Oral Production in Spanish as a Second Language and Distance Esducation: Possible Dialogues and Practices
Oral Production; Distance Education; Spanish as a foreign language learning; oral tasks.
This study investigates the attention given to the oral production (OP) in a Distance Licentiate Degree in Spanish and analyzes if the performance of OP tasks contributes to the development of such skill, concerning pronunciation, grammatical accuracy, fluency, lexical inadequacy and diversity and the global oral proficiency of Spanish as a Foreign Language learners (LE) in distance education (dE), also assessing the impact of two different forms of feedback in the development of the oral production of these students. The research was conducted during the semesters of 2015.1 and 2015.2, respectively in the subjects of Spanish Language II and III. Altogether, two teachers and 42 undergraduates participated in the study. For understanding how the oral production practices take place in the course, the virtual learning environment of the students and the teaching material used were analyzed. Besides, questionnaires were used with students and teachers of the subjects. To evaluate the development of their OP, students were divided into three groups: the study group, the study group+ and control group. Participants in the control group took a pre and a post-test and received no feedback on their productions. The study groups performed the pre-test, 3 other OP tasks and a post-test and both received feedback on their productions, but the study group+ received more explanatory feedbacks as compared to those received by the study group. Out of the total number of students, 18 performed all activities in both semesters of the data collection - 2015.1 2015.2- (longitudinal collection) and 24 carried out activities in only one semester - either 2015.1 or 2015.2- (semi-longitudinal collection). The qualitative results show that OP practices are left behind in the disciplines and that the textbook is the main or the only material used by teachers in the course. In addition, the data revealed that oral production tasks performed during the study were positively seen by the students. Quantitative analysis of the longitudinal collection points that there was a statistically significant increase in terms of pronunciation, particularly for the experimental group. The same increase was not observed with respect to the development of other variables. In the semi-longitudinal collection, quantitative data indicated no positive statistical significance for any evaluated oral production measurement. It is possible to conclude, from the results, that the oral production of Spanish learners of distance education is most improved by the performance of tasks and the long-term feedback received.