EFL Students’ Perceptions of Using Self-Talk to Develop Speaking Proficiency

Abstract

"This study aims to investigate EFL students’ perceptions of using self-talk as a strategy to develop speaking proficiency. It focuses on two main dimensions: students’ understanding of self-talk and their views on its motivational and instructional values in relation to key aspect of speaking proficiency. A mixed-methods design was adopted for the study, combining qualitative insights from open-ended survey responses and quantitative data from a Likert-scale questionnaire. Participants were 116 English-majored students from the High-quality English Studies Program at the School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University. Findings from the study indicate that while only a minority of students report clear familiarity with self-talk as a named strategy, many already use it intuitively to rehearse presentations, generate ideas, manage anxiety, and practise speaking when no partner is available. Quantitative results show consistently high mean scores across all motivational clusters, with Confidence and Self-Reflection, Engagement and Expressiveness, and Autonomy and Flexibility rated particularly strongly, indicating that students view self-talk as a powerful resource for boosting confidence, lowering anxiety, and enabling flexible, low-pressure practice. Instructional clusters also receive high ratings overall: Planning and Fluency emerge as the most highly valued, followed by Memorization and Pronunciation, while Grammar, though still rated positively, is seen as a relatively less prominent benefit. These findings provide an insight into the role of self-talk as a versatile intrapersonal strategy that supports affective regulation and technical aspects of speaking performance. Moreover, the study also offers a basis for integrating explicit self-talk strategy training into speaking pedagogy and curriculum design."