Improving English oral communication skills of grade 5 students in government and private schools in Gilgit using audio-visual aids

Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy in Education (MPhil Ed.)

First Advisor

Dr Takbir Ali

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

Oral Communication is one of the essential skills to be developed by the learner of a target language.  In Pakistan, English is taught as one of the core curriculum subjects and as emphasized in the curriculum, student need to gain mastery in all language skills including speaking, listening, reading, and writing.  Students in Pakistan, as learning of English as foreign or target language, often struggle with developing their oral communication skills due to a variety of various reasons. Considering the difficulties faced by students in developing proficiency in verbal communication skills in English, this intervention-based study was undertaken, aiming to improving students of Grade 5 in private and government schools using audio-visual aids in Gilgit. In this study, an intervention-based design employing an embedded mixed method was used. The participants included Grade 5 students and English teachers teaching at the same grade level. Multiple tools were utilized to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, including interviews, focus group discussions, classroom observations, and tests. A four-day workshop was also organized for teachers to enhance their teaching strategies using audio-visual aids. The findings revealed that the integration of audio-visual aids in English language teaching significantly improved students’ motivation, confidence, participation, vocabulary acquisition, and pronunciation. The quantitative data also supported qualitative findings that there was improvement in oral communication skills in all schools. However, dominant improvement was noticed in government school A (2.7) and least improvement (1.2) was seen in private school B. The results also indicated that teachers encountered several challenges in implementing audio-visual aids, such as limited resources, lack of training, and individual differences among students. It was concluded that audio-visual aids are productive tools for enhancing students’ oral communication skills. It was recommended that schools should provide sufficient training opportunities and resources to teachers to ensure the effective and sustained use of these aids in English language classrooms.

First Page

1

Last Page

97

This document is available in the relevant AKU library.

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