Developing English Speaking Ability Using Communication Tasks of ESL Tertiary Students

Abstract

This research aims to study the effectiveness of communicative tasks on its role to develop the English speaking ability of ESL tertiary students. The communicative tasks used in this study is the role play activity. The subject of the study was a class of 20 third year students of Early Childhood Education Programme  of Faculty of Education, Bangkokthonburi University. 4 teaching lessons for 8 teaching classes were the main materials used for the communicative tasks. An evaluation package comprises of 1) 2 sets of opened ended questionnaire, 2) pretest and posttest, and 3) two oral communication tests. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Paired T-test were used to test the improvement of student ability. Qualitative analysis was also used to evaluate the program effectiveness. The results of the study were that the role play activity utilized in teaching and practicing speaking English to ESL tertiary students affected to the speaking ability of the students. Comparing the scores between pretest  and posttest results, it was found that the posttest scores were significantly  higher than pretest scores at 0.01 significance level. Moreover, it was found that the activity caused the increasing of students’ attitude in practicing speaking English. English speaking class with role play activities was more interesting and class atmosphere were improved. The activities inspired students to be more productive through their eager to research, practice, and improve their speaking ability