English Camp for Speaking Skill Development: Thai Students’ Perspective

Abstract

English camp or outdoor classroom activity is an English activity that aims to create a new atmosphere in learning English through various types of activities. This study aims to investigate Thai students’ perspectives of English camp which was to develop students’ speaking ability. The method in this study was descriptive quantitative. The participants involved in this study were 50 students at Eakkapapsasanawich Islamic School, Krabi, Thailand who joined the English camp. The instrument used by the researcher in this study was a questionnaire that was adapted from (Asmara, 2016) by considering two aspects which include: students’ perspective on the English camp, and the English camp for speaking skill development. The process of data analysis used Microsoft Excel. The study's findings showed that the students have positive perspective on the activities of the English Camp. It is proven by more than 50% of students stated that they understand the flow, instructions, and objectives of the English Camp. Students also got benefits from English camp such as learning a new culture, so that it makes them happy and not bored with the English Camp activities. And this way, they are also motivated to learn English. Not only in the aspect of English camp activity get positive result, but also in the aspect of developing students speaking skills also got positif result. 94% of students stated that they could improve their speaking skill by joining the English camp. It could be proven that students are confident to always practice their public speaking both inside and outside of the classroom. In fact, they are also confident and feel happy when they get the opportunity to practice speaking with native speakers. Based on the finding, Thai students perceived that English camp activities could help develop their speaking skill. In this case, this study is anticipated to be helpful to other researchers and may serve as a source of information or inspiration for other researchers who are interested in the subject on the effect of English Camp on speaking skill development. As the limitation of the instrument used by the researcher, therefore, it is recommended for future researchers to add instruments and raise different topics about the English camp especially in speaking skill development.

Key Terms: English Camp, Speaking skill, Students’ Perspective.