The Effectiveness of Using Webinar on Improving Speaking Skills for the Rafah UNRWA Seventh Graders and their Anxiety in Speaking

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using Webinar on improving speaking skills for the Rafah UNRWA seventh graders and their anxiety in speaking. The speaking sub-skills which were the study's focus were fluency, accuracy and comprehensibility. For achieving this aim, the researcher adopted the experimental approach. The sample of the study consisted of (48) female students equally divided into (24) students for the experimental group and (24) students for the control one. It was randomly chosen from Rafah Prep (B) Girls' School. The researcher designed three tools; the achievement test to measure the students' speaking achievement, the observation card to observe the students' speaking development, and the anxiety scale to measure the students' anxiety level when speaking occurred due to the implementation of the experiment. The researcher also used the Web based seminar for implementation and the content analysis as helping tools. The experiment was applied during the first term of 2013-2014 scholastic year and used speaking functions in Grade Seven, English for Palestine, Students' book. The experiment lasted for 8 lessons given online through using webinar. The data were analyzed statistically by using Mann Whitney to measure the differences between the performance of the experimental and control group in the pre and the post test. The effectiveness of using Webinar on developing speaking skills was also measured by using Mann Whitney. The results of the study revealed that the webinar has affected positively students' English language speaking skills. It has also reduced students' speaking anxiety. In the light of those findings, the researcher suggested some recommendations that are hoped to help syllabus designers, supervisors and English language teachers in developing teaching speaking skills. The researcher recommends that the Palestinian teachers should update the latest technology tools to get benefit from their advantages.