Exploring the impact of discursive narrative construction-based instruction to enhance English majors' speaking performance

Abstract The current study aims to investigate the impact of using discursive narrative construction on English majors' speaking performance. Participants involved 86 freshman English majors at Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University, Egypt. They were divided into an experimental group (n = 43) and a control group (n = 43). Students in the experimental group were taught through the discursive narrative construction-based instruction, whereas students in the control group received conventional focus-on-form instruction. For quantitative data, a pre-post speaking performance test was designed and administered to assess students' level before and after treatment. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed via individual interviews. Results indicated that the experimental group surpassed the control group in fluency, accuracy and appropriacy, with significant improvement in fluency. Qualitative data also revealed that the experimental group students enhanced their speaking ability through utilizing various schematic patterns of language constructions, knowledge of shared structural and semantic patterns, integrating the social and cultural context with language constructions, and deconstructing and reconstructing narratives.