Impact of role-play activities on motivation and oral communication competence among non-native Arabic speakers at university level in Malaysia

Previous studies have shown that the level of oral communication among non-native speakers of Arabic at the university level in Malaysia is weak, even though they have learned to speak since their school days. Over time, these learners become less motivated to continue learning Arabic, which negatively affects their engagement in language experiences, especially oral competencies. This lack of interaction leads them to neglect oral communication, even in the classroom. To address these problems, experts have suggested incorporating a variety of language activities into the learning process. Accordingly, this study focuses on using role-play activities to improve students’ oral communication skills while teaching speaking skills. The study aims to achieve four objectives: (1) to identify the level of students' oral communication skills, (2) to assess their motivation, (3) to analyse the impact of roleplaying on their oral communication, and (4) to investigate the effects of these activities on students’ motivation. The study employed a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design and a single experimental group. The sample consisted of 40 male and female students majoring in Arabic at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Two (2) theories underpin the study: Paul Nation’s Four Strands Theory (2008), which focuses on oral communication, and Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (1985), which focuses on motivation. The materials for the role play activities were based on four (4) topics relevant to the students' daily lives: "A Trip to the Zoo," "At the Restaurant," "At the Clothing Store," and "At the Club." The researcher used an oral performance test linked to the topics of the activities and administered this test to the students both before and after the activities. To measure motivation, an adapted questionnaire based on Self-Determination Theory was administered before and after the role-plays, categorising motivation into intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation. Descriptive statistics were used to achieve the first and second objectives, while inferential statistics using Wilcoxon Test in SPSS were employed to achieve the third and fourth objectives. The results showed that the oral communication level of most students was acceptable before the role-plays and improved to an excellent level after the activities. As far as motivation is concerned, the students’ overall motivation before the activities had an average value of 4.29 (SD=0.367), with intrinsic motivation reaching the highest value (M=4.44, SD=0.397). After the activities, overall motivation increased slightly to 4.42 (SD=0.354), with intrinsic motivation reaching 4.61 (SD=0.383). When comparing the results before and after the test, significant differences (p<0.001) were found for all 12 oral test questions, indicating a positive influence of role-play activities on oral communication. However, no significant differences were found in overall motivation before and after the activities, except for intrinsic motivation (p=0.037) and one of the intrinsic sub-motivations, which is knowledge, where moderate differences were observed (p=0.023). The study concludes by recommending a wider range of language activities, especially role playing, when teaching Arabic to non-native speakers, as they positively affect oral communication competence. Teachers and educators are encouraged to implement these activities to improve students’ speaking skills.

Text 123075 edited.pdf Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18694

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