Applying a Learner-Focused Web-Based Approach to Enhance EFL Learners’ Oral Skills and Self-Efficacy

The present work adopted a multiphase design to investigate the effect of using web-based collaborative and strategy-based approaches on EFL learners' oral skills. Moreover, a more comprehensive objective was to check if the use of collaboration and strategy instruction could enhance EFL students' self-efficacy. The participants of the study consisted of 85 intermediate EFL learners who were studying at a language school in Kerman. To collect the data, four instruments were used: Cambridge Placement Test to homogenize the participants, pre- and post-listening and speaking tests, a questionnaire to estimate EFL learners’ self-efficacy, and an interview. The results suggested that most of the students preferred cooperative learning strategy-based instruction. The findings indicated that the effective use of web-based collaboration in speaking and listening classes that could have a remarkable effect on the linguistic input of the learners. The sample also proposed that the appreciation of the program was a given sign of the positive effect of both web-based instruction and collaboration in the web environment. Above all, the results of the speaking and listening tests revealed that the participants improved satisfactorily.