Communicating Authentically: Enhancing EFL Students' Spoken English via Videoconferencing

Abstract

This study examines how synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) tools afford English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with the opportunity to enrich their language learning experience, and so enhance their speaking proficiency by engaging in real communicative tasks with native English speakers (NSs). Two NSs and 36 students from a southern university in Saudi Arabia participated in a 12-week online videoconferencing study. The students were randomly divided into two groups. A pretest– post-test design was used to investigate changes in EFL learners’ English speaking proficiency, and to examine their learning experiences. Participants’ speech samples and their beliefs about using videoconferencing as a learning tool were collected during the first and twelfth weeks. Two English teachers then assessed the participants’ performance using Sawaki’s (2007) assessment scale for second language (L2) speaking ability. T-test and descriptive statistics were used to analyze and explain the data. Qualitative data was gathered from content analyses of the interviews conducted at the end of the study. The findings showed modest improvement in the participants’ speaking proficiency and positive attitudes toward videoconferencing as a learning tool.