Editors:
Pía Tabali
Andrew Philominraj
What practical recommendations can
we make from this?
How can research findings support EFL teaching and learning in the classroom?
What do we know from research?
The use of technology in classrooms increases interaction and improves input and output productive skills (Safargalina, 2018). Also, it helps students to engage in meaningful real-life experiences (Mayoral, Tello & Gonzalez, 2010) bringing innovation into the established teaching methods (Ibna & Hadina, 2021). Tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok (Son, 2020) and multimedia can be used to make instruction more powerful (Bocanera & Valencia, 2018) and promote interaction and communication among students.
Use interactive speaking activities such as Find someone who, Find your partner, and Jigsaw.
Break down speaking project activities into little and sequential tasks to provide scaffolding.
Use different means of presentation/representation of information such as text, images, videos, diagrams, animations, subtitles, flashcards or authentic material.
Include authentic technological material such as videos, pop songs, TV broadcasts and series, and Podcasts as a permanent component of our speaking tasks.
Use content and procedural scaffolding for teaching speaking activities such as information gaps, fill in the blanks, scripts, tapping into prior knowledge and pre-teaching vocabulary.
Make students collaborate with each other when facing speaking activities
Offer learners preparation time and support before presenting their speaking task.
Include task-based projects that aim at fostering spoken interaction (eg., peer tasks, role play, storytelling, oral presentations).
Design drama-based activities that involve preparing, rehearsing and presenting dialogues and discussions.
Using drama-based and improvisation activities could enhance the students’ speaking skills.
Using authentic materials and including scaffolding activities in speaking lessons can help learners when facing oral activities (Goh, 2017) and also help increase confidence and motivation
Including technology in speaking tasks aids to prepare presentations, which enhances oral production
Providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively not only enhances their motivation but can also help learners to speak English without waiting for their turn to interact with the teachers
Planning different types of task-based projects can have a significant impact on learners developing oral English communication skills
Motivation is a strong influence favoring positive attitudes on foreign language learning as it helps to overcome challenging issues such as nervousness, anxiety, and inferiority complexes leading to the development of oral skills (Winke, 2005; Zhang & Slaughter, 2009; Iban & Hadina, 2021)
A cooperative learning environment and appropriate scaffolding in students' learning a second language can favor greater automaticity prompting not only the oral production, which is fluent, accurate, and appropriate, but also language knowledge such as grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary or the use of skills and strategies (Goh, 2017; Sirisrimangkorn, 2021).
Promoting Speaking Skills in the EFL Classroom: Challenges and Recommendations
