An Action Research on Getting Students to Speak in an EFL Classroom Context

The aim of the present action research study was to help English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students improve their speaking skill via an intervention syllabus. Participants of this study were ۱۵ high school students with an intermediate level of English proficiency. To help the students improve their speaking skill, a syllabus featuring spoken interaction around different topics was developed. The topics included education, travel, money, fashion, sports, and science. Each topic was covered in three ۹۰-minute sessions. Conversations consisted of five to eight question-and-answer patterns that enabled students to talk for a few minutes. To evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness, a questionnaire which assessed the students’ progress in several aspects of speaking skill was used. The questionnaire was first administered at the beginning of the semester and then re-administered at the end of the semester to record the possible impact of the extracurricular speaking activities on the students’ speaking development. Comparing the students’ responses to the questionnaire at the beginning and end of the semester indicates that generally incorporating extra speaking activities into the classroom had a positive impact on the students’ speaking development. It is hoped that this action research project on getting EFL students to speak will serve as a model for other teachers to critically reflect on educational problems in their professional contexts in productive ways.

Keywords:

action research , EFL classroom , speaking skill , extra speaking activities , speaking development