| Abstract |
In ESL classrooms, speaking is a major problem faced by students as many exhibit fear of speaking in English. This matter is of much concerned among educators because oral fluency in English is important to relay correct messages. A study carried out on 529 undergraduates from two public universities in Sarawak found that factors which affect anxiety in speaking English are ‘Communication Apprehension’, ‘Fear of Negative Evaluation’ and ‘Test Anxiety’ (Sim, Yeo & Lau, 2018). Hence, Speaking Chess is developed to establish a teaching learning environment in a game-based situation. The objectives of Speaking Chess are to motivate and inculcate students’ interest to speak English, boost their self-confidence and enhance their soft skills through non-threatening environment. Speaking Chess comes in four sets of coloured pieces, a magnetic board (with tracks and home zones), four sets of cue cards with themes, and a 6-sided dice. The game can be played by two to four players. Players throw dice to decide the sequence. The number obtained indicates the steps to move the piece in a clockwise direction. Each time after moving the piece, a cue card will be picked; and the player has to speak for 2 minutes on the theme indicated on the card. The player that reaches ‘Home’ first is the winner. The game has potential for commercialization as there are limited speaking board games in the market despite the fact that it is also portable and cost effective. It can be linked to the English language syllabus in the primary, secondary, tertiary and ESP levels as speaking is taught and tested in these levels. It can be adopted by language instructors in all levels of ESL classrooms to create a student-centered teaching and learning environment with students having the leading roles in playing the games and teachers as facilitators. |