The Impact of Teacher Motivational Practice on Improving EFL Learners' Fluency and Accuracy in Speaking

Abstract

The current study sought to examine the impact of teacher motivational practice on the improvement of Iraqi high school EFL learners’ fluency and accuracy in speaking. To this end, 50 female Iraqi high school students in Baghdad were selected based on a placement test. To gather the required data, two instruments, namely the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) and a speaking test were utilized. The study utilized a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design in which two dependent variables and one independent variable were applied. The participants joined a regular English teaching course for 18 consecutive sessions, three sessions each week. The last twenty minutes of each session was given to storytelling which was used as a motivational practice. Two different methods of storytelling were used for a cohort of students present in the control and experimental groups. After the intervention, the post-test was given to the participants to evaluate their improvement and to compare their performance with the pre-test. To analyze the data sets, an unpaired samples t-test was used to compare the means of the two groups. The results showed that teacher motivational practice improved Iraqi EFL high school learners’ fluency and accuracy in speaking. Lastly, the results and implications of the study were presented.