Zine Nawel

Master1: Applied Linguistics/ TEFL

Franziska Lys in her research paper titled The Develop ent o! Advanced Learner "ral #ro!iciency $sing i#ads%&olu e 1' (u )er * +"cto)er ,-1*.// e0plains ho1 i#ad technology 1as used in an advanced conversation class to i prove listening and speaking skills and to help students gain speaking pro!iciency in a 1ider range o! topics2 A detailed analysis o! pre3course and post3course recorded speech sa ples analyzes language develop ent and gain in ter s o! !luency% gra atical accuracy and cultural content2 4esults o! an e0tensive tracking o! the use o! the technology sho1s ho1 o!ten and ho1 long students engaged in !ace3ti e and recording activities2 4esults !ro learning outco es2 This class is !or students 1ho 1ish to i prove their speaking pro!iciency2 6tudents enrolled in this class generally have a 1ide i0 o! pro!iciency levels +inter ediate high to advanced lo1 on the AT7FL pro!iciency scale. )ut can typically converse 1ith relative ease and con!idence 1hen dealing 1ith routine tasks and social situations related to 1ork% school% and recreation2 The goal o! this class is to increase accuracy% !luency% and co ple0ity o! language )y practicing speaking a)out a 1ider range o! topics that include topics o! pu)lic interests8 as 1ell as )y practicing genres )eyond the narrative to include e0pressing% supporting% and de!ending personal opinions2 The goal o! this study is to investigate 1hether a 1ell3designed instructional setting that !ocuses on additional conversational practice in and outside o! class 5uestionnaire reveal student attitudes to1ards the technology and sel!3perceived

through the use o! i#ad technology can i prove the 5uality and a ount o! language students are a)le to produce at the end o! a nine31eek class2 9 had taught the advanced conversation class any ti es )e!ore and had al1ays )een concerned a)out the lack o! interactions in the :er an language availa)le to students in the class and outside o! class and the s all gain in speaking pro!iciency students ade in nine 1eeks2 has already

9nteraction as an i portant co ponent !or the language classroo )een

entioned )y ;ohnson 1ho descri)es !our key re5uire ents to opti ize

learning% to ensure an opti al instructional environ ent and concludes that <conversational interaction a ong language learners o! roughly e5ual a)ility ight )e particularly use!ul< )ecause it pro otes sy a ong learners =the 5uality o! language use that can 1ith engage ent and learning<2 9n the advanced conversation class% students 1ere engaged in listening% speaking% and recording tasks using the i#ad in the class and outside o! class ost days2 Each 1eek% 9 assigned a set o! sca!!olded tasks and the atic practices that 1ere designed to progressively enhance the co ple0ity o! the language% the su)>ect atter% and the e otional and cognitive engage ent o! the students2 The structure o! the sca!!olded tasks 1as consistent each 1eek 1ith only the content changing2 9n3class activities using the i#ad consisted o! the use o! electronic dictionaries and 1e)pages !or co prehension 5uestions and research activities as 1ell as Apps !or colla)orative 1ork such as sharing o! research results a ong students2 Activities using the i#ad outside o! class consisted o! regular peer3conversations using Face-Time and 1eekly recordings o! speech sa ples using the iPad camera. For additional listening practice% students 1ere asked to listen to and su arize a short ne1s event or ne1s etry +=the e5ual distri)ution o! rights and duties in talk< 1hich in turn creates contingency ost directly )e associated

)roadcast o! their choice every 1eek2 They 1ere encouraged to discuss these )roadcasts 1ith their chat partner during the 1eekly sessions2 9n order to !ind out 1hether the i#ad 1ould provide !or additional conversational activities and 1hether these activities 1ere )ene!icial !or the ac5uisition o! oral pro!iciency% 9 designed a research study )ased on a one3group pretest3posttest design using atched3pairs t3tests2 During the nine 1eeks% students produced y analysis2 9 tracked the length eight recordings 1hich served as the )asis !or

o! each recording to gage i prove ent and ease o! language production2 At the end o! the class% students 1ere asked to repeat assign ent 1% recorded as assign ent ?2 These t1o assign ents 1ere transcri)ed to analyze pre3 and post3 course language !or 5uality and cultural content2 9n addition% 9 collected sel!3 reported data on length o! the 1eekly Face3Ti e and (e1s @roadcast activities2 A)out !our 1eeks a!ter the class ended% students 1ere also asked to !ill out an online survey a)out their e0periences and attitudes to1ards using the i#ad2 There 1ere 1, students 1hose data 1e collected: * :er an inors8 B students had studied a)road !ro students 1ho participated in the survey2 The study 1as designed to ans1er a series o! 5uestions centered around the idea that the i#ad 1ould provide increased language use inside and outside o! class +either chatting% recording one/s voice% or vie1ing ne1s. and that this increased interaction 1ould signi!icantly i prove the a ount as 1ell as the 5uality o! language student could produce at the end o! the course2 Eight students agreed or strongly agreed that they !elt co unicate ore con!ident a)out * :er an courses the students had taken ranged !ro a>ors% A :er an onths to 1 year8 and the previous , to 1C2 There 1ere 11

participating in class as a result o! using the i#ad and that they could ore clearly2 6even students agreed or strongly agreed that the ore i ersive learning i#ad enhanced their learning as it allo1ed !or a

environ ent and encouraged colla)oration2 Ten o! the 11 students agreed or strongly agreed that the i#ad co ple ented the classroo 1ell2

Face3Ti e: Eight students agreed or strongly agreed that Face3Ti e 1as help!ul to engage in speaking activities outside o! class and seven students thought it 1as a great 1ay to learn to speak ore !luently2

i#ad 7a era: Eight students agreed or strongly agreed that the i#ad ca era helped the practice the language as re3listening and re3recording deepened their learning e0perience2 (e1s @roadcasts: (ine students agreed or strongly agreed that 1atching ne1s )roadcasts increased their cultural a1areness and kno1ledge o! current cultural and political events in :er any and Europe2 +:raph 1. 6el!3evaluation o! skills: $sing the ru)rics o! the 7o on European

Fra e1ork o! 4e!erence +7EF4.% 9 asked students to sel!3evaluate their speaking skills )e!ore and a!ter the class to see ho1 they !elt a)out their progress2 6i0 thought they had had oved up one level on the scale% one though she oved up t1o levels% and C thought they 1ere at the sa e level as )e!ore2

The results o! the study suggest that the i#ad provided additional opportunities to the students to practice their language skills2 The ti e students spent engaged in 1eekly conversations using !ace3ti e averaged al ost *inutes each 1eek over the course o! the 5uarter2 This is a considera)le )lock o! ti e especially 1hen co pared to the ti e a student spends speaking in class2 4ecording ti e increased to ore than seven inutes over the course o! the 5uarter as 1ell2 9n ore speaking each 1eek as students reality% this assign ent added a lot

rerecorded the speaking sa ple in an atte pt to produce a )etter sa ple2 The a ount o! language +speaking ti e and 1ords produced. and the co ple0ity o! language +length and type o! sentences. increased as 1ell over the course o! nine

1eeks2 This increase suggests that the added 1eekly practice !acilitated the use o! language and gave the students con!idence in e0pressing the selves2 The language in the second sa ple +T,.% ho1ever% 1as less !luent and tended to )e less accurate% i2e2% 1e !ound co ple0 sentences as 1ell as ore errors2 6tudents tended to use short si ple ore ore di!!icult voca)ulary and content 1hich put a e ory2 This is consistent 1ith the ore sophisticated language% they ay sentences in !irst sa ple2 9n the second sa ple% students used longer lot o! processing strain on the 1orking literature2 As learners try to integrate

re>ect previously accepted language !or s as part o! the process o! restructuring their evolving language co petence2 The learning can )e descri)ed as a u3 shaped learning )ehavior% a pheno enon 1idely discussed a ong psychologists and cognitive scientists2