Schedule: 2009-09-12 (15:45 - 16:30)
Parallel Session 4 (Room A-24)

Title: Technology for enhancing oral competence: teacher's experimentation
Authors: Jayshri Mizeret-Lad, Restrepo Zea Celine
Abstract: This presentation reports on a research action which has been conducted to determine in what way technology could enhance the oral competence. Several experiments have been undertaken by teachers to see how sound editing tools such as Audacity, could be used to give feedback to students on their oral performance. Since it is indispensable that the learner should be able to compare the feedback s/he receives with his/her performance, new technologies were used and tested to see to what extend their use could foster learners' oral competence and strategies by providing non intrusive and contextualised feedback.
As far as the oral competence is concerned, teachers have always been confronted with the dilemma of deciding when to give feedback. Between disrupting the learner in middle of his/her production and delaying the transmission of feedback, the choice is difficult since none is satisfactory. Indeed, if the first option implies breaking the speech flow, the effectiveness of the second solution tends to diminish as distance between triggering event and feedback increases. With recordings, the learner can quietly and immediately compare his/her production, taking some critical distance with his/her self, with the teacher's inserted recorded comment that can be on form, meaning, pronunciation or communicative strategy.
The following examples illustrate three situations in which the students reflected on their oral competence with some guidance on how to work autonomously on pronunciation and other language aspects. The level, needs and profile of the groups differed somewhat in terms of learning outcomes.

In the first instance, students of mixed abilities conducted a job interview situation, initially to practice using English tenses. Students listened, self-evaluated and commented on their partner's ability to communicate. Apart from language points, students remarked on the listening and clarifying strategies in operation and identified how they could usefully transfer these in their working environment especially when having to deal with different nationalities.

The second group was composed of working professionals at advanced level with very specific needs. Various recordings were made including reactions of stronger and weaker members of the group. Feedback involved fine-tuning grammatical accuracy, appropriacy and predominantly delivery of speech. Confident speakers developed their own awareness of transmitting the message through chunking phrases and pausing along with decisions taken for independent learning.

The third group consisted of a group presentation by University students. They reflected on their oral performance and later made comparisons with the edited version of spoken feedback. After having established which areas of the language needed improvement, students selected activities (in the multimedia centre) to help reach new objectives; principally the phonological aspects.

The questions investigated were the following: what are the pedagogical added-values for the learner on a short and long term basis? What are the pedagogical implications for teachers? The results show that the activities undertaken had a positive impact on students' motivation and confidence, they worked as language appropriation catalyst for lower levels and fostered students' management of their learning.
Keywords: oral competence, pedagogy, audio, action research

Main topic: Pedagogical change in technology integration

Biodata: Jayshri Mizeret-Lad presently works at the Language Centre of the Université de Lausanne where she teaches English as a second language for specific needs and profiles. Since she has been particularly interested in integrating the use of technology to assist autonomous learning. Celine Restrepo Zea works as a pedagogical engineer at the Language Centre of the Université de Lausanne. Her everyday challenges are to promote and advice on the use of new technologies in a pedagogical way.
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category Reflective Practice

Target educational sector Higher education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-12 (15:45 - 16:30) Parallel Session 4 (Room A-24)
Title:	Technology for enhancing oral competence: teacher's experimentation
Authors:	Jayshri Mizeret-Lad, Restrepo Zea Celine
Abstract:	This presentation reports on a research action which has been conducted to determine in what way technology could enhance the oral competence. Several experiments have been undertaken by teachers to see how sound editing tools such as Audacity, could be used to give feedback to students on their oral performance. Since it is indispensable that the learner should be able to compare the feedback s/he receives with his/her performance, new technologies were used and tested to see to what extend their use could foster learners' oral competence and strategies by providing non intrusive and contextualised feedback. As far as the oral competence is concerned, teachers have always been confronted with the dilemma of deciding when to give feedback. Between disrupting the learner in middle of his/her production and delaying the transmission of feedback, the choice is difficult since none is satisfactory. Indeed, if the first option implies breaking the speech flow, the effectiveness of the second solution tends to diminish as distance between triggering event and feedback increases. With recordings, the learner can quietly and immediately compare his/her production, taking some critical distance with his/her self, with the teacher's inserted recorded comment that can be on form, meaning, pronunciation or communicative strategy. The following examples illustrate three situations in which the students reflected on their oral competence with some guidance on how to work autonomously on pronunciation and other language aspects. The level, needs and profile of the groups differed somewhat in terms of learning outcomes. In the first instance, students of mixed abilities conducted a job interview situation, initially to practice using English tenses. Students listened, self-evaluated and commented on their partner's ability to communicate. Apart from language points, students remarked on the listening and clarifying strategies in operation and identified how they could usefully transfer these in their working environment especially when having to deal with different nationalities. The second group was composed of working professionals at advanced level with very specific needs. Various recordings were made including reactions of stronger and weaker members of the group. Feedback involved fine-tuning grammatical accuracy, appropriacy and predominantly delivery of speech. Confident speakers developed their own awareness of transmitting the message through chunking phrases and pausing along with decisions taken for independent learning. The third group consisted of a group presentation by University students. They reflected on their oral performance and later made comparisons with the edited version of spoken feedback. After having established which areas of the language needed improvement, students selected activities (in the multimedia centre) to help reach new objectives; principally the phonological aspects. The questions investigated were the following: what are the pedagogical added-values for the learner on a short and long term basis? What are the pedagogical implications for teachers? The results show that the activities undertaken had a positive impact on students' motivation and confidence, they worked as language appropriation catalyst for lower levels and fostered students' management of their learning.
Keywords:	oral competence, pedagogy, audio, action research
Main topic:	Pedagogical change in technology integration
Biodata:	Jayshri Mizeret-Lad presently works at the Language Centre of the Université de Lausanne where she teaches English as a second language for specific needs and profiles. Since she has been particularly interested in integrating the use of technology to assist autonomous learning. Celine Restrepo Zea works as a pedagogical engineer at the Language Centre of the Université de Lausanne. Her everyday challenges are to promote and advice on the use of new technologies in a pedagogical way.
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	Reflective Practice
Target educational sector	Higher education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No