EFL Speaking Research Articles

Integrating Instructional Scaffolding Interaction Cycle into Dialogic Teaching to Enhance EFL Listening and Speaking Skills Among Faculty of Education Sophomores

تبحث الدراسة الحالية في فعالية برنامج قائم على دمج دورة تفاعل السقالات التعليمية التفاعلية في التدريس الحواري لتطوير مهارات الاستماع والتحدث لطلاب الفرقة الثانية بكلية التربية. يتألف المشاركون في الدراسة من ستة وسبعين طالبًا تم اختيارهم عشوائيا من الطلاب المقيدين بالفرقة الثانية بكلية التربية جامعة المنوفية. تم تقسيم العينة إلى مجموعتين: التجريبية (38) والضابطة (38) طالب. تلقت المجموعة التجريبية تدريس يستند إلى دمج دورة السقالات التعليمية التفاعلية في التدريس الحواري، بينما تلقت المجموعة الضابطة التدريس بالطريقة المعتادة اعتمدت الدراسة على التصميم شبه التجريبي. تضمنت الأدوات اختبار مهارات الاستماع والتحدث باللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية بإعداد اختبار تم تطبيقه قبليا وبعديا على عينة الدراسة. أظهرت النتائج أن استخدام برنامج يعتمد على دمج دورة السقالات التعليمية التفاعلية في التدريس الحواري أثر بشكل إيجابي على تنمية مهارات الاستماع والتحدث لدى الطلاب في كلية التربية.

Using movie trailers to enhance both f2f and online language learning outcomes in an EFL speaking class

This design-based research explored the language learning outcomes of watching movie trailers in a large speaking class offered in both f2f and online learning environments. In this 12-week study, the instruction was f2f for the first four weeks and online for the remaining eight weeks. The data were collected from 58 first-year university students via interviews and subjected to qualitative content analysis. The results indicated that watching trailers stimulated participation and improved speaking, pronunciation as well as learning/recalling vocabulary. Furthermore, movie trailers helped increase their motivation and willingness to communicate. Therefore, it is argued that the movie trailers deliver positive contributions by infusing numerous pedagogical advantages into foreign language curricula, suggesting that it is rewarding to use them in both f2f and online speaking classes.

Re-Thinking improvement issues in EFL speaking commitment at higher education - A speaking discourse analysis perspectives

Many linguistic speaking inputs require more confidence to communicate effectively in higher education. Focusing on the speaking discourse perspectives aiming to meet student satisfaction in committing to speaking EFL, we customized the adopted instruments as follows: (Asakereh & Dehghannezhad, 2015) and (Oxford, 1990). The research questions are RQ1. What language input challenges do Albanian students face in the university setting while speaking EFL? RQ2. Is the EFL speaking discourse affected positively by strategies utilized in FL speaking performances? For the academic year 2022/23, the current researcher obtained qualitative data output from two instruments N=250 online questionnaires. Using the second instrument (SILL), we tested the following hypotheses: H1=students achieve satisfaction with up-to-date language input in bringing knowledge to life through continuous effective instructional practices H2=the effectiveness of the strategies used by EFL teachers toward speaking commitment needs ongoing improvement. SPSS data output reported a significant correlation between the research hypotheses. It targets the perspectives of the instructional impact of Metacognitive Strategies and Affective Strategies for increased learner autonomy. The result of this research promotes Affective Strategies to maximize learner autonomy indicating significant practical implications in the classroom to accomplish speaking goals. Concerning improvement issues in EFL speaking at higher education, commitment marks the relevance of empowering teaching speaking content.

Great Aspirations: Examining VOT of Word-Initial Voiceless Stops in English and Serbian in Serbian EFL Speakers

Great Aspirations: Examining VOT of Word-Initial Voiceless Stops in English and Serbian in Serbian EFL Speakers

The Development of Learning Environment Based on Learning Materials in EFL Speaking Class

Learning materials have essential roles in building learning environment—whether it becomes learner-centered, knowledge-centered, or assessment-centered. This study sought the trend of learning material development in basic speaking class. This study was qualitative in nature where the data quality was the key point measurement for further steps in finding the answer(s) to the research question. The data source was materials used for 14 meetings of Basic Conversation class. While the subject of this study was these materials, the object was the material criteria categorized based on Bransford’s et al. (2001) representation about learning material development in a classroom. The data analysis employed interactive analysis undergoing three steps which were data reduction, data display, and data verification. The results show that learner-centeredness was majorly developed in Meeting 2, Meeting 4, Meeting 5, Meeting 8, Meeting 9, and Meeting 10; knowledge-centeredness was majorly developed in Meeting 3, Meeting 6, and Meeting 7; and assessment-centeredness was majorly developed in Meeting 6 and Meeting 7. It is concluded that, first, the learning materials used for Basic Conversation class generally developed learner-centered environment as the focus was students’ interest and their background knowledge. Secondly, the materials also accentuated on knowledge-centeredness, though not as much as the first result. Last, there was also slight but still substantial development of assessment-centered environment. It implies that there can be found ample balance between these three types of learning centeredness to promote good learning environment.

Korean Nasalization as L1 Interference on English Production by Korean EFL Learners

The present study aims to analyze how L1 interference of Korean nasalization processes influences English speech by Korean EFL speakers according to their English proficiency. 20 Korean EFL speakers (experimental group) and four native speakers of English (control group) participated in this study. Korean EFL speakers were divided into two groups of ten according to their English proficiency. This study measures the values of three factors: the frequency of nasalization processes, final stop release, and vowel insertion. Through this study, the following results were found. The English proficiency of Korean EFL speakers is found to influence the realization of nasalization processes and vowel insertion in their English speech in that they are realized more frequently by the group with lower English proficiency than the group with higher English proficiency. For final stop release, although no particular difference is found when comparing the frequency of the final stop release of the three speaker groups, it is found that the group with English native speakers has a higher frequency of final stop release than the two Korean speaker groups, and the group with higher English proficiency is likely to have a higher frequency of final stop release compared to the group with lower English proficiency in most cases. The findings suggest that the group with higher English proficiency speaks closer to English native speakers than the group with lower English proficiency.

Effects of English proficiency on motivational regulation in a videoconference-based EFL speaking class

Effects of English proficiency on motivational regulation in a videoconference-based EFL speaking class

Uptalk in L2 English: the phonetic identity and perception of final declarative rises in Serbian EFL.

Uptalk has been increasingly documented in different L1 English varieties and communicative contexts, but is rarely recognized in formal L2 educational contexts, where it is still attributed to learners' inadequate mastery of intonation. This study is a cross-sectional corpus-based exploration of the phonetic realization of uptalk in Serbian EFL students' semi-spontaneous expository speech, and its perception as a sentence-finality signal. The corpus comprised all rising intonation units (IU) produced by 14 female and 9 male participants, classified by structural clues as syntactic continuation, listing, polar questions, or uptalk, to explore the relatedness of the phonetic properties to structural position and gender. Next, 100 EFL students rated selected phrases, illustrating continuation rises, uptalk, and final falls, as possibly sentence final, on a 5-point scale. The findings showed that uptalk was consistently produced as a phonetically distinct signal, characterized by a larger pitch excursion, a steeper rise slope, a higher rise peak, and a longer post-IU pause. Females produced wider pitch excursions and steeper slopes. Uptalk examples were ranked high as possible sentence-finality signals. The study suggests that EFL speakers' uptalk should be recognized as a novel socio-pragmatic prosodic device, deliberately used even in more formal academic contexts.

Black Lives Matter in an EFL speaking class

Abstract Critical pedagogy in ELT mainly aims to encourage learners to address current sociopolitical issues and speak up for change. Thus, encountering a real-world issue might aid in deconstructing a given order of discourse found in the textbooks and gaining a more realistic perspective. This reflective study was conducted at a Turkish university and is based on a participatory approach in which the teacher-researcher and sixteen learners collaborated to develop a mini-syllabus to discuss the American racial movement Black Lives Matter (BLM). Five themes (historical background, activism, current events, media, and online platform) regarding BLM were identified to encourage meaningful action as well as develop oral skills. The outcomes show that the learners voiced their ideas freely in a democratic setting and worked to extract specific lexical phrases. This study brings the topic of BLM into Turkish EFL learners’ setting and invites EFL learners to create meaningful action.

Cross-linguistic phonological interaction: Word-stress usage in the English of Polish advanced EFL speakers

Cross-linguistic phonological interaction: Word-stress usage in the English of Polish advanced EFL speakers

The Use of Community of Inquiry Framework-Informed Facebook Discussion Activities on Student Speaking Performances in a Blended EFL Class

Students’ extensive use of Facebook in their daily lives has led researchers to investigate the affordances of Facebook for educational purposes. To further the research into the use of Facebook to improve language teaching, we conducted a convergent parallel mixed-methods study to examine the use of Community of Inquiry-informed Facebook discussion activities on the speaking performances of undergraduate students in a blended EFL speaking class in Bangladesh. A Facebook group was maintained for both the treatment and control conditions; however, the discussion activities were required only by the treatment condition. We found a statistically significant difference between the initial and post-test speaking scores for the treatment and control conditions. While no difference was observed in post-test scores between the two conditions, students’ and the instructor’s comments on the Facebook group and student interview data revealed that Facebook was helpful for both conditions in improving their performances, but in different ways.

A Narrative Inquiry of Students’ Self-Directed Learning in EFL Speaking Class through YouTube

This study aims to reveal student’s perceptions through narrative inquiry when learning English through YouTube. Previous studies insisted that learners have made several attempts to foster their English language, both via teacher-guided and self-directed study, in recognition of the advantages of speaking as a foreign language. Exploring learners' accounts of their self-directed learning in EFL speaking class using YouTube is the focus of the present research. Online interviews were conducted with four students as the research participants. In this line, the research presented three narratives—behavior-oriented, instructional, and evaluation—to describe students' motivations for completing SDL. Aside from the primary important elements influencing students' SDL with respect to their perspective, the study is aware of several limitations, including the sample size and research design. We urge more research on classroom participation studies in light of this. We anticipate that this study will contribute to the conversation on developing SDL curricula.

Understanding assessment tasks: Learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of cognitive load of integrated speaking tasks for TBLT implementation

TBLTis an educational approach to L2 learning and teaching where tasks constitute the main focus of classroom instruction. In its implementation, one of the major challenges facing teachers is the lack of empirical evidence for task design and selection relating to task complexity and the cognitive load imposed by tasks perceived by learners. To address the issue, we investigated EFL learners' and teachers' perceptions of cognitive load of integrated speaking tasks, one type of advocated tasks for TBLT, and factors that affect such perceptions within Robinson's Triadic Componential Framework as proposed by some scholars in the task research field. In a mixed-methods design, we collected data using a self-rating scale, a self-rating questionnaire and semi-structured interviews in the context of integrated speaking tasks for helping shed light on task design and selection criteria. Our analysis revealed that task complexity factors contributed to participants' perceptions of cognitive load, and in the four factors under investigation, prior knowledge was perceived as a stronger determinant of cognitive load than planning time, steps involved and task type. These findings provide empirical evidence for task design and selection in TBLT implementation, especially for the use of integrated speaking tasks in TBLT aiming at EFL speaking instruction. They also provide implications for L2 assessment.

Supporting Students' Self-Directed Learning in EFL Speaking Classroom by Using Cake Application

Students are currently on the verge of a technological revolution known as Industry 4.0. As a result, it is critical for today's educators to be able to integrate a teaching-learning method with educational technology as appropriate media in order to achieve the goal of effectively teaching and learning EFL speaking. Smartphones or mobile devices can be loaded with a variety of language-learning apps. One of them is the Cake application, which will serve as the focal point of this current study to supplement previous relevant research. Using a case study research design, 25 third-semester English education program students as the research participants were asked to explore Cake at home for a week while recording all of their activities and discoveries. They were then given open-ended questionnaires to express their perceptions with the app. The results demonstrated that the Cake supported students' self-directed learning in EFL speaking classroom since it was easy, simple, interesting to use, and contained a lot of features for English learning independently, so they could manage themselves to decide the learning goals of using the app and control the learning process. The app could also be used to help them improve some components of speaking skills (pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar) which are the most common issues they face when speaking English. As a result, this app could be a good way for EFL students to improve their speaking skills and support their self-directed learning.

The Influence of Socio-Affective Learning and Metacognition Levels on EFL Listening and Speaking Skills in Online Learning

This research studied the possibility of applying socio-affective instruction in online learning in Indonesia during the pandemic. The main objectives of this study were to investigate how Socio-Affective Instruction (SAI) and metacognition levels affected the students' listening and speaking proficiency and to investigate students’ perceptions. This was experimental research with one group using a pre- and a post-test. The research sample was 41 students, with a total population of 84 students. The instruments were speaking and listening tests, metacognitive awareness questionnaires, and open-ended questionnaires. The non-parametric test was used to analyse the quantitative data, and Open Code was used to synthesize the student perceptions. The result reported significant differences between the listening and speaking pre- and post-test, indicating that SAI significantly influenced students' listening and speaking proficiency. Students with high metacognition showed a significant difference in listening and speaking proficiency, indicating metacognition's significant influence on listening achievement compared to speaking. The perceptions revealed that students valued a comfortable environment during online learning. However, online learning caused learning collaboration to have many disadvantages. The metacognition level contributes significantly to students listening proficiency. In conclusion, although the SAI was applied to enhance collaboration, students tended to work individually. On the contrary, metacognition did not influence students' speaking proficiency because students cooperated well and were much influenced by peer assistance.

Classroom Interaction in the EFL Speaking Class in Junior High School

The teaching and learning process is very dependent on the interactions that occur between teachers and students. The interaction occurs when the two subjects (teacher and student) speak. The purpose of this study is to analyze the types of interactions that were carried out during speaking class, teacher talk and student talk. This study uses a qualitative design with research subjects were English teachers and 35 students in grade 8 at SMP Negeri 5 Singaraja. The data were obtained using observation and using the Foreign Language Interaction (FLINT) system as data analysis. There were three current flows of analysis method namely: data reduction, data display, and conclusion/verification. The result of study reveal that there were seven types of classroom interaction. Those types of classroom interaction have the role to support the successful of the learning process. The most high percentage of teacher talk is teacher-whole class which the class almost done with the all interaction by the teacher to the students.

A Reading aloud and Online media based program to develop EFL Speaking Skills

A Reading aloud and Online media based program to develop EFL Speaking Skills

The Effectiveness of Using E. Contextualized Situations for Developing EFL Speaking Skills among Secondary School Students

The Effectiveness of Using E. Contextualized Situations for Developing EFL Speaking Skills among Secondary School Students

Students’ Anxieties in EFL Speaking Class

This study is focused on identifying the factor of students’ anxiety and solution to reduce anxiety in speaking English at the third Semester Students of English Education Department of Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten in Academic Year 2021/2022. The formulated problems of this study were: (1) What are the causes of students’ anxiety in speaking English? (2) How are the solutions to reduce students’ anxiety in speaking English? The method used qualitative method. The participants of this study were third semester students majoring in English Education at Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten. The data were gathered through questionnaire and interview. The results of this study: first, personal and interpersonal students’ fear in speaking English cause low self-confidence. Second, the students’ perceptions, they fell apprehensive about speaking in front of the class. Third, lecturer-students interaction, the students sensed anxiety when they don't understand what the lecturer is correcting. The last is the lack of preparation, according to the students; they are concerned about their lack of preparation for tests or speaking in front of the class. The solution to reduce anxiety; the students said trying to be confident, preparing material, and they don't be scared to make mistakes when speaking because correcting the errors will help them speak more confident.

Using Instagram and Social Media Engagement Techniques Based Programme to Develop Pre-service Teachers’ EFL Speaking Skills and Intercultural Awareness

Using Instagram and Social Media Engagement Techniques Based Programme to Develop Pre-service Teachers’ EFL Speaking Skills and Intercultural Awareness