Appropriation-Based Syllabus and Speaking Ability: Evidence from Iranian EFL Context

The impetus for performing this study came from Thornbury's (2005) approach to teaching speaking in which he claimed that awareness-raising techniques and appropriation strategies facilitate the developing speaking skill. Accordingly, this study explored the impact of an appropriation-based syllabus to teaching speaking by using chunks-on-card activities based on quasi-experimental method. To do so, 30 Iranian intermediate EFL learners were selected from four classes in a language institute and the classes were randomly allocated to two groups: an experimental and a control group. To observe the effect of the treatment, the participants underwent pre- and post-tests on speaking skill. They participated in 14 treatment sessions in which the experimental group practiced the chunks-on-card approach through drilling while the control group practiced the conventional approach. The findings of the Independent-Samples T-test as well as the Paired Samples T-test revealed significant differences among the pre- and post-tests scores of both groups. Thus, the hypothesis of the study which postulated that the appropriation-based teaching of lexical chunks had a significant impact on these intermediate EFL learners’ speaking skills was confirmed.