SPEAKING ASSIGNMENT 2

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT FOR SPEAKING INTERVIEW

GROUP MEMBERS:
1) DAPHNE KHOO XIN EE (D20201095113)
2) TEO LEE SIA (D20201095101)
3) NUR SYAHIRAH BINTI MOHD IDRIS (L) ( D20201095107)
4) ALICIA PAYONG ANAK MORRIS ( D20201093437)

DATE : 26th December 2020

TIME : 1:20PM-2:00PM
INTERVIEWEE : Encik Izzat bin Abdul Jalil
SCHOOL : SMK Tanah Putih , Kuantan
PLATFORM : Google Meet

QUESTION 1
Teacher, can you tell me a little about yourself?
My name is Izzat. I am a Bachelor of Education TESL from the University of Exeter. This is
my 20th year in service with MOE in Malaysia.

QUESTION 2
Which form are you teaching English?
For the current academic year which is going to finish , in fact had finished , I have been
assigned to teach five form 5 classes with 3 hours of contact time per week for each class.

QUESTION 3
Based on your opinion, what are the factors affecting speaking skllis?
Assuming that you’re asking about the factors affecting speaking skills in English , a
language other than your mother tongue. I would say there are three important factors. The
first is your own personality as a learner whether you’re an introvert or extrovert and what are
your motives for learning the language. Do you want to do it because you really want to do it
or for professional or educational purposes ? Do you want to learn it because you
wanted to be closer to somebody ? This in terms of learning, the more honest you are in your
motive the better learner you’re going to be. Secondly, another factor that affect the speaking
skills is the community where you’re learning whether the community is positive or negative.
Do they encourage you or what kind of obstacle do they put in front of you when you wanted
to learn the language? Are your friend and family being supportive? The third factor is
related to the first point just now which is communication, professional and artistic means.
Whether you learn the language because you wanted to be closer with somebody, try to
achieve something professionally or in your career or you wanted to communicate with
somebody you care about. So those are the factors that I think can affect the speaking skills.
QUESTION 4
What are the problems that teacher face when there is a huge gap of speaking proficiency
level between students ?
I tried to design lessons that create meaningful situations for language to occur .I will shift
the focus from accuracy, because normally the problem is , the students think that when there
is a speaking assignment , when the teacher ask them to speak in English , they think the
teacher is expecting them to be really accurate with perfect grammar and things like that . But
, its not like that at all , At a speaking class , the focus shifts to not accuracy but fluency and
spontaneity. They have to be spontaneous when they produce the language . So , the problem
is students think that they are being attacked , you know , in terms of their grammar. They are
being exposed for their weaknesses in the language . In fact , its not like that at all. When you
are given a speaking assignment , you should think of it as practice and try to use the
language in a normal situation like when you use it in your life . Another problem when there
is a huge gap of proficiency level between students is actually the interference of L1 . L1 is
your mother tongue . I’m very concerned about that , it’s a common thing , it always bothers
me because I would love it if they can use English 100 % . For me personally as an English
teacher , the dilemma is how much L1 do I want to allow in my class? How should I
encourage it and how do I stop that from happening?
QUESTION 5
Is the time period for English session in school enough to teach the students English speaking
skills ?
Yes, it is enough if the students can speak whatever phrases in English and they are able to
convey certain messages in simple English. But, if they want to master the language,
certainly not enough.

QUESTION 6
What is the challenges that you face during teaching English speaking skills among the
students from different races?
The challenges is mixed abilities because of L1 interference. Teaching 42 students with
mixed races and mixed abilities. Hence, they tend to be a lot of idiosyncrasy. I need to cater
to a lot of mix which is sometimes impossible.
QUESTION 7
What is the challenges faced by teacher when students didn’t have enough vocabulary to give
a good speech?
If students don’t have enough vocabulary , in each lesson, you have to pre-teach the
vocabulary before you start with the teaching assignment . But usually the students don’t
listen to it and the way they explain the meaning of the keywords to their friends it’s different
from the explanation by teacher due to L1 interference. Next, try to tell my students to apply
the words themselves. Other than that, teach them to respect the language, it’s structure and
it’s tradition. You don’t deserve to learn the language if you don’t respect the language.
Lastly, the students should be responsible on what they have learned as they are already Form
5 students .

QUESTION 8
As an English teacher, what problems did you face when you are trying to improve students
score in speaking test?
To improve students score in speaking test …if you guys are keeping with what is happening
right now in the English curriculum now is we are moving towards CEFR. In fact, SPM in
year 2020 which has been postponed and brought forward to March next year 2021 will be
the last year where the old format is happening like the one SPM paper you took that format
with the ULBS carried out self reflect formally outside the SPM schedule. There will be no
more and this will be the last year and for the next year will be the more consultancy CEFR
effort and its going to be tested skills by skills so I cannot comment on that yet in term of
CEFR scoring because I have not done it yet. But in the old SPM format the one that you
guys are familiar with , the examination that you went through , there is not really much of
focus on speaking and you only tested for only not even 10% of the mark I think or 7% or
8% are qualified term only for your ULBS. So, I do not do much to try to improve their
speaking test because I do not think of it as need or a task but I will design a speaking
assignment where they will be honest in their production of the language and I will try to give
them assignment that apply to their real lives or things that they might be interest like games
or song like that. That is my answer for number eight.

QUESTION 9
What are the suggested solutions to help your students become good speakers and to
overcome the negative attitudes among your students?
Suggested solutions to help students become good speakers is the usual cliché answer will be
read more , speak more, practice. But , the best advice that I can give to my students or
anybody who trying to learn another language, does not have to be English , if you are Malay
and you trying to learn Tamil for example is the honesty factor. You need to have an honest
motive and it should not be because of trying to pass your exam or you fail English and you
will be disappointing your parents that is not what it is supposed to be. Suggested solutions to
help students become good speakers is a motivation and what motive do you have and once
you have a good motive and a honest good positive motive you will become naturally curious
about the language and brave to try all this unfamiliar structures in the language and you will
be very proud when you achieve something even though it is not a big thing.

QUESTION 10
Based on your experience , how speaking skills can be improved among students ?
If its in universities , because you have specific lessons for speaking , writing , listening and
reading . So , you need to be able identify the strength between your friends , whose good in
speaking , whose good in writing something like that . You can find your friends that master
a specific skill to create a specific study group and practice with them. Because language is a
social skill , you need to use it to be better at it .