SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW: USING ENGLISH MOVIES TO DEVELOP ESL LEARNERS’ SPEAKING CONFIDENCE

Can English movies improve ESL learners’ speaking confidence? What are the suggested ways to implement English movies in acquiring speaking confidence for ESL learners? The main goal of the review is to study how English movies can aid ESL learners in higher education who struggle with speaking confidence. The search phrases used in these databases were “English movies” AND “confidence” and “English movies” AND “speaking” in order to acquire a list of relevant research. The first aspect that we will discuss in this review is the issue of low speaking confidence that is usually caused by language anxiety, lack of self-esteem and fear of judgement among other reasons. The articles collected represent language learners from different age ranges such as young kindergarten learners until university level learners. In addition to that, we will also investigate further into the research from the databases available for English movies that can be utilized as instructional aid for ESL learners to acquire speaking confidence. To find relevant research publications, four databases were used: ProQuest, Science Direct, Scopus and JSTOR. The review was carried out by using the UMS Library's access to subscribed databases. As part of this systematic review, we devised a search strategy to collect relevant literature. Researchers over the years have differing opinions on the current situation. The majority of the study indicates that language learners often struggled from speaking anxiety and fear of public speaking whether it is due to judgement of others or their own limited speaking abilities. We have mapped the literature to enable readers to understand the lessons from past literature that can be learned as well as provide a future agenda to the issue.

Student teachers’ experience with improvisation activities for spontaneous speech practice in English

Because most real-life foreign language speech is naturally unpredictable, spontaneous speech should be practiced in the foreign language classroom. Student teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) may benefit from practising methodology for spontaneous speech practice. This article reports the findings for a study into EFL student teachers’ experiences with using improvisation activities, exploring the relevance of improvisation activities for spontaneous speech practice. The data include semi-guided texts and reluctant speakers’ interviews. The findings showed that improvisation activities facilitated spontaneous speech practice and strengthened speaking confidence through enjoyment. The ‘spontaneous speech mindset’ enabled participants to explore linguistic and creative boundaries. The study showed that application of improvisation activities is an excellent method for spontaneous speech practice in EFL teacher education.

The Effect of Teacher’s Corrective Feedback Through Online Conferencing on Elementary Students’ English-Speaking Confidence

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of teacher's corrective feedback through online conferencing on elementary students' English-speaking confidence. This study was conducted for 4 months from August to December 2020. There were 6 participants, aged 8 to 13 enrolled in a private education institute where they attended English classes using mobile devices. During this case study, the students were asked to use English, learners’ target language when interacting with their teacher. When learners struggled to understand the teacher’s English instructions, the teacher guided them in Korean. All the classes were video-recorded and transcribed by the teacher. Data were analyzed in order to examine the progress of participants’ voluntary English production stimulated by having conversational interactions with the teacher. The findings were as follows. First, participants’ anxiety level was high in the beginning. Second, they were able to speak English words, give their opinions in English, and join the conversation in English with the teacher. Lastly, feedback from the teacher through conversational interactions helped learners understand how to speak in English better and build up confidence. As a result, it is necessary to interact with the teachers and peers using learners’ target language to improve English communication skills.

A Study on College Students’ Learning Attitude During Synchronous and Asynchronous Video-Based Group Activities for English Presentation

The purpose of the study is to explore college students’ perceptions/attitudes during synchronous and asynchronous group activities. The survey comprised of a 10-item, 5-point Likert-type questionnaire and open-ended questions. In the study, two groups, a synchronous group and an asynchronous group, participated in four activities during one semester. For the data collection, the researcher surveyed 116 students who are in the 1st year of college and collected their final tests, an oral presentation. The findings are as follows. Firstly, between the two groups, the synchronous group showed higher mean scores for online group participation. Secondly, the synchronous group also indicated higher mean scores for English learning, speaking confidence, and interest in learning English. Lastly, both groups mentioned communication with team members, improvement of English speaking and pronunciation, increased self-confidence and other elements as advantages of group work. In contrast, disadvantages included: technology problems, decreased self-confidence, inconveniences when meeting with team members online and others. The implications for the study are: first, online group activity can reduce isolation and increase interaction; second, the online video-based platform, Flipgrid, can help students improve English speaking skills by observing their own or peers’ videos; lastly, instructors can selectively use the synchronous and asynchronous group activities to suit their educational needs.

Perceptions of Thai Teachers of English Towards English Medium Instruction: A Case Study of a Local Primary School

Using a case study approach, this study investigated teachers’ perceptions of EMI, the challenges teachers encountered while adopting EMI, and opportunities for EMI in Thai EFL classrooms. The participants were three Thai teachers who used English as a medium of instruction in subjects such as mathematics and science in an intensive English program at a private primary school in the northeastern part of Thailand. Data were obtained from teachers’ journals and semi-structured interviews. The data were transcribed and coded into themes using content analysis. The current study reports the perceptions of Thai EFL teachers and reveals the challenges of EMI in Thai EFL classrooms. As the findings reveal, the participants perceived EMI as an educational advantage, as preparation for the international community and as an approach to enhance students’ speaking confidence. Although EMI offers potential benefits, the study reveals that when teaching, the participants are challenged by students’ language proficiency, classroom size, a lack of teaching materials, teacher’s lack of content knowledge and a lack of support from the school. Moreover, the study suggests some recommendations for pedagogical implication in adopting EMI in Thai EFL classrooms.

Students’ Organisational Experience And Their Speaking-Confidence Of English

Joining student organizational activities is positively impacts both extrinsically and intrinsically, such as developing leadership or good speaking skills. Several studies have been conducted to examine the role of student organizations in increasing their confidence when speaking. However, many of these studies rely only on general self-confidence but not in the context of classroom learning. The purpose of this study was to analyze students' speaking confidence in class and the correlation between students' organizational experience and their speaking confidence. This type of research is quantitative research. The population in this study found 35 students. The instrument used in this research is a questionnaire. The technique used to analyze the data is the Pearson Product Moment Correlation to determine the relationship between the independent variable (organizational experience) and the determinant variable (self-confidence). The results of this study indicate that the significance level (0.001) and Pearson correlation = 0.569 (sig = 0.01). This shows a significant relationship between the organization and a high level of self-confidence in class. It can be said that the organizational experience of students can increase their sense of self-confidence.

Guided discovery learning, personality traits, and speaking confidence of Iranian Intermediate EFL Students

The current work aims to examine the association between Guided Discovery Learning (GDL) and personality traits and speaking confidence of Iranian EFL learners in terms of their gender. The study was conducted based on a quantitative-descriptive research method and quasi-experimental design. Accordingly, 60 participants were chosen in terms of convenience-random sampling from two language institutes in Tehran. They included both female (N=30) and male (N=30) of general English courses and were in the age range of 15 to 34 years. The results revealed that extraversion made a significant contribution to the self-confidence of Iranian EFL learners. Also, the guided discovery resulted in a more realistic classroom with an atmosphere like daily life as the learners were more active and responsible. Our findings might have significant implications for the curriculum and material designers to incorporate the GDL principles and students’ personality traits.

Using Role Playing Activities to Improve Thai EFL Students’ Oral English Communication Skills

The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of using role playing activities to enhance students speaking skills as well as to investigate the usefulness of role playing activities in the development of selfconfidencein oral English. The experiment was conducted with an intact group of 50 Thai EFL undergraduate students. The data were collected by using (1) the pre-speaking test and the post-speaking test on oral competence in English communication, (2) the assessment form on students’ self-confidence in speaking English, and (3) an interview form on students’ opinion and self-confidence in speaking English before and at the end of the course. The research results revealed that role playing activities had positive effects both on student’s oral competence and self-confidence in speaking English. The frequent practice over the period of time through the role playing activities is the vital key to enhance students’ speaking abilities and improve their speaking confidence.

The speaking difficulties of Chinese EFL learners and their motivation towards speaking the English language

One of the most important skills to acquire in learning a foreign language is speaking. It is however, viewed as one of the most difficult. This study involved the observation of non-English major students in the foreign language department of Nanjing Tech University. Its aim was to assess critically the factors that affect the speaking performances of Chinese EFL Learners, find out their motivational levels and explore ways to improve EFL proficiency. Two survey questionnaires, as well as an interview item, were constructed. Seventy-five respondents were conveniently sampled for the Chinese EFL learner’s speaking difficulty questionnaire and, the English motivational scale, and ten out of the Seventy-five were randomly selected to respond to the interview. The factors that inhibit speaking performances were categorized as either linguistic or psychological. The outcome of the study revealed that Chinese EFL learners have speaking problems that relate more to psychological factors like anxiety, fear of mistakes, unwillingness, and fear of negative evaluation than linguistic factors such as lack of vocabulary, pronunciation, insufficient knowledge of grammar rules, reading and oral presentation. Furthermore, the researchers investigated the motivational levels of respondents toward speaking English as motivation is considered a fundamental element in achieving oral proficiency. The findings showed that Chinese EFL learner’s instrumental motivations are slightly dominant than their integrative motivation. The study recommends that instructors or teachers should create a conducive environment that will help reduce anxiety or shyness and gather adequate strategies like regular oral presentations or classroom debates to boost EFL learners' speaking confidence.