Oral Skills

Autores por orden de firma:  Marta Martín del Pozo y José Luis Martín López

Las Habilidades para la Vida (toma de decisiones, resolución de problemas, pensamiento creativo, pensamiento crítico, comunicación efectiva, habilidades de relación interpersonal, autoconocimiento, empatía, manejo de emociones y manejo de estrés) son habilidades esenciales para el Ser Humano que permiten a los individuos responder efectivamente a las demandas y desafíos del día a día y, de este modo, contribuyen a su bienestar y felicidad. Debido a su importancia, consideramos que las Habilidades para la Vida deberían ser trabajadas en el sistema educativo y para ello es preciso que se utilicen todos los recursos que estén a nuestro alcance. En este sentido, uno de los recursos que pueden utilizarse son los videojuegos, una de las formas más usuales de entretenimiento en la actualidad. Los videojuegos pueden ser utilizados también en la educación y consideramos que pueden ser utilizados para trabajar las Habilidades para la Vida. En este caso, mostramos una propuesta educativa sobre cómo usar el videojuego Los Sims 2 para fomentar el desarrollo de la una de las Habilidades para la Vida, en particular la Comunicación Efectiva, en Educación Primaria, usando para ello un enfoque de aprendizaje colaborativo. Debido a todo esto, este artículo tratará de: Las Habilidades para la Vida (definición, una lista de ellas según la Organización Mundial de la Salud y su presencia en las leyes educativas españolas); algunos beneficios y experiencias de videojuegos en la educación; y la propuesta educativa para trabajar una de las Habilidades para la Vida, en particular la Comunicación Efectiva, usando el videojuego Los Sims 2 mediante un enfoque de aprendizaje colaborativo.

Resumen
Los modelos actuales de enseñanza de lenguas, con la implantación de los sistemas comunicativos, han dado un papel fundamental a las destrezas orales en el aula. Este artículo pretende mostrar datos actualizados sobre la importancia real otorgada al uso de las destrezas orales en el proceso de aprendizaje de lenguas; para ello se realiza un trabajo de investigación con estudiantes y profesores de español, en la Universidad de Alcalá, sobre las preferencias y uso de las diferentes competencias comunicativas. La conclusión es que las destrezas orales son las competencias comunicativas más valoradas entre los estudiantes de español y entre los profesores nativos de esta lengua; por el contrario los profesores no nativos prefieren la enseñanza de la gramática y de las destrezas escritas. Así mismo, no se da correspondencia, en el caso de los estudiantes internacionales, entre lo que les gustaría estudiar y lo que realmente han estudiado en su país de origen.
Palabras claves: destrezas orales, español como lengua extranjera, competencia comunicativa.
The oral skills in the Spanish language classroom: current situation of the communicative competences
Abstract
Current models of language teaching, thanks to the implementation of communicative strategies, play a crucial role regarding oral skills in the classroom. This article shows the real importance given to the use of oral skills in the language learning process; for this reason we have prepared a research with students and teachers of Spanish, at the University of Alcalá, focused on their preferences and use of different communicative competences. Oral sills are the best valued among students of Spanish and between native teachers of this language; by contrast nonnative teachers prefer teaching grammar and writing skills. Likewise, there is no correspondence, in the case of international students, between what they would like to study and what they have actually studied in their home country.
Keywords: oral skills, Spanish as a Foreign Language, communicative competences.
Les compétences orales dans la classe espagnole: l'état actuel des compétences communicatives.
Les modèles actuels de l'enseignement des langues, avec la mise en œuvre des systèmes communicatifs, ont un rôle clé à l'expression orale en classe. Cet article présente une mise à jour sur l'importance réelle accordée à l'utilisation des compétences orales dans le processus d'apprentissage des langues; de ce fait, il a été réalisé un travail de recherche avec des étudiants et des professeurs d'Espagnol Langue Étrangère, de l'Université d'Alcalá, sur les préférences et les usages des différentes compétences communicatives. La conclusion est que les compétences orales sont les plus appréciées entre les étudiants d'espagnol et entre les enseignants natifs de cette langue; en revanche les enseignants non natifs préfèrent l'enseignement de la grammaire et de l'écriture. De même, dans le cas des étudiants internationaux, il n'y a pas de correspondance entre ce qu'ils aimeraient étudier et ce qu'ils ont effectivement étudié dans leur pays d'origine.
Mots-clés: expression orale, l'Espagnol Langue Étrangère, la compétence communicative.

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on CALL No.2 July, 2015     
                                                                                                                                                                  Pp. 195 –206




Discussion-Based Approach to English Language Teaching and Learning
A Digital Dedicated Language Laboratory



Naima Hamlaoui
Department of English
Faculty of Letters, Human and Social Sciences
El-Bouni Campus
Badji Mokhtar University,
Annaba, Algeria.

&

Nacereddine Benabdallah
Department of Foreign Languages
Faculty of Letters and Languages,
Mohamed-Cherif Messadia University,Algeria



Abstract
One of the most fundamental concerns of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) is to maximize the opportunities of learner-learner talk. Digitalized technological facilities can motivate committed teachers to adapt and adopt innovative ways of teaching oral skills. This article reports on an action research project implemented during one semester with a group of 14 willing Master students at the Department of Foreign Languages, Mohamed Cherif Messadia University, Souk-Ahras, Algeria. The aim was to investigate the effectiveness of the Digital Dedicated Language Laboratory (DDLL) in teaching English through a discussion-based approach. A well designed protocol made up of three types of discussion: framing, conceptual, and application discussions was adopted. The findings revealed that students were able to develop their linguistic, socio-cultural and pragmatic competences. They were also given the opportunity to exploit the various facilities, and tools available at the DDLL.
Keywords: Action research; digital; discussion; EFL; laboratory; oral skills.

This dissertation project examines patterns of stance in essays written by high- and low-performing students in two upper-level undergraduate courses, one in political theory and the other in economics. It employs methods of linguistic discourse analysis, drawing largely on Appraisal Theory (a subset of Systemic Functional Linguistics), in combination with methods from corpus linguistics and theoretical insights from rhetorical genre studies. It examines how recurring patterns of stance in students' essays correspond to the goals and assessment criteria for writing in the courses, as revealed through interviews with the instructors and analysis of selected course material. Through this robust set of analytic approaches, the study aims to make explicit patterns of stance in student writing that correlate with high- and low-graded essays and with the disciplinary contexts. The broader aim is to render explicit patterns of interpersonal meanings constructed in students' texts that construe such abstract qualities as critical reasoning, complexity and nuance in argumentation, and control of the discourse—features identified by the instructors as valued in student writing. The study contributes to the field of composition and rhetoric by pinpointing discursive resources that enable some student writers to construct more discipline-congruent styles of argumentation than others. Specific findings show that, while the two essay assignments require different ways of using language to construct valued stances, the high-performing writers in both contexts more consistently construct a "novice academic" stance while the low-performing writers more consistently construct a "student" stance. The former is marked by the rhetorical qualities of contrastiveness, dialogic control, critical distance, and discoursal alignment, or assimilation of the disciplinary discourse. In contrast, the “student” stance is marked by frequent personalizing moves, repeated references to the classroom discourse, and comparatively infrequent use of discursive resources that construe the rhetorical qualities listed above. These findings have implications for instruction in writing in the disciplines (WID) contexts, specifically in terms of how instructors can refine their metalanguage about writing for discussing stance with students explicitly and in detail.

The present study analyzes the English textbook of Grade 8 published by Punjab Textbook Board in Pakistan in the light of student learning outcomes (SLOs) of four competencies: reading and thinking skills, writing skills, oral communication skills, and formal and lexical aspects of language of the latest English curriculum in Pakistan. Competency (C), standards (S), benchmarks (B), and SLOs are the parameters given in the National Curriculum. A semi-structured checklist was developed by the researchers, validated by three experts from the relevant field, and improved in the light of experts’ opinion and pilot study findings. To evaluate the textbook competencies and their SLOs, the evidence was sought from the textbook, and remarks were given in the last column (remarks/analysis) of the checklist. The results revealed that the textbook understudy focuses on reading comprehension only. There is thus a dire need to incorporate thinking skills, writing skills, oral/aural communication ...

The present study analyzes the English textbook of Grade 8 published by Punjab Textbook Board in Pakistan in the light of student learning outcomes (SLOs) of four competencies: reading and thinking skills, writing skills, oral communication skills, and formal and lexical aspects of language of the latest English curriculum in Pakistan. Competency (C), standards (S), benchmarks (B), and SLOs are the parameters given in the National Curriculum. A semi-structured checklist was developed by the researchers, validated by three experts from the relevant field, and improved in the light of experts’ opinion and pilot study findings. To evaluate the textbook competencies and their SLOs, the evidence was sought from the textbook, and remarks were given in the last column (remarks/analysis) of the checklist. The results revealed that the textbook understudy focuses on reading comprehension only. There is thus a dire need to incorporate thinking skills, writing skills, oral/aural communication ...

The methodological principle of "symmetry" has been developed within Science Studies, and powerfully taken up within recent research of the public understanding of science. In this chapter I argue its value for researchers within New Literacy Studies (NLS) who are interested in drawing insight from marginalised literacy practices and unsuccessful student and employee writing.

Symmetry is an issue of the repertoires of explanation that the researcher draws on (and fails to draw on) in their research. In the context of researching literacy and student writing, it is an issue of whether we draw on say, psychological or social, single or multiple, universal or contingent repertoires of explanation when trying to understand and to explain literacy practices, and the successful and unsuccessful writing of our students.

While this focus may seem rather abstract, the notion of symmetry actually offers a very practical guide in the process of research and analysis, as well as a tool for reflexivity and critique in such research. It offers a powerful means of explaining the strength of the kind of research advocated by NLS, and a potential clarification of what it means in NLS to "relativise literacy practices at an analytic level" (Brian V. Street 1996: 5). Significantly, if offers a further challenge to the pervasive deficit accounts of public literacy and student writing within popular and political discourse, and even within much research.

Any learning is stimulated by the teaching method or technique adopted. When put in traditional competitive settings, students worry more about their self-esteem and tend to shy away from participating in the activities, while, only those with higher level of oral skills volunteer in answering the questions. This inequity in practice causes a discrepancy in students' performance in the oral expression exams and thus, results in a gap in the achievement. This paper suggests cooperative learning as a means to reduce the achievement gap between high and low achievers in the oral expression classes. This study is an endeavor to highlight the effectiveness of cooperative learning in reducing the disparity between high and low achievers and also to accentuate the benefits of this method in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The study followed an experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent groups design with a sample of 44 second year EFL students from the University of Khenchela, Algeria. The intervention lasted for a semester. The results showed that the achievement gap was reduced in the experimental group after using cooperative learning instructions, while the traditional method, in the control group, failed in closing the achievement gap between high and low-achievers. As a conclusion, some recommendations will be given with the aim of promoting the use of cooperative learning in the EFL classrooms as well as fostering teachers' awareness of the effectiveness of such teaching method in improving students' performance in oral expression.