Speaking Instruction, Including Interactive Task Repetition and Its Effect on High School Students’ Monologue Speech Performance

Abstract

　　Speaking instruction, including simple repetition of tasks in previous studies, showed a limited effect on improving fluency in student speech. The present study takes an empirical approach to assessing the effect of speaking instruction, including task repetition using interactive tasks where high school students learn how to introduce books to others. First-year high school students in two classrooms repeatedly engaged in English classes with different instructional focuses accordingly. Their pre-test performance, compared to their performance in post-tests, showed that students in the experimental groups performed better on average, with improved vocabulary complexity and fluency than their counterparts in the control group. Though the differences fell short of showing statistical significance, the student speech of the experimental group included more expressions learned through their engagement in interactive tasks in class, their interaction being better quality as a result of the instructional focuses of the experimental group.