International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies (Mar 2019)
The Impact of Speaking Tasks on the Speaking Proficiency of Iranian Cabin Crew Members in the Safety Emergency Procedure Course
Abstract
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has always been a source of concern for ESP scholars in developing the learners’ professional skills one which is their speaking proficiency. Inspired by implementation of ESP speaking tasks, the current study investigated the impact of speaking tasks on the speaking proficiency of Iranian cabin crew members in the safety emergency procedure course. The participants in the current study were 60 Iranian male and female cabin crew members selected from 100 cabin crew members at Mahan Airline. The took Oxford Placement Test (OPT) to homogenize their proficiency level as intermediate ESP learners, and they were randomly assigned into the experimental group and the control group with 30 participants in each group. In the course of the study, the participants in the control group were taught via traditional method of Mahan Airline curriculum while the participants in the experimental group were taught through in-flight group discussion as their treatment. To compare the speaking performances of the two groups, a pre-test prior to the treatment and a post-test after the treatment were administered. The results of the study revealed that using speaking tasks, which were applied through in-flight discussions on safety measures during the flight, could pave the way for the cabin crew members to improve their ESP speaking proficiency.
