. The introduction not
only can be done orally but also the teacher can make an interesting
introduction like display a poster in class with the
strategy. Posters help students remember what the strategies mean. The teacher can
also use the posters to remind students to use the strategies. By equipping
(students) with a repertoire of strategies for learning…teachers can provide
(them) with the tools for a lifetime of successful learning (Sturomski, 1997). Teachers
can model for students how to use the strategy of self-talk by saying, for
example, “I am feeling nervous about speaking in Russian, but I’ve practiced
and even if I’m not perfect I know I can say something. Even if I make a
mistake, everyone will probably still understand me. If I can’t remember how to
say something, I’ll say something else I do know. OK I’m going to take a few
deep breaths and I’ll be ready.” Teachers can then explain that students can
use this strategy themselves emphasizing that most students probably already
use it in areas other than language learning. Teachers can follow-up on the
explanation by working individually with students to encourage them. Students
may also want to identify if there are certain tasks that make them more
apprehensive than others so they can focus their attention on these more
difficult areas (Barnhardt, 1997). One teacher who taught learning strategies,
including self-talk, made the comment, “...the task doesn’t look so
overwhelming...students will try it now, whereas before they might have just
looked at it and said, “No, I can’t do it. It’s too hard.” They have tools and
that makes it easier for them.” So, when the teacher has successfully
introduced and impressed students with the strategy, it will be easier in
applying it in the speaking class.
There are several
elements that should be completed by the teacher in using self-talk strategy in
speaking class:
1.
Language
objective: Prepare and present a one-minute presentation to the class.
2.
Strategy objective:
Use positive self-talk to complete language learning tasks and
increase
feelings of self-efficacy and limit the use of negative self- talk.
3.
Materials:
Poster paper and markers: worksheet, “Using Self-Talk”
4.
Procedures:
Preparation
a. Ask
students if they talk to themselves as they prepare to do and do something new,
such as driving to a new location. Elicit and identify examples of positive and
negative self-talk. Write all examples on the board in “Positive” and
“Negative” columns as appropriate. If the self-talk is in students’ native
language, use translation. E.g, “Talking to yourself can be very helpful if you
are going to try something new or as you are going to have something done. When
do you talk to yourselves? Do you say positive or negative things to yourself?”
b. Ask
students whether they use self-talk when they are preparing for a language
learning task. Elicit and write all of the examples on the board, identifying
each as positive or negative. Note the similarities to the self-talk for non
language tasks. E.g, “Talking to yourself can also be helpful when you are
elarning English. What do you say to yourself when you are preparing to use
English? Do you think it is more helpful to use positive or negative
self-talk?”
Presentation
c. Tell
students that they are going to practice using self-talk as they prepare for
and carry out a speaking task in English. E.g, “We have a lot of strategies for
preparing to speak in English. For example, we have practiced rehearsing.
Today, we are going to practice the strategy self-talk to help us with a
speaking task. You can use self-talk when you prepare to speak and also as you
speak.”
d. Model
the strategy for a speaking task. Tell the students that they will later
practice the same strategy with another task. Emphasize the conscious use of
positive self-talk. E.g, “Okay, now I am going to show you how I can use
self-talk to help me with a speaking task in a language I am learning. My speaking
task is to call the local Spanish grocery store and ask if they have coconut
milk because I want to make a special dessert. Listen, this is my thinking:
Before I call, I will use self-talk because I am little bit nervous. I will
tell myself, ‘It’s okay; I have a lot of strategies I can use. If they don’t
understand me at first, I will try again. I can do this, I am confident I can
talk about this. ‘While I am talking to the grocer, I can tell myself, ‘Be calm
and speak slowly. If I don’t understand, I can ask the grocer to repeat what he
said.’ When I finish talking to the grocer, I will ask my self if my strategy
of self-talk helped me.”
e. Have
students work with you to apply the self-talk strategy to another speaking
task.
Practice
f. Tell
students that they will now practice using self-talk strategy for a speaking
task. (The speaking task should be challenging enough to students so that they
will need to use the strategy, but it should not be too difficult.) E.g, “Okay,
now it’s your turn to give a one-minute presentation to the class about what
you did last weekend. To prepare, write down on your worksheet, “Using
Self-Talk,” the kinds of self-talk you can use to help you and when you will
use self-talk. When you are finished, you will give the presentation and then
evaluate whether using self-talk helped you.”
Evaluation
g. After
students complete the worksheet and give their presentation, discuss as a class
the role of self-talk as students prepared for and carried out the speaking
task. Then have students fill out the final part of the worksheet. E.g, “Did
using self-talk help you at all? What kinds of self-talk did you use before you
started? What kinds of self-talk did you do during the presentation?”
Expansion
h. Teach
students positive self-talk words and phrase of encouragement in the target
language.
i.
Have students to
create a poster of native and target language positive self-talk and hang it in
the classroom.
By attempting to
complete all of the elements that are needed in applying self-talk strategy in
teaching speaking, the result of successfulness is not a dream anymore as long
as the teacher understands and realizes how to apply it and what the students
will get by applying this strategy in order to mastering speaking skill.
Conclusion
Self-talk strategy can
significantly increase students’ motivation and self-confidence in learning
language especially in mastering speaking skill which is the bright way for the
students to achieve what they are dreaming for their futures. It is of course
not an instant and easy job both for teacher and students to apply the strategy
in their learning process at school because there will be many obstacles found
by them, but here is the role’s of teacher, to guide students applying the
strategy in the learning process of mastering speaking skill. As what Sturomski
(1997) stated, by equipping (students) with a repertoire of strategies for
learning…teachers can provide (them) with the tools for a lifetime of
successful learning. In conclusion, by applying the correct self-talk strategy
in the correct systematic steps, the teacher can successful teaching speaking
skill and move forward to the jungle of knowledge of learning strategy and the
students will be successful in mastering speaking skill and swim to the ocean
of knowledge ability to reach their dream island.
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