The Effectiveness of a Proposed Internet- Based Collaborative Tasks Program in Developing EFL Speaking Skills among Egyptian University Level Students

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to help EFL first year intensive English course students at October Modern Sciences & Arts University develop the necessary speaking sub-skills through a proposed Internet- based collaborative tasks program. These tasks included (1) watching, retelling and commenting on online digital stories, (2) watching online videos on argumentative topics and having debates based on these videos and (3) using different internet sources to give group multi-media presentations highlighting the causes, effects and possible solutions of varied problems. The study followed the quasi- experimental pretest- posttest one group design. The study group consisted of thirty students who were randomly selected for the purpose of the current study. The experimental group was taught by the researcher throughout the Spring Semester of the academic year 2017- 2018 according to the proposed program. The study tools included a checklist for determining the necessary speaking sub-skills, a pre- /post- speaking test, an analytical rubric for marking the students' oral performance on the pre-/ post- test and the proposed program. Comparing the pre-/ post- test speaking performance of the study group indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the pre- test and post- test scores in favour of the post- test scores. Therefore, it was concluded that the proposed program proved to be effective in developing the study group students' overall speaking performance as well as in developing each speaking sub-skill