TED Talks as an Educational Tool: Effects on the Speaking Accuracy and Fluency of EFL Learners

Developing the speaking skill plays an essential role in learning a new language, and technology can facilitate this development. This study addressed the effects of using TED Talk videos on upper-intermediate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ speaking accuracy and fluency and investigated the learners’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of this practice on their speaking. It was conducted at an English Language Institute in Tehran with 60 learners who were selected out of 100 learners according to their performance on the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and were assigned to an experimental and a control group randomly. Initially, both groups took a speaking pretest. Over the course of 12 sessions, the experimental group was guided to watch TED Talk videos covering a range of topics as part of their learning activities, while the control group followed the standard curriculum. Then, the speaking posttest was administered to both groups. Additionally, the experimental group answered a questionnaire on the effect of TED Talks on their speaking. The results of independent samples t-tests revealed that the TED Talk group showed significant improvement over the control group in both speaking accuracy and fluency. Moreover, the questionnaire results indicated that most learners had a favorable attitude toward the role of TED Talks in their speaking development. The results imply that TED Talks can be employed as an interesting source of authentic materials with a variety of speakers and presentation styles, which can help EFL learners learn English as they enjoy the video content.