Saudi EFL Students’ Perceptions Towards the Impact of YouTube on Improving Speaking Skills

Abstract

The significance of integrating technology in education, especially the widely and frequently used platform “YouTube”, is found in its ability to provide accessible and various educational resources, meeting the needs of diverse learning styles and enhancing active engagement. Since YouTube is one of the preferred applications utilized by Saudi individuals, this study investigated the impact of using YouTube on enhancing the speaking skills of EFL male and female Saudi students from different Saudi universities. This study was conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2021- 2022. A questionnaire was used as the study instrument. It was adapted from Binmahboob’s (2020) study and modified according to the study’s purposes. The questionnaire contained 17 items divided into two sections. 79 EFL students from different Saudi universities participated. Fifty-nine of them were females, while 20 were males. The findings of the study revealed that YouTube videos had a high positive perspective from the participants. In other words, it can be concluded that YouTube videos enhance the speaking skills of EFL university students. Based on these finding, some recommendations and implications were provided.