Online Learning Experiences for Speaking Activities among Malaysian Undergraduate ESL Students

Speaking practice is crucial for ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Nevertheless, accomplishing speaking activities via online learning might be difficult for the college students at universities in Malaysia as they are non-native English speakers. There have been several studies about students' perceptions and preferences on online learning. Nonetheless, there was only a little research conducted to ascertain deep online learning perceptions and preferences of the undergraduate ESL students in Malaysia. The current article's goal was to look at ESL learners' opinions on the experiences through online connected to speaking activities at a public institution in Tanjong Malim. The mixed-research method of study was used. In this article, observation checklist, semi-structured student interview, and questionnaire were employed to get the information from the sample. The sample was then subjected to statistical analysis and standard deviation, mean score, as well as percentage to identify the Malaysian undergraduate ESL students toward online learning platforms, the difficulty that the learners encountered during the online learning, and the strategies implemented by undergraduate ESL students. Whereas the interview result was analysed by thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the use of technology for distant learning for undergraduate ESL students to improve speaking abilities was progressing well. This signifies that the students perceived that they have knowledge to use the online platforms with mean (x)= 4.07. However, several students noted that their main concern when undertaking online speaking exercises was the connection speed with mean (x)= 3.93. As a result, soliciting thoughts or ideas to boost their engagement in online speaking projects was beneficial to the pupils with mean (x)= 3.97.