New Approaches to the Teaching of Spoken English

Abstract

Although extensive research has been conducted in the last few years on the teaching of foreign languages and, more particularly, on the teaching of English, speaking skills have to a large extent I been highly disregarded, partly because it is not easy to teach them with large groups of students. Moreover, new technologies are getting more and more important in the teaching of modern languages to the extent that they are having a great impact on their teaching. Thus, this work seeks to analyse the use of new technologies in the teaching of English speaking skills in the 21th century. The study will be divided into two different sections. The first part will be more theoretical and will consist of a brief introduction to what we mean by technology in the classroom context as well as highlighting the importance of teaching spoken English and the significant advantages of using and introducing technology as a didactic tool. I will also refer to the benefits in the use of new technologies for the teaching of spoken skills. Comparisons will be made with more traditional approaches. The second part will be more practical in nature. A study will be conducted at a high school level so as to find out which are the new technologies that are being used nowadays in the classroom and to investigate the views of teachers and learners on their use. This project will conclude with a number of reflections on the pros and cons of technologies applied to the teaching of speaking in the light of the findings obtained