The Effectiveness of Using Poster Presentation Technique in Teaching Speaking Skill in EFL Classroom
Abstract
This study is designed to examine EFL students' perception of the use of Poster Presentation Technique in order to develop students' speaking skills at Al-Amirat Secondary School. Naturally speaking is recognized as one of the most difficult language skills for the Iraqi EFL learners because of the lack of real communication opportunities and anxiety of speaking in the classroom. Hence, it is found that the integration of the poster presentation activity as a learning method can be used to improve the students' fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, self-confidence and communicative competence. Thirty students from the class of Al-Amirat Secondary School in the EFL class are selected for the participants. In order to get the necessary data, a ten-item questionnaire using the Likert scale was made and is distributed to the students to find out their opinions of how the role of the poster presentation activity contributes to the improvement of students' speaking abilities. The questionnaire focused on different aspects of speaking development such as confidence in speaking, idea organization, interaction with peers, decrease in speaking anxiety and motivation to participate in classroom activities. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, and percentages were used to determine students' agreement with each item on the questionnaire. The results showed that most students had positive attitudes towards the application of the Poster Presentation Technique. The majority agreed that the activities of the poster presentation helped them to organize ideas better, speak more confidently, interact actively with classmates, extend their vocabulary and decrease their fear of making mistakes while speaking English. Therefore, the findings show that the Poster Presentation Technique is viewed by students as an effective and motivating technique which will help them to participate in the classroom and communicate in EFL. It is recommended that speaking instruction could be more learner-centered by introducing poster presentation activities, as well as to support the development of students' communicative competence in the teaching and learning process.