The effective forms and methods of teaching students to speak English in the classroom in higher education are considered. A brief description of dialogic and monologue speech is given. A number of problems are identified and analyzed in the teaching of foreign language oral speech and measures are proposed to solve them. The nature of an effective task for the development of speaking is determined and a series of exercises is proposed that contribute to the development of oral speech skills in students and the formation of their communicative competence, solving the problems discussed.