Analyzing Oral Skills in Voice E-Mail and Online Interviews.

This study investigated the acquisition of speaking skills in an online distance education course of 19 first semester Spanish learners. The possibility of oral development in a strictly online course was examined based on students' pronunciation production in two types of recorded speaking activities and in two real-time conversations. Students created two types of voiced audio e-mails each week during the semester: read aloud passages and grammar-drill completions. In order to determine whether students' pronunciation indeed improved over the course of the semester, their performance on these two types of audio e-mails were compared at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. In addition, students participated in two Internet-mediated oral conversations with their instructor using MSN messaging at the mid-term week and final week of the semester. Three kinds of data were collected from the conversations: an articulation score (articulation = pronunciation, stress, and intonation), an accuracy score, and a proficiency score. Students' performance on these interviews provided further evidence regarding the development of their oral skills. The findings suggest that only in the area of oral proficiency were there significant gains in scores.

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