The Effectiveness of Gallery Run Technique on Saudi EFL Upper-Intermediate Students’ Speaking Skill: Learners’ Attitudes in Focus

Gallery Run (GR) is a classroom-based dynamic learning technique that promotes higher-order thinking and co-operative learning. This research study examined the influence of GR strategy on Saudi upper-intermediate English as a foreign language(EFL) learners’ oral skills. First off, 62 upper-intermediate EFL learners from a language school in Riyadh were opted and randomly sectioned into an experimental group and a control group. Then, the participants in the two groups were given a speaking pretest. The experiment group applied the GR technique in their classroom, whereas the control group received no treatment and continued with an ordinary classroom program. After two-month classes, a speaking posttest was given to the two groups. To analyze the data collected, Independent and Paired Samples T-tests were conducted. The results showed that the experimental group excelled and outperformed the control group. The results also showed that 25.8% and 48.3% of the participants agreed and strongly agreed respectively that the GR technique enhanced their self-dependence. Furthermore, 45% of the participants reported that the ambiance was delightful, which conduced to the amelioration of their speaking competence. Another significant result was that 61.2% and 19.3% of the learners strongly agreed and agreed respectively that GR reduced the levels of loneliness and social anxiety. Furthermore, 58.1% strongly agreed that the GR technique did not put them under any kind of stress, nor did it encourage social loafing. A final finding reported by the 48.4 % of the learners was that GR reduced their alexithymia, social anxiety, and self-monitoring.

Swedish and Finnish Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Summative Assessment Practices

Summative assessments are an exercise of authority and something that pupils cannot easily appeal. The importance of teachers being able to assess their pupils correctly is consequently both a question of national equivalence and individual fairness. Therefore, summative assessment is a paramount theme in teacher education, and we aimed to investigate the perceptions and competence of student teachers regarding common summative assessment practices. The study was conducted at three universities, two in Sweden and one in Finland involving prospective language teachers responding to an online survey (N = 131). In addition, interviews were carried out with 20 Swedish and 6 Finnish student teachers. The analysis of the data indicates that student teachers value practices that enhance communication and collaboration as well as the curricular alignment of summative assessments. With respect to perceived competence, the respondents in general felt most confident with deploying traditional forms of summative assessment, while they were more uncertain about process evaluation and oral skills. Regarding significant differences in the participants’ perceptions of competence among the three universities, Finnish university students reported higher levels in all variables. However, room for improvement was found at all universities involved.

Oral production skills and pronunciation improvement in MOOCs for migrants and refugees: an unavoidable challenge

This article is focused on the challenges posed by the development of oral production skills (speaking, pronunciation) in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), a resource that is totally conditioned by the technologies and has very limited posibilities for individual adaptation. First of all, the difficulties that this goal poses are reviewed and confronted with some successful precedents that show how to deal with those challenges. Next, we present a case study in which some strategies and resources have been used to develop oral skills and improve pronunciation in technologically mediated environments, an Spanish L-MOOC for migrants and refugees, absolute beginners, developed at UNED (Spain).

The Effectiveness of Gallery Run Technique on Saudi EFL Upper-Intermediate Students’ Speaking Skill: Learners’ Attitudes in Focus

Gallery Run (GR) is a classroom-based dynamic learning technique that promotes higher-order thinking and co-operative learning. This research study examined the influence of GR strategy on Saudi upper-intermediate English as a foreign language(EFL) learners’ oral skills. First off, 62 upper-intermediate EFL learners from a language school in Riyadh were opted and randomly sectioned into an experimental group and a control group. Then, the participants in the two groups were given a speaking pretest. The experiment group applied the GR technique in their classroom, whereas the control group received no treatment and continued with an ordinary classroom program. After two-month classes, a speaking posttest was given to the two groups. To analyze the data collected, Independent and Paired Samples T-tests were conducted. The results showed that the experimental group excelled and outperformed the control group. The results also showed that 25.8% and 48.3% of the participants agreed and strongly agreed respectively that the GR technique enhanced their self-dependence. Furthermore, 45% of the participants reported that the ambiance was delightful, which conduced to the amelioration of their speaking competence. Another significant result was that 61.2% and 19.3% of the learners strongly agreed and agreed respectively that GR reduced the levels of loneliness and social anxiety. Furthermore, 58.1% strongly agreed that the GR technique did not put them under any kind of stress, nor did it encourage social loafing. A final finding reported by the 48.4 % of the learners was that GR reduced their alexithymia, social anxiety, and self-monitoring.

Internationalisation at home through virtual exchange: an encounter between distance language learners and trainee language teachers

Undergraduate language students from the Open University (OU) and master’s degree students from Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) participated in an innovative Virtual Exchange (VE) as part of our institutions’ internationalisation at home strategy. Due to the pandemic, the one-week Residential School (RS) abroad, which is part of the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in modern languages at the OU, was replaced with an Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) – a one-week online intensive programme which included a VE. Its objectives were to support the development of OU students’ French oral skills, and the professionalisation of AMU students, by developing their pedagogical and digital skills. Qualitative and quantitative data collected showed a high level of participants’ interaction and collaboration, and positive feedback highlighting an increase in motivation and confidence to speak French (OU students) and a valued experience in developing professional ethos, and digital teaching skills (AMU students).

OFLEBO, an online teacher-training programme for teachers of French in Botswana as an example of professionalisation

Technology has influenced not only our everyday lives, but our education systems and the opportunities for teacher development. The introduction of information and communications technology has presented new training platforms to respond to the needs of the workforce. While traditional institutions have greatly impacted teachers, there are now other viable outlets through which many of the required 21st century skills, such as professionalism, can be satisfied. Our project OFLEBO is one such example, an online training tool targeting the teaching of oral skills for in-service teachers of the French language in Botswana. This area was chosen because of the teachers’ admission on finding teaching oral skills a challenging task. This paper therefore aims to study the professionalisation of teachers through the OFLEBO project. Professionalisation as a process is continuous, and practice is its focus, therefore the aim is to inspire the evolution of classroom practices concerning the teaching of oral skills.

Assessment of Oral Skills in Adolescents

There is broad consensus on the need to foster oral skills in middle school due to their inherent importance and because they serve as a tool for learning and acquiring other competences. In order to facilitate the assessment of communicative competence, we hereby propose a model which establishes five key dimensions for effective oral communication: interaction management; multimodality and prosody; textual coherence and cohesion; argumentative strategies; and lexicon and terminology. Based on this model, we developed indicators to measure the proposed dimensions, thus generating a self-report tool to assess oral communication in middle school. Following an initial study conducted with 168 students (mean age = 12.47 years, SD = 0.41), we selected 22 items with the highest discriminant power, while in a second study carried out with a sample of 960 students (mean age 14.11 years, SD = 0.97), we obtained evidence concerning factorial validity and the relationships between oral skills, emotional intelligence and metacognitive strategies related to metacomprehension. We concluded that the proposed model and its derived measure constitute an instrument with good psychometric properties for a reliable and valid assessment of students’ oral competence in middle school.

Estudio contrastivo de las competencias orales en las aplicaciones móviles (apps) para el estudio del Francés Lengua Extranjera (FLE)

El objetivo de este artículo es establecer un análisis comparativo de cuatro aplicaciones móviles (apps) diseñadas para la adquisición del francés como lengua extranjera (FLE). Dos de ellas se dirigen a un público generalista en el que el francés es una de las lenguas ofrecidas: Bussu y Duolingo. Los otros dos han siso creadas exclusivamente para aprender FLE: Le Bon Mot et Français Premier Pas.La revisión bibliográfica nos permite afirmar que la autonomía y la sencillez son ventajas del uso de las apps, mientras que el aspecto repetitivo sigue siendo una limitación. Nos centraremos en el estudio de los ejercicios propuestos en las aplicaciones seleccionadas con respecto a las habilidades orales de comprensión y expresión. Nuestro estudio llega a la conclusión de que, aunque las habilidades de comprensión están bastante bien desarrolladas, las de expresión podrían mejorarse para que estas aplicaciones sean herramientas eficaces. The purpose of this article is to establish a comparative analysis of four mobile applications (apps) designed to acquire French as a Foreign Language (FFL). Two of them are aimed at a general public where French is one of the languages offered: Bussu and Duolingo. The other two were created exclusively for FLE learning: Le Bon Mot and Français Premiers Pas. The bibliographical review allows us to affirm that autonomy and simplicity are assets of the use of apps, while the repetitive side remains a constraint. We will then focus on the study of the exercises proposed in the selected apps with regard to the oral skills of comprehension and expression. Our study comes to the conclusion that, even if comprehension skills are quite well developed, expression skills could be improved to make these apps efficient tools. Le but de cet article est d’établir une analyse comparative de quatre d’applications mobiles (apps) conçues pour acquérir le Français Langue Étrangère (FLE). Deux d’entre elles sont dirigées à un public généraliste où le français est l’une des langues proposées : Bussu et Duolingo. Les deux autres ont été crées exclusivement pour l’apprentissage du FLE: Le Bon Mot et Français Premier Pas. La révision bibliographique nous permet d’affirmer que l’autonomie et la simplicité sont des atouts de l’utilisation des apps, tandis que le côté répétitif reste une contrainte. Nous nous centrerons, par la suite, dans l’étude des exercices proposés dans les applications choisies en ce qui concerne les compétences orales de compréhension et l’expression. Notre étude arrive à la conclusion que, même si les compétences de compréhension se trouvent assez bien développées, celles d’expression pourraient améliorer pour faire de ces apps des outils performants.