Abstract:

For institutions of higher education, it is not enough to have the technology or innovative infrastructure if the Information Technology and Communication (ICT) are not known well enough or if they are not used in a didactic way to help students in their learning. Parting from this assumption, this paper presents the results obtained from the research that was conducted at Centro Universitario de Los Altos de la Universidad de Guadalajara. The purpose of this study aimed at analyzing the differences between the development of oral skills in the English language learning through the use of ICT and traditional classes. It was conducted under quantitative methodology with two experimental groups. A rubric that measured students’ oral skills in the English language was applied at the beginning and at the end of the semester. This was carried out under an intervention study in which a specific situation tried to explain how technology influences on the development of oral skills in the English language, highlighting the features and ways in which study variables are present. This was performed in two groups, one in which oral activities were implemented with the use of technologies, and the other in which the oral skills were developed in a traditional way without the use of ICTs. The results showed that 17 out of the 27 students who took the class with technology had a significant impact on their development of oral skills in English, while 9 remained at the same level and one retreated in his learning. Moreover in the group with traditional classes only 9 out of the 23 students showed a significant progress, while 14 remained in their same level. This shows that for teaching/learning foreign languages, the pedagogical use of ICT remains an important research issue nowadays.

Keywords:

Learning, English Language, Technology, Speaking Skills.