The Effects of Teacher’s Use of Interactional Strategies on EFL Students’ Speaking Performance

Abstract

This paper reports an experimental study to investigate whether Interactional Strategies (ISs) have any significant effects on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ speaking performance. The study is defined as amixed-method research with two research instruments namely speaking tests and semi-structured interviews.Twenty-five participants were divided into 2 groups namelya control group and an experimental group. Theintervention was implementedfor ten weeks. The findings show that there was no significant difference about speaking performance between the control group and the experimental group although there was a significant difference in oral performance mean score of the pre-test and post-test given to both groups. Moreover, the majority of the participants in the experimental group held positive attitudes toward the teacher’s use of ISs in improving their speaking performance. Implications for practical applications of Interactional Strategies are also presented.