International Perspectives on Teaching the Four Skills in ELT by Anne Burns & Joseph Siegel

Author:Anne Burns & Joseph Siegel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Background

Speaking lessons are the most popular type of lessons currently taught via video/audio conferencing tools (Kozar 2012). This is not surprising as, compared to other online tools, the video/audio conferencing medium provides productive conditions for speaking practice. Even though it is clear that video/audio conferencing lend themselves to teaching speaking, what is less clear is how teachers can best facilitate online conversational lessons. There are many aspects of online lessons that differ from face-to-face instruction. One difference is what Hampel (2006) calls the ‘materiality’ of the videoconferencing environment. It refers to how we experience the online environment and how we get things done in it; for example, how we provide feedback or share resources. However, ‘materiality’ is not the only thing that is different about video/audio conferencing lessons. Teachers and students are also located in different physical spaces (e.g. different cities, countries or even continents), and they can be in different time zones and even seasons. While these differences can sometimes provide prompts for conversation, they can also make it more challenging to find topics to discuss, as teachers and students cannot draw on the shared background knowledge that often lubricates social conversations.

In addition to finding suitable topics to discuss, teachers working in video/audio conferencing environments also need to develop new ways to perform familiar classroom tasks. For example, they need to share content, make notes, communicate feedback and encourage students. Many of these functions tend to be taken for granted in the face-to-face environment but must be adapted for online delivery. For instance, a teacher in a face-to-face classroom can easily judge whether their students are looking at the textbook, whiteboard or their peers. This type of information helps teachers make decisions, provide clarifications and adjust the conversation accordingly. In the absence of clear visual clues in the video/audio conferencing environment, a teacher needs to rely on other means to gauge students’ understanding and manage learning.

There are many questions that new online teachers ask. For example, new teachers may want to know what materials are used by teachers whose students feel satisfied with their lessons and how teachers manage conversational lessons. They may also wonder how they should manage technology; for example, to what extent they should use webcam and text chat while teaching conversational lessons. There are some existing studies that can be helpful in answering some of these questions. The following paragraphs provide a brief overview of studies that focused on various aspects of technology such as webcams and text chat.

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