Oral English Proficiency Research Articles

Practical English Oral Expression and Communication Skills

In this era of globalization, English has become the universal language for international communication. Whether it’s business negotiations, studying abroad, or daily communication, fluent English oral expression is crucial. For studying abroad, good English oral expression skills can not only help you better adapt to the new environment, but also allow you to have a deeper understanding of the local culture. In daily life, being able to express your thoughts fluently in English can help you better communicate with foreign friends and expand your social circle. Therefore, improving English oral expression ability is very important for everyone. Below, the author will share some practical English oral expression and communication skills to help you improve your English speaking skills and communicate more confidently with others. By mastering these practical English oral expression and communication skills, your English oral proficiency will improve and you will be more confident in communicating with others.

Enjoyment and oral English proficiency in future teachers

This study analyzed the relationship between enjoyment and oral English proficiency in Peruvian future teachers. It previously validated a measurement instrument of enjoyment setting for future teachers who are learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and then delved into understanding the role of enjoyment as a predictor of oral proficiency. The sample comprised 119 students from a State Higher School of Education in Peru, randomly selected from various careers and grouped according to English language competency levels ranging from A1 to B1+ based on a subscale inspired by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Students’ oral proficiency was evaluated using a rubric covering five aspects, and enjoyment was assessed through a nine-question questionnaire. The results initially demonstrated a significant positive relationship (r = 0.900, p < 0.001) between enjoyment and oral proficiency in EFL. Secondly, a linear regression model determined that enjoyment was a highly significant predictor (β = 0.957, p < 0.001) of oral proficiency. These findings support the importance of enjoyment in developing oral proficiency as a reliable tool to predict oral proficiency in EFL in the context of EFL teacher education. This study highlighted a significant influence of enjoyment on oral proficiency in learning EFL to prospective teachers. Results analysis underscored the importance of enjoyment as a significant predictor of oral proficiency, suggesting that promoting enjoyment in the learning and teaching process can be an effective strategy to foster significant development of oral skills in English. These findings have significant implications for teacher education, emphasizing the need to integrate activities and psycho-pedagogical approaches that promote enjoyment in the English classroom. Furthermore, the proposed model was validated as a reliable tool to assess teachers’ enjoyment of learning EFL. Understanding and nurturing enjoyment in learning English can significantly enhance the oral English proficiency of future teachers and, ultimately, contribute to a more robust command of the EFL.

Action Research in ESL: Enhancing English Oral Proficiency in an Asynchronous Speech Course

This action research investigated the impact of remedial collaborative techniques, pedagogical methods, and multimedia resources on enhancing oral language proficiency development among college English Language Learners (ELLs). Action research was used to gather data through a survey questionnaire and interviews with 25 ELLs enrolled in an asynchronous speech course. The participants’ experiences with the remedial course strategies were positive for practicing their English communication skills. The participants attributed their satisfaction to the ample opportunities for collaboration with peers and the instructor, the course structure, and relevant multimedia resources. Feedback emerged as a critical factor in learner engagement and progress. The results underscore the potential of asynchronous learning for fostering oral language proficiency. However, further research is required to validate these findings in different contexts. This study provides a foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of factors contributing to the holistic improvement of oral language proficiency in asynchronous settings for college ELLs.

Is Average Worrying? A Mixed Method Study of Malaysian Public University Administrative Staff’s Workplace Communication Apprehension

Even when employed, English oral communication skills proficiency continues to be an asset; mastering the skill is advantageous. The notion has driven comprehensive studies on communication, including apprehension, yet the focus on workplace contexts remains minimal. Therefore, this investigation aims to discern communication apprehension’s effect on staff’s communication skills, their administrative tasks, and the institution, to support the skill enhancement. Utilizing the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension instrument and a purposive sampling, the study’s explanatory sequential mixed method design sampled institution’s one hundred fifteen administrative staff. The staff communication apprehension levels were recorded as moderate, with the highest in delivering public speeches. Nevertheless, interview results proved differently to extend worrying trends among staff. The trend could jeopardize staff’s personality and productivity in the long run. The mediocre level also hinted at skill’s stagnant inclination or deterioration if it is not consistently used in conducting workplace tasks or events. The need for an impactful lifelong learning professional development plan to improve staff English oral communication skills is apparent by the University. The university's plan also need to include supporting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for their employees.

Speech Emotion Analysis of Short English Readings based on the CAM-SPAT Model

With the development of technology, voice sentiment analysis has also undergone rapid development, and its application fields are constantly expanding. Multimodal models have become a key focus of researchers due to their ability to better predict emotions. In order to help English learners improve their oral English proficiency, a deep learning based emotional analysis model for English short text reading is proposed, and this model is used to analyze emotions in English reading. Additionally, a cross-modal attention mechanism based on a prediction-assisted task was developed to identify emotions in English reading aloud in state and a two-layer attention-based bi-directional long- and short-term memory network was created to classify emotions in English reading aloud. The results of the research revealed that the classification model’s mean F1 value was 98.54%, the detection model’s mean F1 value was 85.13%, and the speech emotion analysis model’s mean F1 value was 73.55, which was not significantly different from the mean of the professionals’ ratings. The significance of the study lies in providing English learners with a method and pathway to improve their oral English proficiency.

An empirical study of the efficacy of AI chatbots for English as a foreign language learning in primary education

ABSTRACT This experimental research examined the effectiveness of using chatbots in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms at a Chinese elementary school. Seventy-four students were divided into two groups: one employing traditional methods, and the other using chatbots. Before and after the 3-month teaching period, pre- and post-tests were used to measure students’ oral English proficiency, and a questionnaire was employed to assess their willingness to communicate (WTC). Data from interviews with teachers and students provided insights into chatbot usage and modification. Data analysis involved using SPSS to identify significant differences in pre- and post-test scores and NVivo 11 to code qualitative feedback from student and teacher interviews. The results show that chatbot integration significantly improved oral English proficiency and WTC in the experimental group compared with the control group. Teachers can enhance instruction by adopting tailored chatbot features to refine teaching methods, thus creating a more adaptive learning path for students. Further, chatbot improvements such as personalised error correction and user-centric features pave the way for immersive and fruitful language learning. This study provides valuable insights for integrating chatbots into language classrooms and suggests opportunities for further chatbot enhancements..

An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Chinese EFL Learners' Oral English

Compared with reading, writing, listening, Chinese English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners oral English ability is usually far weaker and ignored in classroom language teaching. In terms of oral English teaching and practicing, most of the emphasis is on pronunciation, vocabulary, intonation, while little attention has been given to the grammatical errors in the oral English. The present research focuses on analyzing grammatical errors in Chinese EFL learners oral English. In order to identify the most prevalent grammatical error types and determine the relationship between grammatical errors and oral English proficiency levels, the study collects recordings of subjects discussing a particular topic and transcribing them for error recognition, classification, frequency analysis, and correlation analysis. It is found that Chines EFL learners commit preposition and article errors most frequently; no obvious correlation between error numbers and English-speaking levels is shown, while two error types omission auxiliary be and noun for adjective have significant positive correlation with learners English-speaking scores as indicators of their oral English levels. Based on that, it is concluded that differences between the mother tongue and English, as well as the complexity of some grammatical rules are main causes for errors, and teachers should be aware that students are likely to commit some certain types of errors more as they make progress and try to use more complicated grammatical patterns.

Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety and its Link to Speaking Self-Efficacy, Fear of Negative Evaluation, Self-Perceived Proficiency and Gender

This research study aimed to explore the speaking anxiety of Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and its relation to EFL speaking self-efficacy, fear of negative evaluation (FNE), self-perceived English speaking proficiency, and gender. 293 (132 females, 161 males) university-level EFL students completed the EFL speaking anxiety scale, EFL speaking self-efficacy scale, and FNE scale. Four main findings were obtained as a result of the statistical analyses: (i) students’ speaking anxiety had a negative relationship with both self-perceived oral English proficiency and speaking self-efficacy, (ii) a positive relationship was determined between FNE and speaking anxiety, (iii) EFL speaking anxiety was found to be lower in boys than in girls, and (iv) speaking self-efficacy, FNE, and self-perceived oral proficiency were identified as meaningful predictors of students’ EFL speaking anxiety. In light of these findings, the study offers some pedagogical implications.

An Efficient Probabilistic Deep Learning Model for the Oral Proficiency Assessment of Student Speech Recognition and Classification

Natural Language Processing is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on the interaction between computers and human language. Speech recognition systems utilize machine learning algorithms and statistical models to analyze acoustic features of speech, such as pitch, duration, and frequency, to convert spoken words into written text. The Student English Oral Proficiency Assessment and Feedback System provides students with a comprehensive evaluation of their spoken English skills and offers tailored feedback to help them improve. It can be used in language learning institutions, universities, or online platforms to support language education and enhance oral communication abilities. In this paper constructed a framework stated as Latent Dirichlet Integrated Deep Learning (LDiDL) for the assessment of student English proficiency assessment. The system begins by collecting a comprehensive dataset of spoken English samples, encompassing various proficiency levels. Relevant features are extracted from the samples, including acoustic characteristics and linguistic attributes. Leveraging Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), the system uncovers latent topics within the data, enabling a deeper understanding of the underlying themes present in the spoken English. To further enhance the analysis, a deep learning model is developed, integrating the LDA topics with the extracted features. This model is trained using appropriate techniques and evaluated using performance metrics. Utilizing the predictions made by the model, the system generates personalized feedback for each student, focusing on areas of improvement such as vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and pronunciation. Simulation mode uses the native English speech audio for the LDiDL training and classification. The experimental analysis stated that the proposed LDiDL model achieves an accuracy of 99% for the assessment of English Proficiency.

The Impact of Topic Selection on Lexico-Grammatical Errors and Scores in English Oral Proficiency Interviews of Korean College Students

The primary objective of this study is to identify the types of errors made by Korean college students in an oral proficiency interview in relation to specific task topics, and to examine how these errors affect their lexico-grammatical proficiency scores. Ninety-six two-minute-long audio clips of 32 Korean college students on three different topics were transcribed. Lexico-grammatical errors were then coded for statistical analysis and lexico-grammatical scores were estimated using many-facet Rasch measurement analysis with two raters. Friedman tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed that noun phrase, verb phrase, and prepositional phrase errors were more frequently found with the descriptive tasks than compare-and-contrast or hypothetical prompts. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that noun phrase and verb phrase errors accounted for 22% of the variance in lexico-grammatical scores. Adding utterance length variables to the initial regression model explained an additional 43% of the variance in the lexico-grammatical scores. These findings suggest that noun phrase errors and verb phrase errors should be a priority in English classes, and that it is beneficial to teach English speaking skills in a way that takes into account the task characteristics and contextual factors.

English Language Skills and Becoming a Global Entrepreneur: Lessons for Entrepreneurship Education

This paper discusses the results of a case study that focused on the importance of English language skills in helping students become global entrepreneurs. A critical element that is often missing in courses on Entrepreneurship Education is the inclusion of the language component that helps build oral English proficiency. In the entrepreneurship education courses, the importance of teaching English skills to prepare students to become global entrepreneurs is seldom instilled among students—an especially crucial aspect when teaching students for whom English is a second or foreign language—as it would not only motivate them to use English more, but also help them overcome their challenges in using English. By using an online survey and focus group discussions, this study obtained the views of 177 undergraduate students of an Entrepreneurship Education course conducted by the Faculty of Economics of a Malaysian public university. The attitudes of the students towards using English for entrepreneurship and the challenges they faced in doing so are highlighted, and implications are drawn for teaching English in entrepreneurship courses.

The impact of neoliberal discourse and the socio-economic status of parents on TEFL young learners’ achievement: Parental beliefs and behaviors in the spotlight

Considering the scarcity of research on different aspects of young learners’ teaching and learning English, and given the fact that parents provide financial support for the young learners’ education, this study was an attempt to investigate how socio-economic factors interact with parents’ behaviors and beliefs regarding young learners’ success in achieving English oral proficiency. The participants were 28 young learners of English with their parents. They were selected through purposive sampling and these learners were taught with the same method, and tuition were waived for children with low SES. To explore parents’ perceptions, beliefs and 7 behaviors, 17 parents of adequate and inadequate means were interviewed. Qualitative findings indicated that parents based on their SES viewed their young learners’ success in English differently. This study has implications for various agencies in English language teaching, including teachers, teacher educators, and policymakers in Iran, highlighting the interaction of Neoliberalism discourse and parenteral factors and behaviors in education.Given the limited research on young learners’ English language teaching and learning, coupled with the provision of financial support by parents towards their educational pursuits, this study sought to investigate the interplay between socio-economic factors, parental behavior, and beliefs in achieving English oral proficiency. Participants involved in the study comprised 28 young learners of English and their parents, who were selected through purposive sampling. These learners were instructed using the same syllabus, teachers and textbooks with tuition fees waived for children from low socio-economic backgrounds. In order to explore parents’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, 17 parents of the student participants representing varying financial means were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of the findings revealed that parents’ socio-economic status influenced their views on their children’s success in learning English. The implications of these findings are far-reaching, not only for teachers and teacher educators but also for policymakers in Iran, stressing the interplay between neoliberalism discourse and parental factors and behaviors in education.

Leveraging Flip, a Video Discussion Platform, to Support the Needs of International ESL Pre-Service Teachers

International students, particularly international English as a Second Language (ESL) students who come to the United States with relatively lower levels of English oral language proficiency, are often reluctant to participate in academic discussions. In a graduate-level TESOL program with a majority of international ESL students, a video recording, sharing, and discussion platform, Flip, was utilized in the program's teaching innovation. Flip is widely adopted by educators of all grade levels worldwide, as it enables educators to create a less formal online space to meet the holistic needs of international ESL students, including both academic and social needs. The article explains the teaching context of the practice, four stages of course integration with Flip, reasons for the integration, reflections, and future pedagogical directions. Incorporating Flip in this program promotes linguistic benefits, teacher identity and skill development, a community of belonging, and increased equity in assessment. Practical pedagogical considerations are also provided at the end of the article.

Influencing Factors and Countermeasures of Chinese Students' Oral English Proficiency

With China going global, oral English proficiency seems to be required in more scenarios such as chasing further education in English-medium countries and posts in transnational corporations. However, China’s existing English education probably fails to satisfy the rising need for proficient oral English, where written English tends to be paid much more attention rather than oral English. Despite oral English has been increasingly concerned by the continuous curriculum reform in China, the actual level of Chinese students’ oral English tends to be relatively low. Meanwhile, Chinese students are facing a range of challenges or difficulties in oral English learning. This paper is intended to search for certain approaches to lead Chinese students to overcome these challenges and attain a higher level of oral English proficiency. For this purpose, this paper will systematically review the prior studies. By analysing the results and findings of these researches, the common challenges faced by Chinese students in English learning have been summarised, which are dumb English, the insufficient level of professional quality of English teachers and the neglect of oral English. Moreover, the potential influencing factors aggravating the challenges have also been extracted, that is, foreign language anxiety, educational resources and the education system. Based on the challenges and influential factors, several recommendations have been provided, namely, teaching strategies applied in English classrooms, supporting more education funds and boosting the curriculum reform.

Intelligent Personal Assistant - an interlocutor to mollify Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety

ABSTRACT Speaking in a second/foreign language, especially in English, is one of the most anxiety-provoking tasks for language learners. Anxiety provoked while speaking in a second language distresses the learners and further affects their oral proficiency in English. This article focuses on investigating the presence of anxiety among (n = 86) first-year Arts and Science students of a reputed university in India through Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA) scale. The researchers tested the presence of anxiety pre and post-usage of Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA) in Second Language (SL) classroom through the FLSA scale to deduce the impact of IPA-assisted language learning on speaking anxiety. Besides quantitative analysis, an in-depth interview was conducted with (n = 10) students to shed further insights on the significance of the study through qualitative inputs. Students who were interviewed voiced that they felt less anxious while conversing with IPA, and it paves way for ample practice and makes them feel comfortable while speaking in SL. The results revealed that the students had moderate to serious levels of anxiety in second language classrooms and the usage of IPA has significantly reduced their FLSA.

Virtual reality is not always a cure-all: evidences from a quasi-experiment of EFL business speaking courses

ABSTRACT English speaking has been seen as a challenge for many English as a foreign language (EFL) learners, since they have limited chances to practice English-speaking skills. Therefore, it is essential to provide learners with adequate English-speaking contexts. To address this issue, this study integrated virtual reality (VR) into English speaking classes and aimed to explore the effects of VR on English oral proficiency, speaking anxiety, and emotions, as well as students’ perceptions. Forty university students from two classes were assigned as an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group practiced English speaking with the VR tools, while those in the control group used PowerPoint. Data analysis revealed conflicting results. While ANCOVAs disclosed no significant difference between the two groups regarding their post-intervention oral proficiency, speaking anxiety, and emotions, qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that the independent VR environment could reduce their speaking anxiety, and VR tools could act as effective tools to practice speaking before formal situations in real life. Furthermore, three themes characterized students’ perceptions: “training simulation,” “learning without time or space limitations,” and “providing a safe learning environment.” Finally, interpretations of such conflicting results are offered and implications are proposed.

A Case Study on Impacts of EFL Teachers’ Oral English Proficiency on Students’ English Learning

A Case Study on Impacts of EFL Teachers’ Oral English Proficiency on Students’ English Learning

English Oral Proficiency Measured by Holistic and Analytic Assessments in Dialogic and Monologic Tasks

This study compared Korean adult learners’ English speech in dialogic and monologic tasks, measuring 57 college students’ oral proficiency in terms of holistic and analytic grades. The statistical analyses were focused on two questions: 1) how much do the holistic grades of oral proficiency and analytic grades of the four linguistic features function differently across the tasks? and 2) which linguistic feature has the strongest correlation with the holistic grades of English oral proficiency? The study found significant differences between the two tasks in five aspects (English oral proficiency, topic development, fluency, range, and accuracy). It also showed that a monologic task resulted in lower achievements in those five aspects. In the comparison of the correlations with English proficiency, the range reached the top in both tasks, followed by topic development. The study provides some helpful information regarding which types of speech tasks and linguistic features of EFL oral proficiency are more desirable for targeting in teaching and assessment.

Interventions to improve undergraduate communication with international instructors

U.S. undergraduates (USUGs) have negative biases toward non-native speaking (NNS) instructors like international teaching assistants (ITAs), which can lower student comprehension and ITAs’ course evaluations (Rubin & Kang 2009). Our long-term collaboration seeks to improve attitudes and intelligibility so USUGs may assume more of the communicative burden with NNSs. We are piloting multiple activities (“interventions”) in various university courses, including accent familiarization, non-English transcription, oral English proficiency scoring, and live or simulated USUG-NNS contact. Outcomes are measured qualitatively (e.g., written reflections) and quantitatively through USUG pre- and post-test intelligibility tasks and “first impression” teaching and personality ratings after listening to audio clips of unfamiliar ITAs. We compare the most and least promising interventions for improving intelligibility and attitudes as measured by these auditory tasks (three semesters, N > 750 students, 6 intervention types + controls). Analysis is ongoing, but in the pilot cohort (N = 117), longer, more involved interventions trended toward higher intelligibility scores and improved overt attitudes, although covert attitudes remained stable. Time permitting, we can also discuss practicalities of implementing such anti-racism interventions into existing courses (instructor buy-in, ITA cooperation, student compliance, etc.).

From Interference to Fluency: Analyzing Indonesian Students' Progress in English Oral Communication

This study examines the progress of Indonesian students in spoken English through a task-based approach in an EFL classroom. The aim of the study is to identify communication strategies and linguistic aspects used by the students during oral interaction and production. The data collected from 50 Indonesian students attending a Phonetics and Phonology course at Universitas Bandar Lampung were analyzed using triangulation with class diary and self-assessment questionnaires. The findings show significant improvements in oral interaction and production, including negotiation, cooperation, mediation, intonation, fluency, pronunciation, and rhythm. However, the students made less effort to intervene in the spoken code of the interlocutor and their own interlanguage. The study recommends training tasks that emphasize paraphrasing and self-improvement of oral discourse to enhance their overall oral proficiency in English. The findings of this study have important implications and provide a promising framework for improving students' communication strategies and linguistic aspects. Therefore, these findings suggest that effective language teaching should prioritize not only linguistic aspects but also communication strategies that enable effective oral interaction. This study's recommendations could be useful for language educators worldwide seeking to enhance their students' overall oral proficiency in English.