Since pandemic and therefore, virtual courses have started, education had the necessity of evolving and adapting to the brand-new needs and demands of a digital learning environment, which is constantly changing and offering tools and ways to develop our classes. In order to do that, several technological developments: devices, online applications, and even games features, have appeared offering an opportunity to face the challenges of the latest historical context. Actually, according to Bahadorfar M., and Omidvar R. (2014), technology and education have been successfully connected and it improved speaking opportunities:
Technology is the vehicle to get access with this modernized world. More than the process of communication, trade and transactions, today technology is widely used in educational sectors. Technological tools have been regarded as ways of helping students improve language skills such as speaking skill. Internet, podcasts, video conferencing, videos and speech recognition software are considered the best tools for teaching speaking skill. (p. 9)
Particularly, when it comes to teaching English in this digital era, teaching speaking has been an issue as a consequence of 2 main reasons, the first one is that since the on-line meetings don’t allow students to meaningfully participate in speaking activities due to the lack of interaction, students are not able to constantly practice and use the L2, thus, they don’t achieve a meaningful improvement of the speaking skill. In addition, the second reason is the emotional factors that influence the process of practicing the L2 through speaking, such as anxiety or insecurity. Therefore, it’s essential to take into account these factors in order to look for alternatives that can be useful to reach meaningful speaking experiences.
A simple and friendly tool to implement when it comes to practicing speaking in the EFL settings, is Whats App, due to the accessibility and versatility it offers. It allows students to constantly rehearse the speaking ability by monitoring their language output for mistakes by re-playing an audio recording. Furthermore, Han and Keskin (2016) suggests that at the same time their pronunciation is constantly improving by paying attention to their accent, intonation and speed of speech.
Regarding the application of this ICT's into the classroom settings, itself offers a wide variety of alternatives to be implemented. For instance, audio recorder allows students to constantly keep in contact with the L2 by both sending and receiving interactions. Therefore, this is an useful alternative that fosters the development of output, similarly when it comes to receive interactions that implies an input development. Additionally, as we mentioned before, the whole interactions made with this ICT's can be constantly revised and corrected in order to clean up pronunciation, intonation and the speed of the speech. In other words, the use of this ICT's rehearsal progressively the speaking ability.
References.
Bahadorfar, M. & Omidvar, R. (2014). TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Review. 2. 9-13.
Han, T. & Keskin, F. (2016). Using a Mobile Application (WhatsApp) to Reduce EFL Speaking Anxiety. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal. ISSN 1692-5777.
No.12. (January - June) 2016. pp. 29-50.
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