Effects of the Educational Games on Primary School Students’ Speaking Skills and Speaking Anxiety

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of educational games used in lesson Turkish on primary school fourth-grade students' impromptu speaking skills and speaking anxiety. In the research, one of the semi-experimental models, pretest and posttest nonequivalent groups design was used. The study group consisted of 28 students in 4-A and 4-B classes in a public school in the city center of Burdur in the first semester of 2018-2019 academic year. In the experimental group, Turkish lessons were taught and supported by educational games for six weeks. In the control group, it was processed in accordance with the basic teaching-learning approaches in the Turkish Curriculum. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that educational games positively affected the three-dimensional speaking order and style of speech, including the use of voice, which are composed of audibility and meaningfulness dimensions, topic and thought transfer, refinement, and use of time. It was concluded that educational games did not affect students’ speaking anxiety. The fact that the state of anxiety is not affected by this six-week practice of educational games may be due to the short implementation period. Therefore, a similar study can be repeated with a wider sample group with a longer application period.