Digital Systems and Reflective Practice: A Powerful Combination for Teaching Speaking Skills to Large Groups?

Abstract

 Teaching foreign language speaking skills to larger classes of students may require superior teaching skills and methodology. An online learning management system (LMS) is an example of a technological solution teachers could adopt in response to this challenge. However, to assess the suitability of LMSs for use in specific teaching contexts and to modify practice in response to challenges posed by these contexts, teacher reflection is required. In this study, a teacher of English to first-year university students in Japan describes his own reflections about the use of an LMS to facilitate speaking activities. While these reflections are limited to the 2019/2020 academic year and a single institution, they suggest that LMSs can assist in the management of speaking activities both outside and inside the classroom. LMSs are also useful when giving feedback to individual students. On the other hand, the teacher’s reflection drew his attention to some negative aspects of introducing this technology, as the new type of speaking activities required the teacher to allocate significant amounts of time for feedback outside of lessons. He also needed to gain a better understanding of how the students interacted with the LMS to improve the ways he gave them support. Finally, most of the students’ interactions involved the use of smartphones. Therefore, improving understandings of how smartphone use is related to broader patterns in language students’ digital literacy is an area the teacher recommends for future reflection and research.