Fostering EFL Learners' Speaking Skills and Flow Experience With Video‐Dubbing Tasks: A Flow Theory Perspective

ABSTRACT Background The utilisation of video‐dubbing tasks, wherein learners record their voices over video clips to practise pronunciation, fluency, grammatical accuracy, and vocabulary use, is relatively novel in the English language learning context. Exploring the effectiveness of video‐dubbing tasks can lead to more innovative and effective speaking techniques in language courses. Whilst a growing body of research has examined the effectiveness of video‐dubbing tasks in terms of fostering English language learners' speaking skills, further empirical studies are required to explore their effectiveness specifically in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Objectives To address this deficiency in the current literature, this study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed‐methods research design to explore the impact of video‐dubbing tasks on EFL learners' speaking skills, such as pronunciation, fluency, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary use, and flow experience. Methods Sixty EFL learners at a language institute were randomly assigned to a dubbing class with 30 EFL learners and a comparison class with the same number of EFL learners. The learners in the dubbing class collectively chose videos on the internet, deleted their soundtracks, practised the speeches and conversations, developed an alternate soundtrack, incorporated the videos with their own soundtracks, submitted the dubbed videos for feedback, and presented the video‐dubbing tasks in the class. The comparison group engaged in in‐class viewing and discussion of English films. A speaking test and flow experience questionnaire were utilised to collect the necessary quantitative data, and an individual semi‐structured interview was conducted to gather the required qualitative data. Results and Conclusions Two‐way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), a parametric test used to compare group means over time, was applied to analyse the quantitative data. The results revealed that both the dubbing and comparison classes improved the EFL learners' speaking skills; however, the dubbing group demonstrated significantly greater improvement than the comparison group. Moreover, the EFL learners reported experiencing a positive flow state—a deep state of focus and enjoyment—whilst completing the video‐dubbing tasks. The qualitative data, which corroborated the quantitative findings, further indicated that the learners perceived the video‐dubbing tasks as engaging, motivating, and beneficial for improving their speaking skills. Implications The practical and pedagogical implications of integrating video‐dubbing tasks into EFL speaking courses are discussed in detail.