Abstract

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERMEDIATE EFL STUDENTS’ LECTURING AND THEIR LEXICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SELF-ESTEEM

Alireza Sohrabi

Volume: 6 Issue: 3 2016

Abstract:

Oral production plays a significant part in any academic field, especially in TEFL (Heyde, 1979). This study aimed to illuminate and investigate the interactional effect of self-esteem (SE) and lexical knowledge (LK) on intermediate EFL learners’ lecturing. In so doing, after homogenizing the students as Intermediate ones via a placement test, a validated questionnaire of SE (Sorenson, 2006) was administered to 36 intermediate students. They were also asked to sit for a lexical exam. Accordingly, the subjects were divided into four groups: 1) High LK, High SE, 2) High LK, Low SE, 3) Low LK, High SE, and 4) Low LK, Low SE. Having administered the questionnaire as well as the lexical test to the learners, the researcher asked the subjects to deliver a lecture on a specific topic and all the lectures were video –recorded. The data collected from the questionnaires as well as the scores given to their lectures were analyzed through SPSS (16.00). Results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the two groups of High LK, High SE and Low LK, Low SE. The former group outperformed the latter one. The outcomes of this study can have benefits for both foreign language teachers and learners. They both can attain better results by focusing more on the psychological factor of SE and attaching more importance to the lexical knowledge of the learners in order to enhance students’ lecturing.

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