Learners' attitudes towards oral presentations' role in enhancing the speaking skill in EFL classas:A case study of third year students at department of english,Unhversity of Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia-Jijel

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to study the learners’ attitudes towards Oral Presentations’ role in enhancing their speaking skill in EFL classrooms. The hypothesis states that if students have positive attitudes towards Oral Presentations as a strategy of teaching Oral Expression, their speaking skill will improve. In order to check this hypothesis, an investigation took place. The dissertation is divided into two chapters. The first one covers the theoretical part which contains two sections of its own: oral presentations and speaking skill. The second one deals with the field work of the study. It explores the role of oral presentations and how they contribute to the improvement of the students’ speaking, as well as to what extent they serve communicative purposes. To collect data, the field work took place in the English department with EFL students, third year. The process went by administrating questionnaires to 50 students as well as attending 6 sessions of classroom observation. The results obtained show that the majority of the students of English find that oral presentations are important activities to the Oral Expression module. It also reveals that students communicate better when speaking activities are often used in oral classes. This research pinpoints the difficulties students face when speaking English such as low self-confidence and pronunciation mistakes as well as anxiety to face an audience and speak. It also shows that students need more practice in preparing oral presentations. The results found are hopefully useful and can serve future studies, and at the same time make students aware of the importance of oral presentations and activities in developing their speaking skill.