A JOURNAL SUMMARY (14)

USING ONLINE VIDEOS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING ABILITIES OF EFL LEARNERS

Ceyhun Yükselir and Şevki Kömür

European Journal of Education Studies

Speaking abilities is a vital skill to acquire for EFL learners. Especially in the last decade, since the increase of communicative language teaching theories emerged in language teaching and learning.  EFL teachers should make interactive media to improve their students’ speaking ability. The EFL teachers could use any kind of technology such as social media, blogging, and online video to improve their students’ speaking ability as well as students’ autonomous learning. Using video is one of the most valued tools in language teaching and learning among them. This journal aimed to improve how using online videos to improve speaking abilities of EFL learners by using online video.

The participant of the study was 20 low-level students in five classes in an English Language prep class students who were from the faculty of engineering and economics and administrative sciences at Osmaniye Korkut Ata University in Turkey. From 20 students, 10 students were selected as the treatment group. These students were chosen in accordance with the first speaking exam results and they were all low-level students in terms of speaking. They were asked to watch five online videos in five weeks’ period respectively. Half of the participants were male and half of them were female. After they watched videos, they were required to complete the exercises about the videos. The videos were taken from Youtube, BBC, VOA, and TED with subtitles or texts. The data were analyzed using t-test and regression analysis, which is related to the students’ speaking exam grades.

The result showed that the students in the experimental or treatment group, who watched online videos, improved their level of speaking ability and scored high than those who did not. In addition, female students scored higher than male students. So, it can be said that female students are more successful than males in the speaking ability.