Speaking is considered by so many people to be the top of the language command. At least it's the most vivid sign of the learning success. So, it looks quite natural that students of all ages and levels are longing to speak leaving other skills unmastered. Apparently, no one would boast of his high-level language knowledge because he can listen or write perfectly. However, my personal experience in language learning is that listening and writing skills turn out to be the most neglected by students as well as by most teachers.

What should a student do to master his target language?
First and foremost, lots of 'boring' work: grammar drills, vocabulary study, pronunciation exercises, phrasal verbs and idioms practice, prepositions and modal verbs mastering, listening tests, creative writing, all kinds of reading:skimming, scanning, extensive, intensive, loud, silent reading; etc. etc. ect. There are so many course books and cd-roms nowadays!

As for pure speaking practice, one can't say there's no opportunity - the Internet, and Skype in particular, give you lots of speaking opportunities. Though I fail to get the idea of such speaking since no one is going to correct your mistakes.