EFL Speaking Fluency through Authentic Oral Production

This article describes the development of speaking fluency through authentic oral production in a six-week action research study of a public high school in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The methodology included a pre-test and a post-test that measured quantitative aspects of student’s spoken fluency (speed, pauses, repetitions, and corrections), a survey with closed-ended questions that collected learners’ perspectives towards their own speaking fluency, and an interview that addressed students’ opinions towards the elements of this action research. Twenty-four students’ audio recordings were analyzed and the results indicated that there was a significant increase of students’ speaking fluency. Results also showed that student’s perspectives on the innovation were positive since it raised awareness of their mistakes, helped them feel more confident, and let them practice the target language with autonomy outside the school boundaries. However, some considered that time and the lack of equipment and technological skills were issues that made the activity look less pleasant. This paper affirms that authentic oral production, facilitated by vlogging, helps students develop speaking fluency. Other EFL teachers and professionals in this field who would like to improve the fluency of their students in their oral production may consider reading this paper.


Introduction
Many language learners agree that the ultimate purpose of learning a language is to speak it with a high level of proficiency and to develop communicative efficiency (Rahman & Deviyanti, 2018). This would be possible only if the educational systems provide a regulatory framework that facilitates the acquisition of speaking competence. In this regard, the Ecuadorian English Language Learning Standards establish that at the end of high school students must be able to get involved in conversations about their everyday life naturally (Ministerio de Educación, 2012).
Teachers and EFL learners experience different limitations in the Ecuadorian education system. Making connections with student's background experiences is one of the lowest parameters considered in classes (Naula, 2016). It is known that using the target language in authentic and meaningful tasks has a significant impact on language development (Richards, 2015;Swain, 2000). However, in classroom-based learning, teachers usually focus on linguistic instruction rather than the practical use of the language (Arevalo as cited in Calle et al., 2012).
In respect to this, Richards (2015) argued that a classroom environment lacks authenticity, and stated that learning can happen in a scenario different from school.
Another issue is that not every student has the same opportunity to interact. In a research study carried out in two cities of Ecuador, Briones Huayamave and Ramírez-Avila (2011) found out that most of the time teachers dominate the classes with monologues, interacting only with the students with higher level of the target language. This situation prevents students with lower speaking skills from practicing English in class and developing language competence. Sari (2017) pointed out that learners can lack speaking skills even when their knowledge about the use of language is good (word and sentence formation, for example). The author makes a direct connection between this issue and the lack of confidence and motivation. Students who lack speaking skills feel reluctant to participate actively. This might prevent them from acquiring a foreign language due to the fear of being mocked or criticized by their classmates (Krashen, 2013;Miller, 2003, as cited in Hamston, 2003. Therefore, there is a direct link between confidence and developing speaking skills. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTSs) has proven to be a positive feature in education, making the content more accessible to learners (Mishra & Koehler, Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Volume 6, No. 1, January 2021 Available online at: https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/FTL/issue/view/720 e- ISSN: 2580-2070, p-ISSN: 2527 39 2006). Besides, technology fosters a positive attitude on students and helps them develop critical thinking skills (Ilter, 2009). This will not only depend on the implementation of ICTs, but on how effective the teacher is when using these tools in order to encourage students' engagement.
Teachers also face challenges that may prevent some of them from using ICTs in EFL classrooms. Looking for authentic materials as well as learning how to handle hardware and software take a high extra effort (Abunowara, 2016). However, according to Solano et al. (2017), using traditional teaching approaches and avoiding ICTs slow down the development of communicative competence in a foreign language. The same authors explained that 9 out of 10 students agreed that using technological tools helped them improve English language proficiency.
YouTube represents a great source of native, authentic input. Video logs or vlogs, for example, are a democratic way of communication and a way to create meaningful, enjoyable products for students (Sari, 2017). Students that make vlogs as part of their English classes, gradually gain confidence and participate more in speaking activities regardless their complexity. Safitri and Khoiriyah (2017) reviewed a series of studies and reported that only watching vlogs as a mean of input is not enough since participants consider that most vloggers' backgrounds differ from their culture; hence, the task itself fails to be authentic if students do not produce their own recordings.
Participants of this study had problems in speaking. They only practiced in English class hours which were limited to five forty-minute hours. They were not motivated to speak English outside their school time. Their participation in class was limited. This article raised the possibility of improving their' speaking fluency through authentic oral production using online video hostings such as YouTube. Two questions were answered by the end of this research: To what extent does authentic oral production improve fluency? What is the perspective of students towards authentic oral production? importance to ongoing communication over communicative competence. In summary, fluency is the ability to use a language naturally and effectively without many fillers and pauses. Segalowitz (2010)

Authentic Production
In language acquisition, authenticity refers to the use of material taken from real contexts, intended for native-speakers, rather than material made for language learners (Van Lier, 1996).
According to Richards (2001), English instruction must be delivered in such a way that students' performances represent real world situations. In this regard, the output that students produce in class must reveal their own identity in such a way that students use what they learn in other contexts outside the classroom boundaries. Richards (2015) also pointed out that authenticity is regularly affected by different features of classroom-based learning, such as big size classrooms, time limitation, teachers' low English proficiency, and test-driven curriculum. Swain (2000) argued that "student's meaningful production of language [output] would … seem to have a potentially significant role in language development" (p. 99). On the other hand, Krashen (1998) claimed that comprehensible output "does not make a real contribution to linguistic competence" (p. 180). However, authentic production is significant because, even if it does not lead to acquisition by itself, it (1) is a means by which students get input from the teacher or their partners, (2) helps learners notice their own mistakes and errors to improve production skills, and finally (3) it is the only way a teacher can assess students' learning success (Ellis, 2005).

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Drigas and Ioannidou (2013) sustained that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are all kinds of technologies that provide people the opportunity of receiving, manipulating, and sharing information. According to Castaño and Cabero (2013), the Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Volume 6, No. 1, January 2021 Available online at: https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/FTL/issue/view/720 e- ISSN: 2580-2070, p-ISSN: 2527 41 use of ICTs contributes to interaction due to the advent of mobile devices, cloud computing, and the progressive development of new software applications. Talking about language instruction, the implementation of ICTs enhances collaboration, facilitates communication, and the delivery of teacher-student feedback and among peers (Bustos Sanchez & Coll Salvador, 2010). For this study, ICTs were considered as a group of tools that enabled students to use the target language outside the school boundaries, at their own pace, and provided them with multiple opportunities to assess themselves and their classmates.

Vlogging
Vlogging derives from blogging and refers to the act of recording videos of oneself discussing any topic and uploading it to a video hosting website such as YouTube (Snelson, 2015; Kirschner in Safitri & Khoiriyah, 2017). While a blog (web-log) relates to a website with small articles, a vlog (video-log) does it to a website composed of a collection of small videos. One of the characteristics of vlogs is that vloggers can produce them in a variety of contexts and settings without the need of expensive equipment (Snelson, 2015). Besides, vlogging provides average people the opportunity to share and interact with different audiences regardless if their main purpose is to have fun, to improve their speaking skills, or just to connect with family and friends.
Vlogging gives students more time to organize their ideas and practice several times before obtaining a final product (Jaramillo, 2016). Furthermore, it raises learner's awareness of their own mistakes and helps them focus on how to structure their sentences when speaking in other contexts.

Method
This work was an action-research with the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Burns (2008) mentioned action research has evolved since 1980. The author pointed out it moved from little impact in teachers' education to a venue for professional development. This development has changed the view of teachers from operators to problem solvers. Researchers included in Burns's (2008) review have discussed the benefits of AR for learner-centered curriculum design and classroom-based research. In this type of research, Mertler (2016) stated the teacher identifies an aspect of the teaching-learning practice that needs to be solved or improved, then collects meaningful students' data in order to use it as "the basis for wellinformed educational decision-making" (p. 3).

Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning
Volume 6, No. 1, January 2021 Available online at: https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/FTL/issue/view/720 e-ISSN: 2580-2070, p-ISSN: 2527 42 The definition of Mertler (2016) was followed in this study. A problem was identified, students needed to improve their spoken fluency (as stated in the introduction), definitions, concepts and related studies were searched (they are described in the literature review), a strategy was chosen, planned, and applied (see the description under classroom procedures), data was collected and results are reported. This cycle was observed once. However, students were trained to use the strategy and practiced it several times as stated in the classroom procedures section described later.
Reliability and validity was ensured in this study. Instruments were validated by three EFL experts. To raise reliability of the scores of the posttest, another teacher was trained to grade the posttests and avoid bias from the teacher-researcher. Cronbach Alpha was calculated to test the reliability of the survey. Regarding ethical considerations, a consent letter was received to proceed with these research. Because participants were minors, parents authorized their children participation in this study. All data was kept confidential. Students' names were not disclosed.
Numbers were used to replaced names.

Participants
The participants were 24 students from a public school in Guayaquil, Ecuador; only four of them were male. Their English proficiency level was B1.1 in which learners must be able to participate in conversations about different topics of their life and the world in general (Council of Europe, 2003). They were in senior high school of sciences and had five periods of 40 minutes of English classes per week. They were also part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), which means they should meet a standard profile: inquirers, communicators, and risk takers among others (International Baccalaureate Organization, 2016).
Regarding technology use among students, all the participants had a computer at home and one of them did not have access to the Internet. Four students did not have a smartphone and twenty-three students considered that were moderately or highly skilled in their use. Twelve students accessed to the Internet mostly from their phones. Nineteen students used their phones for learning purposes and two said they never used them for school. Four students had already uploaded videos of themselves talking about any topic in Spanish to the Internet; two of them had uploaded their videos to YouTube. Only four students were familiarized with the term vlogging. Training lessons also involved how to plan and perform the content of students' recordings. The students gathered in groups and followed instructions extracted from a website specialized in providing steps and tutorials. In this part, they did not record their performances.

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They only made a vlog drill in front of their classmates. There were opportunities for feedback inside the groups and among the different groups.
After the vlog drill, students planned, and recorded one preliminary version of a vlog in groups during the class hour. At this time, the teacher monitored each stage to produce a vlog.
During the planning stage, the students used the computer laboratory to do their research work about a topic given by the teacher.
Then in the recording stage, they recorded their videos outside the classroom but inside the school boundaries. This way, students could look for places where they would not be interrupted, where the illumination was appropriate, or there were not sounds that affected the recording of their videos. Students practiced and recorded their video as many times as they needed before they submitted it to the teacher.
Students conducted this practice six times. At the end, students planned, recorded, and uploaded one vlog on their own. For this, they created a YouTube channel and shared its link with their partners. Since uploading a video to a hosting took a considerable amount of time and a fast Internet connection, the students had to upload their videos in the computer laboratory of the school. The teacher projected the students' videos to the class. There were chances for feedback after each video, orally and by commenting on the different YouTube channels.

Instruments
The students filled a demographic survey that consisted of 15 closed-ended questions adapted from Christensen and Knezek's (2009)  The perception of the students towards the innovation was measured with a 12 closedended survey with a Likert scale which was applied before and after the implementation. The items of the survey addressed the participants' opinion of their own fluency and vlogging. It was adapted from different studies on the use of ICTs for learning purposes (Anil, 2016;Charles & Issifu, 2015;MacKeogh, 2003). A Cronbach's Alpha of 0.728 indicated that the survey was internally consistent and each of its items contributed with unique information.
A semi-structured interview helped the researcher get a deeper insight on students' perspectives of spoken fluency and vlogging. It was applied to a smaller sample of six participants who were selected according to their results in the quantitative instruments. Two who had the same results in both, the pretest and posttest, two who had a moderate improvement, and the two students with the highest improvement. Their English teacher conducted the interview individually inside the educational institution in school hours.

This interview included six open-ended questions and were adapted from interviews
conducted in research works that studied learners' perspectives on the use of YouTube and vlogging to improve students' confidence to speak English, and the use of ICTs for learning purposes (Sari, 2017;Soa et al., 2017). It was applied after the innovation.

Data Collection and Analysis
To determine the effectiveness of the innovation, the researcher contrasted the results of the speaking pretest and posttest. The value of the effect size made it possible to determine the impact of authentic oral production on the development of speaking fluency.
The researcher analyzed the perspectives of students collected in the survey and described the results of items 1-4 which relate to learners' opinions towards their own fluency.
After recording and transcribing the interviews, it was possible to obtain in depth positive and negative opinions which were organized in categories as well. This led to the identification of the students' engagement and motivation during the implementation of the activities; how motivated, confident or reluctant they felt when participating in vlogging.

Results
The first question to answer was to what extent authentic oral production helps students improve speaking fluency. Table 1 shows that the participants increased their speed in 21% (M= 2.44 to 2.95), and reduced the number of silent pauses in 45% (M= 0.16 to M= 0.09), reduced filled pauses in 29% (M= 0.14 to M= 0.10), reduced repetitions in 48% (M= 0.13 to M= 0.07), and reduced corrections in 34% (M= 0.07 to M= 0.04). With a confidence interval of 95%, the p=0.000 shows that this difference is statistically significant (p < 0.001) and is not consequence of random chance.
As Table. 1 shows, the average effect size of the innovation was 1.01. This result indicates that vlogging contributed to the development of speaking fluency, considering Cohen's (1988) suggestions that > 0.   Table. 2 shows that the students' general perspective of their own fluency improved from the initial stage (M=2.75) to the end of the intervention (M=3.42) in 24%, being the reduction of word repetition the highest item with a 29% and their speed the lowest one with a 17%. A p = 0.000 shows that this difference did not happen by chance.  The open-ended interview led to the identification of twenty positive opinions regarding the innovation. The researcher divided them into 5 categories: speaking skills, affective, technology, timing, and autonomy. The opinions are detailed in Table. 3.  Total 20

Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning
In spite of the positive opinions of the innovation, some students also reported negative perspectives about it. Regarding the effect of vlogging on fluency, one student stated not having seen a big improvement since the initial stage. Two students affirmed that they felt embarrassed of being watched online, one stated that being aware of committing mistakes all the time was an issue, and another student stated feeling anxiety. Students also mentioned three negative aspects about the use of ICTs; the extra effort that it takes to learn how to use a new technology, the lack of the specialized equipment, and the lack of fast internet connection. Finally, three students affirmed that the whole process of vlogging also requires a lot of time, starting from the preparation of the topic, recording the video (including the several discarded attempts), and uploading it to the Internet.

Discussion
The study revealed that, after six weeks of implementation, the authentic oral production contributed to the development of speaking fluency. The highest impact the innovation had on

Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning
Volume 6, No. 1, January 2021 Available online at: https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/FTL/issue/view/720 e- ISSN: 2580-2070, p-ISSN: 2527 49 fluency is on speed since students increased the number of syllables they pronounce in a given time. Besides, though in a discreet grade, students also decreased the number of silent and filled pauses they made. The study also showed that after different sessions of vlogging, students decreased the number of corrections. The multiple video recording sessions made them aware of their own mistakes when speaking. According to Ellis (2005), noticing one's mistakes and errors helps learners improve their production skills.
An unusual finding was that even though students reduced the number of silent and filled pauses, the mean length of silent pauses increased. It is possible that during the intervention, students preferred to elongate the moments of silence as a strategy to avoid using fillers or repeating words. This would have given students more time to think and make sure of what they were going to say before speaking again. A low number of corrections and fillers are characteristics of a fluent conversation (Bøhn, 2015;Housen & Kuiken, 2009).
Students who felt comfortable with vlogging also noticed that their speaking fluency increased after its implementation. These results agree with Solano et al. (2017) studies which affirm that technological tools help students improve English language proficiency. On the other hand, the student that affirmed not having improved in fluency also reported feeling embarrassed during the activity. This is highly related to Miller' (as cited in Hamston, 2003) and Krashen's (2013) ideas that the fear of being mocked and lack of confidence have a negative impact on the development of speaking skills.
The findings also indicate that students considered that vlogging demanded them to use the target language authentically making the activity more meaningful than others. Swain (2000).
explained that meaningful output has the potential to help students develop a foreign language.
The use of ICTs proved to be positive since it made information more accessible and fostered learner's autonomy. The findings demonstrated that students saw as positive how easy they could access to content for learning purposes such as examples and tutorials. Students also reported as positive the possibility to work at any time and at any place. This agrees with Richard's (2016) statement that students make progress in their spoken English when they are provided with opportunities to use it outside the classroom boundaries. show interest and enthusiasm because they consider such tasks as authentic and meaningful.

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Besides, vlogging does not require expensive equipment or software that the majority of students are not familiar with.
However, the lack of technology management skills and proper equipment can make vlogging look more difficult and affect students emotionally due to their concern to accomplish the assignments on time. Students were not familiar with software needed to record, edit, and upload videos. The effort and time that it took to learn how to use new technology made the activity look less pleasant. Teachers should make sure that students can do the different activities.
Another issue is the stress that students may feel toward being watched on video hosting sites like YouTube or social networks like Facebook. The study revealed that it could affect the perspective of their own performance.

Limitations
This research work was limited in sample (N=24). This study did not include a control group. The participants were all students of the IBDP, which means they were expected to have a standard profile. This fact increased the chances to find students more motivated to participate actively in this course compared to an average classroom. Technology represented an issue due to lack of skills to handle it as well as outdated or lack of resources.

Recommendations
A larger number of participants, and a more heterogeneous group will increase the confidence to generalize findings. Instruments that measure other aspects of speaking would give an idea of the impact of the innovation on speaking skills competence in general. An in-depth demographic study that contrasts the students' access to technology, and their performance Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Volume 6, No. 1, January 2021 Available online at: https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/FTL/issue/view/720 e-ISSN: 2580-2070, p-ISSN: 2527-7650 51 before and after the innovation would offer a clear view of how the lack of technology affects the development of English language skills. Positive and negative feelings that students experience during the activity would provide a better understanding of the effects of vlogging on the emotional facet of learners. Future research regarding how well equipped public schools are in terms of ICTs and how skilled are students using these would offer a more accurate perspective of to what extent the Ecuadorian system is prepared for this kind of innovations. It would also provide valuable information to develop plans that in the long run help schools create the conditions to seize the opportunities that ICTs could provide to their students.