Making Students Speak a Foreign Language with Fluency Activity
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
ABSTRACT
This paper reports an action research done in attempt to make students acquire speaking skill of a foreign language. It claims that the action research was a success at least in its first round. Problems pertaining to the lack of competency of students to speak in the Arabic language are often discussed but without a clear solution. This problem is addressed in the action research by engaging students in fluency activity. Altogether eight activities were carried out each of which with a duration of approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. The participants were from students from the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and 4 students from a nearby school in Bandar Baru Bangi. The fluency activity used in the speaking activities took into consideration other foreign language acquisition theories such as the Monitor Theory, language direction and common speaking experience. The outcome of the action research indicates that the experience the participants had was the main contributor to their ability to acquire speaking skill of a foreign language which is the Arabic language. This is due to the fact that although 5 years have passed since their first encounter with the fluency activity while participating in the research, they are still able to maintain their speaking ability with minimal effort. The implication of this research finding is undoubtedly significant at least from the action research perspective to find ways in making students speak in a foreign language. It could be considered a step forward for both researchers and teachers alike to enhance students’ ability in speaking a foreign language. Having said that, the methods and the speaking activities used in the research should be further improved for a much promising result in the future.
KEYWORDS
fluency activity, language acquisition, speaking skills, foreign language, Arabic language, action research