English listening and speaking app and the oral communicative competence

Abstract

The development of oral communicative competence has been of great importance in EFL instruction, because after all, the most effective way to communicate is through speech. However, the results of students in speaking is usually poor due to many factors, such as the difficulty practicing this skill. Therefore, the communicative competence in most students needs improvement. One way to help students develop their oral communicative competence effectively is through the use of mobile applications, since they can easily be used inside and outside the classroom. The present research is focused on the use of “English Listening and Speaking App” to develop the oral communicative competence, in which a quasi-experiment was applied to students of B1+ intermediate level of the open courses of Universidad Técnica de Ambato. The purpose of the study was to prove the efficacy of “English Listening and Speaking app” in the oral communicative competence. A pre-test and a post-test were applied to a control and experimental group, while the experimental group used the mobile application in some interactive activities in and out the class during the process to test the hypothesis. xvi The statistical analysis of the results showed the efficacy of “English Listening and Speaking App” in improving the oral communicative competence of students in the experimental group. The outcome of the T test ended up in a result of 0,004. Due to this favorable result, this study resulted in the creation of a methodological guide of interactive and communicative activities based on the elements of “English Listening and Speaking App.” Those activities intend to help learners develop their communicative competence efficiently and effectively. In addition, the methodological guide also includes different ways to assess those activities and prove students´ development.