ICT Resources and LL Strategies for Speaking Skill Improvement: Activities and Results of a Workshop at University Level.

Villa María

Jornada; V Jornadas Nacionales de ELT- Innovations and Challenges in the 21st Century.; 2019

Institutos Académicos Pedagógicos de Ciencias Humanas (APCH) de la de la Universidad Nacional de Villa María

Extensive oral language for both social and academic purposes must be incorporated into successful literacy development. Speaking is a crucial part of FL teaching and learning at university level. Despite its importance, it is liable to be undervalued by teachers who continue designing activities which tend to be lecture style. To introduce communicative speaking activities with as many as 50 learners on average in one classroom requires not only considering teaching language learning strategies (LLS) but also introducing efficient Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Higher education language students are required to develop fluency as well as to acquire some degree of autonomy. Ideally, they should express themselves using relevant vocabulary, and of an acceptable level of language mastery. The integration of ICT in the educational environment has become increasingly important since they can offer a variety of authentic resources which can bridge the target language culture with the teaching and learning process. This article describes a workshop on speaking strategies, which is part of a larger project carried out by the Chair of English Language I, whose general objective was to develop learning strategies to introduce educational technologies that can help raise students' awareness of the need to increase autonomy. It also reports some preliminary results and describes the activities used to encourage students? participation and students´ perceptions of their usefulness.