Building students willingness to speak and reducing foreign language speaking anxiety through familiar digital practices and role-play

Abstract

This master’s thesis explores the use of TikTok-inspired speaking and role-play cards (SpeakTok) as a supplementary material to support EFL students’ oral participation and speaking confidence. The study is grounded in the idea that familiar digital practices can be integrated into classroom teaching to create more engaging and relevant speaking activities for learners. The research uses pre- and post-questionnaires with data from phrases that could be rated with numbers as well as open-ended responses and classroom observations. The SpeakTok activities were implemented with 9th and 10th grade students over a six-week period as part of regular English lessons. The activities included role-play, short speaking tasks and discussion prompts inspired by TikTok communication formats. The first part of the thesis presents the theoretical background, focusing on foreign language speaking anxiety, oral participation, the role of feedback, and the use of social media in language learning. The second part describes the research design, the development and implementation of the SpeakTok materials, and the data collection and analysis procedures. The thesis concludes with pedagogical implications for integrating digitally inspired, role-based speaking activities into EFL classrooms to support students’ willingness to communicate and participation in oral tasks. KEYWORDS: speaking anxiety, oral participation, role-play, TikTok, willingness to communicate