Instructions for ISPACS 2003 Camera-Ready Manuscript Journal of Research and Innovation in Language ISSN (Online): 2685-3906, ISSN (Print): 2685-0818 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31849/reila.v4i3.6165 Vol. 4, No. 3, December 2022, pp. 252-261 252 The Impact of Self-conversation Recording to Improve EFL Students’ Fluency: A Quasi-Experimental Research Md. Zohorul Islam Green University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh zohorul@eng.green.edu.bd ARTICLE HISTORY Received : 2021-02-13 Revised : 2022-06-26 Accepted : 2022-07-19 KEYWORDS Fluency Conversation Recording Repetition Peer Feedback EFL Classroom ABSTRACT This article aims at exploring Bangladeshi EFL students’ use of self-conversation recordings and their effectiveness in improving oral fluency. It also explores using Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) to enhance students' speaking performance. The study followed a quasi-experimental research design to check the improvement in the student's oral fluency and accuracy. The sample has been selected purposively. The study sample was 50 EFL students studying in the first semester at the Department of English at the Green University of Bangladesh. Students' speaking data were collected using a pre-test at the beginning of the semester and a post-test at the end of the semester. The data were then analyzed using the statistical software SPSS. The result of the study shows that the self- conversation recording by the students can improve their fluency with grammatical accuracy, and the achievement in the fluency of the students from the experimental group was considerably higher than the control group. The average N-gain score of the experimental group students was better than the control group students (.0424>0.205). However, the mean score achieved in the pre-test in the experimental class and control class was (52.14 <59.16), the mean score achieved in the post-test by the experimental group was higher (72.33 >67.40). The paired sample t-test indicates a significant improvement with a t- value of -14.237 and p. value = .000<0.005. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the instructors of the EFL classroom can use self-conversation recordings to improve their students’ fluency. 1. Introduction Higher study in Bangladesh requires students to speak English in many fields, keeping in mind global education, career opportunity, and international communication (Rahman & Singh, 2020; Rahman et al., 2019;). One of the major reasons for teaching English in the first semester at the university level is to improve the communicative skills in which students will be able to fluently participate in class and other aspects of their life. Although English is taught as a compulsory subject from grade 1 to grade 12, many students lack basic speaking skills, which is a crucial factor in pursuing higher education. Many students suffer from shyness, fear, and other anxieties about speaking English at the university (Chowdhury & Kabir, 2014). A university student's success at the Department of English in Bangladesh is mainly dependent on speaking fluent English because the medium of instruction is only English. Therefore, universities include speaking courses in the first-year curriculum to furnish the student's speaking proficiency in English (Farooqui, 2014). Speaking in a foreign language is always considered a difficult task for a learner. Proper exposure to a speaking environment helps foreign language learners overcome some difficulties. Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) created a situation where universities started to conduct the teaching-learning process using online tools (Islam, 2021; Mondol & Mohiuddin, 2020). The current practices in the online classes posed several problems in creating a proper environment where newly admitted students could be given a platform to improve their speaking skills at the university campus. Given this situation, the instructors focused on the tasks that involved different components of speaking English, such as accuracy and fluency. Hence, several activities have been designed by the teachers to mitigate the challenges posed by the online classes to make the students involved in speaking tasks as much as possible. However, the ‘new–normal during the COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers to assign more and more homework where students were asked to record their conversations using smartphones and submit them to the teachers using Google Classroom. This study intended to see how the https://doi.org/10.31849/reila.v4i3.6165 253 students developed their oral skills to produce conversation fluently and accurately by practising and recording. Although the previous studies (Wicaksono, 2017; YanJu, 2017) up to this point have undermined the importance of conversation recording for fluency in foreign language contexts, most of the studies were done concerning face-to-face classes. This study presents a new direction to engage the students in English conversation using modern technologies. The activities were designed following the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) method, which enables the students to prepare language tasks using the instruction of the teacher, but the involvement of the teacher is limited during the whole process (Harmer, 2007). To provide a framework for understanding the success of using the self-conversation recording, this study draws comparisons between the experimental and control groups. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the self-conversation recording of the students to improve their oral fluency in spoken English. Another purpose of this study was to find out how conversation recording helps the students and draw a comparison between two groups where one group used the conversation recording (experimental group), and another group participated in the regular classroom activities (control group). The researcher used two central research questions for this study. The research questions for this study are: 1) Is there any significant difference between the experimental and control group in their oral fluency? 2) Does the use of the self-conversation recording in Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) improve EFL students’ oral fluency? 2. Literature Review Several studies have been conducted to assess the improvement of fluency and accuracy of the EFL students in the classroom. Notable studies on fluency were conducted by Putri & Rahmani (2019); Lou et al. (2016); Rachmawaty and Hermagustiana (2015); Septiyana (2019); Albino (2017); and De Jong et al. (2017). In these studies, the authors primarily focused on improving the EFL students' oral fluency in the classroom context using the TBLT method. The above- mentioned research highlighted the problems of the EFL students' oral fluency and accuracy and explored the possible solutions. For example, Albino’s (2017) 8 weeks case study of the TBLT method audio recorded the learners’ improved fluency such as speed of speech, grammatical accuracy, utterances, and development in interactional languages. Findings revealed that students felt encouraged to communicate in the target language and appreciated the TBLT method. 2.1 Fluency and Accuracy Fluency in a language means a speaker must have an automatic speech production speed (Brand & Gotz, 2011). While we talk about fluency in a language, we tend to look for the accuracy and fluency of a speaker at the same time. These expectations of having both accuracy and fluency at the same time sometimes create a burden on the students. Past studies have indicated that the students in a foreign language classroom struggle to adapt to the speaking process because of their inexperience in using it in daily conversation (Rachmawaty & Hermagustiana, 2015). In a speaking context, many fail to properly distinguish the fluency and accuracy of the speaking process. Harmer (2007) clarifies the distinction between fluency and accuracy, saying, “A distinction is often made between accuracy and fluency….We need to make a clear difference between ‘non-communicative’ and ‘communicative' activities; whereas the former is generally intended to ensure correctness, the latter is designed to improve language fluency (p.142)." Although many studies have tried to focus on accuracy and fluency as different components of the speaking process, a student needs to achieve fluency and accuracy at a reasonable pace because they complement each other (Harmer, 2007). Fluency depends on speech rate or number of filled and unfilled pauses, number of errors, and use of formulaic language (Albino, 2017). The study of Albino (2017) further suggests that '… when engaged in tasks, learners tended to develop their speaking fluency by maximizing their speed of speech production, increasing grammatical accuracy, elaborating on their utterances, and developing interactional language" (p. 7). While talking about the general notion of fluency, De Jong et al. (2013) mention that, 'in a broad definition, fluency can be seen as overall (speaking) proficiency, whereas fluency in the narrow definition pertains to smoothness and ease of oral linguistic delivery" (p. 893). About the role of a speaking class, Rachmawaty & Hermagustiana, (2015) stated that "one of the goals in an EFL Speaking class is improving students' communicative skill so they can express themselves using the target language appropriately based on its social and cultural context" (p. 2). Their research further states that the target language can be fully achieved when the students start to notice the rules and learn how to apply them through using different speaking activities. Rachmawaty & Hermagustiana (2015) investigated the speaking fluency of low-level students using the retelling technique. Six treatments were provided to improve the fluency of the EFL students. The researcher analyzed the speaking transcripts, which showed that the technique improved the 254 students' vocabulary and comprehensibility. Putri & Rahmani (2019) conducted a study where they explored students’ perception of using video recording to enhance the accuracy and fluency of the pre-service teachers. This mixed method study occurred at the University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka Jakarta. The pre-test and post-test quantitative data were analyzed using the paired sample t-test. The post-test result of the study shows that the video recording technique enhanced the students' speaking ability (fluency and accuracy). The technique received favourable responses from the students. 2.2 Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a process where students learn by actively doing something central to the learning process (Harmer, 2007). TBLT promotes the idea that students learn best when they complete a task by following the teacher's instructions and later receive feedback that helps them correct the errors. TBLT method is designed to help the students to enhance their ability in foreign language learning by doing tasks assigned by the teachers. Ellis (2009) illustrates how the TBLT method can be helpful to the students acquiring a foreign language in an EFL classroom. The TBLT approach has been proven successful in language classes compared to other teaching methods (Sumarsono et al., 2020). The TBLT approach has three stages: pre-task, task cycle, and language focus (Harmer, 2007). Harmer defines the process as follows; a) Pre-task: At the beginning of an activity, the students receive information about the topics and some important words, which will help the students to understand the task and prepare. b) Task Cycle: The students start working, and the teacher distances himself/herself to not interfere in the work but monitors the activities of the students. Students do their planning, designing, and researching for their speaking tasks in the task cycle. Additionally, students prepare a report or notes for their activity at this stage. c) Language Focus: Students receive feedback on their work from the teacher regarding word choice, sentence construction, expression, and other language features. The feedback from the teachers and their peers helps the students to evaluate their work and make necessary corrections. Malihah’s (2010) research argues that the attitude and response of the teacher toward the EFL students' learning play essential roles. This study points out that the teacher should not force the students to speak and put them in deep anxiety; instead, they should create situations using the TBLT method where students are engaged in meaningful tasks to improve their speaking proficiency. This study recommends that the TBLT is the meaningful method where learning occurs through performing a series of activities as steps towards successful task realization. A study by Lou et al. (2016) investigated the effects of task-based language teaching (TBLT) on non-English-majored graduates' oral performance, where 65 students from Yangtze University participated. The participants were divided into control and experimental group for the research. The experimental group received treatment under TBLT instructions, and the control group was taught using 3Ps. The pre-test of the study showed no significant difference between the experimental and control groups. However, the post-test result showed that the students enrolled in the TBLT approach had greater fluency, accuracy, and complexity in terms of word choices than those of the 3Ps method. The study of Septiyana (2019) investigated the steps of designing speaking materials using TBLT for the Islamic Economics Students of IAIN Metro and the perception of the students toward the materials. This five-month study found that the materials can be designed following the steps of potency and problem, data collection, product design, design validation, design revision, and testing. The study concludes that Task-Based Language Teaching for speaking is reasonable and beneficial for the students. The effectiveness of TBLT in an EFL context was proven successful in several studies in the past. According to Malihah (2010), meaningful tasks can be a helpful tool to develop the speaking ability of the students. This study also shows that when the students work with their peers in pairs or a group, they can communicate with each other using the target language. A similar study on the success of TBLT by Aliakbari & Jamalvandi (2010) suggested that "task-based language teaching (TBLT) has proved itself beneficial and effective in bringing about real situations of language use to take place and in satisfying communicative needs of learners" (p. 15). Septiyana (2019) argues that the students enthusiastically accept the tasks designed using the TBLT method. 3. Method This study was conducted using experimental research to analyze the effectiveness of conversation recording for the student's fluency. The researcher taught two speaking classes in a semester where 82 students were enrolled in two different sections. Among them, 50 students were selected using the purposive sampling technique. Students selected as the sample were then divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was given the task of recording their conversations along with the other classroom activities. However, the control group did not receive such tasks and participated only in the 255 regular class activities. The data used in the research were collected at the beginning of the semester using a pre-test and at the end of the semester using a post-test. The students were asked to submit their audio recordings in Google Classroom and were assessed using the standard assessment system prescribed by the university. However, gradual progress was recorded by the instructors to find out the effectiveness of the self- conversation recording technique. After a regular interval, students were given speaking tasks for conversing with their pair and submitting the recordings in the Google classroom. A total of 11 pairs and one group of 3 students submitted 120 recordings throughout the semester. It is crucial to mention here that the tasks were compulsory for the students who were in the experimental group. 3.1 Treatment and Instruments Students received their tasks which consisted of topics from daily life. The teachers then gave the instructions following the TBLT method to the students. A sample discussion took place in the class to ensure the students understood the topics and what was expected from them in the conversation (Pre-task of TBLT). Each group received different topics from the teacher and had one week to prepare for the task and record the conversations (Task-cycle of TBLT). Students were given strict instructions regarding grammatical accuracy and fluency. Students were also encouraged to re-record their conversation as frequently as needed to make a fluent conversation. However, since the target was to improve the students' fluency, regular day-to-day life topics were assigned to them. Below is a list of 10 topics that were assigned to the students. 1) COVID-19 2) Dream 3) University Education 4) Department of English 5) Traffic jam in Dhaka City 6) Online Class 7) Social Media 8) Importance of Social Work 9) Climate Change 10) Reading for Pleasure Each pair was asked to prepare a conversation of a minimum of 10 minutes, and the group of 3 members was asked to record 15 minutes of conversation using Zoom Video Conferencing. Students submitted their work in the designated Google Classroom for peer feedback and feedback from the teacher (Language focus of TBLT). The fluency and accuracy were measured using the guideline provided by the university, but the researcher had the liberty to change the design if necessary. The following classification was used to measure the data of the students. The following rubric was used to assess the student's oral fluency. Classification: • Excellent= Student always speaks fluently with few hesitations and makes rare/no grammatical errors. • Good= Student mostly speaks fluently with few hesitations and makes few grammatical errors. • Average= Student speaks hesitantly, takes a long pause, and makes a few grammatical errors. • Below Average= Student speaks hesitantly and makes many grammatical errors. • Poor= Student has an understanding of the English language but fails to speak fluently with accurate grammar. • Failing= Student is unable to find appropriate words while talking, stops hastily, and uses poor grammar. The researcher collected and preserved the data from the pre-test and post-test conducted on the experimental and the control group. The data were then quantified to have an understanding of the improvement of the control and experimental group for comparison. At first, the pre-test data were compared to understand the initial competency of both groups. The average score of the experimental group and control group were measured. After the post-test, another analysis was done to see the average improvement of the groups to have a clear view of the differences in achievements. In addition, the researcher used SPSS to determine the significance of the study and the effectiveness of TBLT in improving the oral fluency of EFL students. Since this study used a Quasi-experimental design, the researcher did not explore all the variables of the acquired data. The study was conducted based on two variables. Firstly, the self-conversation recording of the EFL students was the independent variable (treatment). Secondly, improving oral fluency as the dependent variable (outcome). The analysis process included descriptive quantitative analysis (mean, median, and mode); dispersion (variance and range); and standard deviation. Normalized N-gain score (average) was measured to identify the improvement of the students. The following formula was used to obtain the N-gain score: 256 Normalized gain (N-gain) = Post-test score- Pre-test score Maximum score- Pre-test score 4. Findings Aiming to examine whether conversation recording for improving the oral fluency of the EFL student is effective or not, this study answered the articulated problems by presenting the descriptive results of the pre-test and post-test data. The descriptive data of both experimental and control groups were then compared to identify the progress. Table 1 shows the statistical data of the control group's pre-test and post-test achievements. The table shows that the highest pre-test score for the control group students was 68, and the lowest score was 40, with an average of 59.16. Whereas the highest post-test score for the control group students was 85, the lowest score was 50. The average score in the post-test of the control group student was 67.40. Also, the normality results using the n-gain formula in the control group of students was 0.205. Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics of the control group Statistic Pre-Test Post-Test Mode 65 70 Median 60 70 Mean 59.16 67.40 Max 68 85 Min 40 50 Range 28 35 Varian 58.557 75.250 St. Dev 7.652 8.675 Based on the statistics in the table of the control group, it can be stated that improvement happened in the students' oral fluency but not to a great extent. The difference between the post-test and pre-test averages is only around 8%. The highest pre-test score for the experimental group of students was 67, and the lowest score was 30, with an average score of 52.14. On the other hand, the highest score for the experimental group of students was 95; the lowest was 50. Moreover, the normality result using n-gain in the experimental group was 0.424. Table 2 represents the statistical data of the experimental group. Table 4.2: Descriptive statistics of the experimental group Statistic Pre-Test Post-Test Mode 35 70 Median 55 75 Mean 52.14 72.33 Max 67 95 Min 30 50 Range 37 45 Varian 108.573 86.650 St. Dev 10.420 9.309 According to the results, the experimental group significantly improved oral fluency. The self- conversation recording technique helped the students to improve their ability to converse more fluently. The mean score of the experimental group in the pre-test was 52.14 and 72.33 in the post-test. The average score of the experimental group students improved significantly. Results in Table 4.3 show the significance of conversation recording by the students in pre-test and post-test scores, where T=--14.237, p= 0.0, meaning that students' post-test scores are higher than the pre- test scores. The average difference between the pre-test and post-test is 20.19% which indicates that the student's oral fluency improved to a great extent. Table 4.3: Paired Sample t-test of the Pre-test and Post-test score of the experimental group Mean SD t-value p-value Pair 1 Score before treatment- Score after Treatment 20.19 7.091 14.23 0.000 The Collected data show that participants in the experimental group efficiently improved their speaking abilities through smartphone conversation recording during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, because the students did not have classroom exposure, conversation recording created an easy-to-use environment to boost their confidence in conversational English. 257 5. Discussion The researcher used the self-conversation recording technique in the TBLT method of teaching to improve the oral fluency of the students. By introducing the self-conversation recording technique in one of the classes (Experimental), the researcher observed that the students were motivated to submit a near-perfect conversation recording. There have been some positive outcomes from the study. 5.1 Effectiveness of Conversation Recording To answer the first question of the research, which asked, “Is there any significant difference between the experimental and control group in their oral fluency?” descriptive data in table 1 and 2 prove that the achievements in post-test of the experimental group students are higher than control group students where conversation recording was not introduced. During the pre-test, the researcher observed that the control group had 16 students with more than 60% mastery of the standard set by the rubric. However, in the experimental group, 11 students alarmingly scored below 50% in the pre-test. It was also observed that the experimental group had 14 students scoring 'Average' or 'Below Average' in the pre-test. Hence, these 25 students needed additional support to achieving standard English fluency. However, when the post-test scores were evaluated, according to the rubric, the experimental group had four students who achieved excellent scores compared to the control group's two students. Sixteen students from the experimental group managed to score more than 70% in the post-test. On the other hand, students from the control group had 12 students who achieved more than 70% score in the post-test. Descriptive analysis in Table 1 and 2 also illustrated that the mean score of the post-test in the experimental group was higher than the mean score of the post-test score in the control group (72.33>67.40). Hence, the effectiveness of using the conversation recording to improve the fluency of EFL students is noteworthy. The researcher wanted the students to engage in English conversation outside the classroom through the assigned tasks, which turned out to be a successful technique. Towards the end of the study, students made significant progress in communicating in English with the teacher and their peers. Therefore, the objectives of the speaking class were achieved as Rachmawaty & Hermagustiana (2015) stated that an EFL speaking class ensures that the learners improve their communicative skills to express themselves using the target language. The research findings also indicated significant achievements of the experimental group than the control group because the average N-gain score from the experimental group students, compared to the control group students, was higher (.0424>0.205). The achievement of the students from the experimental group shows the importance of practising the task multiple times or, in this case, recording the conversation several times. The researcher understood that the students have access to digital devices where they can easily record conversations. The recordings can be quickly deleted, and practice sessions can make the conversation sound natural and error-free. During the initial instructions, the researcher emphasized smooth and error-free conversation and asked the students to record as many times as possible to submit a 'perfect' recording. Students were given reasons behind each task and were told to record multiple times to improve their oral fluency. However, the students were asked to submit the final version of the recording in Google Classroom, where students received feedback from the teacher and their peers. An observable change was noticed after the first few tasks in the fluency of the experimental group of students. At first, the recording consisted of several grammatical inaccuracies with uneven fluency from the students. Over time, the teachers identified those, and students received specific feedback. As a result, the students made fewer grammatical inaccuracies towards the end of the trimester. As stated in the study of De Jong et al. (2013), fluency is seen as overall speaking proficiencies (smoothness, ease of oral linguistic delivery). This study also found that the students in the experimental group gradually developed all these features to be considered fluent speakers of English. The researcher infers that the feedback in the Google Classroom as well as in the online classroom created an impact on the student's fluency and accuracy. Many students shared the positive aspects of conversation recordings during the feedback sessions. Moreover, the positive peer feedback in the Google classroom may have played an essential role in the student's motivation to submit well-furnished works. The students were motivated to submit good work without the teacher's interference during their tasks. As Malihah (2010) argued, the teacher should not force the students to speak and put them in deep anxiety; instead, they should create situations where students are engaged in meaningful tasks to improve their speaking proficiency. Based on the one-to-one discussion with the experimental group of students, the researcher found that the precise instruction at the beginning of the task activated the students as they found them adequate to gather materials on the topic. Students had the complete liberty to prepare the content on their own. According to Islam (2021), the effectiveness of an online class depends mostly on how enthusiastically students participate in the tasks. The students' enthusiasm to prepare for their own tasks helped them achieve success. Although this study followed the audio conversation recording, the result confirms the finding of Putri & Rahmani's (2019) study, which explored students' use of video recording to enhance their accuracy and fluency with positive results. 258 5.2 Task-Based Language Teaching to Improve Oral Fluency of EFL Students To answer the second question of the research, which asked, "Does the use of the self-conversation recording in Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) improve EFL students’ oral fluency?” the paired sample t-test (Table 3) proves that the difference between the pre-test and post-test scores was significantly higher because of the use of Task-Based Language Teaching. The researcher of this study decided to adopt the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach, where students would be engaged in several speaking activities. The tasks were designed following the TBLT method's Phases of Pre-task, Task Cycle, and Language Focus (Harmer, 2007). When the pre-test phase took place, several students failed to speak for a few minutes, and fluency was a big concern, along with grammatical inaccuracies. Several students failed to achieve the minimum score. The above-mentioned figures (Table 4.2 & 4.3) can be examples of how introducing self-conversation recording in the TBLT classroom can improve the students' fluency. Since the Covid-19 pandemic forced the teachers to conduct classes online, the involvement of the teachers was limited, and having a conversation at the university premises where students had the chance to converse with their peers stopped because of the 'stay at home policy. At the beginning of the activity, students were given thorough guidelines about the topic along with some study materials related to the topic to help them understand the task and prepare. This phase enabled the students to understand the content they needed to bring into their conversations. Since this part is mostly teacher-centric, the researcher ensured that the topic was comprehensible to the students. For example, while assigning the topic "COVID-19" for conversation, the researcher asked the students to prepare on the mechanisms of how the virus spreads, the scenario of COVID-19 in Bangladesh, the prevention methods, and the role of the young generation in raising awareness about this deadly disease. Another example of providing the task requirements to the students can be the topic "Online Class", where the teacher wanted the students to converse on the necessity of online classes, platforms of online classes, benefits of online classes, and problems of online classes. The researcher intentionally assigned tasks from familiar topics because the course's main objective was to improve the student's ability to converse fluently. During the task cycle, students got a few days to prepare the content they had to discuss during the conversation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the classes to be held online, the researcher used Google Classroom as the CMS (Course Management System) to share the class materials and the students used it as an interactive platform. However, although materials were provided related to each topic in the Google Classroom, students gathered ideas from the internet and other sources. Zoom's online platform enabled the students to record the conversation in pairs, even though COVID-19 did not let them meet face-to- face. The most significant advantage of recording conversations online is that the students could do it whenever they did not need a common place to meet and record; instead, they could do it from their homes. This point helped the students to record the conversation multiple times in the task cycle. Students did their planning, designing, and researching to complete their task cycle phase. According to Albino (2017), the student's engagement in tasks helps develop speaking fluency as they maximize their speed of speech, grammatical accuracy, and utterances and start to form complex sentences. Echoing the findings, this research also found the same results from the students’ works. The process enabled the students to prepare the task without much intervention from the teacher, which helped them internalize the process of speaking through several practices. Another merit of using the TBLT method, rather than the communicative model, is activating the learners to achieve the speaking goals. Because in the TBLT method, the teacher's role is precise and, to some extent, limited during the task. The researcher provided insight into the topics, and then the students worked to complete those tasks without help from the teachers. Although the most widely used language teaching system, the communicative method often promotes the idea of speaking logically and coherently while having a conversation in a hypothetical situation (Littlewood & William, 1981); however, the communicative method requires a lot of involvement from the instructor to set up specific situations which became hard in an online classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. As observed in this study, EFL students can get rid of speech anxiety with the TBLT method. Students may feel anxious initially to speak in a foreign language, but once they get the opportunity to research and converse with their peers with a plan, they can improve their speaking ability. Recording conversations can boost the confidence of the students who do not have exposure to situations where they need to speak in English for a few minutes. Through recording, students gradually get familiarized with the mechanism of the speaking process. Since the topics of the conversation were familiar to all the students, they could contribute to the conversation spontaneously. The hesitation in speaking a foreign language eventually fades away after practice. These results supported the findings of NamazianDost et al. (2017) and Pietri (2015), where it was noticed that foreign language learning happens best when the students are motivated. 259 The final phase of the TBLT method (Language Focus) was initiated in the designated Google Classroom, where the students posted the recordings in the ‘stream’ section that can be viewed by the teacher and all the enrolled students in the class/section. The process inspired them to become linguistically conscious while recording the conversation, as their works were being viewed by their classmates. The researcher encouraged the students to provide feedback on their peer's works in the comment section of Google Classroom. Moreover, the researcher had the opportunity to listen to the recording multiple times to identify the language problems in the conversations. Feedback was given based on word choice, sentence structure, pronunciation, flow, and other language attributes. The positive feedback from peers and the constructive feedback regarding the language can be a beneficial experience for the students to improve their fluency in English. As Rodriquez and Mosquera (2020) observed, combined treatment and feedback help the students display better results in an EFL classroom. In this study, the application of the Task-Based Language Teaching Method to improve the fluency of the EFL students gained favourable responses from the students, as it emphasizes students' communication skills through real-life topics. Students had the opportunity to pay attention not only to the language but also to the mechanisms of applying it in real-life situations. The TBLT method helps the students to understand the topic, improve their learning experience, and link language learning in the classroom to language use outside the classroom (Bygate, 2020; Yudayni & Ardiasih, 2020). This study also confirms the results of previous studies by Septiyana (2019), Sumarosono et al. (2020), and Aliakbari and Jamalyandi (2010), where the use of Task-Based Language Teaching was proved effective. 5.3 Implications This study has implications for the students, teachers, policymakers, and curriculum designers. Additionally, this study has implications for future research. 1) Firstly, EFL students can observe the benefits of self-conversation recording to enhance their ability in terms of oral fluency in a foreign language, especially during the online teaching- learning process. 2) Secondly, the study's findings motivate the teachers to apply self-conversation recording techniques for improving the students' speaking capabilities. 3) Thirdly, policymakers or curriculum designers of EFL-speaking classrooms can adopt this strategy in the course syllabus to offer the students opportunities to practice the foreign language outside the classroom when face-to-face interactions are suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 4) Finally, for further research, this study complements the existing literature on improving the oral fluency of EFL students using the TBLT method. 6. Conclusion and Recommendations To recapitulate, self-conversation recording for fluency had a significant impact on the students’ speaking ability in the experimental group. Students' ability to converse fluently in the recordings transformed them into better speakers in other situations. This study revealed that the average fluency improvement of the experimental group was higher than the control group's average improvement. The experimental group's mean score achieved in the post- test was higher than the control group (72.33 >67.40). Hence, it can be argued that the self-conversation recording clearly impacted the experimental group’s fluency. The margin of average improvement is also a significant finding of this study. The average N-gain score of the experimental group students was better than the control group students (.0424>0.205). Since the students had the opportunity to record multiple times before submitting the final version of the conversation, students were also able to pick up new vocabulary and complex words. EFL teachers can use the self-conversation recording technique to improve the students' fluency in their classrooms. Moreover, the TBLT method can be a helpful tool to improve the students' speaking ability not only at the tertiary level but also at other levels of education. There are some gaps in the study to be fulfilled by future researchers. Firstly, this study was conducted using a small sample size. As a result, the finding can only be applied to a classroom with a similar number of students. Future researchers can work with a larger sample size to identify the effectiveness of conversation recording in Task-Based Language Teaching. Secondly, this study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning the classes were held online. 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