Abstract
Speaking is important in learning and teaching of a second language. This paper aims to investigate students’ perceptions on collaborative speaking tasks in ESL classrooms by conducting pair work speaking activities. This survey was conducted with 100 Form Three students in a secondary school in Sentul Zone, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. Pair work speaking activities were conducted for five weeks in English language classes in the school, to explore students’ views on collaborative speaking tasks. All the students were asked to answer a five-point Likert Scale Questionnaire via Google Form, as the instrument to collect the data for this research. The data was analysed based on two research questions: RQ1: What are the students’ perceptions on collaborative speaking tasks? And RQ2: Is there a significant difference between males and females with the respect to their perceptions on the collaborative speaking tasks? The data was analysed by frequency for RQ1 and t-test for RQ2. The findings revealed that the majority of the students prefer pair work speaking tasks as an effective technique to encourage them to speak confidently during their speaking lessons. The positive feedback of their perceptions showed that they can enhance their speaking skill with their peers and the role of their language teachers is only minimal. This study would provide some ideas for teachers to conduct speaking lessons referring to the findings obtained from the students’ feedback.
Highlights
English, as a second language in Malaysian Education System continues to be a compulsory subject taught in all Malaysian educational institutions
The findings revealed collaborative speaking tasks reduced students’ anxiety when they worked in pairs and it helped them in enhancing their speaking skills
Enhancing speaking through collaborative speaking tasks, students feel inspired, motivated, confident, relaxed, will be more critical and will show improvement in grammar and pronunciation that leads to fluency
Summary
As a second language in Malaysian Education System continues to be a compulsory subject taught in all Malaysian educational institutions. According to Bueno, Madrid, and McLaren (2006), speaking is one of the most difficult skills language learners must face. English classrooms became the basic ideal platform for students to acquire good communication skills to face the era of globalization valiantly. Derakhshan et al (2015) stated speaking skills have been developing over the past four decades in teaching and learning English as a second language. According to Moore and Hansen (2011), classroom tasks can engage students in acquiring speaking skills as in a model of the real environment. According to Westbrook (2011, in Achmad & Yusuf, 2014) stated that students are more comfortable to get engaged in speaking tasks with their pairs and are free to communicate and perceive mistakes between them rather than be coordinated and corrected by their teachers
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