ENGLISH SPEAKING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PROFICIENCY BASED PAIRING AND ROLE PLAY AMONG PHYSICAL EDUCATION STUDENTS

Abstract

English speaking competence is increasingly important for Physical Education students because their academic and future professional activities may require them to explain instructions, interact with others, and communicate sport-related information in English. However, existing studies in Physical Education contexts have largely emphasized vocabulary learning or students’ perceptions, leaving limited evidence on how classroom strategies can improve directly assessed speaking performance among non-English-major students. This study therefore examines changes in English speaking rubric scores across two instructional cycles in a Physical Education cohort whose classroom design combined proficiency-based pairing and role play. Forty matched student records were analyzed for fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, and confidence. Descriptive statistics, individual change scores, and histograms were used to distinguish overall improvement from dimension-specific patterns. Mean total scores increased from 6.45 (SD = 3.12) in Cycle I to 9.03 (SD = 3.65) in Cycle II, with a mean paired increase of 2.58 raw points. Thirty-seven students (92.5%) improved, three remained unchanged, and none declined. Confidence showed the largest mean increase (+1.33), followed by vocabulary (+0.70) and fluency (+0.55), while pronunciation remained unchanged for all students. The findings extend existing role-play research by providing matched performance ratings in a non-English-major Physical Education cohort and demonstrate that overall improvement may conceal uneven development across speaking dimensions. However, no verified baseline assessment, completed participation observations, or pair identifiers were available; consequently, improvement in classroom activeness and the specific contribution of proficiency-based pairing could not be established. The results support further classroom evaluation of the combined approach, with separate monitoring of participation, clearer documentation of pair interaction, and targeted pronunciation support.

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