The Impact of BigBlueButton vs. Skype on Communication Anxiety and Oral Communication Skills

Abstract

The present study, following a sequential mixed-methods design, aimed at examining whether internet-based applications, including Big-BlueButton and Skype online instruction differ in terms of communication anxiety and oral communication skills for EFL learners. A pool of 32 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL students participated in the quantitative phase of the study based on convenience sampling and a pool of nine students participated in the qualitative phase of the study based on purposive sampling. The results of one-way ANCOVA confirmed that there was a significant difference between the Skype group and the BigBlueBottom group in terms of communication anxiety and oral communication skills. Following inter-coder reliability, the most common themes (i.e., novel, challenging, motivating, less stressful, helpful, low internet speed, lack of equipment, and time-consuming) emerged from the students’ responses to the interview questions regarding the role of online learning on oral communication skills. Finally, some practical impli-cations were offered for EFL students and teachers, and some suggestions were made for conducting further studies.