Fostering English oral communication abilities and Willingness to communicate of Thai EFL University students through CLIL approach and ESA method

Abstract

English Presentation and Discussion play very significant roles in EFL classrooms. The purpose of this experimental study was to enhance students’ oral communication of 2nd year Thai EFL university students through CLIL-ESA instruction. The research group was comprised of 33 students of an English for Discussion and Presentation course, adopted English as the medium of instruction, in their second semester of the 2022 academic year at a public university in Bangkok. The study employed one group pre-test and post-test design. The CLIL-ESA instructional lesson plans in various content topics were developed and validated. The research instruments used were the English oral communication rubrics (Educational Testing Service, 2018), the willingness to communicate scales (McCroskey & Richmond, 1990), interview and student reflective journals. The assessment of students’ oral communication abilities was conducted before, during and after the delivery of the CLIL-ESA instruction. The data was analyzed by a dependent sample t-test. The research findings were as follows: (1) After the implementation of CLIL-ESA instruction, the mean of students’ oral communication abilities scores, both presentation and discussion parts had increased by a statistically significant 0.05.and (2) students’ willingness to communicate in English also ranked in high scores. The study implies that the CLIL-ESA instruction benefits Thai EFL university students.

Keywords

Oral Communication; Willingness to communicate; CLIL; ESA