Using Structured Academic Controversy- Based Program to Develop some of Faculty of Education EFL Student Teachers' Oral Communication Skills at Assiut University

مركزأ.د/ أحمد المنشاوى             

للنشر العلمى والتميز البحثى

  (مجلة كلية التربية)            

     =======

Using Structured Academic Controversy- Based Program to Develop some of Faculty of Education EFL Student Teachers' Oral Communication Skills at Assiut University

By

Prof. Mahmoud M.S. Abdallah                         Dr. Salwa M. Elsayed

Professor of Curriculum & TEFL                  Lecturer of Curriculum & TEFL

Methodology                                            Methodology

Faculty of Education, Assiut University              Faculty of Education, Assiut University

   msayed40@yahoo.com                           salwaenglish@gmail.com

Samah Gamal Muhammad Abo-Elhassan

Demonstrator at Curriculum & Instruction Dept.

Sg1200892@gmail.com

}     المجلد الواحد والأربعون– العدد السابع– يوليو 2025م {

http://www.aun.edu.eg/faculty_education/arabic

  Abstract:

This research aimed at identifying the impact of using a program based on structured academic controversy strategy (SAC) on developing some of Faculty of Education EFL student teachers' oral communication skills. Specifically, it focused on only four categories of oral communication skills, namely: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills.  The participants were 28 male and female selected from 3^rd year EFL student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut university. According to the nature of the structured academic controversy strategy, the participants were divided into 7 groups. Each group included four EFL student teachers in each group (two pairs). The research adopted the pre-post quasi- experimental design of one experimental group. Participants' oral communication skills were assessed through an oral communication performance rubric to make the rating process much more objective. The findings showed a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the research group's total score on the pre and post administration of the oral communication performance rubric at the level of 0.01 in favor of the post administration. Therefore, the structured academic controversy-based program results were positive in developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills.

Key words: Structured academic controversy, Oral communication skills, EFL student teachers.

إستخدام برنامج قائم على إستراتيجية الجدل الأكاديمى المنظم لتنمية بعض مهارات التواصل الشفهي فى اللغة الإنجليزية لدى الطلاب المعلمين بكلية التربية جامعة أسيوط

مستخلص البحث:

هدف هذا البحث إلى قياس تأثير استخدام برنامج قائم على استراتيجية الجدل الأكاديمي المنظم (SAC) على تنمية بعض مهارات التواصل الشفهي لدى الطلاب المعلمين في تخصص اللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية بكلية التربية. ركز هذا البحث بشكل خاص على أربع مهارات رئيسة فقط من مهارات التواصل الشفهي: مهارات العرض، والمهارات الاجتماعية-التداولية، ومهارات الإقناع، ومهارات التفاوض. تكونت عينة المشاركين من 28 طالباً وطالبة تم اختيارهم من الطلاب المعلمين الفرقة الثالثة في تخصص اللغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية بكلية التربية، جامعة أسيوط  وطبقا لطبيعة إستراتيجية الجدل الأكاديمي المنظم فقد تم تقسيمهم إلى 7 مجموعات تضم كل مجموعة أربعة طلاب معلمين. تبنت الدراسة التصميم شبه التجريبي ذو القياس القبلي والبعدي بتصميم مجموعة واحدة: مجموعة تجريبية وتم تقييم مهارات التواصل الشفهي للمشاركين من خلال اختبار أداء التواصل الشفهي بإستخدام مقياس الأداء المتدرج لجعل عملية التقييم أكثر موضوعية وأظهرت النتائج وجود فرق دال إحصائيا عند مستوى دلالة0.01 بين متوسطى درجات الطلاب مجموعة البحث فى القياسين القبلي والبعدي للدرجة الكلية لمقياس الأداء المتدرج لمهارات التواصل الشفهي وذلك لصالح التطبيق البعدي مما يؤكد فاعلية البرنامج فى تنمية مهارات التواصل الشفهي لدى مجموعة البحث.

الكلمات المفتاحية: إستراتيجية الجدل الأكاديمي المنظم, مهارات التواصل الشفهي, الطلاب المعلمين الدارسين للغة الإنجليزية كلغة أجنبية.

1. Introduction:

Mastery of the English language does not mean just knowing about it or memorizing its rules, rather it attends more to the language learners’ ability to use the language for the sake of carrying out a wide range of communicative functions and being able as well to negotiate and discuss real-life issues with tactfulness and insightfulness  Because the main purpose of learning a foreign language is to effectively communicate with others using that language, the present research focused mainly on developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills. Specifically, it targeted EFL student teachers because they are the core of the teaching process in their future careers. They need to master these skills to be able to communicate well using the target language in their teaching and to enhance their future students to effectively use it as well. The focus of this research was on developing only four categories from the oral communication skills: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills.

Oral communication skills are very essential in making classroom interaction possible and effective. In this regard, many studies investigated the importance of oral communication skills (e.g. Abdallah, 2005; Morreale & Pearson, 2008; Deepa, 2012; Emanuel, 2016). For example, in his study, Abdallah (2005) asserted   the importance of the communication process in general and the oral communication skills in particular, with a specific focus on the communicative functional aspects of speaking which are so crucial for social everyday-life interaction. He drew on the EFL student teachers' different learning styles (based on their multiple intelligences) that greatly help them in communicating effectively in different situations to fulfill realistic communicative purposes (e.g. expressing likes and dislikes, giving personal opinions, making requests and responding to requests made).

Similarly, Morreale and Pearson's (2008) study provides a rationale underlying the claim that communication instruction is crucial to students' future personal and professional success. Their research proved the centrality of communication skills in developing the whole person, making him/her a responsible social and cultural participant in the world, and a successful job candidate. In addition, Deepa (2012) concludes that for communication to be successful, one needs to learn effective oral communication skills, which Emanuel (2016) regards as important both as essential life skills and as desirable educational outcomes.

Despite the significant role of oral communication skills for both the process of teaching and learning a foreign language, and for real-life social communicative interaction as well, there are many obstacles that hinder the attainment of proficiency in oral communication. Not all EFL learners can use the English language properly although many of them can write rather well. This is due to two reasons: First, the inherent difficulty of the speaking skill for EFL learners; and second, the speaking skill is not given due attention within most foreign language classes. This orientation is reflected in the process of teaching and learning, and in the examination system as well.

Specifically, there are many difficulties that hinder successful communication in the higher education stage. Although it is very critical for EFL learners to master the most effective oral communication skills, such as presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills, many difficulties hinder them. For example, Shintasiwi and Anwar (2021) confirmed that one of the competencies EFL learners have to be mastered is English speaking skill, but the curriculum of English at university focuses only on passive skills (e.g. reading and understanding grammar structures), rather than the active ones (writing and speaking). Similarly, in the Egyptian institutions, teaching of the English language has been, for long time, based on the traditional approaches that focus on grammar, vocabulary, and translation without paying much attention to communication (Ibrahim & Ibrahim, 2017).

Besides, under the umbrella of the teacher-centered approaches to teaching and learning, teachers seem to do most of the talking and act as the only source of knowledge to students, while students are treated as passive recipients (Ning, 2011). According to Gomleksiz (2007), these approaches have negatively affected students and produced incompetent English language users who are unable to improve their oral communication skills.

As a result of these challenges and difficulties, a kind of discrepancy between EFL learners’ high academic achievement and their inability to communicate effectively in English emerged. Consequently, the present research used a program which is based on "Structured Academic Controversy" (SAC) - a cooperative learning strategy- to develop some of EFL student teachers' oral communication skills, such as presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills.

2. Definitions of Terms

2.1 Oral Communication Skills

Morreale et al. (1998) defined oral communication skills as the abilities to speak and listen effectively for the purposes of informing, persuading, and relating to other information.

Oral communication skills can be operationally defined as "those functional oral communicative  competencies that Faculty of Education EFL student teachers at Assiut university should possess in order to communicate and interact effectively with others in different situations to accomplish a variety  of       purposes, such as giving oral presentations, conversing with others about different issues, persuading others, and negotiating with others.

2.2 Structured Academic Controversy Strategy (SAC)

Structured academic controversy is a type of academic conflict that exists when one student's ideas, information, conclusions, theories or opinions are incompatible with those of another and the two seek to reach an agreement (Johnson et al., 1996).

SAC can be operationally defined as "the cooperative learning technique that Faculty of Education EFL student teachers at Assiut university can use inside the classroom to work together, argue about some issues, and give their own opinions in a positively competitive environment".

3. Statement of the problem

The problem of the present research can be stated as follows: EFL student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut University, experience deficiency in oral communication skills. Therefore, the present research was an attempt to develop EFL student teachers' oral communication skills through using a program which is based on structured academic  controversy (SAC) as a cooperative learning strategy.

4. Objective of the research

This research aimed to:

1. Develop Assiut University Faculty of Education EFL student teachers' oral communication
2. Question of the research

This  research was an attempt to answer the following question:

1. What is the effectiveness of using structured academic controversy-based program in developing some of EFL student teachers' oral communication skills?
2. Delimitations of the research

This research was delimited to:

1. A group of 28 male and female EFL student teachers from 3^rd year student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut University in the second semester of the academic year, 2024-2025.
2. Four main categories of oral communication skills: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion kills, and negotiation skills.
3. Five main stages of structured academic controversy strategy: learning positions, presenting positions, discussing the opposing positions, reaching a decision, and follow-up exercises.
4. Literature Review and Related Studies

The theoretical framework of structured academic controversy strategy (SAC) goes back to the social constructivist learning theory and cooperative learning approach.  Structured academic controversy is also known as cooperative controversy, and structured controversy. It is potentially used in intercultural education and has received great support in both research and theory (Johnson et al., 1996). Structured academic controversy (SAC) was theorized and introduced by Johnson and Johnson (1997), who were working at the University of Minnesota cooperative learning center (Tavakoli et al., 2017).

According to Johnson et al. (1996), SAC is a type of academic conflict that exists when one student's ideas, information, conclusions, theories or opinions are incompatible with those of another and the two seek to reach an agreement or a common ground. This intellectual conflict is an important and powerful instructional tool that should become part of day-to-day student life in colleges and universities as it results in increased achievement, better problem-solving and decision-making skills, and greater social competence. Johnson and Johnson (2012) state that the way in which conflict is structured in learning and decision-making situations determines how group members interact with each other, which in turn determines the quality of creativity, learning, decision-making, and other relevant outcomes.

In the context of structured academic controversy practical implementation in the learning process, Beilby (1997) advocated that it can be implemented in five steps. Heterogeneous groups of students (usually four per group) develop a position on an issue and argue for that position. Each group is divided into two pairs with the understanding that each team will study assigned resource material that presents only one side of the issue.

The two pairs debate the issue trying to convince each other of the correctness of their position while identifying weaknesses in the arguments of the other team. After a period of debate, the two teams synthesize their positions and write a group statement supporting or rejecting the controversial topic. Then, they reach an agreement which must be one that all four team members can support. Therefore, those steps can be summarized as learning positions, presenting positions, discussing opposing positions, reaching a decision, and follow-up exercises.

In this regard, SAC implementation in the learning process has some benefits which motivate the researcher in this research to investigate its effect on developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills. In the domain of cognitive development, Jeanne (1990) confirmed that changes in cognitive structure are promoted by requiring learners to argue both opposing perspectives of controversial issues. Moreover, Johnson and Johnson (1985) confirmed that controversy promoted higher achievement, greater achievement motivation, and more accurate cognitive perspective.

More specifically, in the context of higher education, SAC has become an indispensable instructional strategy. In this vein, Childress (2020) asserted that controversy became an inevitable requirement in colleges as it can help in learning development if it is managed well. This is because SAC can provide learners with the opportunity to research and discuss controversial issues from multiple perspectives (Vestal, 2022). Further, Rosyadi et al. (2022) emphasized that for prospective teachers of mathematics, controversial issues are needed in everyday life and are significant in making the learning process active and purposeful. Therefore, dealing with controversial issues is one of the most important tasks teachers and learners perform (Pace, 2022).

In different fields, there are many studies that have implemented SAC in different fields. For example, in science, Sudarto et al. (2021) has conducted a study to investigate its impact on improving learners' creative thinking skills. The findings have shown that via SAC, learners can improve their creative thinking skills by developing their knowledge, predicting some limited information, finding a solution to a problem, and analyzing information from different perspectives. Fodness and Bell (2023) have conducted a study to investigate the effect of using SAC and Perspective taking on enhancing class discussion and the results have shown that SAC is suitable for any course in which class discussion is critical to learning goals.

Additionally, Alvidrez (2023) conducted a study to investigate the effect of SAC in developing leadership skills. The results have shown the significant implications of it in the context of leadership education with a focus on student thinking, perspectives, and values. Furthermore, in his study, Wijitnawin (2020) used SAC to improve undergraduate students' problem-solving skills in the context of a Thai literature course and concluded its positive impact on their skills.

On the other hand, in the context of foreign language teaching and learning, few studies have investigated its effect on different language skills. In this sense, Tavakoli et al. (2017) claimed that the literature about SAC is evidently poor. For example, Fauziah (2017) has carried out a study to investigate SAC effect on improving the speaking ability of the third semester students of English education department. The findings concluded that the effectiveness of this strategy in improving students speaking ability can be seen by three explanations: providing students to build classroom interaction among students, providing students with a medium to share their argumentation and perception in delivering ideas, and providing good way to build students' critical thinking.

Moreover, Siregar (2022) has carried out a study in which he used SAC to investigate its impact on improving students' speaking skill. The findings concluded that the teachers could apply it because of its effectiveness. Faisal (2022) also used SAC in his study to improve EFL learners' speaking and listening skills, and the results have shown that it is effective in improving and developing their speaking and listening skills in English. Because of those few studies in the EFL contexts, this research can be considered as an attempt to investigate SAC effect on developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills.

8. Research Methodology

8.1 Design

This research adopted the pre-post quasi- experimental design of one experimental group. The research group was trained in a suggested program based on structured academic controversy strategy (SAC), which was designed by the researcher. The research group's oral communication skills were assessed through a pre-post-performance test using a rubric.

8.2 Participants

In this research, a group of 28 male and female EFL student teachers were randomly selected from 3^rd year student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut University. The researcher has chosen this specific number to be able to divide the EFL student teachers into equal groups (7 groups including four student teachers in each group). This division was implemented to align with the SAC strategy's requirements. A pilot study involving 30 EFL student teachers (unaffiliated with the selected study group) was conducted over three weeks (six sessions; one sample lesson from each unit in each session) to validate the instruments. Both pre-post oral communication performance tests (two equivalent versions) were administered to them to ensure their validity and reliability.

8.3 Materials & Instruments of the Research

1. Materials

A suggested program based on SAC strategy consisting of:

• an instructor's manual on how to teach oral communication skills according to the employed strategy (SAC).
• a student's book.

1. Instruments

To measure the effectiveness of using the structured academic controversy-based program, the researcher designed the following instruments:

• an oral communication performance
• a rubric for measuring EFL student teachers'

9. Procedures

To answer the question of this research: (1) What is the effectiveness of using structured  academic controversy in developing some of EFL student teachers' oral communication skills? the researcher:

• reviewed the literature and previous studies dealing with speaking in general and oral communication skills in particular;
• prepared a preliminary list of the oral communication skills required for EFL student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut University to be validated by some specialist jury members, and edited it in the light of the jury's recommendations and suggestions so as to reach a final list;
• prepared an instructor's manual to be validated by some specialist jury members and modified it according to their recommendations and suggestions;
• designed a rubric to measure student teachers' oral performance on oral -communication performance test;
• piloted the research materials and instruments to measure their validity and reliability. A group of 30 male and female from third year EFL student teachers were subjected to piloting the materials and instruments.
• selected one experimental group of the research from third year EFL student teachers, Faculty of Education, Assiut university;
• administered the first version of the oral communication performance test;
• implemented the structured academic controversy-based program;
• administered the second version of the oral communication performance test;
• collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data;
• calculated the differences using the appropriate statistical techniques;
• discussed the results of the test while considering the results of some previous studies that dealt with the same topic; and
• provided some recommendations in the light of the findings of the research .

10. The Pre-Post Oral Communication Performance Test

10.1 Test Objectives

The pre-post oral communication performance test aimed at measuring, assessing, and evaluating Assiut University Faculty of Education 3^rd year EFL student teachers' mastery of some oral communication skills: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills. Besides, an oral communication performance rubric was designed for rating EFL student teachers' performance in a more objective way through relying on some specific accurate criteria and more than one rater.

10.2 Test Piloting

The researcher piloted the two different versions of the pre-post oral communication performance test on a sample group of 30 male and female from 3rd year EFL student teachers at Faculty of Education, Assiut University to ensure their validity, reliability, relatedness to EFL student teachers' level, and suitability of time. Based on the pilot study and the comments of the jury concerning the test, some changes and modifications have been made before the actual administration of the test.

10.3 Test scoring

An oral communication performance rubric was designed and used for rating EFL student teachers' performance. The total score of the pre-post oral performance test was 80 grades. Because the test was for measuring 16 sub-skills under the oral communication skills, each sub-skill had a score ranging from 1 to 5 on the rubric based on EFL student teachers' performance.

11. The Oral Communication Performance Rubric

Based on the nature of the oral communication skills, an oral communication performance rubric was designed to score EFL student teachers' performance on the pre-post oral communication performance test in a more objective way. The rubric was based on some specific criteria for measuring the specified sub-skills. Mainly, it consisted of five levels from 1 to 5: Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent, and Exemplary. The lowest grade was 1 (Poor) and meant that the EFL student teacher had the lowest level in the mastery of the sub-skill. The highest grade was 5 (Exemplary) and meant that the EFL student teacher had the highest level in the mastery of the sub-skill. The scoring depended on the EFL student teachers' performance and its alignment with the specific criteria of each sub-skill.

11.1 Validity of the Oral Communication Performance Rubric

- Internal Consistency Validity

In order to find out the correlation between the score of each item and the total score of the rubric, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the score of each performance item and the total score of its corresponding skill. The results were as shown in the following table:

Table 1:

Internal Consistency for Oral Communication Skills Rubric

** Significant at (0.01) level, * significant at (0.05) level

As shown in Table 1, all correlation coefficient values were greater than 0.3 and were significant at the significance level of 0.01, which confirms the internal consistency validity of each performance item with the rubric as a whole.

11.2 Reliability of the Oral Communication Performance Rubric

- Reliability Using Equivalent Versions

 To verify the rubric reliability using the equivalent versions, the first version was administered to a pilot sample of 30 male and female from 3^rd year EFL student teachers and the second one was administered to the same group after two weeks. The rubric reliability was calculated by computing Pearson's correlation coefficient between the EFL student teachers' scores in the two administrations as shown in Table 2:

Table 2:

Reliability Coefficients (Equivalent Versions) for Oral Communication Skills rubric

As shown in Table 2, the reliability coefficient value for the oral communication performance rubric using the equivalent versions was found to be 0.925, and it is noted that all reliability coefficient values were greater than 0.7 which indicates that the rubric has acceptable reliability.

- Inter-Rater Reliability

Inter-rater reliability was also used to ensure the rubric's reliability. The researcher with two raters who met the criteria worked together to rate EFL student teachers' performance on the pre-post oral communication performance test. Scoring reliability among raters was estimated using Cohen's kappa (κ). Viera & Garrett (2005) describe a heuristic interpretation of rater agreement represented by various kappa values: kappa < 0 is worse than chance; 0 < kappa < 0.2 is slight agreement; 0.2 < kappa < 0.4 is fair agreement; 0.4 < kappa < 0.6 is moderate; 0.6 < kappa < 0.8 is substantial agreement; 0.8 < kappa < 1 indicates almost perfect rater agreement.

Table 3:

Inter-rater reliability of Oral Communication Skills rubric

12. Results of the Research

To answer the question of the research which states "What is the effectiveness of using a structured academic controversy-based program in developing some of EFL student teachers' oral communication skills?,  the paired sample t-test was used  to identify the significance of the difference between the mean scores of the research group in the pre-post administration of the oral communication performance rubric, and the findings were as shown the following table:

Table 4:

The results of the paired sample t-test between the mean scores of the research group in the pre- post administration of the total score on the oral communication skills test

As shown in Table 4, there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the research group in the pre-post administration of the oral communication performance test at the level of 0.01, in favor of the post-administration where the value of t was 45.06. This result can also be shown in figure 1:

Figure 1

Differences in the mean scores of EFL student teachers' total score in the pre-post administration of the oral communication performance test

Moreover, in calculating the effect size, "Eta squared" and "Cohen's d" were used and the results were as shown in Table 5.

Table 5:

Effect size values of EFL student teachers' total score in the oral communication performance test

As shown in Table 5, the effect size value was 11.23 using Cohen's d equation and was 0.986 using the Eta squared equation, which indicated that the effect size values were large. These values indicate the significant effect of using the structured academic controversy-based program in developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills.

13. Discussion of Results:

According to the obtained results related to the effectiveness of using a structured academic controversy-based program in developing some of EFL student teachers' oral communication skills, it became very clear that the program was highly effective in developing their oral communication skills because there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of EFL student teachers' total score in the pre-post administration of the oral communication performance test in favor of the post-administration where the value of t was 45.06. These results indicated that EFL student teachers (the experimental group) achieved a higher level in mastering the specific oral communication skills: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, and negotiation skills compared to the pre-administration of the oral communication performance test.

These positive results can be mainly attributed to some factors: (1) EFL student teachers' interest in developing their oral communication skills which encouraged the researcher to teach the program content enthusiastically; (2) the high relationship that existed between the oral communication skills on one hand and the structured academic controversy strategy on the other hand ,which in turn, encouraged EFL student teachers to freely expressing themselves and effectively communicate with other colleagues;  (3) the clarity of the program objectives which helped EFL student teachers focus on the specific skills that they need to improve and the clarity of the structured academic controversy strategy stages and steps which helped them to practice their oral communication skills in an organized way; (4) the cooperative atmosphere of the SAC implementation which helped them work together in a cooperative encouraging learning environment; and (5) EFL student teachers' understanding of the SAC strategy steps which enabled them to practice with ease and enthusiasm.

14. Conclusion:

Although the researcher has encountered many challenges both in teaching the program content and administering its instruments, the findings of this research indicated that the structured academic controversy-based program had a significant positive impact on developing EFL student teachers' oral communication skills: presentation skills, socio-pragmatic skills, persuasion skills, negotiation skills. This development can be attributed to some important factors: the effectiveness of the program content, the strong relationship between SAC strategy and the oral communication skills, the skill of the researcher in implementing SAC strategy steps in the way that help EFL student teachers to engage and feel interested, the diversity of the program activities, worksheets and games, the cooperation and the enthusiasm of the EFL student teachers, and the effective evaluation techniques that were constantly employed to evaluate their performance and to give them constructive feedback concerning how to be good oral communicators.

15. Recommendations of the Research:

Based on the findings of the present research, the researcher recommended the following:

• An oral communication skills course should be included as an integral part of EFL student teachers' preparation program at all faculties of Education in Egypt.
• EFL student teachers' proficiency in the target language should be based on both the linguistic aspect and the functional aspect as well, therefore, the functional aspect of the target language should be included also in the assessment process.
• EFL instructors should pay more attention to EFL student teachers' oral communication skills by encouraging them to participate and to express their ideas freely using the target language and by allocating much more time for practice.
• They should encourage EFL student teachers to think critically in different issues by finding their areas of interest that help them to be active participants in the class.
• Curricula designers should include SAC strategy steps as an integral part of teaching speaking skills in general and oral communication skills in particular.

16. Suggestions for Further Research:

According to the findings of the present research, these research issues were suggested:

• Investigating the impact of using a suggested structured academic controversy-based program on developing some of EFL student teachers' argumentative writing skills.
• Investigating the impact of using a suggested structured academic controversy-based program on developing some of EFL student teachers' persuasive writing skills.
• Investigating the impact of using a suggested structured academic controversy-based program on developing some of EFL student teachers' critical reading skills.
• Investigating the impact of using a suggested structured academic controversy-based program on developing some secondary stage students' oral communication skills.
• Investigating the impact of using SAC strategy on developing 1^st year English majors' oral communication skills at faculty of Education at Assiut university.

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