Artificial Intelligence in EFL Context: Rising Students’ Speaking Performance with Lyra Virtual Assistance

The aim of this study tries to measure the effectiveness of artificial intelligence apps in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom environment. The AIapps employed in this experimental study isLyra Virtual Assistant (LVA), which was chosen with the line of thinking it can help the students improve their speaking performance. LVA was selected due to its numerous unique features but simplicity in use, lack of cost, and among one of the best ranking of virtual assistance in 2018. The sample in this study is selected secondary school recommended by the Ministry of Education due to the school’s regulation in this school that allows students to bring a mobile phone in the classroom and its consistency of weakness in English speaking performance based on examination result. This study recorded 65 students from two different seventh grade classes who were grouped into experimental and control groups. A quasi-experimental was used as the research method with pre-test and post-test, focused on the four components in speaking skill i.e., pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency. The results showed there was a significant result in the post-test from the experimental group who used LVA (69.59) compared to the control class with their conventional style (63.61). This means LVA is an effective AI apps for EFL students to improve their speaking skill.