Storytelling Reimagined: Investigating the Impact of Retelling on Students’ Speaking Skills in an EFL Context

Abstract

This study aims to determine if using the Retelling Story technique can improve the speaking skills of grade ten students at SMA Negeri 3 Palu. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design involving 60 samples randomly selected using cluster random sampling. The samples, split equally into an experimental and a control group, were administered an oral pre-test and post-test to evaluate their speaking skills, yet only the experimental group received the intervention. The data were analyzed statistically using SPSS 26 to identify any significant differences in the students’ speaking performance before and after the intervention. The findings revealed that the experimental group exhibited a significant improvement compared to the control group. Mean score of the experimental group increased from 34.67 to 52.83, and so did the control group, rising from 34.33 to 40.83. With a degree of freedom (df) of 58 and a significance level (α) of 0.05, it was found that the ρ value (2-tailed) was less than the α value (0.001< 0.05). This suggests that the research hypothesis (Ha) is accepted and Ho is rejected. Therefore, using the Retelling Story technique can improve the speaking skills of the sampled students.