"THE SILENT CLASSROOM": WHY SPEAKING SKILLS ARE BEING LEFT BEHIND AND HOW TO FIX THEM

This paper examines a persistent and under acknowledged paradox within language education: the structural marginalization of speaking skills despite their centrality to communicative competence. In programs where upward of 80% of instructional time is devoted to reading, writing, and grammar, oral production is rendered pedagogically invisible allocated neither time, nor consistent methodology, nor meaningful assessment. The study analyses institutional drivers of this imbalance, including standardized test design, teacher training deficits, and policy incentives that priorities measurable written outputs. Psychological dimensions foreign language anxiety, the silent period, and the affective filter are reviewed through the lens of current SLA research. The article concludes with an evidence-based framework for rehabilitating oral skill development without dismantling existing curricula.