Improving Speaking Competence through Self-Talk: A Diary Study of an Iranian EFL Learner
Subject Areas : English as a Foreign Language
Farhad Khabazian
1
,
Seyyed Hossein Kashef
2
1 -
2 -
Keywords: diary study, fluency, IELTS speaking, self-assessment, speaking competence, self-talk,
Abstract :
Although there have been numerous studies investigating the role of self-talk in the literature, no research, to date, investigated diaries of an EFL learner who used these techniques to clarify how self-talk can aid EFL learners to improve their speaking competence without language partners in a real context. The present study was a qualitative diary case study. The researchers attempted to use participant’s diaries and transcriptions of his self-talk tasks to figure out how self-talk aided Mahan (participant’s first name) to improve his speaking competence eight months. The participant was an Iranian male EFL learner at the age of 22. His mother tongue was Azeri and he was an advanced level EFL learner. The participant took English classes for seven years. But his speaking practice was only limited to classroom context. Mahan failed his advanced level term due to his poor speaking competence. The participant was trained to use self-talk in his EFL classes and outside his EFL contexts to ameliorate his speaking competence and he consented to do so for eight months. Going through the diary entries, the researchers came up with two emerging themes namely: Mahan’s two I positions based on Dialogical Self Theory were in agreement with each other and Mahan’s both I positions were in disagreement with each other. As a result, his speaking competence significantly improved during this period of time. The findings offer implications for L2 researchers and teachers.
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