Language games for promoting the speaking skill on English Language learners in Higher Education

Abstract

This research aimed to find out if language games promote the speaking skill on English language learners in higher education. The target population was fifty-two students of the first levels at the Centro de Idiomas Extensión at the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH). Twenty- six students became the experimental group and the other twenty six students were part of the control group. A pre-test was applied for both groups in order to know their speaking level. The results demonstrated that both groups had a low speaking level. Consequently, language games were applied as a strategy to enhance speaking for learners in the experimental group. After this process, students in both groups took a post-test to see if the language game strategy made any difference regarding the speaking skill performance. The findings indicated that the students who belong to the experimental group got a higher average in the speaking post-test in comparison with the average obtained by the control group. Therefore, it is important to admit that learners in the experimental group outperformed learners in the control group. Based on these findings, it was suggested for professors to use language games in their lesson plans to enhance the speaking skill.