TESL Undergraduates’ Perceptions: Utilizing Social Media to Elevate Speaking Skills

Abstract

Teaching English as a Second Language undergraduates are English teachers in training. Recently, a concern arose when it was found that these undergraduates in Indonesia perceived their speaking skills as the lowest in terms of their mastery. Many studies have been conducted on the use of social media. Still, there is a literature gap in using social media among TESL undergraduates in the Malaysian context. Thus, this study aimed to explore TESL undergraduates’ perceptions of their speaking skill mastery and their perceptions of utilizing social media to enhance their speaking skills. It was significant to investigate how those undergraduates feel about their speaking skill mastery to create self-awareness. By being aware of their belief, they can find ways to keep improving themselves. The main question for the study was to discover respondents’ belief in their speaking mastery level and respondents’ self-confidence in speaking performance. A total of 132 respondents from the National University of Malaysia participated in this research through an online questionnaire conducted on Google Forms. The results showed that the students recorded unsatisfactory perceptions of their speaking skill mastery. The data revealed that social media does help in elevating their speaking skills. The students chose ‘WhatsApp,’ ‘YouTube,’ and ‘TikTok’ as their preferred social media that help their oral communication skills. In addition, limitations and recommendations were explained to better future works in the equivalent or relevant studies.