Linguistic proficiency of Jordanian freshmen majoring in English: the effect of movies on oral communication proficiency
English as a foreign language (EFL) students low level of linguistic proficiency has raisedmany concerns about English teaching and learning in most EFL countries. Although many studieshave been conducted to promote students level of linguistic proficiency, the majority ofthese studies were conducte...
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| Format: | thesis |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ir.upsi.edu.my/detailsg.php?det=6843 |
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| Summary: | English as a foreign language (EFL) students low level of linguistic proficiency has raisedmany concerns about English teaching and learning in most EFL countries. Although many studieshave been conducted to promote students level of linguistic proficiency, the majority ofthese studies were conducted in an ESL/EFL context in- class. Consequently, few attempts have beentaken to promote students level of linguistic proficiency out of class. To contribute to that,this study tried through a mixedmethods/case study design to answer the overarching researchquestion; How do Jordanian EFL students perceive their level of linguistic proficiency, and isthere a wayof helping these students improve their oral communication proficiency out ofclass? To answer that, 60 EFL students were selected to participate in thequantitative phase and six to participate in the qualitative phase. The quantitative datawas collected by means of self-assessment test, and a survey questionnaire. While, the qualitativedata was collected by means of interview and study notes. To examine the effect of movieson oralproficiency, the six subjects were divided equally into two groups (treatment and control) andasked to take the self-assessment test twice (pre and post) to be interviewed also twice, and tofill in the study notes during the case studys scheme. Only the treatment group was given eightmovies with its guides and asked to self-studyit over eight weeks. The findings showed that morethan the half of the students (38 students; 63.3 %), rated their linguistic proficiency belowaverage with the majority ofthem (49 students; 81.6 %) showing their lack of confidence in usingEnglish. The findings also indicated that movie could help improve the students' oral communicationproficiency with higher post-test scores than pre-test scores. Methodologicaltriangulation fromboth the interviews and the study notes also supports that assertion.In conclusion, self-directedlearning using movies has improved the students oral communication proficiency. This studyhas implications for practical applications in language teaching and learning which suggeststhat using movies in self-directed learning can be effective to improve linguisticproficiency out of class. The results strongly suggest that further larger scale investigationsinto students' language improvement out of class should be carried outto get more comprehensive data. |
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