Teachers’ and Learner’s Attitudes towards the Use of Educational Games in Enhancing Speaking.

Abstract

The speaking skill is considered as a constant challenge to students of English as a Foreign Language who face many problems in term of producing well comprehensible speech. For this reason, the application of educational games in the teaching/learning speaking skill is a crucial to develop learners’ speaking performance. The current research aims at exploring the attitudes of both students and teachers towards the use of educational games in teaching speaking. Accordingly, within the context of this work, research questions are raised: 1) Are teachers aware of the effectiveness of educational games as a technique to develop the speaking skill? 2) Are learners aware of the effectiveness of educational games in improving the speaking skill? 3) How educational games can develop the speaking skill? To gather the needed data and to answer the aforementioned questions, two questionnaires are administered to teachers of Oral Expression and first year English students in the Department of Foreign Languages at Mila University centre. The findings reveal that both teachers and learners have positive perspectives towards the effectiveness of educational games in developing the speaking skill. Their positive attitudes indicate their awareness of the importance of educational games as a satisfactory technique to enhance speaking level of learners.