A STUDY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECHES AMONG UNDERGRADUATES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

Abstract

One hundred students taking the TCEE 1371 course – Spoken English for Professionals responded to a questionnaire on Impromptu Speeches which is part of the assessment for the TCEE 1371 course. Ten students and eight teachers were interviewed. This study seeks to investigate the students’ fears while delivering an impromptu speech, their opinions on the current assessment method and what strategies they think should be used by their teachers to improve their impromptu speech presentation. For the teachers, the researcher investigated the number of years they have been teaching the course, their opinions on the current assessment method, their comments on the evaluation carried out and the strategies they suggest students can use to enhance their performance in making impromptu speeches. Ten students were also interviewed on their experiences while delivering their impromptu speeches in class and their suggestions on how to improve their impromptu speeches given another chance. The results show that nervousness is their main problem. Other problems include their lack of knowledge of current issues due to their lack of reading, and communication skills in English. Twenty strategies have been suggested to further enhance students’ performance in impromptu speeches. This study supports previous research on impromptu speeches by Hsieh, Shu-min (2006), Katchen (1996) and Lehtonen, Jaakko (1982).