The influence of TED talks on ESP undergrduate students' L2 motivational self system in the speaking skilla mixed-method study

Resumen

This thesis describes the results of an empirical study that was conducted at the Technical University of Cartagena (Murcia, Spain) during the academic year 2017/2018. The overriding objective of the present research is to investigate whether the motivation of five groups of undergraduate students of technical English (n=151) to speak in public can increase through a multimodal pedagogy that draws principally on the use of TED Talks. Multimodality, in particular, the study of the interactions between verbal and non-verbal modes in TED Talks takes on particular relevancy in this PhD thesis. The motivational angle from which this thesis studies L2 learners is Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System (2005, 2009). The present study has been guided by the following research questions: (1) To what extent is there a development of students' ideal L2 selves as a result of a specially designed multimodal intervention?, (2) How does a multimodal approach to public speaking influence learners' linguistic self- confidence in their oral expositions?, (3) Which modes do students feel complement their public speaking skills?, (4) How does a multimodal approach affect learners' motivation over the course of a semester?. To answer these four questions, mixed methods research, through a pre-experimental approach, and a pretest and posttest design of five groups of engineering undergraduates with no control group was conducted. These five groups were composed of (entire classes) of students from different Engineering degrees at the Technical University of Cartagena (n=151). The structure of the study comprises five different phases. During the first phase (quantitative), 151 participants filled in the pre-intervention questionnaire, which included eight motivational dimensions and one multimodal dimension designed by the researcher. The second phase entailed the performance of the multimodal intervention, which was specially designed to help learners create a more vivid representation of students' future selves as proficient L2 speakers. It also aimed at finding out whether the multimodal style of TED Talks could have an effect on learners' linguistic self-confidence when communicating in English. During the third and fourth phases, both of a qualitative nature, interviews and post- intervention open questionnaires were administered to 11 student volunteers. The third and fourth phases took place after students performed the classroom oral presentations which were a part of the course requirements. The fifth phase (quantitative) entailed the completion of the post-intervention questionnaire, which included the 73 items of the first questionnaire and four closed questions. These four questions were formulated to gain insight into the modes students felt complemented their oral performances best, and to ascertain whether students had been motivated to learn English through a multimodal approach that drew on TED Talks. Quantitative data demonstrated that the multimodal intervention impacted positively on students' L2 motivation, as there were statistically relevant differences between the second questionnaire and the first. Analysis of the qualitative data also showed an evolution in some students' ideal selves. These students acknowledged that the use of beat and deictic gestures better captured the attention of some of their classmates in the oral presentations. This fact contributed to enhancing their self-efficacy beliefs. The vast majority of students chose the visual mode as the mode that most complemented their oral presentations followed by the use of gesture and word stress and different intonation patterns. Finally, 78.8 % reported having been motivated with the multimodal approach followed during the course. 65.6% stated they would be able to imagine themselves as capable of giving a talk in a TED style in the future. Therefore, these results demonstrate that the design and development of intervention programmes that use models of skilful L2 speakers with high multimodal abilities can lead to positive effects in language contexts, empowering students to adopt some kind of engagement in learning English.