Effects of affective variables and willingness to communicate on students’ English-speaking performance in Thailand

Recently, Willingness to Communicate (WTC) has been explored and proposed to be one of the key concepts for identifying when one decides to initiate communication in the target language. The attention, nonetheless, has been concentrated on how WTC interacts with other learners’ variables. This study, on the other hand, intends to offer empirical evidence on the direct roles of affective variables (self-confidence, anxiety, motivation, and grit) and WTC variables (WTC inside the classroom, WTC outside the classroom, and WTC in a digital setting) in Thai students’ English-speaking performance. The data were obtained from 35 undergraduate students (17.1% males; 82.9% females) using a survey questionnaire. Then, a speaking test was taken from an English Communication Skills course and was analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression. The results disclosed positive correlations among self-confidence, motivation, grit, WTC in a digital setting, WTC inside the classroom, WTC outside the classroom, and speaking performance, and negative correlations among self-confidence, anxiety, and grit. However, motivation was the only significant predictor of speaking performance. The findings offer some implications for English teachers in improving students’ English-speaking performance.

Students' Self-Assessment of Arabic Speaking Skill

This study was aimed at determining students’ self-assessment of their Arabic speaking skills. The data was gathered through distributing speaking rubric to 92 Arabic language learners. The rubric was adapted from Cherice Montgomery and was consisted of six aspects of speaking, namely pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, content, accuracy, and comperehension and startegic competence. The data was analysed using Winstep to determine their self-assessment of speaking and how they perceive those six aspects of speaking skills. The result showed that the students identify their speaking performance as moderate level. The Wright Map revealed that content was the most difficult aspect of speaking, while pronunciation was the easiest aspect of it.

Speaking Challenges of Saudi EFL Learners

This study aimed at exploring the possible underlying reasons for low speaking proficiency of EFL learners through adopting a qualitative methodology. To approach its goal, this study used a semi-structured interview to collect in-depth details from three EFL learners and one university professor. The internal construction of the interview was associated with the following four items; student, teacher, English materials or textbooks, and the assessment practices used inside classrooms. The findings of this study shed some light on multiple components related to teaching methods, teachers centered approach, students’ motivation, unauthentic English materials. This study recommended further investigation using quasi-experiments to explore more what causes this low speaking performance as well as to propose some valid suggestions and recommendations to develop EFL speaking.

The Integration of Mind Mapping Technique in Storytelling to Assist EFL students in Mastering Speaking Skill

This research investigates the effectiveness of mind mapping implementation in storytelling to improve students' speaking skills. This research was framed as an experimental method in which tests and interviews are used to analyze the data. The test consisted of pre-test and post-test, while the structured interview is used to find out students' perspectives toward using mind mapping in storytelling. The finding suggests a significant difference between students' speaking skills in retelling stories using mind mapping and without mind mapping. This difference could be seen from the distribution of the t-score, which is higher than the t-table. T-score is 6. 8, and the t-table is 1.7. The research also suggests that the students considered the mind mapping technique an excellent and effective technique applied in storytelling to improve their speaking performance. Based on the result, the application of the Mind Mapping Technique in storytelling in teaching speaking skills can be one of effective ways to improve the student's speaking performance.

ENGAGE Model as an Innovation in Teaching Speaking: A Case of Cognitively More and Less Active EFL Learners

This study investigated the effect of using the ENGAGE Model on the speaking performance of cognitively more and less active EFL learners. The participants of the study were 60 intermediate level male EFL learners who were non-randomly selected from a pool of intermediate students (N=80) based on their performance on a standard version of Preliminary English Test (PET). The selected participants were assigned to the two groups of the ENGAGE Model and Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT). They were also specified in terms of their cognitive ability as cognitively more or less active learners based on their answers to a validated cognitive profile questionnaire. The results revealed that learners in the ENGAGE Model group outperformed students in the TBLT group in terms of their L2 speaking, regardless of whether they belonged to the cognitively less or more active group. It was also concluded students with a cognitively more active profile benefit more from the ENGAGE Model. Keywords: Cognition, ENGAGE Model, Speaking Performance, TBLT, EFL Learners.

Effects of Voki-supported self-practice on high school students’ English speaking performance

Web 2.0 applications with multimedia affordances provide a creative way to expose students to a non-threatening environment for practising English. Motivated by the potentials of this type of application for English speaking instruction, this study aimed to examine the effects of high school learners’ self-practice using an app called Voki on their speaking performance. A quasi-experimental control group design was employed, in which the effect was measured by means of two speaking tests before and after the treatment, and further explored with a semi-structured interview. The results showed the increase in the students’speaking skills and the satisfaction with this Web 2.0 tool for its effectiveness and engagement. Their shyness and nervousness about uttering the target language diminished as their confidence increased. Accordingly, more evidence of the efficacy of Voki on EFL learners’ speaking performance was offered in the study. Future research can investigate learners’ improvement in language proficiency in different skills and contexts and involve larger sample sizes.

Undergraduates’ Perception on their English Learning Process: Preliminary Step toward “Foundations of Social Studies” CLIL-Based Material Development

English has emerged as the language of scientific communication (Björkman, 2011; Jenkins, 2006). Given the significance of English, in addition to ESP courses that have been incorporated in university curriculum, the CLIL method can be one of the choices for improving students' English mastery. Before implementing CLIL and creating the necessary resources, a comprehensive investigation is required to determine the ‘what' and ‘how' the content, curriculum, assessment, and evaluation will be produced (Flowerdew, 2013). Prior to developing “Fundamental of Social Studies” CLIL-based content, this research intends to analyse several aspects. It investigates: (1) the significance students place on grammar, vocabulary, and language skills in the English learning process; (2) the students' preferences in English learning activities; and (3) the language components that students improved the most. Students in the Social Studies Program were given a survey. The implication based on the findings is that future material developments are recommended to include audio-materials, pay more attention to speaking activities, and incorporate more diverse grammar activities. Moreover, the type of activities involved are suggested to include group work as it is favoured by the students; especially for speaking performance. Group speaking performance is preferred then the individual one for it lessen the anxiety. Keywords: CLIL, Need Analysis, Material Development, ESP, Social Studies

Speaking Performance and the Types of Code-switching of Senior High School Students

English proficiency is considered a frontline skill especially among Humanities and Social Sciences students in the locality. This study was conducted to explore what particular types of code-switching affect the speaking performance among HUMSS. It determined the students’ demographic profile, types of English reading materials, time spent in reading, types of media, time spent in viewing and length exposure to English conversations, frequency of code-switching, and their level of speaking performance. The study used the Spearman rank correlation coefficient to determine the relationships between the demographic profile and the types of code-switching used in the conversation and the relationship of the types of code-switching and the level of speaking performance. The findings revealed that the speaking performance of the respondents is not generally affected by their exposure to English conversation. Nonetheless, it was found out that exposure to English reading materials and media corresponds to students’ fluency in speaking. In addition, using intra-sentential and tag code-switching make students speak fluently in the conversation. With this, it is concluded that intra-sentential and tag code-switching are communicative pedagogical approaches that can be adopted to meet classroom language needs. Likewise, the availability of learning materials either English reading materials and media or multimedia sources at home and in the classroom are crucial factors to foster students speaking performance. Thus, the study highly recommends that the conduct of intervention to students’ low level of speaking performance through the exposure to English reading materials and media, as well as the creation of home libraries and innovative media sources to promote students’ literacy skills.