







































AsiaCALL Online Journal Received: 03/01/2021 

ISSN 1936-9859; https://asiacall.info/acoj Revision: 28/01/2021 

Vol. 12, No. 2, 2021  Accepted: 05/02/2021 

pp. 58-71  Online: 06/02/2021 

58 

Improving English Speaking Ability Through E-Learning 

Su Ai Anh Thu1*, Cao Thi Xuan Tu1, Le Do Lam Vy1, Nguyen Le Ngoc Trinh1, Nguyen Thi Lan Anh1 

 

1Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City 

*Corresponding author’s email: khanhhang61@gmail.com 

 

Abstract 

E-learning is an alternative approach to education, which mentions the utilization of information and 

transmission technologies to allow the way to online learning. Many previous studies have compared E-

learning with face-to-face learning to determine the benefits and drawbacks of each method and see if they 

could substitute the other. However, few studies examined whether e-learning affects English as Foreign 

Language (EFL) in speaking skill; some were successful in investigating, but some were not. In order to fill 

this gap, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of e-learning in improving English speaking ability. The 

researchers used a random sampling method with twenty questionnaires and five questions to interview to 

achieve the goal. Participants were fifty junior students of the Faculty of Foreign Language who had two 

years of experience of studying speaking skills at Van Lang University (VLU) in Ho Chi Minh City. The 

procedure of collecting results lasted two weeks, and data collection was analyzed based on the results 

presented in the chart. These findings shed light on the difficult factor students encountered when speaking 

English and highlight development-speaking ability progression via E-learning. 

 

Keywords: E-learning, speaking ability, traditional learning, EFL 

INTRODUCTION 

Background of the study 

According to Kauffman (2015) [13], the improvement of technology, involving the internet, has influenced 

education provision over the world. Therefore, educators sought a new technique of learning based on 

technology, which is called 'E-learning'. E-learning has become a popular form of training all over the world 

for many years (Bui et al., 2020). Some developed and developing countries have been using traditional and 

E-learning to facilitate students' learning environments. Allen and Seaman (2004) reported that most students 

in the USA attended at least one online class, and about 91% of the public schools in the USA offered online 

classes (cited in Bonk and Zheng).  

According to Bui et al. 2020, E-learning is an impressive and highly powerful way of learning and a very 

appropriate approach to meet society's requirements. E-learning is defined as an instructional approach where 

the teachers and students are divided by distance and by time (Boyette, 2008) [4] and mainly access to 

learning knowledge via the applying of technology (Benson, 2002; Carliner, 2004; Conarad, 2002; Moore et 

al. 2010). E-learning refers to using content distribution tools such as a personal computer and smartphones 

to interact and take part in a diversity of educational activities (Boyette, 2010). Therefore, online learning 

offers some advantages that traditional learning does not. Online education provides convenience and 

flexibility in time and space, especially for those learners who want to balance work, school, and family 

mailto:khanhhang61@gmail.com


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(Kauffman, 2015) [13]. Furthermore, online students can be motivated through (or by) self-learning and self-

directed (Kauffman, 2015) [13].  

English has indeed become the international language, thereby increasing the demands of learning English. 

As English is worldwide, according to Boonkit (2010) [3], he suggested that English speaking competence 

should be advanced together with other skills (listening, reading, and writing) so that both native learners and 

foreign learners could develop interaction accomplishment. Speaking is one of the four main compulsory 

skills in English, which is used as a means of transmission, especially when learners are not interacting in 

their native language (Boonkit, 2010) [3]. Speaking integrated with writing are the two productive skills in 

the development of successful communication (Boonkit, 2010) [3]. Speaking skill or communicative skill 

plays a significant role in life; therefore, successful conservations usually provide an amount of value for 

both learners and business organizations (Boonkit, 2010) [3]. However, students who learn English have 

limited chances of speaking English outside the traditional classroom (Zhang, 2009 cited in Boonkit 2010) 

[3], which is why students are afraid of speaking English and unwilling to communicate with foreign 

speakers. Therefore, students need to spend more time practicing speaking by applying different methods, 

including E-learning instruments. 

In order to improve English speaking skills, students have the opportunity to practice speaking through 

electronic tools such as videos on YouTube, BBC News, Duolingo, ELSA, online dictionary, etc. All tools 

are free online learning, and students need to contact the internet to access software. Duolingo, according to 

Garcia I. (2013) [8], online learning with no cost helps students to learn English by doing some exercises. To 

the students, in other words, these activities assist them in becoming more active and being able to 

communicate confidently. To the teachers, E-learning also provides particular software to upload and make 

suitably material learnings (Cohen & Nycz, 2006) [5]. Teachers use PowerPoint to demonstrate and make 

lessons more exciting by adding videos. For E-learning, teachers become instructors and facilitators (EL-

Deghaidy & Nouby, 2007) [7]. Therefore, E-learning is considered a useful tool for learning English 

speaking.  

 

Statement of the problem 

While many countries in the world have been successful by applying blended learning, which combines E-

learning with face-to-face learning in education. For instance, in the United States, thirty states and further 

than half of the schools suggest online learning, and more than 40% of the students in high school and middle 

school are fascinated by online learning (Watson, 2008) [21]. Furthermore, in China, the school conditions 

are poor both in the developed and undeveloped regions. A larger number of students could not go to the 

highly regarded universities, and the universities generally lack good-condition educational sources. With 

rapid development, the Chinese now can offer better alternative methods in education and other basic 

conditions for schools and universities. It is believed that E-learning is a talented method because it advances 

different ways for students to interact with their teachers. On the other hand, in Vietnam, E-learning is quite 

strange to both learners and teachers because they prefer face-to-face learning. To Vietnamese learners, 

traditional learning has been a vital and successful approach in education. 

Nevertheless, due to the explosion of the corona epidemic over the world in early 2020, education has been 

seriously affected and stayed longer. In order to avoid long delaying learning, online training is considered 

the best choice to meet demand. From that point, some students and teachers adjust new approaches, and 



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then, they find some positive impacts of online learning during the process of learning and teaching. This 

study aims to determine the effectiveness of E-learning on the English speaking ability of college students.  

Significant of the study. 

The study proves that E-learning is beneficial for students and undergraduates who still hesitate whether to 

use a wonderful method to improve English speaking skills or not. According to Newton (2003), applying E-

learning can improve the accessibility of the educational system and training process, enhance the quality of 

teaching and learning, and alter higher education institutions to maintain the advantages in a transformation 

for students undergraduates. 

 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

What is e-learning? 

Moore et al. (2010) stated that the definition of e-learning is not specific; the authors refer to a certain 

definition of e-learning based on their own observations in their studies. In 2003, Nichols defined E-learning 

as accessible using electronic tools such as web-based, web-distributed, and web-capable. While in the study 

of Manocher (2006), e-learning was referred to using the use of processes to learn and electronic applications 

like computer-based learning, web-based learning, digital collaboration, and virtual classrooms. As well, in 

a website, ISP (2004) reported that the content of e-learning is delivered via the CD-ROM, TV, Internet, and 

Intranet with multimedia capabilities. However, Triacca (2004 cited in Moore et al., 2010) presented that e-

learning was a kind of online learning.  

According to Stockey (2003), E-learning is a curriculum program that involves using electronic means to 

deliver learning material. E-learning was the first internet-based training broadly used in education since the 

mid-1990s (Solak & Cakir, 2014) [19]. As a result of model alteration from traditional classrooms to e-

learning classrooms, Solak & Cakir (2014) [19] report that students who take responsibility for learning 

prefer online learning despite arguing whether face-to-face learning is better than e-learning. Many previous 

research studies have compared the function of e-learning and traditional learning, and the purpose of this 

study is to verify the sight of English language learners towards e-learning and face to face learning, at the 

same time, determine the role of academic accomplishment, which is the output of education (Solak & Cakir, 

2014) [19]. Hence, researchers found that there are many notions of e-learning. Nevertheless, in this study, 

e-learning is defined that students use electronic devices to support their learning, such as computers, laptops, 

and smartphones through websites or applications. 

Some difficulties in English speaking skills. 

Al-Eiadeh, Al.Sobh, Al-Zoubi, & Al-Khasawneh (2016) [2] reported that many students have difficulties in 

speaking English, such as misunderstanding and lack of confidence because they did not practice speaking 

sessions accurately in school. They do not know how to practice speaking effectively or use it in 

communication. Besides, there is a limited amount of vocabulary among students. Because most Vietnamese 

classes are big, both teachers and students hardly communicate in English. Instead, they only focus on reading 

skills and grammatical lessons. 

Furthermore, students are afraid of speaking English. According to Hosni (2014) [11], students have no object 

to explain themselves and lack confidence about their pronunciation. Therefore, Nakhlah (2016) [17] 



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recommends creating an environment for learning and stimulating students to speak English smoothly to 

improve advanced English speaking. But in this study, the researchers only concentrate on five factors that 

strongly influence students’ speaking ability. 

1. Pronunciation 

2. Vocabulary 

3. Stress 

4. Intonation 

5. Undetermined: grammar, structure, miscomprehension 

 

Some effects of E-learning on English speaking skills. 

Mohammadi, Ghorbani, & Hamidi (2011) [15] proved E-learning's effects in learning a language. Through 

some advantages of E-learning, they found that it is like a communicative method of learning languages, 

which gives learners opportunities to interact with learners peacefully. They are able to use electronic devices 

and study whatever they want. According to this study, the teachers can use sounds, pictures, and actions on 

the televisions to attract learners' attention. Sometimes, online games are also language teaching devices. By 

using this method, learners easily study vocabulary and practice pronunciation. In addition, learners use the 

internet and multimedia technologies to study English. For instance, learners can look up new vocabulary via 

online dictionary websites, practice speaking through videos on YouTube, or enhance various listening, 

reading, and writing papers. In conclusion, it is believed that e-learning is a useful method for learning the 

language. 

 

Previous research studies 

Many previous researchers have compared the function of E-learning and traditional learning. Students in 

the combined courses were more motivated and supported by their teachers, and the course was likely to 

create higher learning consequences. The participants' higher academic accomplishment gets positive views 

towards e-learning. Besides, students' attitudes toward e-learning depend on what they perceive as benefits 

and drawbacks to this educational method. According to Zabadi and Al-Alawi (2016) [22], factors such as 

endurance, self-awareness, the facility to use soft wares, the good technological ability to manage time affect 

attitudes of students toward e-learning, so that attitudes can be positive if the new educational method is 

suitable for students. On the other hand, Bhatia (2011 cited in Zabadi and Al-Alawi) [22] states that the 

attitudes can be negative if the students are unable to fit into the new system because they do not have the 

necessary set of traits. 

Al-Eiadeh et al. (2016) [2] found some suitable ways to recover limitations in English speaking ability are 

recorded by using various media, such as a recording device or a smartphone with a recording application. 

Then, the interview questions and the student answers are written down on paper, and hard duplicated for 

statistical analysis. The result indicated that other researchers should conduct studies at many different 

universities to compare similarities and differences in teaching speaking skills. And in the second study, the 

researchers advised that students should use modern majority media such as Facebook, YouTube, Duolingo, 

and so on. According to the research study of Shen and Suwanthep (2011) [20], they surveyed to investigate 



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how E-learning constructive role-plays influences on speaking skills of Chinese learners in the seminary 

classes via New Horizon College English (NHCE) e-learning. Data collection was assembled by using 

speaking pretests and post-tests, students recording analysis, questionnaires, and interviews lasting 18 weeks. 

The participants were 300 junior undergraduate students with non-English major enrolling in college English 

advanced classes. The students were divided into three groups based on high, medium, and low language 

proficiency level terms. After the scores from their previous English final exams and English pretests, 260 

students were selected and randomly allocated into an experimental group of 130 students and a control group 

of 130 students. While the experimental group worked in a constructive role in the one-hour computer lab 

class, the control group worked with the present behavioral role in NHCE e-learning in the one-hour computer 

lab class. After 18 weeks, both groups were required to take the speaking post-tests to determine the role's 

effects on their performances. The results can be examined in terms of speaking performance, language 

productivity, and students' attitudes toward applying constructive role play. It is proved that the e-learning 

constructive role plays have a positive effect on improving the speaking performance of the students in the 

experimental group at all language proficiency levels. Moreover, data collection from questionnaires 

expressed that students are interested in learning language through e-learning constructive role plays and the 

process of learning to speak English more collaboratively and enjoyable. The majority of the students also 

agreed that constructive e-learning role plays provided valuable information on how to speak English. From 

the results of the study, the researchers proved that e-learning constructive role plays have a positive effect 

on students' improvement in English speaking. 

Besides some previous studies investigating E-learning's effectiveness in improving English speaking ability, 

some studies also indicated that EFL learners also recover the factors like vocabulary or pronunciation, which 

seem to be important to learn a second language. The study of Ahmadi (2012) stated that vocabulary 

knowledge plays an important role in learning foreign languages. In addition, Zhang and Anual (2008 cited 

in Ahmadi, 2012) examined the connection between vocabulary knowledge and foreign language learning. 

The results indicated a strong, meaningful relationship between learning a foreign language and vocabulary 

knowledge. According to a study by Stahl and Nagy (2006 cited in Ahmadi, 2012), learning vocabulary is 

difficult. Therefore, Ahmadi found a solution to improve foreign language vocabulary through reciprocal 

teaching methods. The goal of this study is to identify whether mutual teaching methods enhance learners' 

vocabulary or not. 

As well, Ahmadi defined vocabulary into two forms, one is oral vocabulary, in which words are spoken and 

read verbally, and the other is printed vocabulary, which learners understand when they are reading or writing. 

Accordingly, the better comprehension of vocabulary definition is, the better comprehension of the whole 

description of the content would provide. In addition, Ahmadi stated that the reciprocal teaching method is 

one of the successful approaches in teaching foreign languages and also provides learners environment 

learning to improve students' learning level. This method points out reading skills, reading motivation, and 

vocabulary learning. The mutual teaching method has four strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and 

summarizing. Each strategy has its own benefit, but in general, they help students motivate in reading and 

have a clear set of goals in learning vocabulary. In addition, teachers have to prepare new vocabulary, hold 

up students' activities, and adopt reciprocal teaching strategies to improve various topics of vocabulary for 

students. For example, to memorize words for a long time, teachers should include some pictures or colors 

which describe the vocabulary to make it easier to learn vocabulary. Therefore, the teacher's teaching strategy 

can help and improve the vocabulary in which students have difficulty. Consequently, the result of this study 



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indicated that the reciprocal teaching method has significantly positive effects on improving vocabulary. 

Pronunciation features should be recovered as well. According to Scriven (2005 cited in Yangklang, 2013) 

reports that it is important for undergraduates to learn more pronunciation because they need to understand 

more in English. Furthermore, intonation is also a significant feature that helps learners know when speakers 

complete their point (Harmer, 2007 cited in Yangklang, 2013). About 2,800 were undergraduates who applied 

English Foundation I course taught by e-learning. Learning goals are the undergraduate's feeling and attitude 

toward e-learning programs. The undergraduates will be checked pronunciation by the speaking test in that 

program. A questionnaire was used to examine after the post-test to evaluate the students' learning. Relied on 

the students' scores, the researchers summarized that students agree that E-learning is worthy and able to help 

them boost their pronunciation strongly. This study represented the undergraduates' pronunciation ability 

after using e-learning. 

Speaking is a macro language skill that is actively used to convey messages and meanings (Hosni, 2014, 

Afshar & Asakereh, 2016, & Leong & Ahmadi, 2017). The dissemination of English as a language requires 

learners to achieve communicative competencies for various practical purposes (Copland, Garton, & Burn, 

2014). And speaking in the EFL context is not an easy task; researchers from English contexts such as Foreign 

Languages (EFL) choose a solution to develop students' speaking English skills. In this study, researchers 

synthesized studies performed from 2013 to 2018, nearly six years in different contexts. This study aims to 

identify English-speaking learning problems EFL learners face as related to curriculum, teaching methods, 

learning activities, psychology, and testing systems. Research on EFL learners' speaking problems is in non-

native language contexts. They need to communicate a lot with foreigners by directly or indirectly 

communicating through social networking sites to increase their speaking English reflexes. In addition, 

teachers and administrators also need to provide learners-appropriate methods and curricula (EFL) so that 

they can improve their speaking skills most effectively. 

English speaking skill is one of the main goals in most Vietnamese universities' English language curriculum. 

However, it remains a challenge for many undergraduates, especially freshmen of Can Tho University (CTU) 

in Vietnam. In order to help first-year English majoring students learn their speaking skills more effectively, 

this study explored difficulties in teaching and learning in the English language from 131 students,  interviews 

with lecturers, and classroom observations. The paper by Gan (2012) explored students' obstacles to speaking 

skills specialized in English and found that students encountered some problems such as lack of vocabulary, 

focus on a lot of grammatical structures, no opportunity to speak English in class and outside environments. 

According to Kabir (2014) and Izadi (2015) 's research, they are recommended for both Faculty and 

administrators to provide support to improve students' speaking practice. For example, teachers and 

administrators should encourage students to improve their English by organizing activities such as English 

rhetoric, English speaking contest, or presentations in English. In addition, timely findings from learners' 

weaknesses in English speaking and suggest the need for teacher readiness support by diversifying their 

teaching activities. In 2011, Bashir, Azeem & Dogar reported that using short conversations and asking some 

short queries could improve students' English speaking skills in classrooms. Teachers could give students 

dialogues and show structure for them to repeat. They also designed a survey to investigate the influences 

that affect English speaking skills of secondary level students. All the teachers and students of 9 to 10 grades 

in Punjab's province were the participants in the study. The investigators will give them questionnaires, which 

are respectively designed to fill. The data collection will be organized in tabular form with a particularly 

calculated percentage. Relied on the result, the interactive techniques are used by both teachers and students 



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during the course. This study also counseled that teachers should boost more English culture of 

communication in the course and inspire students to speak English with their friends. 

According to Liao (2009), she reported that integrated skills mixed with listening, writing, reading, and 

speaking would boost students' speaking ability. She also showed the problems that in China, teachers 

concentrated too much on reading and writing, so that speaking was not emphasized. Furthermore, teaching 

activities are not exciting because they depend on traditional styles, which were all on the papers, and the 

students are not inspired. Examinations and tests also do not include speaking skills. The same as China, 

Vietnam also has the same method in teaching English speaking skills. The students do not consider speaking 

as an important skill because they rarely have opportunities to speak with native speakers. In addition, most 

entrance exams of high schools and universities do not include speaking tests. In fact, speaking skill is 

important to express feelings and information and improve writing and reading skill. If teachers are not good 

at speaking, it is impossible to emphasize speaking skills in the class. Instead, they use dialogues of native 

speakers to bring authentic accents. By combining four skills in activities, the teachers bring chances to 

perform the oral activities. The researchers conduct a class with integrating skills by giving students clues. 

They also use questionnaires to obtain data collection or let students work in pairs to conduct quizzes with 

factual answers. 

On the other hand, in 2018, Lumettu and Runtuwene have reported a way of teaching English is called 

'Impromptu speaking' method, which is conservation with little or no preparation. They conducted a survey 

to investigate this method's effects and compare it with total memorization. The participants were the students 

of the Tourism Department of Manado State University. They used qualitative methods and some techniques 

to gather the data, such as inspection, interviews, and papers. The students were divided into two groups; 

each group had ten members. One group applied the 'Impromptu speaking' method, and others learned by 

heart the full text. Based on the result, 'Impromptu speaking' was effective in flowing and natural because 

students could use their imaginations to speak. However, the other group was mostly unsuccessful because 

students were anxious when they could not remember the words or sentences. Hence, this study counseled 

that this amazing method should be applied more in improving students' English speaking skills. 

 

Research Questions 

1. Which difficulties do students have in improving speaking skills? 

2. How do students use E-learning to improve their difficulties?  

3. Is there any effect of e-learning on students? 

 

METHODOLOGY 

Research context and participants. 

This survey was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Van Lang University, one of the principal 

majors in higher education coaching. Each year, the number of candidates applying in the Faculty is more 

than eight hundred students. Thus, the number of classes is increasing. During the first two years, with the 

English language, students had to learn four compulsory skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and 

writing in order to acquire output standards. Students are also trained in four optional majors: business, 



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teaching, tourism, and translation. During the curriculums, the Faculty has organized some contests such as 

Foreign Language Contest (FOLA Contest) and the speaking English contest to help students communicate 

confidently and improve speaking skills and essential skills. In particular, to facilitate students to study 

abroad, the Faculty co-operates with International University to obtain a Master degree and Ph.D. in some 

countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.  

Sampling method 

These survey participants were 50 third-year students who have completed two years of studying English 

speaking skills. Their ages average from 20 to 23. They improve their English speaking skills with upgraded 

infrastructure such as computers, projectors, smartphones, etc., every day. This survey was conducted with 

random sampling, which was a probability sampling technique and convenient sampling. It took two weeks 

to collect answers and information. In week 1, fifty students were given questionnaires through a group of 

the Faculty's third years on Facebook. The questionnaires were designed on Google form, which is a tool for 

conducting surveys. In a second week, ten random students were picked to interview. After collecting answers 

from 2 weeks, the answers were divided into five factors, which are the difficulties in English speaking skill: 

Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Stress, Intonation, and Undetermined. All these questions are aimed to evaluate 

the effectiveness of e-learning in improving students’ difficulties in English speaking ability.  

Research procedure 

All the assembled data will answer two main research questions. It is simple for students to answer the 

questions, and questionnaires are flexible and multiform. The questionnaires can be printed on paper and 

extensively shared on Facebook. There are 20 questions, 10 of which will ask issues related to e-learning and 

students’ comprehension of e-learning, and the others are about difficulties in speaking English and how to 

improve English speaking through e-learning. Also, students’ names are perceived as anonymous to 

guarantee their privacy. There are 10 questions for the interview, which clarify the problems students face 

when speaking and improving English. All answers in the interview were recorded. The more questions were 

sent and shared, the higher the response rate the researchers have. Kučírková and Jarkovská (2016) [14] 

claimed that a high response rate also evaluates the accuracy of the study.  

Data collection and analysis 

Answers collected from questionnaires and interviews were gathered to analyze. The questionnaires are the 

process of gathering quantitative, and the interviews are qualitative. The purpose of quantitative questions 

was to discover how difficulties students have in speaking English. The purpose of qualitative questions was 

to find out how effectively students improve speaking skills through e-learning. The researchers analyzed the 

data through software and displayed the graphs or figures' data. The researchers show data by percentages or 

average in relation to quantitative data.  

 

 

 

 

 



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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

Research question 1: Which difficulties do students have in improving speaking skills?  

The purpose of the paper's first research question is to discover difficulties students have in speaking English, 

and the data collection indicates that almost (95%) students in this survey get hardship to communicate in 

English. In order to recognize elements, the researchers gave the students five aspects as pronunciation, 

vocabulary, stress, intonation, and undetermined to decide which elements students encounter when speaking. 

In the circumstance, the supposition was precise; the study could explore how students improve all these 

skills in speaking English through e-learning. Chart 1 presents the comparison of the percentages of these 

five factors.  

 

Chart 1. The percentages of five factors 

 

Chart 1 shows the results of the percentages of five elements students find difficulty in speaking; thus, these 

also cause a lack of confidence when communicating (55%). As can be seen, in a number of difficulties, two 

factors with high percentages were pronunciation (70%) and vocabulary (50%). The other factors are the 

average proportion of 31.6%. This result indicated that most students have difficulty pronunciation and 

vocabulary, which blocks them from speaking English. 

 

Chart 2. The most complicated factors students find difficult in speaking English. 

70%

50%
35% 40%

20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Factors

22%

32%13%

20%

13%

THE MOST COMPLICATED FACTORS

Pronunciation Vocabulary

Stress Intonation



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However, according to the most complicated factors present in chart 2, vocabulary takes up the highest 

proportion with 32% whilst pronunciation has a second position with 22%. The other factors also seemed to 

be difficult but not worth considering as getting a low average proportion with nearly 15%. Basically, it can 

be concluded that both vocabulary and pronunciation are the significantly difficult factors of speaking 

English skills. These results resemble previous research, such as Gilakjani (2011) [10] claimed that 

pronunciation is one of the most significant factors of a personality's communication. Bad pronunciation is 

unable to listen and leads to misunderstanding. Therefore, this conclusion was the foundation for the study 

to explore how students improve English speaking skills through e-learning.  

Research question 2: How do students use E-learning to improve their difficulties?  

At the second research question of the study regarding how students use e-learning to improve their speaking 

English skills, the researchers aimed to ask about e-learning instruments and the progression of enhancing 

the difficulties in speaking. Table 1 presents the e-learning instruments and educational applications.  

Table 1. 

The E-learning instruments. 

Instruments 

cellular phone 65% 

computer 35% 

Table 1 shows the results of the e-learning instruments and education applications. As can be seen from the 

table, most students use cellular phones (65%) for studying while the other students choose computers (35%). 

The result showed that a large number of students often use cellular phones for learning because cellular 

phones are convenient to bring out and full of necessary functions. Computers are also chosen to learn but 

less than cellular phones. 

 

Chart 3. Apps for e-learning 

55%

5%

15%

17%

8%

APPLICATIONS RELEATED 
LEANRING ENGLISH

YouTube Duolingo ELSA

T-Flat Others



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Hence, 85% of the respondents get the applications of education related to studying English. The researchers 

highlighted some applications as characteristic models such as YouTube, ELSA, Duolingo, and T-Flats for 

students. Table 1 indicates that students often apply YouTube (55%) for improving speaking skills and use T-

Flat (17,5%) for learning languages. Subsequently, it can be assumed that students tend to utilize e-learning 

as an instrument for studying. The study also found that 70% of respondents learn vocabulary through movies 

or TV shows, 75% of those learn vocabulary by listening to a song or reading a journal. Especially, nearly 

93% of students often repeat the impressive sentences in the movies that help students practice pronunciation. 

These results resemble preceding study such as Kar, Saha, & Mondal (2014) [12] and Celee-Murica (2001) 

found that students in university had an auspicious and agreeing attitude towards accepting e-learning 

strategy for studying; thus, the study revealed that listening and speaking could expand English speaking 

skill.  

Research question 3: Is there any effect of e-learning on students? 

For the third research question of the study regarding whether e-learning is effective in improving English 

speaking skills, researchers ran a simple interview to determine the result of the improvement procedure.  

 

Chart 4. Improvement of skills 

As can be seen from the data in chart 4, vocabulary is the most developed factor with 50%. Pronunciation is 

also improved but not as significant as vocabulary with 33%, while other factors are not outstanding 

advancement, especially stress with 0%. Hence, the researchers could conclude that students can improve 

their vocabulary and pronunciation through e-learning effectively. However, the study figured out that e-

learning is just effective in two factors above when others are not improved.  

At the second interview question, the respondents are asked about which factors students want to improve 

first. Most of them choose the two-first-factors: vocabulary and pronunciation. Half of them improve 

vocabulary first, and the others improve pronunciation. When asking about the reasons why respondents 

chose that factor to improve first in the third interview question, the respondents offer many reasons. Firstly, 

they seriously lack vocabulary; some consider vocabulary a basic standard in speaking. On the other hand, 

the respondents who chose pronunciation said that having good pronunciation is the most important for 

listeners to comprehend. From the result, the researchers concluded that vocabulary and pronunciation are 

33%

50%

0.00% 8.30% 8%

Series 1



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the most important and priority factors in speaking English skills.  

At the fourth review question, the researchers asked respondents what advantages and disadvantages that 

they found in e-learning. Most claimed that the network is too weak for them to access the materials, 

limitation in interactions among learners, less concentration on the lessons, and less satisfaction. In contrast, 

they also pointed out some advantages of e-learning that are convenient, saving time and money, and flexible. 

The researchers could assume that e-learning has both benefits and drawbacks. 

Discussion 

This result is the same as the study of Gilakjnai (2011) [10], who found that many English foreign language 

learners have crucial difficulty with English pronunciation and vocabulary while learning for many years. 

More importantly, the use of e-learning positively influences on improving English speaking skills. The 

progress of enhancement could take a long time, but the improvement ability is significantly increasing. 

These seem to maintain the view about the advantages of e-learning because it encourages students to self-

discipline and gain more knowledge through the lessons on videos and dialogue. The result of Rodrigues and 

Vethamani (2015) found that e-learning helps to increase language proficiency and boost students' 

confidence. Hence, Rodrigues and Vethamani (2015) recommended that e-learning be combined in English 

language programs because it improves oral skills among learners. 

 

CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, this study successfully replied to all the research questions that discovered the effectiveness 

of e-learning in improving English speaking skills. Using cellular phones, computers, and some educational 

applications can enhance the ability to speak. However, the study has some limitations. The researchers just 

focus on five difficult factors of speaking, and that did not figure out all other complicated aspects of whether 

the respondents can increase self-confidence to communicate. Besides, the number of the participants is very 

low, with 50 people, which cannot claim the effects of e-learning in improving English speaking, and the 

researchers need more participants. Hence, it is recommended for future studies that the universities should 

alternatively use both traditional learning and e-learning methods in teaching and studying English language, 

because learners should take part in oral activities to practice regularly, exchange their thoughts in English 

and, the teachers hold up the task-based language teaching, and make a use of electronic instruments support 

the teaching and learning. It is hoped that future investigations could explore the new environment for 

education to help to create an interesting learning area. 

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