Effectiveness of Form-Focused Repairs in Improving Low-Proficiency Learners’ Speaking Performance

Abstract

                 The purposes of this study are to examine the effectiveness of form-focused repairs in enhancing low-proficiency learners’ speaking performance, to determine the features of performance differences between low-proficiency learners treated with form-focused repair and that of the control group without form-focused repair. Purposively selected in the second semester of the academic year 2016, the participants in this study included 60 Mathayom 4 students at a high school in Trang. Data were collected using a pre- and post- speaking test with an oral assessment rubric.  Form-focused repair was performed in the warm-up, introduction, presentation, practice and evaluation stages of teaching. The findings reveal that the total scores from the interview test obtained from the two groups were significantly different at 0 .01 (t = 2.71). It was shown that low-proficiency learners treated with form-focused repair orally performed significantly better in the post test compared to those without form-focused repair treatment. Especially, the scores in all five features, including pronunciation, grammar accuracy, fluency, appropriacy of word choices, and style of expression, were significantly different at .01 level. The students in the control group on the other hand underperformed in the post test. It was concluded that form-focused repair is not only more effective than merely meaning-focused in repair but is essential in developing speaking performance of low-proficiency learners.