THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF USING AI CHATBOTS IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING AND THEIR SPEAKING PROFICIENCY SCORE

Despite the growing popularity of AI chatbots in language education and the
extensive research on the impact of Artificial Intelligence in learning activities,
empirical studies investigating the correlation between the effects of AI
technology usage in speaking development and students' speaking proficiency
scores in class remain limited. Consequently, this study aims to ascertain whether
a correlation exists between perceptions of AI chatbot usage and the Academic
Speaking scores of the 2021 cohort at the University of Bengkulu. Overall, this
research seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the efficacy of
AI-based language learning tools in enhancing speaking skills and to offer
guidance for educational practices within the language domain. The study
employs a quantitative descriptive technique with a correlational design. The
participants are 30 students from the 2021 cohort of the English Education
Program at the University of Bengkulu. This research utilizes purposive sampling
with questionnaires and Academic Speaking scores as research instruments. The
findings reveal that the most commonly used AI tools include ChatGPT (96.7%)
with 29 users, Google Translate (86.7%) with 26 users, and Grammarly (66.7%)
with 20 users. It is evident that AI chatbots are well-established and frequently
used among the 2021 English students at the University of Bengkulu. The study
identifies a positive correlation between students' perceptions of AI chatbot usage
in speaking development and their speaking proficiency scores. This conclusion is
supported by the results of the non-parametric Rank Spearman correlation test,
which yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.660 and a significance level of 0.000 <
0.05. According to the hypothesis, if the significance value is less than Alpha, H1
is accepted and H0 is rejected. Thus, it can be concluded that artificial intelligence
significantly impacts the development of speaking skills.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, AI Chatbots, Speaking Proficiency, EFL
Students.