Abstract:

Effective oral communication is one of the most demanded student outcomes in the labour market, especially for degree students on International Business. Although this outcome is usually evaluated in several subjects along the curriculum, it is barely worked neither inside nor outside the classroom, mainly due to lack of time and to unavailability of proper learning methodologies. The PIMECOE project, an innovation and educational improvement project on this matter, has developed a self-learning methodology on the Effective Oral Communication student outcome, in which auto-diagnosis tests, self-learning tools and peer assessments are conveniently combined to enhance the proficiency level of the students in an autonomous way. As part of this project, and after some previous successful pilot studies, we have run this methodology with International Bussiness’ students within the “Learning instruments and techniques” subject during the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year at the Universitat de València. After carrying out a quantitative analysis of the results, we have found generalised improvements on the proficiency level of the oral communication outcome of the participant students. Satisfaction surveys suggest that the application of this methodology has really helped the student to become conscious of unrealised weaknesses and therefore to boost their oral skills.

Keywords:

Oral communication, oral skills, student outcomes, self-learning methodologies, peer assesments.