Foreign language education research has consistently acknowledged that students not only possess an array of "identities" beyond their role as mere learners, but also exercise "agency" making them active initiators and selectors of their learning actions. However, this conceptual understanding appears insufficiently reflected…

This study aims to assess the impact of flipped classroom on public speaking performance of students, considering various levels of critical thinking. Additionally, it focuses on analyzing the interaction between flipped classroom, levels of critical thinking, and achievements of students in public speaking. The study adopted a quasi-experiment…

This paper aims to analyze the effect of motivation in the development of English speaking skills on second language acquisition. There are so many excellent teaching methods that vary in effectiveness. Motivation is the driving force for learning another language, and integration of that language into the person's identity. Motivation is the…

This paper reports one best-practice in assessing the public speaking performance of advanced students at an Indonesian public university. The study involves an English course for an advanced class which was primarily related to public speaking skills. Considering that speaking is a productive skill that should be assessed through authentic…

This study aims to investigate whether using scaffolded instructions can enhance students' speaking skills and build up their confidence. The participants were twelve first-year undergraduate students who attended a self-study club called "Let's Speak". The objective of the club is to enable students to make effective presentations and…

The literature on how to develop competence in giving academic presentations (AP) (e.g. Zappa-Hollman, 2007) shows that apart from basic communication skills (i.e. the ability to speak accurately, fluently and appropriately), university students are expected to perform specific roles and develop advanced skills for intellectual exchange and the…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of a program based on the Toastmasters Approach on developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills. The study adopted the pre-experimental one group pre-posttest design. Participants comprised a voluntary group (N = 9) from third year, English Department (basic education),…

Research on impact of sustained impromptu speaking on public speaking competency development is scarce and lacking. The researcher investigated Moroccan college students' public speaking competency development through extemporaneous (i.e. carefully prepared and rehearsed) speech performance, after implementation of a teaching strategy involving…

Little by little, (or, simply, MALL) is taking force in the field of education, as it supports language blended learning and language learning ubiquity. The study presented here belongs in the Social Ontology-based Cognitively Augmented Language Learning Mobile Environment (SO-CALL-ME) research project, whose final aim is to design and create…

The purpose of this preliminary study was to look at forensics-based competition events and determine what, if any, impact they could have on the language learning and public speaking skills of interpreters in training. This paper details the nature of the impromptu and extemporaneous speaking events in forensics competitions and introduces a…

Classroom techniques are offered for teaching students how to present a spontaneous (impromptu) speech in a second language, such as for use at a job interview or cocktail party. It is first suggested that such classroom activity be graded minimally to help lower students' level of apprehension. Then strategies for approaching impromptu speech…

A method of teaching public speaking adapted from the Toastmasters International program is presented for use in foreign language classes. Instructions need only to be translated into the target language and presented to students for immediate classroom use. The instructions address the structure of the speech class, writing and delivering the…

The Refugee Women's Alliance, a nonprofit organization helping refugee and immigrant women achieve self-sufficiency in the United States, has developed a class integrating English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction and discussion of family issues, child-rearing, and related problems in a new cultural context. The project focuses on developing…

The outline of a 2-hour-per-week public speaking course developed over the past 3 years for sophomore English language majors at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, is described. The course is built around rhetorical modes, with informative speaking (e.g., process and comparison/contrast), the focus of the first semester and persuasive speaking…

A course in English for academic purposes designed for graduate students needing specialized continuing development of their language skills is described. The course focuses on improving intelligibility, fluency, and accuracy of speech skills required in various disciplines in academic and professional contexts, and provides individualized…