The Effect of Voice-Text Chat in Improving ‎Speaking Skills of EFL Secondary Stage Students

Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a program based on voice-text chat in enhancing EFL 1^st  year secondary students’ speaking skills. The participants of the research consisted of (48) first-year secondary students at Mohamed Ragab Azhari Institute, Gharbia Directorate. Instruments of the research were an EFL speaking skills checklist, an EFL speaking scoring rubric, an EFL pre and post speaking test, and a program based on voice-text chat. In this research, pre post-test was used with two groups (Experimental and control, 24 students each). Results of the research revealed that the research group posttest score in both speaking was significantly better than their pretest.. The research group’s gains in this productive skill attributed to using the voice-text chat based program designed and implemented by the researcher.
Introduction
      Language is a means of communication for expressing one's thoughts, hopes, ideas, ambitions, and feelings etc. It is a means for people to transmit information and messages in order to satisfy the human need for communication in different fields of life.
      Speaking skills have a basic role in helping EFL learners develop their creative skills and thinking using the language in various processes such as, connecting, commenting, communicating, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating and solving problems. Furthermore, writing plays an essential role in promoting language acquisition as learners experiment with words, sentences, and paragraphs to convey their ideas effectively and making use of grammar rules and vocabulary they learn in class.
      Speaking skill is assumed as a vital part of English language teaching and learning as a second or a foreign language. It represents other vital EFL skills on which teachers should support their students to be able to use the language to explore and express thoughts and to communicate ideas clearly. What they do in class to achieve those goals depends on their expertise, taste and outlook; on students' knowledge and abilities and objectives; and on the context in which they are reading.