Getting EFL students to speak: an action research approach

talandis, jr, gerald ; stout, michael;

This article exemplifies an action research-based approach for addressing conversation skills in an EFL setting. In many EFL contexts, especially those where English is a required subject, getting students to speak can be a challenge. In 2011, at a private Japanese university, a year-long action research project was conducted to help 160 first-year students taking mandatory English classes speak more fluently. The intervention was a new syllabus featuring personalized topics, more L1 support, direct instruction of pragmatic strategies, and frequent assessment of spoken English. Questionnaires, class notes, and recorded data from three iterative cycles of research were collected and analysed to evaluate the intervention from student and teacher perspectives. Results indicate that by the end of the year, student conversations appeared more fluent and accurate. Implications applicable to teachers working in other contexts are discussed.