Effects of Applying Four Steps Interview Approach to Enhance Speaking Ability for Lao EFL College Students

Abstract

The objectives of this study are: 1) to compare the students’ speaking ability before and after using the Four steps interview approach for enhancing Lao EFL college students’ speaking ability, 2) to investigate the satisfaction students through four steps interview approach for enhancing Lao EFL college students’ speaking ability. This research applies both qualitative and quantitative or mixed research one group pre-test-post-test design. The populations of this research are 24 third-year English teacher students at STTC, the academic year 2023-2024. The research sample is 16 students who are studying in the third year (12+4), the academic year 2023-2024 selected by using the purposive sampling technique. The instruments of this research were: (1) Pre-test, (2) Lesson plans, (3) Post-test, and Satisfaction questionnaire. The data obtained from pre and post-test cores were calculated to find out mean, percentage, S.D, and one-sample t-test. The data from questionnaires was calculated to find out mean, percentage and S.D, whereas the data gained from three open-ended were encoded and interpreted the meaning. Result 1 revealed that the pre-test mean scores were (X ̅ = 5.85, S.D. = 0.74) and the post-test mean scores were (X ̅ = 8.71, S.D. = 0.63), which means that the post-test mean scores were higher than the pre-test mean scores. Result 2 revealed that the attitudes of teacher students at Savannakhet Teacher Training College after learning through Four Steps Interview Approach were at more satisfaction (X ̅ = 4.37, S.D. = 0.61). Three highest scores were item 4 (x ̅ = 4.75, S.D. = 0.45), item 1 (x ̅ = 4.69, S.D. = 0.48) and item 14 (x ̅ = 4.63, S.D. = 0.5). Three lowest scores were item 18 (x ̅ = 3.75, S.D. = 0.68), item 16 (x ̅ = 3.94, S.D. = 0.57), and item 11 (x ̅ = 4.13, S.D. = 0.5). In addition, from the open-ended questions, most participants found that this four steps interview approach was very useful for enhancing not just their speaking but also critical thinking skills, whereas the difficulty of the topics found to be the frequent concerns and needed to be solved.