L1 Poetry and Moral Stories as a Factor Affecting Acquisition of L2 Oracy Skills in EFL Settings

Abstract

The current study works on the belief that literature (poetry and moral tales) can be a powerful tool for acquisition of oracy in an EFL setting and studies the impetus given to L2 learning as a factor of exposure to poetry and meaningful stories in L1. It aims to investigate whether students’ L1 can play a positive role in reasonable L2 oral output on the premise of using literature in the classroom. The study also compares whether or not the students’ scores develop significantly as a result of the intervention. It adopts a quasi-experiment design in which 75 level 1 Saudi EFL students at the Department of English and Translation participate by enrolling in a listening-speaking test in with evaluation is based on an ASL descriptors rubric. The intervention follows a version of Ochi’s (2009) practice of Interpreting Training Method (ITM) using Quick-Response Practice and Sight Translation (Ochi also uses Shadowing and Summarization in addition to these). Findings show that using L1 literary genre can help in developing EFL students’ oracy skills. Furthermore, the study reports that students gain in all the four elements as 2.7 points in comprehension and 3.8 in coherence, and 1.8 points in pronunciation and 1.4 in grammar/ vocabulary on a scale of 1-10, however, in comprehension and coherence the enhancement is significant, p =0.000. It recommends EFL teachers to integrate the use of L1 literature in EFL classroom as inputs in facilitating L2 output.