Measuring the effectiveness of classroom presentations and their impact on students' motivation for fluent speaking performance

Abstract

The present study has two major aims. First, it investigates the impact of students' classroom presentations on their motivation to achieve a fluent speaking performance. Second, it investigates the effectiveness of an alternative course of oral expression activities that aim at both increasing students' motivation to attend as well as their chances to participate in the speaking class, hence enhancing their speaking abilities. In this research, we hypothesize that oral presentations, and under the current conditions, demotivate students from active participation in the oral expression sessions. Not only that, but this practice also hinders the development of their speaking abilities. We also hypothesize that the alternative course of speaking activities is a better-suited solution to the problem, both to motivate students and enhance their speaking skill. Indeed, the three different means of research (a questionnaire for forty national oral expression teachers, and that of 105 second year students of English, besides their first test) reveal much information about the subject matter and strongly confirm these hypotheses. The students' questionnaire, on the one hand, shows that this course actually does what it is designed to achieve. Students' motivation increases remarkably during the application of the course. The students' second test, on the other hand, confirms that students' speaking performance develops thanks to the course. On the basis of the obtained results, the hypotheses we tested came to be confirmed, in that the oral presentations students perform demotivate them from taking part in the speaking class, also they do not improve their speaking performance. In contrast, the alternative course remarkably increases students' motivation and significantly improves their oral skills.