Gatycha Allar Dezaurna Darmawan (1), Dian Rahma Santoso (2)
General Background: Speaking is a complex language skill requiring accurate pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and confidence for meaningful communication in English as a foreign language. Specific Background: Many high school students experience limited exposure to authentic language input and insufficient opportunities for oral practice, resulting in low speaking performance. Knowledge Gap: Although audiovisual media are widely used, empirical evidence on short English movies as classroom media in vocational high schools remains limited. Aims: This study investigated whether English movies could improve students’ speaking ability in a tenth-grade accounting class at a vocational high school. Results: Using a quantitative pre-experimental one-group pre-test–post-test design with 38 students, the average score increased from 69.47 to 90.26, a gain of 20.79 points, supported by a paired-sample t-test showing a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001). Improvements were observed in pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, motivation, and confidence during speaking tasks. Novelty: The study demonstrates the pedagogical value of short subtitled English films integrated with recount-text retelling activities in a real classroom setting. Implications: English movies can serve as engaging audiovisual media that promote active participation, provide authentic language exposure, and support communicative competence development in secondary EFL instruction.
Highlights:
Mean performance rose by 20.79 points between initial and final assessment.
Learners displayed greater confidence and participation during oral tasks.
Subtitled short films supported clearer pronunciation and richer vocabulary use.
English Movies; Speaking Ability; Audiovisual Media; EFL Learners; Vocational High School
Speaking is the most complex linguistic skill. Speaking involves more than simply converting words and sentences into spoken language; it also involves developing and articulating ideas through suitable activities for speaking . People communicate through text, which must be significant. Furthermore, speaking and pronunciation are intricately related, as both enable students to learn English sounds.
The ability to speak has developed from childhood. It can begin with listening and then imitating what they hear until they understand what the words mean. The speaking process involves not just the use of words but also the relationship between the speaker and the listener . Teachers can assist students in improving their comprehension and speaking skills by providing them with opportunities to connect directly with instructional materials and classmates in a classroom setting. Students can acquire language skills by imitating language models and actively participating in the language context in which they are involved. Through participation in and observation of talks in the target language, students can increase their ability to communicate verbally . Watching movies is an excellent way for students to learn about stories or concepts from different prespectives. It allows students to relate new information.
Media is an important aspect of the teaching-learning process because it facilitates communication. When learning English, the students must interact, communicate, and convey their feelings and ideas. However, speaking is not a straightforward communication procedure. It includes several components like as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Furthermore, effective speaking skills might help you learn other skills. To effectively improving the students’ speaking ability, the teacher can use visual and audio materials as a media. Some teachers do not have enough time to design their materials, and as a result, students do not receive adequate exposure to learning English, particularly enhancing their English-speaking skills. In many case, school will not be the last resort if the students’ environment does not support their English learning. As English is now a cumpulsory subject in Indonesian schools, teachers need to know the best way to observe students’ English skills, especially in terms of speaking. Although teachers play a crucial role in guiding students, using the right approach and media is essential . Speaking will be entertaining and easy if the teacher provides the right media. Students will acquire ideas in a pleasant environment and will not be bored. One effective way to promote students’ use of their native language is through the use of audiovisual media. Students not only listen to the language, but they also see how speakers use the language in context .
According to the explanation above, English movies have been shown to be beneficial in helping students to improve their speaking ability. Research studies have demonstrated that using English movies as a strategy for improving speaking skills has a good impact. The first previous study conducted earlier research into the use of English cartoon movies to improve students' speaking skills. The study found that students' speaking skills improved significantly in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. It was demonstrated that students' speaking skills, particularly in grammar, may be effectively improved through the use of cartoon movies, as evidenced by the large increase in grammar scores, which went from 25 to 44 points . Within the context of the Speaking for General Communication course, the second study that came before this one investigated how English movies influence the speaking talents of students. The study found that viewing English movies for students was beneficial in terms of boosting their speaking skills. This study was determined through the use of Classroom Action Research. The results demonstrated that speaking scores improved from an average of 70.5 pre-intervention to 81 after two cycles, demonstrating the usefulness of using English movies to improve speaking skills . The third study looked at how English animated movies could be used to help students improve their speaking skills through e-learning. The study found that students' speaking skills got a lot better and that their interest in e-learning with animated videos went from 25% to 100%. This study shows how animated movies can get students more interested in learning and improve their speaking skills in educational environments . The fourth previous study conducted an investigation into students' perceptions regarding the use of movies as a tool for enhancing English speaking skills. The findings reveal that students reacted favorably to the use of films for enhancing their English-speaking abilities, showing an interest in having more educational movie selections available . Furthermore, the incorporation of movie clips in public speaking courses has been shown to enhance student engagement and elevate their public speaking abilities . Overall, English movie into language education can significantly enhance students' speaking skills.
According to the findings of several research studies, employing English movies in teaching the language considerably improves students' speaking skills. The researcher looked into the use of English movies as a teaching medium of students at SMK Negeri 2 Buduran, specifically to improve their speaking ability. The students' speaking in English at SMK Negeri 2 Buduran may be noticed in their capacity to communicate in English, which demonstrate a lack of English-speaking skills, particularly in their vocabulary and fluency levels. This limitation aligns with findings that highlight how minimum opportunities to practice speaking, fear of making mistakes, and low self-efficacy can significantly hinder students’ ability to communicate effectively in English . On this research, The researcher concentrated on X-1 accounting class since pronunciation problems in word stress and intonation frequently occur, affecting speech clarity and storytelling fluency. Students struggle to emulate good pronunciation when they are not exposed to authentic English listening materials. The utilization of English movies as a learning media is considered an innovative approach to enhance student engagement and language acquisition in the teaching-learning process. Movies as media are one efficient technique to facilitate student understanding of the subject during the teaching-learning process. It can give students opportunity to incorporate their experience into the learning process. Movies can help students to develop their English-speaking skills and speak fluently by pay attention to the movies. It also would provide students with more engaging experience while learning new language that may not be included in their textbook. Students might learn different pronunciations by listening to what actors say in movies. Another issue arises when teachers ask students to speak, they require helping in arranging the way the students’ speaking by needing to increase their vocabularies and fluency to showing their ideas.
To improve students' speaking skills, the researchers used English Movies with a duration of 5 to 15 minutes, including “The English Teacher, Ripple, Gift” which featured educational and everyday life themes appropriate for the students’ language proficiency level. The English Teacher, the movie revolves around an English teacher who faces various challenges in his profession. As students are increasingly drawn to visual media like movies, this approach combines entertainment and education effectively, encouraging them to emulate what they see and hear while improving their conversational skills in English . Researchers think that movies are one of the types of media that will get teenagers' attention because most teens appreciate and love viewing them.
As a result, this research aims to look into the effectiveness of using English movies as a teaching medium to help students improve their speaking skills. The researchers can use English movies as a teaching tool to improve speaking abilities in an efficient and fascinating way. The researchers will focus on one question that will answer the purpose of this study: Is there any significant effect of using English Movie to improve students’ speaking ability?
This study used a quantitative research methodology with a pre-experimental design, one-group pre-test and post-test approach. This research design involves a single group that is a pre-test (O1), receives treatment (X), and a post-test (O2). It purposes to determine if there is a significant improvement in speaking skills before and after using English Movie as teaching media and to know whether by using English Movie with the title “The English Teacher, Ripple, Gift” as teaching media can improve speaking ability in X-1 accounting class in SMK Negeri 2 Buduran.
This research contains two variables namely the independent variable and the dependent variable. The independent variable is belongs to the use of English movie as a teaching media, while the dependent variable is belongs to the students' speaking ability.
The research was conducted at SMK Negeri 2 Buduran, Jl. Jenggolo No.2 A, Bedrek, Siwalanpanji, Kec. Buduran, Kabupaten Sidoarjo, Jawa Timur.
The population of this research was X-1 accounting class, X-2 accounting class and X-3 accounting class with the total 114 of SMK Negeri 2 Buduran at 2nd semester in 2024-2025 academic year. Each class consists of 38 students, so the total population was 114 students.
The researcher chose the students of X-1 accounting class as a sample because it faces challenges in pronunciation (Word stress and intonation), lacks exposure to authentic english materials, of this research which is consists of 38 students, 35 female and 3 male by used purposive sampling technique. As an approach to picking data sources with certain criteria in consideration, purposive sampling was utilized [15]. Thus, SMK Negeri 2 Buduran's X-1 accounting students were an appropriate choice for this method.
The researcher used an oral assessment twice: as an oral pre-test and as an oral post-test. The speaking test was given on topics related to recount tect and was linked to the screening of English Movie as teaching media to increase students' engagement and comprehension in speaking. The form of test is retelling summary of the English Movie as teaching media to support their speaking ability using their own language.
The researchers collected data through tests (pre-test and post-test), treatment, and documentation. The pre-test was given to find out how the student's speaking was. They took the Pre-test before doing the treatment, while the post-test was given to know the influence of the treatment. In both of test, the researcher asked the student to prepare a speech based to the topic that provided. In this test, the students were asked to speak for about 2 – 3 minutes. Then, the researcher assessed the students’ speaking ability based on speaking rubric assessment.
The treatment used English movies as teaching media. The way to improve students' speaking ability by using English movies. The movies were played with subtitles to improve students’ speaking ability by looking at the subtitles that have been provided. The researcher showed several movies and then the students are asked to record their voices by retelling the story of the movie. The movie that the researcher will be chosen is The English Teacher. Treatment was given at one meeting. The Post-test was given after the treatment. The comparison between pre-test and post-test were used to know whether using English Movie as teaching media was effective to improve the students’ speaking skill.
1. Pre-test
The researchers collected data through tests (pre-test and post-test), treatment, and documentation. The pre-test was given to find out how the student's speaking was. The students took the pre-test before receiving the treatment.
This test was adapted from [13]:
Procedure
o The teacher asks the students to watch the english movie tittled ‘Ripple’(https://youtu.be/QMnEP2DYfmI?si=gw1n86Za06D6Uhb8). Students are instructed to watch and listen carefully. The duration of the movie is 5 minutes 47 seconds.
o The teacher asks the students to retell the story of a movie they have watched.
o Students orally retell the movie using their own understanding. Additionaly, they record their voice using a smartphone for 2-3 minutes.
2. Post-test
The post-test was given to know the influence of the treatment.
o The teacher asks the students to watch the english movie tittled ‘Gift’ (https://youtu.be/1DUYlHZsZfc?si=N-yZtvZWVI79XLC2). Students are instructed to watch and listen carefully. The duration of the movie is 7 minutes 30 seconds.
3. Treatment
The treatment involved the use of English movies as teaching media. The way to improve students' speaking ability is by using English movies. Treatment was delivered in one meeting.
a) Topic: Recount Text
b) Learning Activities:
o Teacher explains to students about the material and information structure about recount text using Power Point/Board. The material adapted from [17].
Figure 1. The recording voice of students are assed based on this criteria .
The final test scores were analyzed using statistical methods. The pre-test and post-test scores assessed various aspects of speaking assessment. Data were collected from several respondents who had participated in a learning program using english movies. Data analysis included calculating average scores to determine the percentage of improvement in students' speaking abilities and testing for significant differences between pre-and post-treatment scores. In addition, the data distribution was examined to ensure compliance with the statistical assumptions required for inferential analysis. Hypothesis testing used inferential statistics through the T-test to evaluate the effectiveness of using english movies for students' speaking skills. The analysis results were interpreted to understand the intervention's significant impact and identify factors that may affect students' learning outcomes. The researchers used SPSS version 29 to calculate the students' scores to support this study.
Table 1 shows that the difference in the average pre-test score before treatment is 69,47, while the average posttest score after treatment is 90,26. the number of data in both samples is 38. The standard deviation before treatment is 5,903, while after treatment, it is 4,341. the standard error of the average pre-test and posttest scores before treatment is 0,958 while after treatment, it is 0,704. As seen in Table 1, there is a significant increase between the average pre-test and posttest scores. Before treatment, the average pre-test score was 90,26, while after treatment, using English movies as learning tools, the posttest score increased to 69,47. this increase of 20,79 points is not only statistically significant but also pedagogically. This shows that students have experienced real improvements in their speaking skills, especially in pronunciation, fluency, and confidence in using English. This result is further reinforced by the paired sample t-test results with a t-value of -28,925 and a significance level (P-value) of less than 0.001, which confirms that this improvement is not accidental.
The t-test results show that the Difference between the pre-test and post-test scores is statistically significant (t = -28,925, p < 0.001). Since the p-value is smaller than 0.05, we should reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a significant improvement in students' speaking ability after using short films as teaching media. The mean score before treatment was significantly lower than the score after treatment (Mean Difference = 20,79, SD 4,431, SE 0.719, t(37) = 20,79, p < 0.0001). The 95% confidence interval shows the Difference ranges from -22,246 to -19,333 which does not include zero, thus supporting that the Difference is significant.
The correlation value between the pre-test and posttest scores was 0.665, reflecting a very strong positive relationship between the two scores. This high correlation indicates that students who scored higher on the pre-test also tended to score higher on the posttest. Similarly, students with low pre-test scores showed a consistent pattern of performance. A p-value of less than 0.001 confirms that the correlation is statistically significant.
To determine the distribution of scores on each variable, a normality test is necessary. The purpose of the normality test is to as certain whether the data is normally distributed or not. The normality test used in this study is the test, with calculations performed using SPSS for Windows. In a study, data is said to be normal if it has a significance (sig) value greater than 0.05 (p-value > 0.05); conversely, if the significance (sig) value is less than 0.05 (p-value < 0.05), then the research data is not normally distributed. The results of the normality test can be explained through the table below:
1. Reliability Statistics
2. Scale Statistics
3. Item Statistics
4. Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
5. Inter-Item Covariance Matrix
Students at SMK N 2 Buduran encounter difficulty in English topics, particularly in speaking skills, since they struggle with several aspects, including text comprehension, fluency, and incorrect pronunciation. Additionally, many students struggle to maintain focus during English lessons, resulting in an ineffective learning process. This impacts their low speaking ability. As a solution to this problem, the researcher conducted a study in class X-1 Accounting using English movies that are adapted to the recount text material.
The teaching and learning activities of speaking the recount text went well, utilizing the english movie and the teaching phases from the previous Theory. During learning activities, students are more confident and motivated to communicate in English. The use of technology can provide a more comfortable interaction between students and teachers. One of the most effectively used and influential media in the classroom is audiovisual media. Students show significant improvement after being taught using audiovisual media .
According to researchers, one of the best resources for teaching foreign languages to students is audio-visual media. The media is like a movie. We used movies, but why? Because film can be both an educational and an entertaining tool and because it can help students communicate more effectively . Also, the use of English subtitles as a language-learning medium has been widely used. Students will gain more vocabulary and improve their speaking skills from the subtitles. Therefore, it is evident that teaching English using movies, especially for foreign learners, is a good strategy .
English movies can help students improve their speaking skills by identifying the actress or actor as they speak in the movie. They also serve as a tool to improve language skills and make the learning process more fun. By improving speaking skills, this intervention indirectly helps students develop other communicative skills that are crucial in their future academic and professional lives. The use of English subtitles helps students understand the movie. Students become more active in speaking in the teaching-learning process .
At the pre-test stage, the researcher asked students to watch a short movie entitled "Ripple." Students observed the short movie for 5-10 minutes, which was shown on the projector screen. After that, students were asked to retell the short movie according to their understanding using English. The researcher asked the students to record the results on their cell phones. Many students still struggled to arrange ideas and material in an organised recount text and had limited vocabulary. In addition, the students still lacked confidence when they were presenting through the recording, so motivation, confidence, and speaking habits can have an impact on students' speaking ability .
In treatment, the researcher helps students solve problems. First, the researcher explained the material and structure of the recount text. In addition, the researcher focused on helping students develop their fluency and pronunciation in English, motivating them to speak confidently in front of the class. To facilitate this, the researcher introduced a English movie entitled "The English Teacher" which lasted 12 minutes and 14 seconds, the researcher gave a brief overview of the content to help the students focus on the main point, during the movie screening the students were instructed to observe and pay attention to the movie text. The students were allowed to note essential points in the story to help them organise the story for retelling. The researcher also asked sparking questions, such as what happened at the story's beginning, the main problem, and what lessons could be learned. Students worked in pairs at their tables to prepare and present the story in 2-3 minutes in front of the class. After each pair presented, the researcher gave immediate feedback on pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, and story structure. This feedback, combined with the usse of movies, was appreciated by students, as they found movies to be an engaging and effective tool in enhancing their English-speaking skills .
In the post-test stage, which was conducted after the pre-test and treatment sessions, students at SMK N 2 Buduran participated in a speaking activity to evaluate their progress in English proficiency. As part of the learning method, the researchers used a English movie as the learning medium; the students were asked to watch the movie, focusing on the storyline, vocabulary, expressions, and pronunciation of the characters. After watching the movie, students were instructed to retell the story orally and record it using a mobile phone. This activity assessed their listening comprehension and ability to express ideas in English. Each student is given sufficient time to prepare. Using an English movie as a teaching medium effectively created an engaging language environment. Therefore, teachers felt that showing movies could boost students’ engagement, enhance their ability to communicate, and provide them with more opportunities . The students showed increased enthusiasm and also appeared more confident in pronouncing English. The use of English movies to improve speaking skills in class X-1 accounting of SMK N 2 Buduran is significant and effective .
A lack of active participation and fear of making errors when communicating in english was observed among 10th-grade Accounting 1 students at SMK N 2 Buduran. Another problem is when pronunciation problems in word stress and intonation frequently occur, affecting speech clarity and storytelling fluency. Students struggle to emulate good pronunciation when they are not exposed to authentic English listening materials. In addition, teachers also have problems teaching English. Teachers attempt to address these issues, such as speaking practice, through games or activities that require them to speak English, but this is ineffective. As a result, the researchers blends teaching with audiovisual medium, specifically movies. To improve students' speaking ability, students are invited to watch subtitled movies in the learning process. Many students get good grades. This means there is a significant effect before and after using movies as learning media.
This research contributes to the educational environment. Through movies, students can participate in discussions or presentation activities, which can increase their confidence and creativity in speaking English. The use of movies as learning media in the classroom can make it more fun, and students are more active. In the digital era, the utilization of media such as movies is very important to support the English learning process. For future research, it would be better if researchers explore the effect of various genres or qualities of movies on students' speaking ability; for example, it can be a documentary film or an animated film. Choosing the right quality movie is believed to significantly increase the effectiveness of the learning process and student engagement.
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