TECHNOLOGY AIDED ACTIVITIES FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL: ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN FOCUS

Abstract

This study aims to explore whether students perceive that the technology aided activities for Junior High School support the development of their oral speaking skills, whether students consider that the out-of-class speaking activities contributed to building their level of confidence with respect to using the target structures and vocabulary in the classroom, and the advantages and/or challenges they perceive in using computer-mediated communicative out-of-class activities to improve their speaking skills during the pandemic. A further aim of this study is to investigate whether the use of technology aided activities out-of-class speaking activities supports the development of students willingness to communicate, measured by using students performance on different online activities. The research was conducted in selected public Junior High School who were chosen among Junior High School students on a voluntary basis. The data for this research were collected via in-depth interview, which was conducted at the middle of the study. Also, the study showed that there was a significant contribution to the students willingness to communicate in the target language as they became more confident as well as more comfortable speaking English. KEY WORDS: Technology, aided, English, activities, junior high school, oral communication, skills, focus