Jigsaw and Dictogloss Tasks: Do They Facilitate the Development of Speech Acts?

Speech acts have a decisive role in enabling EFL learners to communicate successfully. This study compared the efficacy of jigsaw and dictogloss tasks in learning speech act by 47 pre-intermediate adolescent EFL learners. The participants were selected based on convenience sampling and were homogenized based on the results of a PET. Discourse- completion task (DCT) was employed as the pre and post-tests. The result of the DCT pre-test showed that the participants were not familiar with the target speech acts. Twenty 3-minute vignettes taken from different films were employed as the medium of instruction. After the treatment, the participants sat for another DCT. The results revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups regarding knowledge of speech acts. However, the results of the paired samples t-test conducted to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the groups’ DCT pre and post-tests. The study revealed that task type did not have a crucial role in learning speech acts; however, it encouraged the use of films for teaching speech acts.