Speaking Performance Research Articles

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.

Negative Factors Affecting Speaking Performance

Negative Factors Affecting Speaking Performance

Detecting Rater Centrality Effects in Performance Assessments: A Model-Based Comparison of Centrality Indices

ABSTRACT Recent research on rater effects in performance assessments has increasingly focused on rater centrality, the tendency to assign scores clustering around the rating scale’s middle categories. In the present paper, we adopted Jin and Wang’s (2018) extended facets modeling approach and constructed a centrality continuum, ranging from raters exhibiting strong central tendencies to raters exhibiting strong tendencies in the opposite direction (extremity). In two simulation studies, we examined three model-based centrality detection indices (rater infit statistics, residual–expected correlations, and rater threshold SDs) as well as the raw-score SD in terms of their efficiency of reconstructing the true rater centrality rank ordering. Findings confirmed the superiority of the residual–expected correlation, rater threshold SD, and raw-score SD statistics, particularly when the examinee sample size was large and the number of scoring criteria was high. By contrast, the infit statistic results were much less consistent and, under conditions of large differences between criterion difficulties, suggested erroneous conclusions about raters’ central tendencies. Analyzing real rating data from a large-scale speaking performance assessment confirmed that infit statistics are unsuitable for identifying raters’ central tendencies. The discussion focuses on detecting centrality effects under different facets models and the indices’ implications for rater monitoring and fair performance assessment.

The Use of Canvas, A Learning Management System, to Reduce EFL Learners' Public Speaking Anxiety

As traditional education has evolved with the Internet and technology, e-learning has shown rapid and significant growth. Many studies have emphasized the positive effects of technology and online resources in foreign and second language education. Because of its role in reducing foreign language anxiety, the use of digital technology has an important role in learners’ emotional healing. Therefore, the use of a digital platform, Canvas, and the exploration of its effects on learners’ public speaking anxiety and performance in L2 are the main research foci in this study. With this point of departure, in order to measure the effect of intervention related to the use of online speaking tasks and podcasts through Canvas, a one-group pretest-posttest was employed. Data regarding participants’ public speaking anxiety before and after the treatment were collected through the PRPSA (Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety) scale. Additionally, speaking rubrics were used as assessment tools for scoring learners’ pre and post oral performances. For more detailed information related to the participants’ learning experiences and changes in their emotional states, participants were encouraged to join online forums on Canvas. The results showed that the use of digital platforms and podcasts had a significant role in boosting learners’ confidence and public speaking performances through alleviating their anxiety.

The predictive roles of enjoyment, anxiety, willingness to communicate on students’ performance in English public speaking classes

Abstract Despite the extensive research on willingness to communicate in a second language (L2 WTC), foreign language anxiety (FLA), and foreign language enjoyment (FLE), few studies have tested the roles of these variables in predicting L2 learning outcomes. This line of inquiry is imperative, especially because the importance of L2 WTC primarily lies in its presumable role in enhancing L2 learning. This study examines how FLA, FLE, and L2 WTC predict English public speaking performance. Data were collected by administering a questionnaire that contained closed-ended and open-ended items to 132 Chinese university students who took an English public speaking course. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that FLE was the single significant predictor of L2 WTC and public speaking performance. Participants’ responses revealed a range of major categories underlying classroom episodes when they felt most enjoyable, most anxious, and most willing to communicate. Implications for future research and pedagogical practice are finally addressed.

Student’s Attitudes towards Communicative Activities on EFL Student’s Speaking Performance

Speaking proficiency is regarded as one of the essential language skills presumed successful when learners can use what they learn to communicate well. However, many English as a foreign language (EFL) students struggle to master this ability due to a lack of exposure to communication situations. The study aims to determine students' attitudes towards communication activities in the language learning process. This study was conducted with the participation of 21 grade 5 in Vinh Binh Primary School, located in Ben Tre province, to give the answers to the questionnaire with items about using communicative activities in the classroom to enhance students' speaking skills. The findings revealed that communicative activities had a considerable impact on improving experimental students' speaking performance. Moreover, students showed positive views on using communicative activities in their speaking classrooms.