Leveraging Pop Media and Communicative Language Teaching to Overcome Language Anxiety and Enhance Speaking Performance Among Malaysian Secondary ESL Learners

Abstract

This study focuses on using contemporary pop media and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as a strategy to improve both the levels of language anxiety and speaking performance among ESL learners in a suburban Malaysian secondary school setting. In this context, contemporary pop media refers to short-form video content from platforms like TikTok and YouTube, current pop songs by artists such as Taylor Swift, and widely circulated internet memes. It essentially sought to establish the impact of integrating up-to-date pop media within a CLT framework on these learners’ emotional affect and oral communication skills. A quantitative approach was employed with a sample size of 90 pupils in Form 2 at a secondary school in Sabah. This study involved the use of instruments such as the ELCAS (English Language Classroom Anxiety Scale — an adaptation of the established FLCAS, also known as the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale), and a tested oral fluency rubric. Through the analysis of both descriptive and inferential statistics, including paired-sample and independent sample t-tests, it has been found that this teaching strategy does significantly reduce language anxiety and enhance speaking performance among ESL learners. These findings support the potential of integrating culturally relevant media with communicative pedagogy to create more engaging and emotionally supportive language learning environments. Ultimately, the core of this study aims to challenge the conventional assumptions about the role of pop media in language learning and its potential in the language classroom when paired with an interactive and collaborative teaching method.