Explicit Affective Strategy Instruction to Develop Speaking Performance of Egyptian EFL University Students

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of explicit affective strategy instruction on the speaking performance of Freshmen English majors at Faculty of Education, Suez University, Egypt. The design of the study is a pre-post quasi experimental one. The instrument is a pre/post speaking performance test (designed by the researcher). Participants were eighty Freshmen English majors, randomly divided into two groups: a control group (N=40) and an experimental one (N=40). During the experiment, the experimental group was explicitly taught some affective strategies (lowering anxiety, encouraging yourself and monitoring emotions) while the control group was taught using the traditional method. All participants were tested using the pre/post speaking performance test before and after the intervention. The difference between the post test's mean scores of the control and experimental groups were calculated using Independent Samples t-test and the difference in the mean scores between the pre-and post tests of speaking performance was calculated for each group separately using Paired Samples t-test. A significant difference was found between the post test's mean scores of the control and the experimental groups in favor of the experimental group. Moreover, a significant difference was found between the mean scores of the pre and post test of the experimental group in favor of the post test. It was concluded that participants' level of speaking performance significantly improved after receiving the explicit affective strategy instruction.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by Urban and Rural Good English Language Learners

“…Metacognitive strategies refer to the strategies that are associated with general competencies that help learners control, direct, regulate, and steer their learning by regulating the internal process of learning (Cao & Lin, 2020). Affective strategies are the methods and practises used by speakers to ease their anxiety, monitor their emotions, and motivate themselves when speaking (El Sakka, 2019). Social strategies refers to the student's interpersonal interactions when learning a language and the target culture (Ranjan & Philominraj, 2019).…”

Dialogic-interactive media: Alternative learning media to improve speaking skills

“…Speaking skills are one of the skills that students must master in any language, which aims to communicate in order to express opinions, express feelings, communicate ideas, points of view, hopes, new perspectives and their intentions (Khan, 2019;Maulina, Hikmah, & Pahamzah, 2019;Alharbi & Sunur, 2019;Sakka, 2019;Safitri, Akib, & Hartanti, 2018). Speaking skills are one of the most important language skills required not only for academic purposes but also to address today's global challenges in everyday life (Baresh, Ali, & Darmi, 2019).…”

“…They focus more on teaching grammar and vocabulary (Fernanda et al, 2019). In addition, although the development of speaking has received attention in language learning (since the beginning of the communicative era), this learning is a complex process including linguistic competence, oral skills, and the use of strategies (Sakka, 2019).…”

“…In order to develop effectively, speaking skills need to be developed through education (Bozkirli, 2019). These skills need to be improved by a variety of student-centered methods, as they are organized as language production activities (Sakka, 2019). Teaching strategies or methods must be chosen in line with the program, content and activities.…”