Corrective feedback on efl high school students’ speaking performance a comparison between recast and repetition

The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test .... The total number of er

LE THI KIEU DUONG

CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

A COMPARISON BETWEEN RECAST AND REPETITION

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

NGHE AN, 2018

LE THI KIEU DUONG

CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE:

A COMPARISON BETWEEN RECAST AND REPETITION

FIELD: THEORY AND METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH

Code: 8.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen

Nghe An, 2018

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published

or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself

AUTHOR’S SIGNATURE

Le Thi Kieu Duong

ABSTRACT

The main goal in this study is to find out if using corrective feedback, Recast

or Repetition has any effect on EFL learners‘ speaking ability through In order to achieve the mentioned goal, a study was carried out among eighty four students ofgraders 10 at Le Quy Don High school in Quang Binh The participants were divided into two groups, each of which had 42 students One served the Recast group and the other Repetition group Before the treatment, all participants in two groups did a General English test Then both groups were asked to sit the pre-test before participating in the speaking sessions A post-test was administered after the treatment to measure the participant‘s speaking fluency and accuracy The collected data were analyzed in terms of fluency (number of words per minute) and accuracy (number of errors per 100 words) The data indicated which one in two groups‘ speaking fluency and accuracy improved to a great extent than other group when using Recast for Recast group and Repetition for Repetition group Based on the findings, some implications for teaching English speaking were proposed Limitations of the study were also pointed out and further research was suggested

I would also like to thank thanks to the students of the two classes I worked with in order to gather data for my study

In my work, it is inevitable that the ideas of many other writers in this field will be reflected and developed Their ideas have inspired me to choose this topic

My debt to the authors of the books listed in the bibliography is in my cases equally great To all these scholars, I offer my gratitude

Finally and always, my heartfelt thanks go to my family, my friends whose support is indispensible for the fulfillment, unceasing support, patience and understanding I could not have been able to complete my thesis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Significance of the study 4

1.4 Research questions 4

1.5 Scope of study 4

1.6 Organization of the thesis 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Speaking ability 6

2.1.1 Definition 6

2.1.2 Functions of speaking 6

2.1.3 The nature of speaking ability 7

2.1.4 Micro and macro skill of speaking ability 7

2.1.5 The aspects of speaking ability 8

2.2 speaking ability 8

2.2.1 Indicators of speaking ability 10

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity 10

2.2.3 Marking criteria for assessing speaking ability 13

2.2.4 Methods to assess speaking ability 14

2.3 Teaching speaking to EFL learners 20

2.3.1 EFL learners‘ difficulties in learning to speak English 21

2.3.2 Factors affecting EFL learners‘ speaking ability 22

2.3.3 Methods and activities to improve speaking ability 25

2.4 Feedback in language teaching 26

2.4.1 The role of feedback in language teaching 27

2.4.2 Types of feedback in language teaching 27

2.5 Corrective feedback 30

2.5.1 Definition 30

2.5.2 Types of corrective feedback 31

2.5.3 Recast feedback 32

2.5.4 Repetition feedback 33

2.5.5 Recast feedback vs repetition feedback in teaching speaking 34

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 35

3.1 Materials 35

3.2 Participants 37

3.3 Procedures 38

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40

4.1 Results 40

4.1.1 General English test results 40

4.1.2 Pre-test and post-test results 44

4.1.3 The increases 72

4.2 Discussion 76

4.2.1The effects of Recast and Repetition technique on EFL learners‘ speaking accuracy 76

4.2.2 The effects of Recast and Repetition techniques on EFL learners‘ speaking fluency 76

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 79

5.1 Summary of findings 79

5.2 Implications 80

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 80

5.3.1 Limitations 80

5.3.2 Suggestions for further research 81

REFERENCES 83

APPENDIX A 88

APPENDIX B 92

APPENDIX C 93

APPENDIX D 93

APPENDIX E 94

APPENDIX F 104

APPENDIX M 112

TABLE OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.1 Speaking marking criteria 35Table 3.2 The speaking topics of sixteen units in TiengAnh 10 36Table 4.1 The Recast group‘s and Repetition group‘s Score in general English test 40Table 4.2 The Recast group‘s and Repetition group‘s marks in general English test 42Table 4.3 The average total scores and standard deviations of general English test

in the Recast group and the Repetition group 42Table 4.4 The total of errors of Recast group in Pre-test about accuracy 46Table 4.5 The total of errors of Repetition group in Pre-test about accuracy 47Table 4.6 The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test 47Table 4.7 The average total errors and standard deviations about accuracy of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test Table 4.8 The total errors of Recast group in Pre-test about fluency 51Table 4.9 The total of errors of Repetition group in Pre-test about fluency 52Table 4.10 The total number of errors about fluency about error number of pause and error number of repeat per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test 52Table 4.11 The average total scores of errors and standard deviations about fluency

of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test 55Table 4.12 Total number of words per minute of the Recast and Repetition groups

in the Pre-test 57Table 4.13 The total of errors of Recast group in Post-test about accuracy 58Table 4.14 The total of errors of Repetition group in Post-test about accuracy 59Table 4.15 The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the post test 60Table 4.16 The average total scores and standard deviations of accuracy of Recast group and Repetition group in the Post-test Table 4.17 The total of errors of Recast group in Post-test about fluency 63Table 4.18 The total of errors of Repetition group in Post-test about fluency 65Table 4.19 The total number of errors about fluency about error number of pause and error number of repeat per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the post-test 66Table 4.20 The average total scores and standard deviations of fluency of Recast group and Repetition group in the Post-test 68Table 4.21 Total number of words per minute of the Recast and Repetition groups

in the post test 70Table 4.22 Mean of errors number about accuracy of Recast and Repetition groups

in the pre-test and post- test 72Table 4.23 Mean of errors number about fluency of Recast and Repetition groups

in the pre-test and post- test 74

TABLE OF PIE CHARTS

Page

Pie chart 4.1 The general test‘ score of both 2 groups 44Pie chart 4.2 The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test 50Pie chart 4.3 The average total scores and standard deviations about accuracy of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test

Pie chart 4.4 The total number of errors about fluency of error number of pause per

100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test 54Pie chart 4.5 The total number of errors about fluency of error number of repeat per

100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre-test 54Pie chart 4.6 The average total scores of errors and standard deviations about fluency of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test 56Pie chart 4.7 The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the post-test 62Pie chart 4.8 The average total scores and standard deviations about accuracy of Recast group and Repetition group in the Post-test Pie chart 4.9 The total number of errors about fluency of error number of pause and error number of repeat per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the post-test 67Pie chart 4.10 The average total scores about fluency of Recast group and Repetition group in the Post-test 70

TABLE OF GRAPH BAR

Page

Graph bar 4.1 Number of participants for the general test‘ scores 43Graph bar 4.2 The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test 49Graph bar 4.3 The average total errors and standard deviations about accuracy of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test Graph bar 4.4 The total number of errors about fluency of error number of pause and error number of repeat per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the pre test 53Graph bar 4.5 The average total scores of errors and standard deviations about fluency of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test 56Graph bar 4.6 The total number of errors about accuracy in Word choice, Grammatical and Pronunciation per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group in the post test 62Graph bar 4.7 The average total scores and standard deviations about accuracy of Recast group and Repetition group in the Post-test Graph bar 4.8 The total number of error number of pause and error number of repeat about fluency per 100 words of the Recast group and Repetition group

in the post- test 67Graph bar 4.9 The average total scores and standard deviations about fluency of Recast group and Repetition group in the Pre-test 69Graph bar 4.10 Total number of words per minute of the Recast and Repetition groups in the post test 71Graph bar 4.11 Mean of number errors Word choice about accuracy of Recast and

Repetition groups in the pre-test and post- test 73Graph bar 4.12 Mean of number errors Pronunciation about accuracy of Recast and Repetition groups in the pre-test and post- test 73Graph bar 4.13 Mean of number errors Grammartical about accuracy of Recast and Repetition groups in the pre-test and post- test 74Graph bar 4.14 Mean of errors number pause about fluency of Recast and Repetition groups in the pre-test and post- test 75Graph bar 4.15 Mean of errors number repeat about fluency of Recast and Repetition groups in the pre-test and post- test

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of five parts which offer an overview of the study including the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions and scopes of the study

2.5.3 Rationale

For decades, there is no doubt that English plays an important role in connecting people around the world in a common community especially in the process of globalization and economic integration In order to meet this demand, English has become an international language for global communication and a compulsory subject at schools One of the major concerns of most educators is how

to help students use English to solve the practical tasks in real life Especially for

speaking skill, Chaney (1998) stated ―speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts‖ In any second language teaching and learning, speaking is always

believed to be the most vital skill Consequently, improving speaking skill is very important and necessary to students, even for their exams This will help them to have a good job in their future and enable them to communicate with foreigners successfully

Dekeyser (2007, p 307) defined ―information provided after a given process regarding the success or failure of that process‖ In language acquisition, according

to Ellis (1994), the term ‗feedback‘ refers to ―information given to learners which they can use to revise their interlanguage‖ For Chaudron (1977), corrective feedback refers to ―any reaction of the teacher which clearly transforms, disapprovingly refers to, or demands improvement of the learner utterance‖ (cited

in Panova & Lyster, 2002, p 574) There are some terminologies generally being employed in this area Evidence, most frequently used in theoretical issues, is in

Leeman‘s (2007, p 112) term ―information about whether certain structures are permissible in the language being acquired‖ But depending on whether the error is

directly corrected or not it is divided into positive evidence, in which certain information which is possible in target language is given, and negative evidence, in which information which is not possible is given As feedback is given in response

to an utterance, it can inform us of the success or failure of the process of producing that utterance The former is called positive feedback and the latter negative feedback It is to note that negative feedback may contain either positive

or negative evidence or even both Most research in second language acquisition has focused on negative feedback and is in favor of its application (e.g., Chandler, 2003; Gass, 2003) This is despite the fact that not all SLA researchers in the past and present were in favor of it (e.g., Krashen, 1987; Robb, Ross and Shortreed, 1986; Truscott, 1996) Some like Fozio (2001) have taken no position for or against

it

I Vil ek, ( 2014) said that the area of corrective feedback (CF) in second language acquisition (SLA) has been an area that produces a lot of controversy, but also a great number of research ideas and topics Since English language classroom

is a communication-oriented classroom, it is a common thing that errors in oral form occur regularly, especially among younger learners In order to prevent errors and mistakes from happening and to improve their students‘ speaking skills, teachers use corrective feedback, also known as negative feedback or negative

evidence The term ―corrective feedback‖ produces a lot of negative connotations

and people usually regard it as an indication that something is not right, and for this reason might feel discouraged by it However, CF is a great tool for improvement

of language knowledge because it helps the learner to focus on the correct language forms

Dealing with errors made by learners tends to be one of the most important, but also one of the most difficult jobs a teacher has to fulfill, especially because there are a lot of things one has to keep in mind while correcting them CF is

important for both the learner as well as the teacher It gives the learner the opportunity to become aware of his/her errors because it draws the attention to the error and makes the learner aware that the correction is needed and that the utterance is not correct On the other hand, it gives the teacher the opportunity to see how his/her teaching methods work and to see in which way learners learn and which areas of their language knowledge have to be improved

For the above-mentioned reasons, the author of this paper would like to conduct this area for the study is the fact that it is a problematic area for all language teachers Moreover, this is the area that is rarely addressed in pre-service teacher education, even though it is one of the most difficult and challenging areas

in SLA The purpose of the present paper is to give an overview of important studies in the area and conduct a new study to explore what works and what does not work in the field of CF

The research presented consists of two parts Since it was intended to take several factors into consideration and see which methods are used and how learners perceive them, the first part of the study was conducted in order to see how teachers treat errors made by their learners Also, it is the author‘s wish that this short and limited study will be of some help to those who are really interested in corrective feedback, recast or repetition The aim of the second part of the study was to see how learners perceive correction

Therefore, the author has decided to conduct the study entitled ―Corrective Feedback to EFT high school students’ speaking performance: A comparison between recast and repetition‖ with the hope teachers to help the learners get out of

the always silent moment in class, and thereby, improve their speaking ability

2.5.4 Aims of the study

In this paper, the author intends to study the effect of corrective feedback; Recast or Repetition to EFT high school students‘ speaking performance and find out which is better than other

2.5.5 Significance of the study

The study may be significant in making several contributions to the English learning and teaching process The research will serve as a base for teachers, students and educational practitioners who are concerned with corrective feedback

in EFL

2.5.6 Research questions

This research was set out to seek the following questions:

Which type of feedback, Recast or Repetition, is better for improving EFL high school students' speaking accuracy?

Which type of feedback, Recast or Repetition, is better for improving EFL high school students' speaking fluency?

2.5.7 Scope of study

This study limits itself to investigating the use of type of corrective feedback, Recast or Repetition in improving EFL students' speaking ability in Le Quy Don High school in Quang Binh

It dealt with the use of corrective feedback, Recast or Repetition to improve EFL high school students' speaking accuracy and fluency

2.5.8 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is consisted of five chapters

The first chapter, the Introduction, is a brief overview of the study with more details of rationale, aims, Significance of the study and research questions, scope of study as well as design of the study

Chapter Two, is the literature review This chapter presents the theoretical background of the research which contains four main issues: speaking ability, assessing speaking ability, teaching speaking to EFL learner feedback in Language teaching and corrective feedback, Recast or Repetition in language teaching

Chapter Three, deals with the research methodology In this chapter, the focus will be on background information of the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect data and the procedure of data collection

The next chapter, chapter Four presents the results and discussions of the effects of Recast feedback and Repetition feedback techniques on EFL learners

‗speaking The author will finish her study by the end of Chapter 5, the conclusion,

is devoted to the summary of the findings and implications accuracy and fluency to help teachers and students in upper secondary schools to overcome difficulties in learning and teaching English This chapter also provides the limitations of the study as well as some recommendations for further study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.5.9 Speaking ability

It discusses the definition of speaking, the nature of speaking, the function

of speaking, and the aspect of speaking ability, and macro and micro skill of speaking ability

2.1.1 Definition

It has long been recognized that speaking skill is very important and necessary in learning a language and since the success of using a language especially second and foreign language in real life situation can be measured through speaking For example, someone can be told that he or she is capable of speaking English if he or she is able to show his or her English by practicing it through speaking Finochiaro in Sukrianto (1974, p 22), claimed that speaking is a real language, which means that the capability to communicate in a language that can be shown through the skill of speaking The skill of speaking refers to the students‘ ability to express mind or feeling orally One function of speaking is to communicate ideas in situation where the other person is listening to words and can

be in front of the speaker, looking at the gesture and facial expression In other words, we can say that speaking is the skill or capability to deliver messages directly

Burn and Joyce (1997, p 63) believed that speaking is an interactive process

of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes of speaking

2.1.2 Functions of speaking

In 2012, Brown and Yule in Fauzi (2012, p 4) described a useful distinction between two basic language function These are the transactional function, which is

primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function,

in which the primary purpose of speech is the maintenance of social relationship

Based on the above statement, in 2012 Bygate in Fauzi (2012, p 5)

distinguished that ―between motor-perceptive skill, which are concerned with correctly using the sound and structures of language, and interactional skill, which involves motor perceptive skill for the purpose of communication‖ motor perceptive

skill are developed in the language classroom through activities such as model dialogues, patterns practice, oral drills and so on, until relatively recently, it was assumed that the mastery of motor perceptive skill was that needed all one, in order

to communicated successfully

2.1.3 The nature of speaking ability

In Islamiyah in 2007, Brown (2007, p.14) introduced that speaking has been

a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed, those observations are invariably collared by the accuracy and fluency He also stated that speaking is the product of creative construction of linguistic strings; the speakers make choices

of lexicon, structure, and discourse

2.1.4 Micro and macro skill of speaking ability

Micro skill of speaking Here are some of the micro skills involved in speaking The speaker has to pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough so that people can distinguish them This includes making tonal distinctions Use stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is said Use the correct forms of words This may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case or gender Put words together in correct word order and use vocabulary appropriately Use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship

to the conversation partner Make clear to the listener the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses Make the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information Make the

discourse hang together so that people can follow what you are saying (Carol J Orwig 1999, P 23)

According to Sharma (2010, p 5), Macro Skills of Speaking are the skills that should be implemented in speaking activities: appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations, participants, and goals Use appropriate styles, registers, implicative, redundancies, pragmatic conventions, conversion rules, floor keeping and yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistic features in face-to-face conversations Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feeling, new information and given information, generalization and exemplification Convey facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues along with verbal language Develop and use a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is understanding you

2.1.5 The aspects of speaking ability

Darmodihardjo in Fauzi (2012, p 7) believed that ―the requirements of effective speaking‖ are: intonation, phonetic transcription and environment

expression The opinion describes that, to able communicate effectively, it must be considered that situation of sound utterance, pronunciation and physical

On the other hand, Valetto in Fauzi (2012, p 7) said that ―The elements which are in speaking cover phonetic transcription, grammar, vocabulary, the effective and speaking‖

Speaking ability

As for Hartley & Sporing (1999), testing oral proficiency has become one of the most important issues in language testing since the role of speaking ability has become more central in language teaching There are three characteristics that distinguish performance assessments from other types of tests They are focused

mainly on content However, testing speaking is difficult and cannot be assessed as precisely and without difficulty as other language skills It takes considerable time, effort and training (Hughes, 2003) Despite the difficulty of evaluating speaking tests, they should be designed, and administered regardless of how costly they might be

One central part of fluency is related to temporal aspects of speech, such as speaking rate, speech-pause relationships, and frequency Both kinds of studies indicate that when speakers become more fluent their speech rate increases and the speech flow contains fewer pauses and hesitations (Lennon, 1990; Freed, 1995) They also pause at semantically sensible places, which listeners perceive as the speakers‘ planning the content of what they are saying rather than groping for words More speakers that are fluent tend to speak more and their phrases are longer

In addition to time-bound speed and pausing phenomena, Luoma (2004) has shared fluency is related to the way that speakers use words, and in particular

‗small words‘ such as really, I mean, and oh (Hasselgren, 1998) To focus on the

more lexical aspects of fluency, Hasselgren (1998) defined it as ‗the ability to contribute to what a listener, proficient in the language, would normally perceive

as coherent speech, which can be understood without undue strain, and is carried out at a comfortable pace, not being disjointed or disrupted by excessive hesitation‘ She suggested that small words are significant in this because they help

speakers produce relevant turns and understand the relevance of other speakers‘ contributions She has a summary of the tasks of small words that they express the communicative intention of the speaker, with respect to what is to be communicated and how it affects the interactional roles of the participants They point to the textual context in which an utterance has relevance They indicate the cognitive effect of the previous utterance They enrich the explicature of an utterance, notably by indicating degree of commitment and vagueness They also indicate the state of success of the communication, acknowledging this, or

appealing for confirmation, or assistance in bringing it about

Indicators of speaking ability

Brown (2004, p 141-142) indicated that one can be called have speaking competence if he/she is able to imitate a word or phrase or possibly a sentence (imitative), produce short stretches of oral language design to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationship Such as prosodic elements-intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture, intensive ability (intensive) He or she responds a very short conversation, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments, and the like (responsive)

or takes the two forms of either transactional language which has the purpose of exchanging specific information, or interpersonal exchanges which have the purpose of maintaining social relationships (interactive) Maintain social relationships with the transmission of facts and information (interpersonal) Develop (monologue) oral production including speeches, oral presentations, and story-telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listener is either highly limited or ruled out together (extensive)

Meanwhile, Ur (1999, p 120) said that the characteristics of a successful speaking activity are as follows: Learners talk a lot, as much as possible of the period of time allotted to the activity is in fact occupied by learners‘ talk This may seem obvious, but oven most time is taken up with teacher talk or pauses Participation is even, Classroom discussion is not determined by a minority of talk active participants; all get chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed Motivation is high, learners are eager to speak; because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it or because they want

to contribute to achieving a task objective Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible

to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

2.2.2 Fluency, accuracy and complexity

Fluency in speaking does not lie totally only on accuracy as mastering the language system but it also lays on the fluency as using the language system communicatively, and without too much hesitation

As for Richard and Rodgers (2001, p 90) fluency is the ability to produce written or spoken language easily This indicates that spoken language is produced naturally with hurtles They also added fluency is the ability to speak with a good but not necessarily perfect command of intonation, vocabulary and grammar Meanwhile, Simon and Schuster in Amin (2006, p 22) defined fluency as: (1) the quality of flowing, smoothness, freedom from harshness, (2) the ability to write or

to speak easily, smoothly, expressively, readiness or smoothness of speech

It can, therefore, be said that fluency is the ability to produce communicative language even though it is not in perfect utterances but in continuous speech and smooth It asks students to perform it naturally as long as understandable and communicable Fluency is the ability to speak in an easy smooth manner Fluency

is also as an aspect to be assessed by the researcher because of this aspect as one of aspects that can indicate the students speaking ability

Accuracy in speaking means when someone can produce correct sentences

in pronunciation, grammar and word choice so it can be understood There are three components of accuracy They are pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation According to Alexander et al (1998, p 830), pronunciation is the way in which a language or a word particular is pronounced Teaching pronunciation deals with recognition or understanding the flow of speech and production of words Teaching pronunciation is intended students can produce speech which is intelligible in the areas where they use it When a teacher teaches English, he makes sure that the students‘ utterances can be understood They need

to be able to say what they want to say This means that students‘ pronunciation should be at least adequate for the purpose It is obviously, sending message orally without acceptable and good pronunciation is impossible Certainly, pronunciation

cannot be separated from intonation and stress Pronunciation, intonation and stress are largely learnt successfully by imitating and repetition Therefore, the teacher should have good standard of pronunciation in order that the students can imitate the teacher in teaching and learning process

At this point, another significant question should be explained, namely: what

does it actually mean to know a language? Yule (2006, p 169) defined it as ―[t]he general ability to use language accurately, appropriately and flexibly as communicative competence‖

The first component of this definition emphasizes the accuracy of producing and understanding words and structures, which Yule then names as grammatical competence The only concentration on that competence will surely not provide a student with the ability both to provide and produce L2 precisely, and for that reason other elements of communicative competence must be distinguished

Until 2001, Harmer (2001, pp 269 - 271) clarified that if a person was able

to speak a language it meant that the speaker possesses the knowledge of the target language‘s features, and he or she had the ability to process information on the spot The author indicated that language‘s features make reference to linguistic competence It comprised the following elements as connected speech, expressive devices, lexis and grammar, and negotiation language Students should be aware that natural processes like omitting words or weakening sounds occur in real-life situations during speeches Activities which practice connected speech, rather than activities focused only on individual phonemes, improve learner‘ fluency

It is also advisable to try to implement certain suprasegmental features in order to show emotions and attitudes, for instance by varying the speed of utterance

or changing facial expressions Students also need to know various phrases and conversational patterns since negotiation language involves expressions people

often use for clarifications, such as ―could you explain it to me one more time, please?‖

Moreover, in 2001 Harmer added that not only are the above-mentioned

language‘s features necessary to succeed in speaking process but “[s]success is also dependent upon the rapid processing skills that talking necessitates” (Harmer

2001, p 271) The skills were language processing, interacting with others and the-spot) information processing Language processing allowed retrieving the words and phrases that are stored in one‘s memory and then arranging them in syntactically correct sentences Then effective speaking also requires a good deal of

(on-listening to and understanding other participants‟ feelings, as well as cultural and social rules such as turn-taking or how loud to speak‖ Moreover, the pace of

processing the World Scientific News 7 (2015) 73-111 -79- information plays an important role − the faster a speaker is able to respond, the more efficient communication is

The next question was linguistic knowledge about the notion of communication and then about a language is very important when investigating teaching speaking a foreign language The areas of communicative competence attempt to explain what knowledge about a target language a learner should possess

2.2.3 Marking criteria for assessing speaking ability

In 2004, Brown classified that assessing speaking is difficult to do because there are some factors that may influence the teacher‘s impression on giving score Speaking is a manifold skill requiring the simultaneous use of different ability that often develops at different roles The score of speaking may be different from one teacher to others For example a score ranging from 1 to 5 is not something simple

to do in assigning because the line of distinction between levels are quite difficult

to pinpoint To overcome that problem, the teacher needs to assign several scores for each response, and each score representing one of several traits like pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary use, fluency, and comprehensibility

The students‘ speaking performances were assessed using the speaking

marking criteria The first criteria are accuracy included word choice, grammar and pronunciation The second criteria are fluency including words per minutes, number of pauses and number of repetition

2.2.4 Methods to assess speaking ability

According to categorizations of Underhill‘s (1987) oral language testing methods and Luoma‘s (2004) speaking task types, with an emphasis on Underhill‘s work where the different testing methods were discussed in greater detail and more comprehensively Luoma ranked that the tasks into three groups of open-ended, semi-structured and structured speaking task types, differing somewhat from the lists Underhill provides Bachman (1990, p 77) stated that with the great number of different testing methods it is impossible to compile a comprehensive list of all the methods used in 1990 but As Underhill (1987, p 44) admitted there are over sixty methods with which to test oral skills before In 1990, Weir (1990, p 42) said test methods were used to formulate tests but they are not in themselves tests He revealed that it is possible to talk about a good test or a bad test, or a valid or invalid test, but this is not possible for methods

Some of the most often used techniques are summarized here as mentioned above, they are grouped into the three categories of direct, semi-direct and indirect methods It has to be noted here however that for instance Bachman (1990, p 77) does not consider certain methods listed here, such as sentence completion and

multiple choice, as ―methods‖ at all but rather as combinations of various features

of task types, instructions and types of input Moreover, since Weir (1990, p 42) told that different methods are used to construct tests but they are not in themselves tests There are indeed different interpretations of testing methods

To begin with, the so-called direct methods, or open-ended speaking tasks, (Luoma, 2004, p 48), measure speaking skills directly and the test situation resemble a real-life communication situation (Underhill, 1987, p 44 - 45) Luoma claims that even though the open-ended speaking tasks direct the discussion, they

allow the test takers a certain freedom to utilize their cognitive skills in performing the tasks

One of the direct methods is discussion/conversation, which of course encourages the learner into a communicative approach Indeed, conversation is perhaps the most natural way for two people to communicate The interviewer gives the learner a chance to speak his mind but at the same time has an important role as a perceptive person leading the conversation Additionally, the interviewer‘s job is to generate an appropriate atmosphere for a successful dialogue to take place When considering different types of personalities a disadvantage of this testing technique may be that a shy learner might feel underprivileged compared to an outgoing co-learner (Mc Namara 2000, p 82) Indeed, a successful conversation method in testing oral skills requires the learners‘ willingness to propose new topics for discussion, ask questions, and articulate disagreement when they are aware they are being evaluated As Underhill (1987, pp 44 - 45) states, the learners need to be ready to take certain risks in the communication The conversation can also take place in groups, which contains its own challenges as a method, for instance the question of how all the participants can equally be taken into account (Huhta and Suontausta 1993, p 243)

Secondly, interviewing is believed to be the most common of oral testing methods (Underhill 1987, p 54) It is a direct method, demanding the presence of both the learner and the interviewer It is a method but at any rate permits both parties to express their opinions freely Underhill argues that it can be placed between two other categories, namely discussion/conversation and question and answer The interviewer has a list of questions and/or topics to be brought up in the dialogue However, superior to the question and answer-method (see 4.1.1.2) the interview provides the learner a better chance to illustrate one‘s foreign language ability by explaining and justifying one‘s opinions more deeply The questions should be designed in such a manner that the learner‘s speech in the interview is as representative of the stage of her language skills as possible

However, it is argued that the interview method is not quite suitable for measuring advanced learners‘ oral skills because the rating scales do not measure

up to the highly developed learners‘ skills (Underhill 1987, p 56) On the other hand, with better matching rating scales, it is a more appropriate method with the beginners and with learners on the intermediary level Moreover, with the same structured interview questions, the results are more comparable between various learners (Huhta and Suontausta 1993, p 236) In spite of the shortcomings of the interview, it seems to be an excellent method for testing oral proficiency The test taker has to both understand what the interviewer is saying and to respond understandably In other words, this method measures communicative skills and is therefore suitable for assessing speaking skills from a communicative point of view

Thirdly, Underhill (1987, pp 58 - 59) claimed that form-filling as another oral language testing technique Within this method, the interviewer and the learner cooperate in order to fill in form inquiring information on for instance personal matters The authenticity of this method is obviously one of its strengths since in real life one often has to fill out several types of forms for various official purposes

In addition, it is a communicative way to bring forth new knowledge Nevertheless, there are disadvantages to this method as well Huhta and Suontausta (1993, p 240) remark that 48 the learner may for instance feel uneasy with the tester and thus influence the situation in an undesired way

Fourthly, a learner-learner joint discussion/decision making technique is that only two or more learners are present in the test situation, i.e the writer does not take part in it Thus, it is completely up to the learners to keep up the conversation Often the participants get to read certain information from various sources beforehand and then discuss that in the test The importance of conversation is underlined in this technique, not the conclusion of the group discussion Indeed, the participants of the test are told in advance that they will be assessed on the basis of the way they communicate their own opinions, reason them and examine those of

the others (Underhill 1987, p 49) These conversations can be recorded for later evaluation This method, for instance, lets the learners be more in charge of what takes place in the situation than how it usually is when learning foreign languages

in the classroom Thus, as Underhill (1987, p 50) claimed, free conversation skills need to be taught and practiced in classrooms since not all learners could manage in authentic discussions

Fifthly, following Underhill, in role-play the student is to a certain extent an actor in a programmed drama rather than a representative of herself (Underhill

1987, p 32) The learner therefore uses her own expressions to fill in the preset parts to complete the play in her part For a shy person this can offer opportunities

to boldly express herself as someone else than who she really is but on the other hand, it can be an uncomfortable experience for an outgoing individual who would like to communicate views of her own On the other hand, if the participant is more outgoing a personality and more eager to act, then she has an advantage in this testing method (Huhta and Suontausta, 1993, p 241) Before the test takes place, the participant is provided with simple instructions on what she is to accomplish in the test: which role and situation she is given, who she is and where Often asking questions is a useful skill in the types of tasks this method supplies Moreover, Underhill (1987, pp 51 - 53) introduces possible problems concerning this technique such as lack of enthusiasm of the participant, for instance on cultural grounds, in which case other testing methods are preferred

Finally, learner-learner description and re-creation is a method in which two learners work in co-operation and support one another One learner describes for instance a model for the other, and she builds the model according to the instructions she gets The one who is giving the directions cannot see the outcome

of her advice Their language skills are evaluated on the basis of the accuracy of the language, which can be measured in the quality of the form produced, and the time taken in the process (Underhill 1987, pp 56 - 57) The description task can also be profiled so that the other learner building the model could ask specifying questions

from the former Underhill summarizes that this method is especially appropriate for evaluating the ability of the learner to give thorough description and to follow instructions Furthermore, he states that this mode suits well for testing communication skills for the reason that the learners transfer information to one another

Luoma (2004, pp 144 - 148) adds to this list the instructional tasks where the learner is to tell her partner for instance what to do in a certain situation Furthermore, comparing and contrasting tasks can include such an assignment that the pair of students will see various pictures of different circumstances and they are

to compare, contrast and speculate a specific aspect in them, such as protective clothing These tasks are generally considered to be more challenging than the description tasks since they involve analyzing the details and recognizing the similarities and variation 50 Pictures are not always used in this type of testing; also concepts that the learners are familiar with may be compared What is more, explaining and predicting tasks engage the students in giving details and interpreting for instance a graph This task is very suitable for tape-based testing since explaining does not require feedback from a partner However, if this test is conducted with a pair of students, it offers a possibility for further discussion on the possible wider effects of the contemporary situation (Luoma 2004, pp 148 - 150) The graphs should be fairly easy to find but it has to be kept in mind that they must

be up to-date The disadvantages of this task method are that it is cognitively challenging and thus best suitable for adults Indeed, it might not be a good idea to use this method with upper secondary school students since their language and cognitive skills may not suffice However, if this method is used, the test-maker has

to ensure that the graph used in the test is not too difficult to understand in the test situation

For semi-direct methods, firstly, or semi-structured speaking tasks as Luoma (2004, p 49) names them, include features of both of the indirect and direct methods, for instance using a picture to tell a story is an example of such a method

In other words, the learner communicates meanings of an unauthentic communication situation According to Luoma (2004, p 49), a semi-structured task

is one where the examinee must react in situations, i.e she either reads or hears about the social situation where she should picture herself to be in and she is then asked to utter what she would say in that situation

The last discussed semi-direct method here is question and answer –method which proceeds from simple questions to more demanding ones (Underhill, 1987,

pp 61- 63) The questions presented to the learner are relatively unconnected and thus do not normally build up into a conversation However, if adjustments are allowed in the time frame, this might happen Indeed, the interviewer must be observant and note if there are any such points, i.e answers, where the learner would like to share some more of her experience if requested This method of testing is especially suitable for lower levels of language proficiency As a disadvantage of this technique, it is rather unauthentic as it offers little communicative approach to the learners

Indirect testing methods, or Luoma‘s (2004, p 50) category of structured speaking tasks, stand for those methods where the learner is not in direct communicative contact with the tester and the real world (Underhill, 1987, p 76) Moreover, they firmly lead the test taker to say exactly what she is supposed to say (Luoma 2004, p 48) The most indirect methods are those which indeed test oral skills indirectly, for instance in written mode

Translating/interpreting is a technique in which the interviewer asks the learner to translate bits of a native language text into the foreign language (Underhill, 1987, p 79) As a testing technique it is quick to be administered and fits into the sequence of many other testing techniques; it could for example take place after reading aloud test Nevertheless, translating/interpreting seems as one the least usable oral language testing methods since what it measures are certainly not communicative skills If the purpose of the test is to assess pronunciation or

grammatical accuracy, they can be assessed through other, more sensible methods

In brief, as can be seen, there are various methods for assessing speaking ability; some of them are more usable than others The lack of testing methods is thus not a hindrance for testing oral proficiency It is rather a question of choosing the most appropriate method according to what aspects of speaking ability are tested However, if the purpose of the test is to measure communicative competence, the direct methods are the most suitable

2.5.10 Teaching speaking to EFL learners

Teaching, which is defined as ―showing or helping someone to learn how to

do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand.‖ Teaching is also defined as one of the

means by which education is achieved (if it is) and education is a common purpose

of teaching Teaching is the process of carrying out those activities that experience has shown to be effective in getting students to learn A teacher is defined as a person whose professional activities involve the transmission of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are stimulated in a formal curriculum to students enrolled in

an educational program

Teaching and learning have a close relationship We cannot define teaching apart from learning Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learners to learn, setting the conditions for learning Your understanding of how the learners learn will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques If you look at learning as a process of operant conditioning, through a carefully paced program of reinforcement, you will teach accordingly If you view second language learning as

a deductive rather than an inductive process, you will probably choose to present copious rules and paradigms to your students rather than let them ―discover‖ those rules inductively Many language learners consider speaking ability the measure of knowing a language As for them, fluency is ability to converse with others much

more than the ability to read or write They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments on spoken communication Therefore, if learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in lass can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be

2.3.1 EFL learners‘ difficulties in learning to speak English

Burn and Joyce (1997, p 134) identify three sets of factors that may cause reluctance on the parts of students to take part in classroom tasks involving speaking They suggest that this reluctance may be due to cultural factors, linguistic factors, and psychological factors Cultural factors derive from learners‘ prior learning experiences and the expectations created by these experiences Students meet difficulties in communication when they are not familiar with the cultural or social knowledge of the target language which required to process meaning in communication According to Burn and Joyce, the linguistic factors that inhibit the use of the spoken language include difficulties in transferring from the learners‘ first language to the target language in term of the sounds, rhythms, and stress patterns Difficulties in understanding the English grammatical patterns which are different from that of their mother tongue Psychological factors include cultural shock, previous negative social or political experiences, lack of motivation, anxiety

or shyness in class, especially if their previous learning experiences were negative

In language teaching and learning which mostly occurred in classroom setting motivation is seen as a key consideration in determining the preparation of learners to the communication to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitude towards learning the language That is, motivation to learn a second language is seen as referring to the extent to which the individual works or strikes to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction

experienced in this activity Thus, raising motivation inside the classroom is necessary in a language class However, many learners are still unmotivated The reasons for this negative attitude may be they were lack of success over time or lack of perception of progress They may perceive in relevance of materials or lack

of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program or receive inappropriate feedbacks Sometimes, they might be bored with the lecture or classroom setting Moreover, students are perhaps unmotivated because of their teachers‘ uninspired teaching

Thus, in order to develop their second language proficiency, students should try their best to overcome all their difficulties in learning English especially in speaking English They need to practice English as much as possible such as participating in the widest possible range of situations in which English is used as a mean of communication For example, students watch films in English, make friends with foreigners to communicate in English or gain experience from their peers

2.3.2 Factors affecting EFL learners‘ speaking ability

From the experiences in teaching it was observed that most of the learners were reluctant or had difficulties in expressing ideas orally in English and that is due to some factors that highly influence and affect negatively their learning process and inhibit them to practice and improve their speaking skill, even those who know about the foreign language system To be knowledgeable about a foreign language is not just practicing the speaking skill of this language because knowing how things must be done doesn‘t mean the ability to do these things Many scholars studied the identification of the affective factors that are related to foreign/second language speaking learning from many perspectives: we can summarize them in the following elements

Age or Maturational Constraints

Many researchers agreed that learning a foreign/second language (speaking)

in early childhood offered to learners the possibility to achieve higher proficiency than those who begin to learn it as adults in spite of the similarities of the stages they go through Because the child is exposed to a natural environment (speaking in real time) and he is not yet aware of the social distance or its values Moreover, the child‘s brain is characterized by a high degree of flexibility which he eventually loses through the phenomenon of fossilization (his brain become fossilized) And to justify this point of view, four main arguments were proposed in the Encyclopedia Dictionary of Applied Linguistics written by K Johnson and H Jonson (1999, p

13) as follow: “(a) The language faculty is just as capable of learning L2s in older learners as in child learners, but 'affective' factors like threatened self-esteem, low EGO PERMEABILITY and perceived social distance act as a barrier between L2 data and the language faculty (Krashen, 1982); (b) Input to adult learners is less well-tuned than to children, so that older learners do not get the data they require

to be fully successful; (c) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (development of advanced thinking processes) somehow inhibits language learning ability (Krashen, 1982); (d) Changes in the nature of the brain with age cause a decline in language learning ability (see Critical Period Hipothesis) For a review of these explanations, see Long (1990)‖ (Johnson &Jonson, 1999, p 13) Capitalization is

originally found in the text Consequently, one can conclude that the age plays an important role in affecting or limiting adult learners' ability to speak the target language fluently and to be native-like

Aural Medium

The failure in comprehending what is uttered results in the failure in responding correctly because listening plays the role of feedback when it comes to the development of speaking abilities due to the fact that listening precedes

speaking According to Shumin (1997, p 8) ―the fleetingness of speech, together with the features of spoken English- loosely organized syntax, incomplete forms, false starts, and the use of fillers‖ are the main factors that hinder the EFL learners‘

understanding and influence negatively the development of their speaking

competences

Socio-Cultural Factors

Very often, the breakdown in communication occurs because choosing the appropriate expressions or terms to particular situations when speaking in a foreign/second language is difficult for learners or non-native speakers; and it is frequently due to their own cultural norms interference Another reason is that they

do not master the nonverbal communication system of the target language leading

to the misinterpretation of the nonverbal messages which; in fact, differ from culture to culture (Shumin, 1997, p 8) Therefore, speaking a foreign language requires knowing the culture of the target language in addition to its linguistic and paralinguistic systems especially in particular social contexts

of the foreign language (Johnson & Jonson, 1999, p 21) The affective factors are all interrelated in a certain manner as demonstrated by Shumin (1997, p 8)

―Sometimes, extreme anxiety occurs when EFL learners become tongue-tied or lost for words in an unexpected situation, which often leads to discouragement (lose of motivation) and a general sense of failure (emotion) Adults, unlike children, are

concerned with how they (adult learners) are judged by others They are very cautious about making errors in what they say, for making errors would be a public display of ignorance, which would be an obvious occasion of "losing face" (louse of self- esteem/confidence that lead to take a negative attitude toward speaking in this language).‖ Due to the interference of those affective factors, the

development in the EFL learners‘ speaking skills will be inhibited, slow and restrained In conclusion, the central objective of learning English as a foreign/second language is communicating in which the speaking skill is a major element Speaking requires a special attention and instruction in EFL teaching-learning process, and in order to provide effective instruction that leads to competent speakers of English, it is necessary for EFL teachers to perform a series

of tasks that aim at providing learners with the confidence and the skills needed to take advantages of the classroom opportunities (M Parrott 1993, p 1-3) They should take special considerations and to carefully examine the real objectives behind teaching-learning speaking, the aspects of speaking and its components and the factors affecting EFL learners‘ speaking abilities as those previously stated In other words, the careful analysis of these areas, simultaneously with sufficient language input and activities that promote the speaking skill, will provide guidance and gradually support learners to speak English fluently and appropriately

2.3.3 Methods and activities to improve speaking ability

Accuracy-oriented activities

An accuracy-oriented activity such as pattern drills is usually used in the teaching of a new target item The primary purpose is to help students achieve accurate perception and production of a target item which can be a sound, a word,

or a sentence structure The texts are usually composed of separate ("discrete")

items: sentences or words; texts may be used in any mode (skill), regardless of how they are used in real life (dialogues may be written, written texts used for listening); the target items are usually practiced out of context or situation There are some activities such as: students' attention is focused on a particular target item;

their output is usually predictable; their performance is assessed on how few language mistakes are made; students' errors are corrected; tasks do not usually simulate real-life situations

Fluency -oriented activities

A fluency-oriented activity such as extensive reading and information gap aims to develop the students' spontaneous communications skills in using what they have already learned The primary purpose is to help students practice language in listening, speaking, reading, and/or writing activities to so develop fluency in using the language in spontaneous communication The texts are usually whole pieces of discourses: conversation, stories, etc.; texts are usually used as they would be in real life: dialogues are spoken, articles and written stories are read; an effort is made to use authentic material from real life There are some activities such as: students' attention is focused on communicating information and expressing ideas; their output may not always be predictable; their performance is assessed on how well ideas are expressed or understood; students' errors are not corrected unless it interferes with communication; tasks often simulate real-life situations

2.5.11 Feedback in language teaching

Feedback is one of the issues in second language learning which has grown

to be a major concern both among theoreticians and practitioners SLA researchers are concerned with whether feedback has any effect on learners‘ interlanguage development and the type of feedback which is suitable for this purpose Teachers are also concerned with whether or not they should correct learners errors, and when and how to do it Second language learning has witnessed an increase in the number of studies on corrective feedback One reason for this can be the problem teachers have faced in classes As a matter of fact, despite the efficacy of communicative language teaching in improving learners‘ fluency, they have still problem with accuracy, particularly syntactic one Many grammatical errors, which were once simple mistakes, are committed by intermediate or even advanced L2

learners which could be resolved in earlier stages of language learning This is usually due to the fact that the mainstream L2 teaching methods underlie the fluency and how language is used and little attention is paid to accuracy and the techniques to focus on it Hence, if these mistakes are not touched on when it is due, they will be fossilized and turn out to be one of the major challenges of teachers in intermediate and advanced level classes Corrective feedback can act as

a remedy to make up for the lost identity of grammar and structure Talking of the importance of feedback, Krashen and Seliger (1975, cited in Nicholas, Lightbown,

& Spada, 2001, p 720) observed that ―the two characteristics common to all L2 teaching methods they had examined were discrete point presentation and feedback

on error‖ This study‘s sought to investigate the functions of two types of

corrective feedback, recast and repetition These two types are selected since they are the implicit and explicit feedback respectively A comparative study on the efficacy of them is the next purpose of the present study

2.4.1 Types of feedback in language teaching

Firstly, Feedback is an essential part of communication In its absence, communication can‘t possibly be effective It is the only way to appraise whether the message has been decoded correctly or not Feedback in education helps both students and teachers strengthen the learning process and can help students improve the chances of their success There are various types of feedback in current use Below you will find a summary of some of the most popular types of feedback

Secondly, whichever types of feedback you use; it will be either written or verbal Verbal communication involves exchanging of ideas through the word of

mouth including ‗face-to-face’, telephone or Skype in educational institutions

Globally, verbal feedback and communication is not generally considered to be formal unless it is recorded for later review Verbal feedback usually takes place during class activities or after the marks for formal assessments have been allocated