چکیده:
The application of zone of proximal development (ZPD), as a major tenet of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (SCT, 1978), has recently been invited in the L2 learning/teaching profession. This study mainly examined whether Iranian EFL learners’ interactions in diverse ZPD-activated proximal contexts through the use of storytelling instruction could improve their oral (speaking) proficiency and attitudes towards speaking in ZPD-based learning context. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used with 60 intermediate EFL participants selected from Asre-no English Language Institute in Iran, after administering the OQPT. Then, the participants were assigned into 2 experimental groups (ZPD-activated equal and unequal groups), and 1 control group, with 20 participants in each group. The students in both experimental groups were exposed to the storytelling-based instruction within different ZPD-activated proximal contexts (equal and unequal), but in the control group the traditional teacher-fronted instruction within a non-ZPD context was conducted. A semistructured interview and a questionnaire were used to assess the participants’ speaking proficiency and attitudes before and after the instruction. The findings from the analysis of covariance and t test suggested that using storytelling instruction within ZPD-activated contexts significantly improved both the participants’ speaking proficiency and their attitudes. Further data analysis of the ZPD participants’ performance indicated that no significant difference between the learners’ speaking proficiency development of equal and unequal peer groups was found. By implication, ZPD-based pair work and storytelling-based instruction, interwoven with each other in a balanced manner, would be highly fruitful in developing EFL learners’ speaking skill and their attitudes.
خلاصه ماشینی:
This study mainly examined whether Iranian EFL learners’ interactions in diverse ZPD-activated proximal contexts through the use of storytelling instruction could improve their oral (speaking) proficiency and attitudes towards speaking in ZPD-based learning context.
Further data analysis of the ZPD participants’ performance indicated that no significant difference between the learners’ speaking proficiency development of equal and unequal peer groups was found.
Keywords: Attitude, oral proficiency, speaking skill, storytelling instruction, ZPD-activated proximal context Introduction Being considered as the language of international communication, the English language and primarily developing English speaking ability is one of the most important areas in the context of English language teaching and learning.
Actually, this study focused on the ZPD-activated proximal context of equal and unequal peer collaborative interactions compared with the traditional teacher-fronted teaching method to see whether ZPD-based context could facilitate EFL learners’ speaking skill.
Actually, drawing upon the Vygotsky’s concept of ZPD, the current study offered a starting point to fill the gap in the literature in order to gain a deeper understanding of EFL learners’ speaking skill development by implementing storytelling instruction within equal/unequal peer ZPD-based contexts.
Is there any significant difference between the oral proficiency development of the L2 learners collaboratively interacting within different ZPD-based contexts of equal and unequal peers, when using storytelling method?
Addressing the First Research Question Results Table 1 displays the descriptive statistics of pretest and posttest oral proficiency (speaking) scores in ZPD-activated and control (non-ZPD) groups.
Thus, there was no significant difference between the oral proficiency developments of the EFL learners interacting within the equal and unequal peer ZPD-activated context.