Teaching Productive Skills to the Students: a secondary Level Scenario

1.2 
Why Productive Skills are Important 
Speaking and writing skills are called productive skills. They are crucial as they 
give students the opportunity to practice real-life activities in the classroom. These two 
skills can be used as a 'barometer' to check how much the learners have learned. 

---

3 
Teaching speaking is vital unless someone is learning English purely for 
academic reasons and does not intend to communicate in English, which is quite rare. 
Good command on speaking skills develop a real sense of progress among learners 
and boosts their confidence. 
Teaching writing is important because written communication is a basic life skill. 
Students may need to take notes, fill in forms, and write letters, reports, stories etc. 
Many need to fill in detailed questionnaires relating to health, education and 
employment. Sufficient ability of writing skill gives one the confidence and marks his 
expertise on a particular language. 
Another reason learners need to write is for assimilation. Writing is an effective 
way of reinforcing what they have already been studying, and they benefit greatly from 
seeing new or unfamiliar language in written form. Writing is a good way to practice 
grammar structures; it helps learners to recycling and look up new vocabulary and to 
learn English punctuation rules. It encourages learner
s‟ autonomy when they are asked 
to keep journals or turn in regular writing assignments that they carry out at home. 
1.3 
Problem Statement 
The study of English in classix-x should help to extend students control of the 
basiclanguage skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing the elements of which 
have already been taught at the primary stage. It should aim at equipping the studentsto 
usethese skills in real life situations outside the classroom. Surprisingly it is found that 
learners are not able to show their performance in respect of productive skill as they are 
expected to be. It indicates that obviously there are some flaws regarding the 
techniques of teaching those productive skills to the learners. Since after SSC, many 
students would go up for further study which would involve extensive use of English.So 
speaking and writing skills development should progressively be given greater attention 
at secondary level of education.