Pedagogical
Values of Mobile-Assisted Task-Based Activities
to
Enhance Speaking Skill
Mojtaba
Mohammadi and Nastaran Safdari
The mobile is becoming the important
thing of anyone's life. The use of mobile technology is a new gate-way to
create more interactive environment in the classroom in an interesting and
innovative way by making teaching more and more effective. It can benefit from
the pedagogical values of mobile phones to enhance speaking skill. There are
some new innovative methods l have learned from this article.
First, to achieve the purpose of the study language
learners were divided into three parts; interactive, non-interactive, and
conventional groups. The interactive and non-interactive groups conducted
online task-based speaking activities via We Chat mobile application. In the interactive group, the students were
encouraged to interact among themselves on the topics from their course book.
The non-interactive group
experienced the same condition except that they were only supposed to have
learner-teacher interactions with no interaction among peers. The conventional group followed the
same task-based speaking activities within the class period but with the
absence of technology.
Second, for the online task-based
speaking activity, students were expected to follow three stages: pre-task
activities, task cycle, and post-task activities. Therefore, two classes were
selected as experimental groups, while one class was the control group.
Third, one session was devoted to both
experimental groups, in which the teacher taught them how to work with one of
the mobile applications (We Chat) prior to the treatment. In the pre-task
activities, the participants in the experimental group A received 20-30 minutes
treatment for all 20 sessions, including three sessions in a week studying
Cambridge English for Students. In every session of experimental group A, the
participants connected on We Chat for 20-30 minutes after the class when they
were at home. While in the task cycle stage, photos played an important
role. Students had to answer a few questions about the photos posted by the
teacher. The most important thing in this phase was to focus on the preparation
of the main task. Then in the post-task activities, participants were expected
to present what they discovered during the task. It primarily focused on
summarizing the outcome of the task.
On the other hand, in experimental group
B during the task phase, the students were expected to talk about their ideas
and experiences, but they were not required to ask questions and comment on
others orally. During the task phase, the researcher only tried to listen to
what the participants were telling each other.
During the task phase in the control
group, the teacher asked tasks (opinion exchange tasks) and the students were
expected to listen and talk about their ideas and experiences within the
classroom, but they were not required to ask questions and comment on others
orally. The only difference was the absence of technology.
The results showed interactive students’ speaking
ability was significantly improved compared to that among the non interactive
students. The findings can be pedagogically advantageous for language teachers,
teacher educators, and material developers.
From those points, l have some plans I
will use in the future such as:
- Using an interesting approach in
teaching that appropriate to my students’ environment. If using the mobile applications (We Chat) still appropriate, l will
use it. No one know what will be in the future like. Maybe mobile phone will
not become the important thing again in our life
- Knowing and accepting what they need and
what they want.
- Teaching not only using the course book
but also studying what surrounding happens.
- Up to date
- Following technology progress
