Investigating the Effectiveness of TED Talks Mimicry in Enhancing EFL Speaking Proficiency

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating the effectiveness of TED Talks mimicry in enhancing the students' speaking proficiency. To answer the research questions and to test the hypotheses, an exploratory study was conducted for this research. The researcher used a quasi-experimental study (pre-test, treatment phase, post-test) for EFL students at the Department of Letters and English. The sample consisted of 44 students divided into two groups: an experimental group of 22 students and a control group of 22 students. Between the two tests there was an instructional phase with the aim of teaching students speaking through the use of structured TED Talks mimicry, which involved shadowing, prosodic imitation, and repeated output practice using authentic TED Talks videos. The results confirmed the significance and the positive impact of this instruction on the students' speaking proficiency. Based on the findings, we conclude that the speaking performance of the experimental group participants is highly improved compared to the control group, with a mean gain of 5.50 points against only 2.00 points for the control group.