Using short stories vs. video clips to improve upper intermediate EFL students’ sociopragmatic knowledge: Speech acts in focus

• Main Authors: Afroozeh Heidari, Hossein Heidari Tabrizi, Azizeh Chalak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-01-01
• Series: Cogent Arts & Humanities
• Subjects: oral production; short stories; sociopragmatic knowledge; speech acts; upper intermediate students; video clips
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2020.1778977

To formulate appropriate speech acts necessitates the use of specific pragmatic and sociolinguistic skills which play a pivotal role in the knowledge of scripts and patterns of communicative events. Such an ability is influenced by the contextual and social variables that determine the linguistic resources required for choosing particular types of speech acts. Framed in speech act and sociopragmatic theories, this study sought to investigate the effect of using short stories vs. Video clips on the improvement of foreign language students’ oral production of English speech acts. To this end, from the target sample of students learning English at Isfahan University Language Center, those at the upper intermediate level were selected using a Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT). At the next step, the samples were randomly divided into three groups, twenty-five each and then they were assigned to one control and two experimental groups. The treatment included direct instruction of most commonly used speech acts across different cultures including disagreement, request, refusal, apology, and thanking through the application of carefully chosen short stories and video clips. While one of the experimental groups received their instruction through short stories, the other was exposed to video clips. Before and after the treatment, Two Discourse Completion Tests (DCT) were used as pre and posttests whereby the participants were encouraged to produce the targeted speech acts in specific but contrived real life contexts. The quantitative analyses of the data revealed that the students in the treatment groups significantly outperformed those of the control group in producing the target speech acts orally. Moreover, the students exposed to video mediated instruction displayed better oral production of speech acts than those receiving their instruction through short stories. Notably, the findings could offer practical benefits to those language teachers and curriculum developers who are concerned with finding the best ways of raising language learners’ consciousness about sociopragmatic related issues.