Speaking Performance Research Articles

The Relationship between Language Learning Anxiety and English Language Speaking Performance among Pre-Diploma Students at A Public University in Malaysia

Language learning anxiety has been known to have a serious effect not only on students' language performance but also on second language learning processes. This study aims at investigating the relationship between English Language Anxiety and English language speaking performance among pre-diploma students at a public university in Malaysia. The objectives of the study are to investigate the students’ language anxiety levels and explore the major causes of anxiety among them as they make a transition from secondary to tertiary education. The participants of the study will be 120 pre-diploma students enrolled in Proficiency Level English as a second language course at UiTM Perak. The data was collected through the distribution of questionnaires adapted from Horwitz’(1989) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) which consists of 33 statements. Pearson Correlation was used to determine the relationship between students’ anxiety level based on the results of FLCAS and the students’ performance on the ‘speaking’ component of their formative assessment.

Guided-blended collaborative learning in speaking class: Voices of non-native English teachers and students from eastern Indonesia

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore and address two important questions from ten qualified non-native English teachers and five students who have been actively involved as research participants: (1) how non-native English teachers help students improve their English speaking performance through guided-blended collaborative learning, and (2) how non-native English teachers and students view guided-blended collaborative learning as a way of improving students’ English speaking performance. Based on an in-depth interview with five students and an analysis of documents, it is clear that when teachers gave their students both synchronous and asynchronous feedback, the students' speaking skills improved. The data that has been analyzed thematically showed that collaborative learning is successful and should be utilized to teach speaking English as a foreign language, they found, teachers should use the following strategies when teaching GBCL: 1) Mixing synchronous and asynchronous learning; 2) Being guided or controlled by the teachers; 3) Forming groups based on roles; 4) Peer tutoring and evaluation; and 5) Collaborative integrated tasks with technology. In addition, we would like future studies to use real experimental and control class designs to conduct guided blended collaborative learning.

Speaking Performance in Vocational Students in Rural Area by Using Power Teaching

Speaking is one of the crucial skills which has to be learned by non-native students to support their capability in learning a foreign language. Increasing the students’ speaking performance within a middle school is considered crucial as well as in vocational school which requires the students to have specific skills after they graduate. The aim of this study is to identify the influence on the students’ speaking performance by using Power Teaching (PT) Technique. The method of this research applied pre-experimental by involving 36 students from vocational high schools in remote areas. The finding of this research showed that one element of the speaking performance, namely pronunciation, has the highest mean compared to the other element; otherwise, the result of grammar has the lowest mean. However, overall elements have increased compared to the first test it was proved that there was a significant difference in this research. It means that there was an increasing speaking performance among the students who have been given treatments by using Power Teaching (PT).

Digital storytelling to facilitate academic public speaking skills: case study in culturally diverse multilingual classroom

A small scale study is reported in the article in an effort to determine the impact of enhancing cultural diversity in teaching academic public speaking skills as a result of Digital Storytelling (DS) implementation in multilingual classrooms of 2nd year TEFL pre-service students who took training over 7 weeks to become teachers of English as a foreign language. DS represents a powerful way of making/telling short stories using animation, website, audio video, and graphics. We explored DS in the English Language Classroom for TEFL pre-service students for developing public speaking skills because DS improves vocabulary enrichment and oral skills. Teachers also access students’ English language fluency, coherence, and cohesion to identify areas of academic public speaking skills improvement for their multilingual students. The experimental teaching had several stages, namely the introductory phase when students were supposed to decide on the topic of their stories and make initial drafts. The second phase was dedicated to the verification of the final draft by a tutor. During the last phase of the project, students performed their own DS with public presentations. The study used mixed research methods, i.e. both qualitative (focus group) and quantitative (questionnaires and rubrics) methods. Students used devices with digital capabilities to record narrations so their created DS included their personally produced public speech. Our results demonstrated that DS provided an opportunity to make students’ speech more coherent and cohesive because points of descriptors such as fluency, coherence, and cohesion of academic public speaking performances significantly improved by 15%. Moreover, this technique depicted a positive outcome because of its constant reiteration of academic vocabulary and grammar in multilingual groups, and cultural diversity in different nations.Kindly check and confirm the inserted abstract is processed correctly. We checked and confirm that the inserted abstract is processed correctly.

Improving Students’ Speaking Performance Through Digital Vlog Media

This study aims to examine the students’ performance in speaking. The media that is used in this study is digital vlog media. The participants of this study are 33 students of Economic and Business faculty at Universitas Muhammadiyah Lamongan in the major study of Management. This is classroom action research that gathers the data from August to December in 2022. There are some difficulties in speaking performance as English is the students’ foreign language. This study is kind of quantitative research which researcher adapted pretest and posttest in analyzing the data using statistics of SPSS 25. The result shows that the students’ speaking performance is improved by performing in digital vlog. They got motivation how to improve their fluency and accuracy related to the tenses and also their pronunciations.

Effects of using educational technology tools to enhance EFL students' speaking performance.

Educational speaking technology is a digital expertise used to enhance speaking performance. This research examined the effects of using educational speaking technology tools: FORVO, YouGlish, and OALD 8th ed. to enhance students' speaking performance. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest two groups design was used. Test, questionnaire, interview, and teacher-log were used to gather the data from 82 first-year Information communication and Technology (IT) students selected through comprehensive sampling. The experimental group students had learned speaking skills through educational speaking technology tools while the control group students learned using the conventional method. When the quantitative data were analyzed through independent samples T-test, the qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings of the study uncovered that there was a statistical difference between the experimental and control group students in their speaking performance. Accordingly, the learners who had learned through educational speaking technology have enhanced their speaking performance compared to the students that learned conventionally. Predominantly, students who learned through educational speaking technology were fluent, coherent, and accurate in their speech, rich in lexical resources, used a variety of grammatical ranges, and better in pronunciation. Besides, the students' have positive perceptions towards using educational speaking technology tools. Consequently, this study recommends researchers, teachers, and students to make the use of educational technology and to go in line with the state of the art.

ANALYSIS OF PHONOLOGICAL ERRORS IN FIRST SEMESTER STUDENTS IN PERFORMING SELF INTRODUCTION A CASE STUDY IN INSTITUTE LEVEL

Some problems have emerged related to the phonological errors made by the first semester students in delivering their speaking performance. This research is intended to analyze the phonological error in the first semester students in performing self-introduction. This study used qualitative research method particularly in terms of English phonology that focus on observing and analyzing the observation of English-speaking skill. In this research, the collected data were in the form of transcripts of the video-recorded performance that performed by the subjects of research. It is concluded that most students showed several phonological errors in pronouncing some words. All students of the first semester have successfully performed their self-introduction fluently and accurately based on the basic self-introduction pattern. The result of the study showed that the emergence of various variations in the accuracy of phonology is mainly due to the previous educational background and the students’ current efforts in learning language. However, most students of first semester did phonological errors in pronouncing several words. In order to speak English fluently and accurately, it is expected that the students learn about English phonology well by considering the appropriate place of articulation and manner of articulation.

ELT in Literature: Using Poetry in Enhancing Students’ Speaking Performance

ELT in literature is one form of teaching integration, which is considered effective way for learner motivation, and a positive atmosphere in learning language. This research presents the study of teaching integration by using poetry as a medium for enhancing students’ speaking performance. This aims to analyze how the students' performance in English speaking by using poem in literature. The qualitative descriptive method is employed towards research samples from 15 groups students at the Prose and Poetry coursework. Data collection techniques were taken by observing closely towards students' conversation activities by using poetry, which are further analyzed by using Hughes' speaking rubrics, such as fluency, details or understanding, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. The results obtained that the use of poetry as a medium for conversation activity impacts on students' speaking performance, particularly vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency. In short, this finding is a very interesting way, which can be widely offered in ELT program, such as basic English.

A preliminary investigation into English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking self-efficacy, satisfaction and speaking performance in the blended teaching environment in a Chinese university: a quantitative study

With the acceleration of educational informatization, the blended teaching mode has developed rapidly. In this context, grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, this study investigated the relationship among students’ satisfaction with blended teaching mode of EFL class, speaking self-efficacy and speaking achievement by means of factor analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The results showed that, first there was a significant positive correlation between the three variables of satisfaction with blended teaching mode, speaking self-efficacy and final speaking performance. Speaking self-efficacy was highly correlated with final speaking achievement while students’ satisfaction with blended teaching mode of EFL class was low correlated with speaking self-efficacy and final speaking achievement. Second, speaking self-efficacy and students’ satisfaction with blended teaching mode of EFL class can explain 56.4% of the variation of final speaking performance, with the former being stronger. Based on this, this study provided suggestions for future studies so as to improve students' English-speaking proficiency.

The Effects of Nearpod-Incorporated English Classes on Korean University Students’ Speaking Performance and A ffective A spects

Nearpod, an online teaching cloud-based platform, offers great potential to generate pedagogical tasks and yield better results in teaching communication skills. This study thus examined the effects of Nearpod-based English-speaking classes. To this end, one-on-one speaking tests were conducted twice in a semester, and a questionnaire was administered to assess university students’ perceptions of the usefulness of Nearpod in offline classroom. The participants comprised 39 university students who took a mandatory English class titled Communication in English. The paired samples t-test results indicated that the students’ overall speaking performance has improved over time. Specifically, compared to the high-level students, the low-level students showed a significant increase in speaking performance. The questionnaire analysis demonstrated that most students were satisfied with Nearpod-based English speaking classes because of enhanced interest, active participation in class, and increased interaction with class content and peers. The pedagogical implications are suggested and the limitations of the study are further discussed.

CHALLENGES IN ASSESSING SPEAKING PROFICIENCY IN ONLINE LEARNING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The purpose of this research is to describe the challenges faced by high school English teachers in teaching and evaluating during online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative research. The researcher used observation, an open-ended questionnaire, and an interview to collect the data. The result showed that the teachers face some challenges in teaching speaking and assessing speaking in online learning. First, limited or shorter duration of teaching causes less speaking practice in the process of teaching and learning. Second, limited access to the online platform, this condition happened since not all students have sufficient internet connections during online learning. Third, less learning motivation from the students. Fourth, limited speaking performance activities, such as dialogue, role play, and other performing activities, are difficult to do in online learning. Those problems forced teachers to be innovative in redesigning teaching activities and authentic assessments for students’ speaking proficiency.

Improving English Speaking Performance Through Discussion Games

This experimental research aims to justify whether Discussion Games improve students’ performance in speaking and to examine the students’ performance in learning speaking through the application. A total of 60 students involved in the study and they were divided equally for both the experimental and control groups. The data were collected from the pre-test, the treatment, the post-test, and questionnaire. The speaking test was given to both groups and the test scores were assessed by two examiners. The data were analyzed and interpreted using the SPSS 17.0 software program. The results reveal that the text types of Discussion Gamescan improve students’ performance in speaking and the application of Discussion Games increase students’ performance in learning speaking. The result of the students’ speaking score from the pre-test to the post test demonstrates a significant difference with Sig. (2 tailed) is lower than 0.05. Furthermore, the comparison of the students’ speaking improvement between the experimental and control groups is 0.000. It means that the improvement is recognized to be of significance and Discussion Games can increase students’ performance in speaking. The findings suggest that the experimental class responded positively to Discussion Games and confirmed that the strategy help them improve their speaking skills.

Students’ perceptions of applying critical thinking to learning and practicing English speaking skills

This study aims to explore English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ understanding and perceptions of applying critical thinking to their practice of speaking skills. Although some research papers have been implemented to understand the impact of critical thinking on learners’ language skills, the study specifically investigates how critical thinking can affect speaking ability amongst learners of low-English levels who are from a non-English-speaking country, according to their perceptions. The participants are 190 undergraduate students whose English proficiency was pre-intermediate and who were enrolled in English for IELTS preparation programs at the Creative Language Center (CLC) of Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam. A survey was sent to collect information about students’ learning experiences and opinions on their performance of speaking skills integrated with critical thinking. The findings highlighted some challenges when students used critical thinking while practicing oral communication skills, including their habits of learning and insufficient opportunities to practice the skills. Also, students’ awareness of the important role of critical thinking in improving their speaking performance and confidence was successfully noted.

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.

Investigating the effect of multimodality and sentiments on speaking assessments: a facial emotional analysis.

This quasi-experimental study aimed to determine the relationship between (i) oral language ability and emotions represented by facial emotions, and (ii) modality of assessment (audios versus videos) and sentiments embedded in each modality. Sixty university students watched and/or listened to four selected audio-visual stimuli and orally answered follow-up comprehension questions. One stimulus was designed to evoke happiness while the other, sadness. Participants' facial emotions during the answering were measured using the FaceReader technology. In addition, four trained raters assessed the responses of the participants. An analysis of the FaceReader data showed that there were significant main and interaction effects of sentiment and modality on participants' facial emotional expression. Notably, there was a significant difference in the amount of facial emotions evoked by (i) the happy vs. sad sentiment videos and (ii) video vs. audio modalities. In contrast, sentiments embedded in the stimuli and modalities had no significant effect on the measured speaking performance of the participants. Nevertheless, we found a number of significant correlations between the participants' test scores and some of their facial emotions evoked by the stimuli. Implications of these findings for the assessment of oral communication are discussed.

Relationship between English Speaking Performance and Foreign Language Anxiety in Online Peer Learning

This study investigated the relationship between English speaking performance and foreign language anxiety before and after an online peer learning program at the college level. A total of 59 students enrolled in a one-semester English Speaking Communication course at a university in central Taiwan participated in the study. The course entailed a 7-week online peer learning program. The participants took a computer-based speaking proficiency test and completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale questionnaire before and after the program. The collected quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The results revealed that the participants experienced a moderate level of anxiety when taking the computer-based speaking test before and after attending the online peer learning program. A negative correlation was observed between foreign language anxiety and computer-based speaking performance before the online peer learning program. However, after the online peer learning program, a positive correlation was noted between anxiety and speaking performance. On the basis of these findings, this study provides pedagogical suggestions for second-language practitioners.

CODE SWITCHING IN TEACHING ELEMENTARY ENGLISH

Language is one essential factor that affects the effectiveness of communication. When it becomes a barrier to communication, it causes misunderstandings and misinterpretations, especially for students. This study assessed code-switching in grade six English in a public elementary school to help the group of students as a foundation to propose an instructional plan. The study made use of descriptive and quasi-experimental methods. Random sampling was employed, observing the specific guidelines in the data gathering procedure. Results revealed that after utilizing the code-switching method, elementary students improved their performance, determined through the gained scores in English and the essential communication skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Wherein students had improved from satisfactory to outstanding performance in listening, from did not meet the expectation to fairly satisfactory performance in speaking, from satisfactory to very satisfactory performance in reading, and while their performance remained as did not meet expectation in writing. This showed that code-switching was indeed very effective. However, there are still identified weaknesses, specifically in writing skills, by which students’ performance did not meet expectations even after the code-switching method had been utilized.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0225/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Using Digital Storytelling in Speaking Activities for Low-Proficiency Tertiary Students

Digital storytelling (DST) could be used as one of the contemporary learning resources for students to increase their participation in the learning of speaking skills. It could also help to broaden students’ perspectives towards their potential to become good communicators. Thus, this study aims to (1) examine the use of digital storytelling in the e-Poster Presentation assessment in the learning of English at the preparatory level for diploma studies, and (2) investigate students' perceptions towards this learning approach. About twenty-seven Pre- diploma students at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) participated in the study. These students who had a low-proficiency level in the English language, have used the digital storytelling platform to create e-Poster Presentations for their speaking tasks. For data analysis, written entries and short journal entries were analysed to gain insights into students' perceptions of engaging with DST in their e-Poster Presentation projects. Findings showed that the approach of creating digital storytelling videos and conducting e-Poster presentations has helped to improve their speaking performance. It could be said that the students had favourable opinions towards the digital storytelling approach. Consequently, digital storytelling could be utilised to diversify instructional approaches. DST would be a beneficial tool in encouraging low-proficiency students, especially in higher learning institutions, in enhancing their speaking performances in English language classrooms.

Relationship Between Language Anxiety and English Speaking Performance

This study investigated the relationship between language language anxiety and English speaking performance among Taiwanese college students. The participants were 59 students attending a one-semester course entitled English Speaking Communication at a university in central Taiwan. They underwent computer-based oral proficiency tests and completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation. The English majors experienced moderate levels of anxiety when taking the computer-based speaking test, and a negative but nonsignificant correlation was discovered between foreign language anxiety and speaking performance on the computer-based exam. Pedagogical suggestions for second-language educators are presented herein. 

İkinci Dil Öğrenenlerinin Yansıtıcı Dialoglarındaki Birbirlerini Desteklemenin Rolü

This article examines (1) the role of scaffolding and (2) scaffolding patterns that emerged in L2 learners’ dialogic reflections on their spoken performances. Dialogic reflection has recently become a vital concept in teacher development studies (Mann & Walsh, 2017), however, the role of dialogic reflection on learner empowerment has not been investigated. In this study, the term “dialogic reflection” is used to define 24 tertiary level L2 learners’ reflections on their spoken performances after they conduct six different paired speaking tasks which last 17 hours in total. The present study observes these dialogic reflections of the students under the scope of Sociocultural Theory, which posits human mental functioning as a mediated process that occurred with the help of others (Ratner, 2002). The data is gathered from these reflection sessions, and it is analyzed through sociocultural discourse analysis (Mercer, 2004). Thanks to microanalysis of the data, the findings show that learners use scaffolding to be able to establish mutual understanding between each other (Musiol & Trognon, 1999) in terms of word search, grammatical correction, and content development, and they used three different patterns to reach their aim; asking for help, intentional intervention, and showing joint effort.