THE USE OF PUBLIC SPEAKING TO PROMOTE CONFIDENCE IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Students in a public higher learning institution in Selangor, Malaysia (a HND program in Electronics Engineering) had low self-confidence level in the English Language. Although they were excellent in their Engineering subjects and managed to get scholarships to further their studies overseas, they always turned down the offers due to their lack of self-confidence communicating in the English Language. Lecturer had incorporated public speaking lessons in the English Language syllabus from 2007 until 2010 as an effort to instill confidence in every student. There were 32 hours of lessons with two hours duration for each class. 385 students experienced the public speaking components and 100 students answered the questionnaire. The quantitative data have been collected at the end of the research. Some of the findings are 96% of the students stated that speaking ability was their main weakness compared to Listening, Reading and Writing abilities, 85% believed that being able to converse in the English Language was crucial for their better future. 87% agreed that Public Speaking component boosted up their confidence level. The number of students studying overseas increased since they had gained enough confidence communicating in the English Language. Article visualizations: