THE MANDARIN ORAL MASTERY PROGRAMME AS PERCEIVED BY NON-NATIVE LEARNERS

Background and Purpose: Pinyin is required in learning Mandarin. The challenge of Romanised Pinyin is that learners must decipher the meaning of words based on the change of tone. Communication research is often conducted without accounting for the effects of the change of tone in learning a language. With the aim of avoiding miscommunication while strengthening awareness, Campus Buddies Programme was employed to provide tone practice for learners and consequently explores the effectiveness of the intervention. Methodology: This quantitative classroom-based research gathered information through the administration of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 32 Mandarin Level 1 learners identified through purposive sampling. The students studied five topics from the syllabus. A total of 10 native speakers who scored A in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) mentored the learners during the programme. The participants were instructed to answer both pre- and post-tests. Part A consists of demographic details, whereas Part B focuses on the effectiveness of questions and Part C consists of 30 questions of content learned by the respondents. The data were then analysed using SPSS 26 software. Findings: The respondents demonstrated a positive response towards the programme and suggested further improvement ideas such as prolonging the training session and adding more topics and oral activities. The results implicated the programme as a motivator for oral fluency. Many non-native speakers can benefit from conversation with Mandarin native speakers because it is a strong indicator and sound oral mastery strategy. Contributions: This research provides insights into the effectiveness of the current programme in motivating students’ oral learning. The outcome is essential in determining the Mandarin conversation strategy. More studies adopting different variables are proposed to explore correlations from different perspectives in order to improve students’ oral learning. Keywords: Tonal pronunciation, native speakers, non-native speakers, foreign language instruction, Mandarin conversation. Cite as: Chua, N. A., Soon, G. Y., Ibrahim, M. Y., Che Noh, C. H., Mansor, N. R., Embong Eusoff, A. M., Abdul Rashid, R., & Shen, M. (2022). The Mandarin oral mastery programme as perceived by non-native learners. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp1-23

Investigating EFL Learners’ Perceptions Towards the Difficulties in Oral Presentation at Kandahar University

This research paper examines the difficulties of oral presentation, strategies coping with difficulties used in oral presentations and the perceived role of lecturer in improving EFL learners’ oral presentation skills. The study used quantitative approach in which a survey questionnaire comprising 34 items based on four likert scales was distributed to EFL learners in a public university. The data was collected from 150 learners from two English Departments through random sampling which 109 were male and 41 were female learners. The data was analyzed and interpreted in terms of mean and standard deviation through SPSS software (22) version. The results of the study revealed that learners had a problem with oral fluency, accuracy and pronunciation during oral presentation, feel frightened when a lot of people are watching them, afraid of being assessed by their classmates in front of the class, having low self-confidence. The results also revealed some strategies coping with difficulties used in oral presentation such as, learners have to prepare themselves properly before an oral presentation, they have to build self-confidence for presentation to present very well and they have to concentrate more on phonetics and phonology of language. Furthermore, considering a crucial role of lecturer in improving oral presentation skills, the following factors such as lecturer has to design a specific course in teaching oral presentation skills for EFL learners, lecturer has to show learners videos of good speakers for enhancing their presentation skill and lecturer has to give learners freedom to choose their own topic that lowers their anxiety were discovered for more consideration.

The Effects of Authentic Materials Using Role-playing Activities on Oral Proficiency: A Case Study of Thai Undergraduate Students

This study investigates the effects of authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities on the oral proficiency of Thai undergraduate students. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand during the first semester (June to September) of 2010. The study consisted of four research instruments and the data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test to determine whether the authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities had improved the students’ oral fluency and accuracy in the target language. The findings indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups, wherein the experimental group performed better on both fluency and accuracy than the control group. Therefore, based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities involving a series of sequential events are effective in enhancing learners’ oral proficiency in programs of English as a foreign language in the context of Thailand English education.

HOW TO DEVELOP ORAL FLUENCY WHEN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

The article deals with the problem of oral fluency when teaching English for specific purposes. It highlights the importance of the development of fluency in English speaking class and investigates the factors that can make speaking more fluent. In this research we try to explain why speaking is complicated showing the functions of speech production, analyzing the notion of speaking competence and demonstrating the best speech conditions under which speaking fluency can be increased. With this purpose we describe the ways of developing fluency focusing on pretask planning and task repetition as some of the best ways of enhancing the ability to speak a foreign language easily well and quickly.

The Effects of Authentic Materials Using Role-playing Activities on Oral Proficiency: A Case Study of Thai Undergraduate Students

This study investigates the effects of authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities on the oral proficiency of Thai undergraduate students. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkhla University, Thailand during the first semester (June to September) of 2010. The study consisted of four research instruments and the data were analyzed using Independent Samples t-test to determine whether the authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities had improved the students’ oral fluency and accuracy in the target language. The findings indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups, wherein the experimental group performed better on both fluency and accuracy than the control group. Therefore, based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that authentic materials and contextually developed role-playing activities involving a series of sequential events are effective in enhancing learners’ oral proficiency in programs of English as a foreign language in the context of Thailand English education.

Educational Technology: From a Historical Perspective to an Empirical Exploration of Moroccan Learners’ EFL Speaking Fluency

One of the common challenges facing practitioners is the critical speaking fluency of EFL learners. Many students find immense challenges in communicating their ideas, let alone finding the appropriate and practical modalities to communicate authentically outside the classroom walls and measuring it. This paper aims at exploring the impact of educational technology on students’ oral fluency. To gauge the intended impact, a quantitative method is used. Educational technology is used as an independent variable with an insightful historical overview of the term, whereas oral fluency, the dependent variable, is narrowed down into measurable descriptors. The findings of this study inform the literature with the importance of the implementation of educational (instructional) technology into refining the teaching practices via an empirical evidence on the one hand and improving the speaking (oral) skills by the affordances supplied by the app and software designed for testing the validity of the data. This paper is concluded with some limitations and recommendations to open more horizons for action research and investigate the debated topic under study.

Factors Affecting Indonesian Students in Learning English Pronunciation

Oral fluency is very important in communication. It involves different skills like grammar and vocabulary. Pronunciation, however, is very significant for successful communication. Many learners of the English language have major problems with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language. Certain factors affect the learners’ pronunciation learning and the present study aims to identify the factors that affect Indonesian students in learning pronunciation of English as a foreign language. Participants were 45 first-semester students who enrolled in a Pronunciation class in a private university in West Java, Indonesia. A mixed method was used to gather data. The researcher used a quantitative method by using a questionnaire to identify the factors and a qualitative method by using observation, records, and note-taking to identify the problems students have in learning pronunciation. Data were collected, categorized, and analyzed. From this study, it is identified that the factors influencing the students’ pronunciation accuracy were native language interference, phonological awareness, pronunciation instruction, corrective feedback, and the most important of all was the response students gave to achieve their goal. The researcher also suggests some strategies to help students overcome the problems concerning those factors. It is hoped that by knowing the factors affecting students in learning English pronunciation, the teachers can help students to have English pronunciation accuracy.

Theme-Based Teaching to Promote Oral Fluency in a University in Colombia

The present qualitative study with an action research orientation focuses on the strengthening of students’ oral fluency in English through the implementation of six theme-based teaching workshops. The participants were students of an EFL pre-intermediate English language course in the institute of foreign languages at the Technological University of Pereira, in Risaralda State, Colombia. Besides the implementation of theme-based teaching, this study includes the speaking phases of rehearsal, performance, and debriefing to impact students’ oral fluency. This project emerged from an exhaustive needs analysis which showed that the university’s students, as future professionals, had difficulties with their oral performance i.e. their being unable to speak about topics related to their university life in English; hence, the need of including themes aligned with their academic contexts was highlighted with the purpose of helping them improve their oral fluency in English. The findings indicate that the students improved in their oral fluency in terms of vocabulary, intonation, and a reduction in the number of long pauses when speaking in English.

Individual differences in memory predict changes in breakdown and repair fluency but not speed fluency: A short-term fluency training intervention study

The purpose of this intervention study is to reveal the extent to which memory-related aptitudes are implicated in the second language (L2) fluency development fostered by task repetition. English L2 learners are engaged in oral narrative tasks three times per day under two different 3-day task repetition schedules: blocked (Day 1: A-A-A, Day 2: B-B-B, Day 3: C-C-C) versus interleaved (Day 1: A-B-C, Day 2: A-B-C, Day 3: A-B-C). Their phonological short-term memory (PSTM), attention control, and associative memory were used as predictors of fluency changes measured through speed, breakdown, and repair fluency behaviors. Results showed that while the articulation rate change was not explained by any of the examined predictors, breakdown and repair fluency were predicted by different memory components. Specifically, PSTM was associated with mid-clause pause decrease during the training phase, while associative memory was linked to the increase in clause-final pauses in the posttest. Attention control, as well as PSTM, was related to greater repair frequency in the posttest, indicating increased learners’ attention to speech monitoring. Furthermore, PSTM and associative memory contributed to reducing breakdown fluency in the blocked repetition condition only, suggesting that learners can capitalize on their memory for improving oral fluency by engaging in blocked practice.