The Effect of Short-story Retelling on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Speaking Skill

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of short-story retelling on the Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ speaking. To this end, the study was carried out among 40 female EFL learners of intermediate level within 21 sessions in a language center in Rasht, Iran. To select homogenous participants for the study with respect to their foreign language proficiency, First Certificate in English test was administered to 80 EFL learners. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups: an experimental and a control group. Pre-test of speaking was administered to both groups at the beginning of the study. Then, the same textbook (project 2) was taught by the same teacher to both groups. The project 2 book was taught with the same teaching method for both groups. The specific treatment was administered to the experimental group for about 20 minutes in each session. Afterwards, the post-test was given to both groups. Independent-Samples t -tests were used to compare the means of the two independent groups (experimental vs. control) for the pre-test and post-test respectively. Finally, the results of the pre-test analysis indicated the homogeneity of both groups whereas those of the post-test analysis showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group. The results showed that using the short-story retelling technique improves the Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ speaking in terms of fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and, pronunciation.