Developing speaking skills and learning pronunciation with new technologies in the French as a foreign language classroom

Abstract

This study examines the role that new technologies, social media and telecollaborative projects have played in the development of oral production skills, as well as in learning and correction in pronunciation. During the period 2005 to 2015 several experiments were conducted for this purpose as part of a French language course at the University of León, Spain. We sought to examine the characteristics and modalities of different oral productions from students, as well as ICT tools and teaching tasks which led to the creation of audiovisual recordings published in a number of educational web environments (weblogs, podcasts, social networks, education platforms). We looked also at the role which students, tutors and teachers play in the correction of pronunciation, taking into consideration the feedback strategies that have been observed in their interaction, with particular focus on autocorrective feedback such as in collaborative pronunciation tasks corrected by the students. We have also attempted to gauge the reactions of students to the use of these tools, learning environments and pronunciation tasks, by undertaking three surveys which focus on their pronunciation and ICT skills in the context of French as a Foreign Language.