1. Introduction

Speaking is one of the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). It is the means through which learners can communicate with others to achieve certain goals or to express their opinions, intentions, hopes and viewpoints. In addition, people who know a language are referred to as ‘speakers’ of that language. Furthermore, in almost any setting, speaking is the most frequently used language skill. As Rivers (1981) argues, speaking is used twice as much as reading and writing in our communication. Developing speaking skills is of vital importance in EFL programs.

Nunan (1999) argues that success in learning a language is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language. Therefore, speaking is probably a priority for most learners of English (Florez, 1999). Speaking instruction is important because it helps students acquire EFL speaking skills thus converse spontaneously and naturally with native speakers. Furthermore, if the right speaking activities are taught in the classroom, speaking can raise general learners' motivation and make the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be (Celce-Murcia, 2001). In addition, speaking can support other language skills and mutually other skills and sub-skills can reinforce speaking skill. Recent research has considered oral interaction as an important factor in the shaping of the learner's developing language (Gass & Varionis, 1994). For instance, it was proved that learning speaking can help the development of reading competence (Hilferty, 2005), the development of writing (Trachsel & Severino, 2004) as well as the development of listening skills (Regina, 1997).

Taking into account the importance of developing EFL speaking skills, it is vital to determine the most useful techniques and activities which can help EFL learners improve their speaking skills. Celce-Murcia (2001) believes that oral presentation is an activity which improves students' speaking skill. Meloni and Thompson (1980) claim that if oral presentation is taught in the classes, the EFL learners will enjoy their education. Brooks and Wilson (2014) say that the students' language skills in sharing ideas may be developed if the teachers use poster presentation in classroom. They argue that the students' oral presentations can enhance speaking skill in English classrooms since the learners will be able to listen to others’ presentations and acquire English structures used in their oral presentations. Brooks and Wilson (2014) believe that oral presentations are one of the activities to allow students find the opportunity of communicating with other learners in the class to improve students’ motivation to learn English.

Girard, Pinar and Trapp (2011) state that using oral presentations increase students' interest in learning English and allows students to interact and participate more in the classroom. Other researchers have shown that oral presentations can also help students to fill the gap between language study and language use. Among the oral presentations, the focus of this study is on guided oral presentation. It refers to the topics given by teachers and the teacher guide the learners to learn perfectly in regard to topics selection for speaking. It may make the students to communicate with each other and practice speaking in real world.

Luoma (2004) states that one way through which language learners can improve their speaking skills is guided oral activities. This type of oral presentation may help teachers in working with lower level classes and the first or second year students (Al Issa, 2007). Students can also improve their oral skills by free oral presentation that refers to discussing about the topic which is selected by the learners freely. Such students are usually capable of demonstrating their ability to use complex language in their presentation (Al Issa & Al‐qubtan, 2010). Despite the obvious benefits of using oral presentations in the classroom, very few EFL students are given the opportunity to use guided oral presentations in their classes (Tsou & Huang, 2012). So, the aim of this study is to enhance students’ oral skills through guided oral presentations in comparison to free oral presentations among pre-intermediate EFL learners.

1.1. Statement of the Problem

The research problem can be identified in the students’ poor mastery of English speaking skill. This might be attributed to the traditional methods of teaching adopted by most EFL teaches. Although speaking is the final goal of EFL learners, little effort has been made to help them learn to speak English. Many Iranian EFL learners are grammatically proficient and also they know abundant English vocabulary items but they fail to speak fluently. In addition, after studying English for some years, many EFL learners are not satisfied with their speaking proficiency level and become demotivated gradually.

Dolati (2011) believes that English as a foreign language is difficult for Iranian learners, especially when they try to learn speaking. Some of the graduated EFL learners cannot speak fluently and accurately as well. Speaking skill is problematic for Iranian EFL learners when they graduate from high school or even university. As it has been shown in previous studies, topic selection has not been used for class activities of speaking. Topics could be selected by the teachers or freely by the learners. It seems that Iranian learners find speaking difficult since the speaking activities are very rare. Therefore, it seems necessary to help learners with the use of proper instruction in developing speaking skill through appropriate techniques including free and guided oral presentations. In this regard, it seems there are few studies have been conducted on the guided and free oral presentations. So the present study aims to investigate the effect of guided oral presentation on developing EFL learners’ speaking at the pre-intermediate level.

For the majority of people, learning English language means being able to speak and communicate with others. Therefore, speaking occupies an important place in any matter of teaching and learning foreign languages. "For most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous with knowing that language since speech is the most basic means of human communication" (Lazaraton, 2001, p. 103). Nunan (2001) says that "the ability to function in another language is generally characterized in terms of being able to speak that language" (p. 225). When someone asks, "Do you know another language?", he/she generally means "Can you speak the language?". To teach speaking skill effective methods should be employed to help students improve their speaking ability. The present study focused on teaching speaking skill through applying guided and free oral presentations. This research followed two main objectives; (1), it examined the role of guided and free oral presentations in developing Iranian EFL learners’ speaking skill, and (2) it investigated the difference between free and guided oral presentations in learning speaking skill among pre-intermediate EFL learners.

2. Review of the Literature

2.1. Speaking Skill

According to Cora and Knight (2000), speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching which involves producing, receiving and processing information. For majority of people, the ability of speaking a foreign language means knowing that language because speech is the main tool of human communication. English learners no longer expect the traditional approach by their teachers based on developing mainly the grammatical competence and using methodology popular in the past. Today, teachers are expected to provide their students with useful active knowledge of the foreign language, not just theory about the language. Speaking in a foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills. “While listening and reading involve the ability to correctly receive messages and are therefore referred to as receptive skills, speaking and writing, on the other hand, involve language production and are referred to as productive skills” (Harmer, 2000, p. 16).

Cheng (2007) stated that "effective communication takes more than the ability to talk. It likewise includes the use of one's mental capacities in the choice of words and the ability to make other person understand what one is saying and vice versa" (p. 99). Astuti (2010) argued that the gap between English competence and performance is existed because of the two reasons: The first reason is using a conventional and traditional language teaching method that focuses on learning and teaching grammar and structure. This method of teaching is known as grammar translation method that is still widely used in some countries. Students learn English as a foreign language from learning simple vocabularies, memorizing and pronouncing them. After that, in higher level of education they are presented by English grammar and they are asked to take English paper test about grammar. The second reason is that the skills in school are not learned and practiced in a balanced way. He believed that the teaching and learning in school still widely focus on reading comprehension that the students are asked to read, understand and answer the questions.

Most of the class activities are about grammar and reading. The listening section activity and speaking are rarely practiced. Therefore, he shows that the traditional teaching system is still applied and it affects the students` mastery in learning English as a foreign language (Dolati, 2011). The English competence that has higher priority for the students and is spent so much time is not well balanced with speaking practice to improve oral production and communicative performance (Astuti, 2010). Even though the speaking skill is taught in school or university, but time allocation is not prevalent. As a result, when performing speaking skill in the class, the performance is not as good as the grammar competence which is mastered by the students because of lack of practice.

2.2. Speaking Skill in the EFL Classroom

Have you ever noticed that people ask an EFL learner “Do you speak English? Or Do you speak Spanish?” but they never ask “Do you write in English? Or "Do you write in Spanish?”. Speaking ability in foreign language learning is majored and linked to being proficient in that target language. Non-Native Speakers tend to perceive their speaking ability as an important criteria of their success. Thus, they may attempt to pursue it more seriously rather than other aspects of foreign language learning. Ur (2000) declared that "out of all the four skills ,listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking seems the most important, people who speak a language are known as speakers of the language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing a target language" (p. 12).

Today, many second language learners give the speaking skill priority in their learning because if they master this skill then they will be considered as if they have mastered all of the other skills. Most people take speaking and knowing a language as synonyms. The importance of speaking is best shown with the integration of the other language skills. For instance, speaking can help students develop their vocabulary and grammar and improve their writing skill. With speaking, learners can express feelings, opinions or ideas; tell stories; inform or explain; request; converse and discuss, i.e. through speaking, students can display the different functions of language. According to Harmer (2007), teaching speaking can be beneficial for three reasons:

First, it gives students the opportunity of speaking the second or foreign language to known people namely teachers and classmates within the classroom. Second, in teaching speaking, students are given tasks where they take the advantage to express their knowledge freely, in order, to explore their strengths and weaknesses. Third, teaching speaking makes all of the information about language grammar structures practiced by learners and that leads them to speak fluently and without difficulty.

In some researchers’ view like Howarth (2001), speaking is a two–way process involving a true communication of ideas, information and feelings. Luoma (2004) defined speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information. He also implied that the form of speaking affected by the purpose of speaking and context in which occurs. Many researchers (e.g., Howarth, 2001) agreed that speaking is the most important skill a language learner needs.

They noted that to help language learners enhance their speaking; language teachers should give direct instruction in oral skills. Direct instruction can have some advantages, for example, students can take advantage of new vocabularies. They can be easily recalled, used, stored and retrieved comprehensively. Zhou (2005) mentioned that chunks can be built based on general linguistic performance. Wang's (2009) experiment indicated that the input of lexical chunks produced a significant effect in improving the students' fluency and accuracy. He suggested brainstorming students to provide proper lexical items in speaking to activate their background knowledge and recite them before coming to class. He believed that the provision of lexical chunks would allow students to have the language to draw upon to express their views, thus helping them develop communicative efficiency in speaking. According to Wang (2009), language learners need to recognize that speaking like writing involves three areas of knowledge:

1. Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): Using the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation.

2. Functions (transaction and interaction): Knowing when clarity of message is essential (transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not required (interaction/relationship building).

3. Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants): Understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason.

2.3. Types of Oral Presentations

Al‐Issa and Al‐qubtan (2010) divided oral presentation into two types: guided and free. They stated that guided oral presentation is used with lower-intermediate or intermediate students' language proficiency level. In guided oral presentation, students should not be guided in appropriate use of grammar, lexical items and time allocation. And also students are expected to prepare handout to the listeners in the classroom to follow. One of the benefits of using guided oral presentations in the classroom is the opportunity that they present for learners to use their L2 to communicate with others in a natural way (Apple, 2006). If the activity is properly scaffolded, participating in an oral presentation can provide students with an enjoyable learning experience that allows them to interact with others using only their L2. This is because presentations require the students who are giving the presentation to use only English to communicate an idea to one or more interlocutors. This type of communication is one of the most important goals of communicative language teaching. Also, guided oral presentations allow students to engage in a cooperative task that requires them to use English to explain their ideas and to negotiate meaning with a larger community of language learners while they are planning and practicing their presentations (Apple, 2006). A guided oral presentation is used to give a chance to young students to develop their target language with confidence and maximize meaningful participation in classroom.

Oral presentations represent an opportunity for developing real-world communications as well as leadership skills. Among the many advantages of designing free oral presentations for students are: bridging the gap between language study and language use; using the four language skills in a naturally integrated way; helping students to collect, inquire, organize and construct information; enhancing team work; helping students become active and autonomous learners.

To conclude, oral presentation is another way for communication skill. If it is well prepared, structured, and organized, it will be beneficial and enjoyable activity for learners. This practice is one of speaking activities that aims to develop the students’ proficiency level in English and to help them to build self-confidence in their ability to speak in public. Oral presentation can be a beneficial way to deal with students’ difficulties in speaking skill. Oral presentation is one type of communication, which aims to develop the students’ ability to perform in English. Similarly, the aim of this study is to enhance students’ proficiency in speaking skill through applying guided and free oral presentations. The research questions of this study are as follows: (1) Does guided oral presentation have any effect on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking skill? (2) Does free oral presentation have any effect on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking skill?) 3) Is there any significant difference between free and guided oral presentations in learning speaking skill among pre-intermediate EFL learners?

3. Methodology

3.1. Participants

To do this research, the researcher selected 60 participants out of 90 from Andisheh English language institute, Ahvaz, Iran based on their performance on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The students whose scores were between 20 and 29 were selected as pre-intermediate level. The selected participants were with the age ranging from 12 to 19 years old. These participants were divided non-randomly into two experimental groups through convenient sampling method. Each included 30 participants.

3.2. Instrumentation

The first instrument which was used in this study was the OQPT. This test included 60 items and it was administered to enable the researcher to select those learners who were compatible with the conditions of the study. The OQPT was used to assess students’ language level. It also enabled the researcher to have a greater understanding of their level of proficiency (i.e., elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate). According to the OQPT, the learners whose scores were between 20 and 29 were considered as the pre-intermediate learners.

The Researcher-made Speaking Pre-test included several topics that were selected by the students in the free group and on the other hand they were chosen by the researcher in the guided group for oral presentations which were adopted from "New Interchange 1" (Richards, 2008). The participants were wanted to talk about the selected topics about 2 to 3 minutes and their speech was recorded for the second rater. The reliability of the pre-test scoring was calculated through inter-rater reliability by means of Pearson correlation analysis as (r= .810). The pretest was taken to find out the students’ knowledge before the treatment. The topics were given to two experts in terms of assessing the content validity of the given topic.

The Researcher-made Speaking Post- test included oral presentation topics which were selected out of the course book- "New Interchange 1" (Richards 2008) by the researcher to determine the effectiveness of the treatment on the students' speaking skill. The inter-rater reliability of the speaking post-test scoring was calculated through Person correlation analysis (r= .840). It is worth noting that both pre-test and post-test were validated in terms of the content of the topics by 2 English experienced teachers.

The Speaking Checklist was used to score the participants’ oral proficiency developed by Hughes (2003) for rating performance of the participants in both pre and post-tests. This checklist comprises:

The main materials utilized in this study were selected from "New interchange 1" course book (Richards, 2013). It included sixteen units. In this study the first four units were taught to the learners. They worked on the topic extracted from the unit of this book.

3.3. Procedure

To accomplish the purpose of the study, the following procedures were carried out. In the first step, the OQPT was distributed among 90 Iranian EFL learners to select homogeneous participants. Based on their performance, 60 pre-intermediate students were selected as the target participants of the study. Then, they were divided into two equal groups of 30- two experimental (i.e., guided and free oral presentation). Before the instruction, the researcher gave a researcher-made speaking pre-test to determine the level of the students' speaking skill.

The pre-test included some topics like- family, going to party, spending free time, friend- selected from New Interchange Book (2008) by the students and the researcher. The participants were asked to talk about the topics about 2 to 3 minutes and their speech was recorded for the second rater. Regarding the treatment, some topics which were chosen by the researcher were taught to the guided oral group. In guided oral presentation class, the teacher selected a topic and guided the students to present it. The researcher explained for the participants in both groups how to start the presentation, how to continue it and how to end it in 2 or 3 minutes.

On the other hand, the free group was taught speaking skill through the topics which were chosen by the students themselves. In this group, the students were free to select their own topics out of the book and talk about it and the teacher did not interfere. Students' conversation lasted for to 2 or 3 minutes. In the guided topic group, the teacher chose a topic out of the textbook "New Interchange 1" (Richards, 2008). The guided oral presentations were based on the learners’ textbook and they talk about each topic in 2 or 3 minutes. At the end of the instruction, a post-test of speaking was administered to find out the effectiveness of the treatment on the students' speaking development.

On the post-test, students of the guided group were wanted to speak about some topics like- playing football, daily activities, favorite clothes, and spending free time- and simultaneously their speech was recorded. Students of the free group were free to explain about the topics they liked; they selected the topics like formal and casual clothes, travelling, favorite hobby, and cooking. Finally, the researcher scored them through using speaking checklist of Hughes (2003). The amount of time which was allocated to the treatment for every group was 45 minutes in each session. This study was carried out in 12 sessions. After collecting the sufficient data, they were analyzed by following the next section.

3.4. Data Analysis

Data was collected through the OQPT, pre and post-tests and they were analyzed statistically. The scores of two experimental groups were processed through the application of the statistical software (SPSS 17). In order to determine the effect of the treatment on each group, descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation and variance were calculated. And also One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was taken to compare normal parameters of the both group considering of normality of distribution. Then the data was analyzed through Paired and Independent Samples t-test to show the differences between the groups’ means.

4. Results

Descriptive statistics of the pre-test is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics (Pre-tests)

Table 1 shows that the means of free oral presentation group was 37.86 and that of guided oral presentation group was 39.73. And also this shows that Standard Deviation of guided oral presentation group was less than free oral presentation group. Since the participants' means in both groups were close, an Independent Samples t-test was run. Table 2 displays the results of this t-test.

Table 2. Results of the Independent Samples t-Test on the Groups' Speaking Pre-test

Table 2 demonstrates the observed t (-.495) is less than the critical t (.495<1.671) with df =58. Therefore, there was no significant difference among the participants in the two groups’ performance.

Table 3. shows that the mean of post-test in free oral presentation group was 41. 4667 and the mean in guided oral presentation was 50.6000. Since the mean in the two groups were different, Independent Samples t-test was run to arrive at the significant level.

Table 3. Descriptive Statistics (Post-test)

Table 4 shows that the level of significance is .044 which is smaller than the identified level of significance (.044>.05); and the observed t (2.056) is greater than the critical t (1.671). Therefore, there is significant difference between the two groups post-test. Table 4 shows the differences between pre and post-tests of each group.

Table 4. Independent Samples t-Test (Post-tests)

5. Discussion and Conclusions

5.1. Discussion

This section provides answers for the research questions based on the obtained results and compares and contrasts the results with the experimental studies mentioned in section two.

RQ1. Does guided oral presentation have any effect on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking skill?

According to the data analysis, the group who worked on the guided oral presentation activities outperformed the free oral presentation group. According to the data analysis, both experimental groups had almost the same scores on the pre-test but their scores on the post-test were different. The group who received the instruction on using guided oral presentation activities performed better on the post-test in comparison to the free group; they could speak English more fluently after the treatment. The results proved that guided oral presentation activities helped the participants of guided group to do better on the post-test. The results of the present study are in line with the study of Dekdouk (2013) who investigated the effects of oral presentations on developing students' communicative competence. She selected 80 second year undergraduate students of English at Ouargla University and then she held interview and distribute a questionnaire among them to collect the data. The final results showed that the percentage of students who was in favor of classroom oral presentations was (85%). Most students stated and believed that classroom oral presentations could improve their communication skills.

The participants of the guided group gave presentations on the topics which the researcher selected for them. This technique reduces students' responsibility of choosing the topics themselves; it may reduce students' stress and also improve their speaking ability. The findings of the study are compatible with Nadia's (2013) study who explored the role of students’ oral presentations in enhancing speaking skill. Her study focused particularly on students’ oral presentation as one of the activities that are used in oral expression to improve students’ oral proficiency. Her research findings showed that students were actually highly positive in their beliefs about benefits and usefulness of doing oral presentations as a learning activity. It was revealed that oral presentations were beneficial to help students enhance their performance in oral expression and other courses.

RQ2. Does free oral presentation have any effect on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking skill?

This study had group who received the speaking instruction through using free oral presentation; the students were free to choose a topic and explain about it. The participant in the free oral presentation group tried to choose their favorite topics without the researcher's interference. After analyzing the collected data it was proved that the mentioned group's performances on the pre and post-tests were almost the same. The results of the study are against with the study of Brooks and Wilson (2014) who conducted a study on free oral presentation in Japan. They concluded that learner-centered activities are useful means for developing the students' communicative competence. In their study they also outlined some advantages of employing free oral presentations in the L2 classroom and proved that it is beneficial for both the participants and the practitioners.

Comparing to the guided oral presentation, the free oral presentation group had the poorer performance on the post-test although the researcher expected that those group who had received student-centered activities to do better on the post-test. One reason that can justify the poor performance of the free oral presentation group may be due to the students' dependence on teachers. Most Iranian students are dependent on teachers; they expect the teachers to spoon-feed the lessons for them; they expect that teachers tell them all points and explain them the entire lesson in details. This is a bad educational habit which the researcher offers all English teachers to remove it and grow the students independently.

RQ3. Is there any significant difference between free and guided oral presentations in learning speaking skill among pre-intermediate EFL learners?

After the treatment, the whole data were analyzed to help the researcher find out the differences between the free and guided oral presentations. According to the obtained results, the guided oral presentation who selected the topics with the help of the researcher outperformed the free group presentation on the speaking post-test. During the treatment, the researcher observed that the students of the guided group were highly dependent on teacher and expected that the teacher choose the target topics for them. This study proved that guided oral presentation give a chance to young students to develop their target language with confidence in classroom. The results obtained from this study showed that guided oral presentation can enhance speaking ability of students.

5.2. Conclusions

The present study tried to measure the impacts of using free and guided oral presentations on speaking skills of some Iranian pre-intermediate students. After the implementation of the mentioned techniques in the classroom, it was proved that the group who received the instruction through using guided oral presentation outperformed the group with a statistically significant difference. Overall, such results yielded an evidence of the positive effect of the guided oral presentation technique on students' ability to speak the target language more fluently. Overall it can be concluded that using guided oral presentation is an effective tool for helping students to improve their speaking skill.

Many language teachers in EFL contexts treat the speaking process in a conventional way of memorizing, role-play and giving the definition of new vocabulary, ignoring the product and process of speaking proficiency in different situations. In language classrooms, it is suggested that language teachers also familiarize their language learners with privileges of using the guided oral presentation to improve their speaking skill. Language teachers can motivate the students to use speaking by giving enormous oral presentations. There are many different topics for learners in different ages and proficiency levels. Teachers also may hold classes in giving an oral presentation and in this way achieve several privileges:

1. Students’ responsibility to provide materials

2. Helping learners to take the responsibility of their speaking process

3. Time saving for more exercises.

The application of the guided oral presentation in teaching speaking resulted in successful learning among pre-intermediate EFL language learners. Learners can benefit from giving oral presentation in different positions; firstly, oral presentation activities are authentic and relevant of learners’ interest, they may overcome their fear of speaking. Secondly, it can promote the speaking skill too. In fact, the guided oral presentation can help learners to promote all four skills of learning a foreign language. It is worth mentioning that applying this instruction is fruitful for both teachers and learners in teaching and learning EFL.

The following suggestions and insights are based on the present study in order to apply the guided oral presentation for future studies. Researchers are highly wanted to consider them before carrying out any research. As the study was only conducted at the institute, more research is needed in similar situations to support the findings and to find more about the effect of the guided oral presentation on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. It can also be applied at the schools or universities for different range of ages and levels. This study was conducted to measure the improvement of speaking proficiency ability. Future research can be done regarding the effect of the guided oral presentation on other skills such as listening, writing and reading. The present study was carried out at the pre-intermediate level. Succeeding studies had better evaluate the effect of guided oral presentation activities on enhancing the speaking at the intermediate and advanced levels. Psychological, biological, pedagogical, and geographical factors play important roles in guided oral presentation activities and learning speaking. This study did not take them into consideration. Since learning a second/foreign language could be much influenced by these factors, researchers are recommended to give heed to them.