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Loops, Sayings, and Tongue-Twisters: How to Enhance Foreign Language Communicative Skills in Online Learning Environments

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Language Education During the Pandemic

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Abstract

The hybrid and, in some cases, online-only delivery of foreign language classes that tutors and students experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic have made it necessary to rethink materials and activities designed for the students’ acquisition of the necessary language skills for the different levels of language proficiency. Therefore, researchers and teachers have engaged in a fruitful debate on digital educational tools and how these can support students in developing and honing language skills while maintaining motivation and engagement during a very challenging period. Among these skills, communication plays a fundamental role, and it has been widely identified by teachers as a particular challenge of teaching online in these unprecedented times. In this chapter, I will present and discuss the materials that I devised during my research project and that aim specifically to enhance and support the honing and enhancement of communicative skills in hybrid learning environments, with a focus on formative and summative assessment. The findings intend to demonstrate the efficacy of the aforementioned activities also for improving grammar skills, vocabulary, and cultural knowledge. Moreover, the new teaching strategies identified in the present research are helpful, as they can be adopted in classes with students having different levels of language proficiency. Despite the teaching materials, which will be presented in this chapter, having been devised for emergency remote teaching (ERT), with the aim of providing valid teaching tools during university shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the results that emerged from the analysis of the data suggest the efficacy and validity of these teaching strategies in wider online/blended learning environments and encourage their future deployment in academic curricula.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The segmentals addressed during the first pronunciation training session were: the voiced palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/; the phonological distinction between single consonants and their geminated counterparts in words which have similar spellings—/l:/ vs /l/, /s:/ vs /s/, /m:/ vs /m/; the voiced alveolar trill preceded by a consonant—/pr/, /br/, /tr/; the geminated voiced alveolar trill /r:/; the nasal palatal /ɲ/; the nasal alveolar /n/; the voiced dental fricative /t/, the geminated voiced dental fricative /t:/, and the voiced dental fricative in post-consonantal position /rt/; the voiced alveolar sibilant fricative/dz/and in post-consonantal position /ndz/. See Tables 6.4, 6.6, 6.8, 6.10, and 6.13.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Livia Manzini

  2. Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Livia Manzini

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  1. Livia Manzini
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Correspondence to Livia Manzini .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Wissia Fiorucci

Appendix

Appendix

Table 6.1 Linguistic analysis of the Core II Beginners’ recordings – Group 1 and Group 2, Term 2 – Academic Year 2020/2021
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Table 6.2 Linguistic analysis of the Core IV Intermediate's recordings – Group 1 and Group 2, Term 2 – Academic Year 2020/2021
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Table 6.3 Linguistic analysis of the Core IV Advanced's recordings – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020/2021
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Table 6.4 Core II Beginners (group 1)—segmentals trained during training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.5 Core II Beginners (group 1)—results for the segmentals trained during training sessions 1, 2, and 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.6 Core II Beginners (group 1)—tongue-twisters used during training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.7 Core II Beginners (group 1)—results for the tongue-twisters used during training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.8 Core II Beginners (group 2)—segmentals trained during training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.9 Core II Beginners (group 2)—results for the segmentals trained during training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.10 Core II Beginners (group 2)—tongue-twisters used during training session 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.11 Core II Beginners (group 2)—results for the tongue-twisters used during training session 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.12 Comparison between the results of Core II Beginner’s (Group 1 and Group 2) and Core IV Intermediate’s (Group 1 and Group 2) – training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.13 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2)—segmentals trained during training sessions 1, 2, and 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.14 Comparative analysis of the results of Core IV Intermediate (GRoup 1 and GRoup 2) and Core IV Advanced—training session 1 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.15  Comparative analysis of the results of Core II Beginner (Group 1 and Group 2), Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2), and Core IV Advanced—all training sessions – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.16  Comparative analysis of the results of Core II Beginner (Group 1 and Group 2) and Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and 2) – training sessions 1, 2, and 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.17 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2)—results for the segmentals trained during training sessions 1, 2, and 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.18 Comparative analysis of the results across the two academic years for Core II Beginner (Group 1 and Group 2, 2020–2021) and Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2, 2021–2022)
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Table 6.19 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and GRoup 2)—results across the two academic years 2020–2021 and 2021–2022
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Table 6.20 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2) and Core II Beginner (Group 1 and Group 2) results across the two academic years 2020–2021 and 2021–2022
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Table 6.21 Core II Beginners (Group 1)—comparative analysis of each student’s performance during training sessions 1 and 2 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.22 Core II Beginners (Group 2)—comparative analysis of each student’s performance during training sessions 1, 2, and 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.23 Core II Beginners (Group 1)—comparative analysis of each student’s summative oral-aural assessment – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.24 Core II Beginners (Group 2)—comparative analysis of each student's summative oral-aural assessment – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.25 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2)—comparative analysis of each student’s performance during training sessions 1, 2, and 3 – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.26 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2)—comparative analysis of each student’s summative oral-aural assessment – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.27 Core IV Advanced—comparison between the results of each student's performance during training sessions 1 and 2, and each student’s summative oral-aural assessment – Term 2 – Academic Year 2020–2021
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Table 6.28 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1, former Core II Beginners)—comparative analysis of each student's performance during training sessions 1 and 2 (Term 2, Academic Year 2020–2021) and training sessions 1, 2, and 3 (Term 2, Academic Year 2021–2022)
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Table 6.29 Core IV Intermediate (Group 2, former Core II Beginners)—comparative analysis of each student's performance during training sessions 1, 2, and 3 (Term 2, Academic Year 2020–2021) and training sessions 1, 2, and 3 (Term 2, Academic Year 2021–2022)
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Table 6.30 Core IV Intermediate (Group 1 and Group 2)—comparative analysis  of each student’s summative oral-aural assessment (–Academic Year 2021–2022
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Table 6.31 ((Core II Beginner (Group 1) and Core IV Intermediate (Group 1, former Core II Beginner)—comparative analysis of each student’s oral-aural assessment results across the two academic years 2020–2021 and 2021–2022
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Table 6.32 Core II Beginner (Group 2) and Core IV Intermediate (Group 2, former Core II Beginner)—comparative analysis of each student’s oral-aural assessment results across the two academic years 2020–2021 and 2021–2022
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Manzini, L. (2023). Loops, Sayings, and Tongue-Twisters: How to Enhance Foreign Language Communicative Skills in Online Learning Environments. In: Fiorucci, W. (eds) Language Education During the Pandemic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35855-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35855-5_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-35855-5

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