IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/eltjnl/v14y2021i11p9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Utilisation of Duolingo to Enhance the Speaking Proficiency of EFL Secondary School Students in Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Sultan R Alfuhaid

Abstract

Even though Saudi EFL students devote multiple years to improving their English-speaking proficiency, they struggle to achieve fluency. The present study, however, focuses on investigating the effectiveness of using Duolingo in EFL classrooms to enhance the participants’ speaking proficiency. The participants who underwent this study were 28 male Saudi students studying in secondary school, namely at Sharia Institute. They were divided into control and experimental groups. Data was collected via post-test to conduct a valid comparison between the two groups. The 14 students in the experimental group had been using Duolingo for a period of four consecutive months while the participants in the control group have never used Duolingo. To make a valid comparison of the mean score between the two groups, an independent samples t-test was used in this experiment. After analysing the results, it has been concluded that the integration of Duolingo in the learning process has a fundamental positive impact on enhancing participants’ speaking proficiency as well as improving their overall language skills. Additionally, the participants’ positive attitude towards Duolingo was an intrinsic factor that helped alleviate their anxiety when speaking.

Suggested Citation

  • Sultan R Alfuhaid, 2021. "The Utilisation of Duolingo to Enhance the Speaking Proficiency of EFL Secondary School Students in Saudi Arabia," English Language Teaching, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(11), pages 1-9, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:eltjnl:v:14:y:2021:i:11:p:9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/download/0/0/46061/49269
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/0/46061
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mona. M. Hamad, 2013. "Factors Negatively Affect Speaking Skills at Saudi Colleges for Girls in the South," English Language Teaching, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(12), pages 1-87, December.
    2. Wen-Chi Vivian Wu & Michael Marek & Ling Ling Yen, 2012. "Promotion of EFL Student Motivation, Confidence, and Satisfaction Via a Learning Spiral, Peer-Scaffolding, and CMC," International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching (IJCALLT), IGI Global, vol. 2(3), pages 54-75, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalid Al-Seghayer, 2015. "Salient Key Features of Actual English Instructional Practices in Saudi Arabia," English Language Teaching, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(6), pages 1-89, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:eltjnl:v:14:y:2021:i:11:p:9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.