Students' and teachers' attitudes towards the use of computer-mediated communication voice & text chat as an instructional resource to improve speaking skill

Abstract

This study explored teacher and student attitudes towards use of computer mediated communication (CMC) in support of teaching speaking skills. Data were collected through the questionnaires distributed to 20 Tourism students and 60 English instructors at Muğla University and through interviews conducted with 12 CMC-experienced international EFL instructors. The questionnaire for students investigated students’ feelings about the four L2 skills generally, their computer use and their opinions about use of voice-text chat for developing speaking skills. The questionnaire for Mugla English instructors aimed to discover their personal background, computer background, attitudes about use of communication technology for teaching L2 and potential problems that they foresaw in using voice & text chat in their EFL instruction. The interviews with CMC-experienced international EFL teachers aimed to explore international English instructors’ perceptions about teaching speaking skills, use of voice chat as an instructional source for speaking instruction, and instructional advantages and disadvantages of voice chat. Findings gathered from students’ questionnaires revealed that students perceived speaking as the most important skill but had problems with both speaking itself and classes in speaking. Both sets of EFL teachers and students were positive in support of use of CMC in support of speaking instruction, although teacher responses indicated anticipation of some problems – fit to the curriculum, computer access, finding appropriate international partners – in implementing classroom CMC. All respondents indicated the need for appropriate training and administrative support to make the implementation of voice and text chat successful in the Tourism Department at Muğla University.