Semiotic Approach in English Classes and Its Effect on Students' Achievement and Attitude in Speaking

Abstract

Speaking skills in a target language has been considered as one of the most difficult skills by learners and ways of increasing the success and creating a convenient learning environment are seeking for decades. Recently, the use semiotics in learning has been discussed; therefore, this study aims to find the effect of using semiotic approach on students’ speaking achievement and their attitude towards speaking English and the semiotic approach application. The study is held at a state university preparatory school in Turkey with 32 participants. Mixed method is used. The quantitative data is collected by experimental research method, using one control (n=14) and one experiment group (n=18) to compare pre-test and post-test results of speaking success. Also, an adapted questionnaire is applied to experiment group to reveal their attitudes towards English speaking and the use of semiotic approach. Experiment group’s speaking skills development is observed and a teacher journal is kept by the researcher for each week’s application to collect the qualitative data for having a deeper understanding of the classroom atmosphere and participants’ attitudes towards the semiotic approach use. The results demonstrated that the use of semiotic approach in class has a significant influence on students’ achievement in speaking and students who the semiotic approach applied has a positive attitude towards speaking English and using semiotic approach classroom. The classroom atmosphere is also enjoyable and comfortable with the use of semiotic approach in order to create a suitable environment for stress-free speaking area for language learners.