Technology in Support of Developing Speaking Skills in ESP Courses

Agnieszka Dzięcioł-Pędich,Agnieszka Dudzik

doi:10.17951/lsmll.2021.45.3.57-69

Agnieszka Dzięcioł-Pędich, Agnieszka Dudzik

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2021.45.3.57-69

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Abstract

Nowadays, when face-to-face human interactions are restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students have fewer opportunities to put their oral communicative abilities to the test. Under these circumstances, technology becomes an ally of both teachers and learners. While synchronous tools enable students to communicate with one another in real time, asynchronous tools allow them, among others, to record their utterances for review and self-evaluation. This paper aims to indicate which technological solutions could help teachers increase learners’ oral production in the ESP classroom (with particular emphasis on Medical and Business English) and which ones could help students improve their speaking skills independently.

Highlights

Nowadays, when face-to-face human interactions are restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students have fewer opportunities to put their oral communicative abilities to the test
Contrary to EnglishCentral and MedicalEnglish, Flipgrid is a video platform that furthers the development of speaking skills at any level and any area of expertise since it is the teacher who creates a grid and decides on how specialised and linguistically advanced a given topic will be
Asynchronous communication tools rely on activities that students can access and interact with when it is convenient for them

Summary

Oral communication skills in the ESP classroom

The development of speaking skills has become one of the core elements of ESP training. The need to communicate orally is evident in the light of the cultural challenges of multinational teams working together in increasingly global professional environments. The need for effective communication skills training in English is emphasised by a number of professional bodies, such as the General Medical Council (GMC) or the Association of American Medical Colleges (Kurtz, Silverman, & Draper, 2005). Speaking skills should be given due importance in the ESP curriculum. ESP courses ought to be designed to enable participants to practise speaking for a number of activity types, including Ineffective communication may, in effect, increase the potential for minor errors or even malpractice

Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools

Developing speaking skills with synchronous tools

Advantages of asynchronous language communication

Asynchronous tools for developing ESP speaking skills

Conclusions