Benefits of Out-of-Class Speaking Activities for Efl Students

Abstract

The objective of the study is to investigate the benefits of out-of-class speaking activities for English as a Foreign (EFL) students. Twenty-one firstyear students in a state university in Turkey were encouraged to choose any out-of-class activities they would like to carry out for six weeks to improve their speaking skills. At the end of six weeks, they were given a survey of open-ended questions aiming to reveal the activities they selected and the perceived benefits of these activities. The chosen activities include the following: Fantasy Role-Playing, Continuous Story, Debate, Radio Program, Broadcasting on Periscope. As for the perceived benefits of these activities, nearly all the students indicated that their activities contributed to their fluency, vocabulary and pronunciation development as well as problem solving skills. Also, the activities were thought to be useful for their selfconfidence, critical thinking skills and for their general knowledge. Therefore, it can be recommended that out-of-class speaking activities should be incorporated into mainstream EFL programs.

The Effect of Interactional Strategy Training on Peer Collaboration and Interaction Patterns

“…The participants pursued an integrated skills curriculum, in which speaking is covered only through speaking sections in their coursebook. As extracurricular activities have an effect on students' speaking skills (Coşkun, 2016;Hyland, 2004), the participants were given a background survey to collect information on the amount of time they spend for English-related activities outside the class including watching movies/TV shows, and listening to podcasts/music. The analysis of the survey revealed no differences in the amount of time spent on extracurricular English activities between groups.…”

Beyond Hypothesis: An Unstructured Interview on Storytelling Training

“…The activities given in the field such as real speaking practice on the beach benefit the informants. It is said that out-of-class speaking activities in English language learning contributed to their fluency, vocabulary, and pronunciation development as well as problemsolving skills (Coşkun, 2016). Informant A added how he felt grateful for the training given by the State Polytechnic of Sambas.…”

The Effectiveness of a Proposed Internet- Based Collaborative Tasks Program in Developing EFL Speaking Skills among Egyptian University Level Students

“…Ahmed, 2013; Burek & Losos, 2014;Coşkun, 2016). In a study conducted on Japanese students, Fukuda (2003) found that before practising debating only 30.8% of the students were not afraid to express their viewpoints.…”

“…Debates develop EFL learners' speaking, critical thinking ability and problem solving skills (Ebada, 2009;Coşkun, 2016). When EFL students debate, all the four language skills are enhanced (Morse, 2011).…”