Empowering Voices: A Pilot Evaluation of An Opinion-Expression Activity for Academic English Development Among Polytechnic Students

Abstract

Academic English skills are essential for polytechnic IT diploma graduates transitioning to undergraduate study, yet current vocational English curricula often lack adequate support for this transition. This one-group, pretest–posttest pilot study evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a 13-week Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) opinion-expression intervention. Thirty first-semester IT diploma students at a Malaysian polytechnic completed pre- and post-intervention academic speaking and writing assessments. Performances were evaluated blindly by a trained rater using CEFR-aligned B2 First rubrics. The intervention required students to post weekly asynchronous written responses on Padlet and deliver one in-class oral presentation. Academic speaking scores (max = 25 points) increased significantly, from M = 9.95 to 12.92, t(29) = 5.50, p < .001, d_z = 1.00. Academic writing scores (max = 20 points) rose from M = 5.37 to 6.37, but this overall gain was not statistically significant, t(29) = 1.64, p = .111, d_z= 0.30. Intra-rater reliability was good for speaking (ICC = 0.84) and moderate-to-good for writing (ICC = 0.72). Baseline-adjusted analyses showed that writing gains varied significantly by prior SPM English grades, F(2, 26) = 5.04, p = .014; higher pretest scores also predicted smaller gains, p = .023. Furthermore, the quality of Padlet responses positively predicted writing improvement, b = 1.11, p = .039, whereas no significant predictors of speaking gain were identified. These exploratory findings reveal a "modality split," suggesting the intervention broadly improved speaking proficiency but yielded constrained, proficiency-dependent gains in writing. Despite limitations such as the lack of a control group and reliance on single-rater scoring, the results establish feasibility for a full-scale randomized controlled trial and highlight the need for modality-specific scaffolding in TVET academic English curricula.