Date of Award

5-2021

Access Control

Open Access

Degree Name

International Graduate Program for Educators - M. S. in Multidisciplinary studies

Department

International Graduate Program for Educators

Advisor

Dr. Joyce Stallworth

First Reader

Eliana Haddad

Second Reader

Mohammed Tolba

Third Reader

Kerri Ann Mc Forbes

Abstract

This research is conducted to see the impact of communicative activities in students speaking skills in English as second language. And it is reached to a conclusion that communicative activities cause longer student speaking time in class. Moreover, the students mostly state that they learn better through communicative activities. Using language as a tool for communication rather than an aspect to learn will serve better. Language isn’t learnt but acquired such as the mother tongue. That’s why it should be done naturally just like a baby making baby steps to start uttering first words.

Expectedly, singing a memorized song is found extremely effective by 40% of the students. This is a strong proof that students feel like they are really learning English when they use this knowledge in their daily lives. Memorizing new vocabulary follows it with a 35%. This would show us the importance of meaningful input until the students are competent enough to utter a language. Communicative activities are in third place with 33.3%. As well as researchers, students have the awareness about how effective using the language through communicative activities. Reading comprehension is found extremely effective by 32.50%. Here, one point is essential. A reading comprehension activity can be made communicative by the teacher or just a dull answer the questions activity. If the teacher does pre-reading activities such guessing what the text is about looking at the first sentence or post-reading activities such as writing an alternative ending to the text together with their peers in groups. Roleplays are another way to make a reading activity more communicative. At this stage, the teacher's role is rather critical. Brainstorming is found extremely effective by 28.95%. Students enjoy while they are sharing their opinions but it should be a controlled activity as there is the risk of getting lost about what is requested by the teacher. This way, more students might feel brainstorming activities are helping them well. Filling in the blanks activity is found extremely effective by 22.50%. This shows us that the students find communicative activities more effective than the ones that are not. It is strange that picture storytelling is found extremely effective by 17.50 while 40% find it effective even though it is a communicative activity but if we take into consideration the percentage of effective option, it is still appreciated by students in terms of teaching success. Another unexpected point is that students find roleplay only 20% extremely effective while the percentage of effective is 27.5%. The perception of students’ roleplay activities can be another subject to be researched as well as picture storytelling.

It is obvious that the SST increased drastically during communicative activities. What we, as educators, expect from the students in ESL classes is just speaking the target language. Because language is a living mechanism and as long as you speak it you can keep up with it. Just like the first language learning, learners first save and then start uttering English. It doesn’t matter how grammatically correct a baby can speak. As long as he/she can communicate, we count that they speak the language. According to Sirbu, 2015, ‘’Language is essentially a means of communication among the members of a society.’’ (p.1) That’s why we should focus on increasing students' speaking time. As the saying goes; ‘’Practice makes perfection.’’ The more the learners speak the language, no matter correctly or false, the more they will learn it.

Comments

The researcher is an ESL teacher at Qatar Turkish School and teaches mixed grades. As language is a tool for communication, it is vital to always care about four skills and among them especially speaking as it is the basic and the most essential way of communicating between people as Rao (2019) claimed the same in his work. It doesn’t make any sense that students give full points on exam papers unless they can express themselves fluently in the target language. There are some research on this topic.. In their study with junior high school students, Zhu and Zhou (2012) found that anxiety, boredom, hopelessness and low self-confidence are main factors that affect the success of foreign language International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies. Among others, considering the impact of anxiety on foreign language learning, Cui (2011) investigated the high school students’ English learning anxiety in Chinese EFL classrooms and found that negative evaluation fear(mostly by teachers) and test anxiety due to national examinations are major factors preventing Chinese learners’ in language learning success.

The researcher has been teaching grade 10 students for almost 4 years, so I know how they used to be. When I look at their exam scores and writing papers, I can see they are competent in the target language, thay have all the vocabulary they should and no problem with any grammatical structure. But whenever the researcher asks a simple question in class, nobody wants to answer. Also in writing activities, they write perfectly thought and planned texts but when it comes to reading it aloud, silence is there again. They have a strong communication with those students because during breaks they always come to me to chat and they tend to share everything about their life with me. This made the researcher think of the reasons why those students are having difficulty in speaking activities. Their level is just as it has to be. Their exam scores are almost full points. During breaks they always want to spend their time with me chatting and having fun but in their ‘’mother tongue’’. It didn’t take a long time for the researcher to come to a conclusion that what they are struggling with isn't language or activity itself, but the lack of confidence arises from being a teenager. What makes them stressed is the feeling that everyone is watching them when they are talking or the others will judge them if they make any mistake during the presentation or speaking activities. In their study with junior high school students, Zhu and Zhou (2012) found that anxiety, boredom, hopelessness and low self-confidence are main factors that affect the success of foreign language International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 2016,3 (1), 31-46 34 learning.

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