Digital tools helped improve students' oral English skills by providing opportunities for repeated practice. A study examined the use of tools like Vocaroo and VoiceThread in two university English courses. Observations found that students became more comfortable speaking English over time as their language system changed nonlinearly. Iteration, or repeated practice, through re-recording tasks was important for language learning. Students formed a connected learning network and learned from giving and receiving feedback.

1. Digital Tools for oral
skills development in
English
V E R A M E N E Z E S
&
R O N A L D O G O M E S J R .

3. Oral Skills in Brazil
Overcrowded
classes
Non-fluent
teachers
Students
afraid of
speaking
Lack of
infrastructure
Few
opportunities
for practising

4. Can web tools help?

5. The
Study
Brazilian
university
Moodle
2 groups of 70
students
2016
(1st and 2nd terms)
Brazilian
undergraduate
students

8. Virtual classroom as a complex
system
1) Students and teachers are interconnected
into a web of affordances and constraints.
2) SLA develops through dynamic and
constant interaction among the elements of
the system, alternating moments of stability
with moments of turbulence.

9. 3) Classrooms are self-organizing and
adaptive systems where teachers and
learners are continually adapting to each
other.
4) Teaching is managing the dynamics of
learning.
5) The system is capable of applying a
function repeatedly (iterating function)

10. Iteration is not merely repetition. Iteration, or
the opportunity to revisit the same territory
again and again, is different from repetition; it
is the former that is important for language
learning and for transfer.
(Larsen-Freeman 2013, p. 121).
In our two courses, iteration occurred in two
instances: slightly varied consecutive tasks and
opportunities for the students to revisit the same
territory again and again, by recording their oral
productions again and again.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2013). Transfer of learning transformed. Language
Learning, v. 63, Suppl. 1, p. 107–129, Mar.

11. Methodology
1. Experimentation:
selection, experimentation
and evaluation of different
tools and pedagogical
activities mediated by
digital technology to the
development of oral skills.
(Siemens, 2008)
2. Implementation:
widespread adoption
based on the knowledge
acquired on the previous
stages. (Siemens, 2008)
3. Evaluation:
assessment of the
activities.
4. Observation 5. Learning journals
Siemens, George.(2008). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and
designers. 2008. Retrieved May 13, 2013. http://itforum.coe.uga.edu/Paper105/Siemens.pdf

12. The digital tools were
selected based on the
following questions:
a) Is the tool free?
b) Can the tool be used in any platform?
c) Can the tool be used without software setup?
d) Is the software use intuitive?
e) Can the tool be used for educational purposes?
f) Is the tool suitable for the development of oral skills?

13. Tasks
Audio recording answers to questions with language
functions that would be developed in the course,
using Vocaroo.
Recording a personal introduction using Voki.
Making comments about the colleagues’ introductions
using Vocaroo.
Creating a family photo album with audio description
using UTellStory.
Describing an influential person in the first person
using Voki avatars. The colleagues were supposed to
listen to the avatars and guess who s/he was.

14. Tasks
Building a multimodal glossary with vocabulary about
food. Students were instructed to post names of
ingredients and procedures with respective images
and an audio file so that other students could check
the right pronunciation.
Recording a video recipe using PowToon or a
smartphone.
Audio recording about their personal university
routine using Vocaroo, a smartphone or any recording
tool.
Podcast recording with image and audio describing a
favorite destination in Brazil using Fotobabble.

15. Tasks
Debating about likes and dislikes based on a video
using VoiceThread.
Debating about likes and dislikes based on a video
using VoiceThread.
Debating about feelings and emotions based on a
video using VoiceThread.
Asking and giving information about the university
using AudioBoom.

16. Tasks
Telling a love story using Vocaroo, a smartphone or
any other tool.
Writing their English learning histories using PowToon,
UTellStory or FotoBabble.
Talking about plans for the future using any audio
recording tool.

17. Observation and Learning journals tell
us that:
The first task was a
moment of instability for
the great majority of
students, even for those
who were already fluent.
Their anxiety decreased.
They felt more comfortable
and sounded much more
natural at the end of the
course.
Their language system changed along the
course in a nonlinear way.
Analysis

18. "I could really see the difference. Even in the tone of
my voice, which is firmer, more confident, because
I’d been a long time with no contact with English.
There has been enormous improvements and I am
very satisfied. The experience was exceptional.
Besides the digital technologies, I got to know new
resources to improve not only my listening, but also
my writing, and mainly my speaking. Very good!"

19. "By comparing the first and the last audio files I
recorded, I could see that I am more confident to
speak in English. Before I had a low self esteem,
because I believed my colleagues were more fluent,
and it traumatized in so many ways that I refuse to
speak in front of many people in face to face
classrooms. However, after this course, I can affirm
that I am more confident and encouraged to continue
studying and practicing English. So, this course
really helps students to develop their speaking skills,
what results in more knowledge about the English
grammar and pronunciation, and also in the
development of fluency and naturalness when
speaking English."

20. Observation and Learning journals tell
us that:
Their language system changed along the course in a
nonlinear way.
Iteration was fundamental for language learning
development, according to our students. Even the ones
who were fluent reported that they used to prepare a
script and record their tasks several times before
uploading the final one.
Analysis

21. As a collective, we learned with each other and
with our own experiences. We, teachers, had not
perceived the affordance offered by Moodle for
audio embedding, but a student embedded one
of her audios and we asked her how to do it and
she taught us. We had neither perceived the
constraint on the hosting time limit for the
audios recorded with Vocaroo either. As a
consequence, many audio files were lost.

22. Final Considerations
Students formed a connected network, interacted
with classmates and teachers, learned with
feedback and also with each other’s performances
and mistakes.
Moodle together with digital tools offered a safe
environment for the development of language
learning.

23. The iterative movement of recording, monitoring, re-
recording was essential for the development of the
students’ language learning system.

24. Thank You
vlmop@veramenezes.com
ronaldocgomes@gmail.com