Using Physical Environment of the Classroom Representing Visual Cues to Boost Iranian EFL Learners' Speaking Skill

This study aims at examining the use of physical environment of the classroom in providing the EFL learners with visual cues as a social interactive strategy in learning speaking skill. The role of interactive physical environment in learning language skills cannot be overlooked since the learners spend a lot of their educational life in the classrooms. The current quasi-experimental research examined the role of classroom pictorial cues which are related to the themes of the weekly speaking activities and discuss themes in the classroom as a social interaction. The theoretical assumption of this study is rooted in Vygotsky's (1978) theory of social aspects of language learning. An experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG) participated in this study. Both groups took a speaking pre-test before the intervention. Then the EG worked on the speaking activities focusing on the physical exposure while the CG dealt with the speaking activities in their textbook. After 12 intervention sessions, they took the speaking post-test and the statistical analysis of independent and paired samples t-test indicated the EG outperformed the CG in the speaking post-test. Implications suggest physical environment exposure can enhance EFL learners' speaking skill as a social interaction.