THE IMPACT OF USING A FUNCTIONAL ENGLISH BASED TEXTBOOK ON 8TH GRADE EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

Abstract

The current study aimed at identifying the impact of using functional English based textbook on 8th grade EFL students’ speaking skills in public schools in Jordan. The study participants are 50 students in 8th grade at Al-Fuqaha Secondary School, Amman, Jordan.  The sample was randomly distributed into two groups; the experimental group of (25) students, and the control group of (25) students. The tool of the study was a pre-post speaking test, and the validity and a reliability of the test were verified. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences at (α= 0.05) between the means of both groups on the students’ post conversational skills test, in favor of the experimental group (functional English based textbook). Results also found statistically significant differences at (α= 0.05) between the means of the experimental group students' conversational skills, in favor of the experimental group which was 90 and above. It is recommended that decision makers should pay more attention to teaching materials and focus on functional English to enhance EFL learners’ speaking skills.