Enhancing vocational students’ speaking performance through mobile-assisted task based learning

Abstract

In an internalized society like ours, Spanish vocational students should be able to join international companies where they could interact in English with fluency and accuracy. However, after many years of studying the foreign language, most students do not consider themselves prepared to face that challenge. Factors such as foreign language anxiety (FLA) and lack of practice might discourage them from reaching that goal. Thus, it seems necessary to take some action and change this scenario. The study targets students enrolled in the Higher Technician Programme in Computer Network Systems Management interested in performing their internship period in a European company. The aim of this study is to increase vocational training students’ confidence when speaking English in public and to reduce their foreign language anxiety by creating Mobile-Assisted Task Based Learning environment. Four different speaking activities would be implemented over a six-month period. Students would be assessed and guided in every unit throughout the process. To gather feedback from students and colleague teachers, a custom survey would be passed at the end of the project. This would be used to analyze, not only the strengths and weaknesses of the tool implementation, but also its usefulness in achieving our goal. With the help of this pedagogical application we will learn if students end the academic year ready to apply for a European internship.

En una Sociedad tan globalizada como la nuestra, el alumnado español de Formación Profesional debería ser capaz de unirse a empresas internacionales donde pudiera interactuar en inglés con fluidez y precisión. Sin embargo, después de muchos años estudiando este idioma extranjero, la mayoría del alumnado no se considera preparado para enfrentarse a ese desafío. Factores como la ansiedad lingüística (FLA por sus siglas en inglés) y la falta de práctica pueden desmotivar al alumnado a la hora de alcanzar ese objetivo. Por lo tanto, parece necesario actuar para cambiar esta situación.