People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria University Mentouri- Constantine Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Languages Teaching Speaking through Peer Interaction A Case of First-Year University Students Constantine Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Master Degree in Language Science Presented by: Supervised by: Rima HADEF Dr. Ahmed MOUMENE Board of Examiners Chairman: Dr. Ryad BELOUAHEM MC. Constantine University Supervisor: Dr. Ahmed MOUMENE MC. Constantine University Dedication I dedicate this small research first to my parents who helped me so much and Islam. I offer it also to my brothers and my sisters, to my brothers‟ wives and my sisters‟ husbands and to their children and my friends. Acknowledgements I am greateful to my supervisor Dr. Moumene. I would like to acknowledge my greatest debt to professor Abbderahim who makes me love studying English. I am gratful also to all my teachers. Special thanks to the library staff who helped me in getting books and to everyone who helped me in this research. List of Abbreviations EFL English as a Foreign Language FL Foreign Language Fig Figure L1 First Language L2 Second Language MT Mother Tongue NS Native Speaker NNS Non-Native speaker TL Target language List of Tables Page Table one : The Students‟ Ages ……………………………………………..45 Table two : Type of the Baccalaureate in Hold ………………………………………...46 Table three : Self-Choice of English …………………………………………...47 Table four : Students‟ Opinions in the Amount of Difficulty or Easiness of Speaking …48 Table fife : Students‟ Opinions towards the Amount of Teacher‟s Speaking Time in the Classroom …………………………………………………………….. 49 Table six: The Amount of Students‟ Time Participation in the Classroom ……………...50 Table seven: Reasons for Speaking Rarely in the Classroom ……………………………52 Table eight: Students‟ Attitudes towards their Weaknesses ……………………………..53 Table nine: Tasks that would Develop the Students‟ Speaking Skill ……………………54 Table ten: Students‟ Opinions towards the Easiness or Difficulty of Interacting with their Peers in English ……………………………………………………….55 Table eleven: Self –Confident and Peer Interaction …………………………………56 Table twelve: Correlation between Motivation and Peer Interactions ………………….57 Table thirteen: Students‟ Opinions towards Correlation between Interaction and Improving Speaking …………………………………………………….59 Table fourteen: Frequency of the Teacher‟s Interruption …………………………...60 Table fifteen: Students‟ Opinions towards the Concept of being Interrupted for Correction ………………………………………………………………..61 Table sixteen: Students‟ Opinions towards their Teacher‟s Method …………………...62 Table seventeen: Table Representing Scores of the Pre-Test …………………………69 Table eighteen: Table Representing the Rate of the Pre-Test ………………………...70 Table nineteen: Table Representing the Rate of Scores under and above the Average in the Pre-Tes ………………………………………………………………………….70 Table twenty: Table Representing Scores of the Post-Test …………………………..72 Table twenty one: Table Representing the Rate of the Scores of the Post-Test ………73 Table twenty two: Table Representing the Rate of the Scores under and above the Average in the Post-Test ………………………………………….73 List of Diagrams Page Diagram one: Diagram Representing the Learners‟ Ages ………………………….…45 Diagram two: Diagram Representing Types of Baccalaureate in Hold …………………46 Diagram three: Diagram Representing Self-Choice of English ………………………...47 Diagram four: Diagram Representing Students‟ Opinions in the Amount of Difficulty and Easiness of Speaking …………………………………………………48 Diagram fife: Students‟ Opinions towards the Amount of Teacher‟s Speaking Time in the Classroom ……………………………………………………………..50 Diagram six: Diagram Representing the Amount of Students‟ Time Participation in the Classroom ……………………………………………………………...51 Diagram seven: Diagram Representing Reasons for Speaking Rarely in the Classroom ..52 Diagram eight: Students‟ Attitudes towards their Weaknesses …………………………53 Diagram nine: Diagram Representing Tasks would Develop Learners‟ Speaking Skill ....54 Diagram ten: : Diagram Representing Students‟ Opinions towards the Easiness and Difficulty of Peer Interaction ……………………………………………..55 Diagram eleven: Diagram Representing the Correlation between Self-Confident and Peer Interaction …………………………………………………………56 Diagram twelve: Diagram Representing the Correlation between Motivation and Peer Interaction ……………………………………………………………..58 Diagram thirteen: Diagram Representing Students‟ Opinions towards the Correlation between Interaction and Improving Speaking ………………………...59 Diagram fourteen: Diagram Representing Frequency of the Teacher‟s Interruption ……60 Diagram fifteen: Diagram Representing Students‟ Opinions towards the Concept of being Interrupted for Correction ………………………………………..61 Diagram sixteen: Diagram Representing Students‟ Opinions towards their Teacher‟s Method ………………………………………………………………….62 Diagram seventeen: Diagram Representing the Rate of the Pre-Test Scores ……………70 Diagram eighteen: Diagram Representing the Rate of the Scores under and above the Aerage in the Pre-Test ………………………………………………...71 Diagram nineteen: Diagram Representing the Rate of the Post-Test Scores …………….73 Diagram twenty: Diagram Representing the Rate of the Scores under and above the Average in the Post-Test ………………………………………………74 Diagram twenty one: Diagram Representing the Differences between the Rates of Post-Test and Pre-Test ………………………………………….....75 Diagram twenty two: Diagram Representing the Rates of Marks under and above the Average of both the Post-Test and the Pre-Test ………………….. 75 Abstract This research that is entitled „Teaching Speaking through Peer Interaction help us to get a new method in teaching the speaking skill. The main problem that we found in teaching and learning speaking is that learners‟ performance seems to be unsatisfactory . This problem may be due to the old methods that are followed in teaching the speaking skill. Those methods do not help learners in learning how to speak the foreign language like native speakers and how to use it in specific contexts. They just help them how to master the structures of language and to learn its vocabulary. For that, we suggest peer interaction which we think will help learners in acquiring and developing the target language through using it in real contexts and interaction between learners. In this research, we adopt two kinds of means of research, a students‟questionnaire and a test. We adopt the students‟questionnaire in order to see what learners need in learning speaking and we adopt the test (pre-test and post-test) in order to see the effectiveness of peer interaction in learning speaking. The results of the questionnaire and the test demonstrate that peer interaction helped first-year university students to acquire fluency in using the language, to get rid of hesitation, and to minimize shyness. Introduction We have observed that EFL learners do not use much English in the classrooms, and this makes their level in speaking the foreign language very bad and their performance quite unsatisfactory. We think that this is due to the methods and techniques that are followed in teaching the speaking skill. We notice that oral expression teachers focus on listening to native speakers and on reading some articles more than practising the speaking skill in the classroom. Bright (1971: 177) argues that “ No body could learn the cut and thrust of normal conversation by reading David Cooperfield aloud from end to end. It is not a conversational material in its vocabulary and grammar”. In other words, English foreign language learners cannot acquire the foreign language just by reading a whole book aloud because reading a book does not mean practising how to use the language for communicative purposes. Students also will not learn how to speak the foreign language naturally just by listening to native speakers even if it is important. From what we have said above, we can say that those kinds of methods and techniques that strive at teaching the speaking skill through other skills decrease the motivation of the students and make them lose interest. Modern learners need to learn the foreign language for communicative purposes; that is to say, they need to use the language like native speakers do. So, learning the foreign language through other skills does not allow learners to practise it and use it like native speakers, and this makes their performance very unsatisfactory. Our research investigates the learners‟ weak performance in speaking the foreign language. The objective behind this research is to encourage interaction among learners to develop their speaking skill. So, the main aim is to improve the students‟ speaking skill by linking language forms they have learned to social contexts through peer interaction.