Article Preview
TopIntroduction
Due to increasing demands for university graduates to acquire effective communicative skills in the English language, the ability to speak coherently and intelligibly in a variety of contexts has become the main goal for English language learners. Mobile communication has become one of the most frequent and widespread contexts (Zeng, 2015). As numerous studies have shown, the majority of Russian students learning English as a core subject at non-linguistic universities experience more difficulties with speaking abilities than with other language skills, which is natural under modern educational conditions at Russian universities. Similar problems with the difficulty of mastering the oral skills of English as a second language are observed in many countries (Anwas et al., 2020). Firstly, the effectiveness of university language education is highly dependent on the backgrounds of school language education. In Russia, most first-year students are unable to communicate in English and have lack of motivation. The second problem is the reduction of English language classes in the university curriculum (Vulfovich, 2017). Another, no less important, reason is rooted to teaching methods and techniques mostly focused on developing reading and writing skills. Consequently, there is lack of time devoted to speaking activities in the classroom. There is also a problem of little speaking practice outside the classroom (Dahlstrom-Hakki et al., 2020; Safargalina, 2018). At the same time, the volume of visual perception of information in English, especially through mobile devices, is very large and increases every day (Virtanen & Rasi, 2016; Suartama et al., 2020). Therefore, the challenge is for English language teachers to provide learning environment promoting desired learning outcomes. This is made possible, to large extent, by Web 2.0 mainly with access to its services through mobile platforms (Virtanen & Rasi, 2016; Sahin Kizil, 2017).
In recent years, Web 2.0 has changed the nature of learning and teaching English as a foreign language. They have blurred the barriers between content producers and consumers and has changed attention from access to information to access to other communication (Kirby & Hulan, 2016). Mobile web-tools have the potential to enhance active and meaningful learning, critical thinking skills, provides opportunities for interactive and collaborative learning, and increase student engagement in the classroom (Brezeanu, 2020; Crompton, 2017; Kirby & Hulan, 2016; Okello-Obura & Ssekito, 2015; Sahin Kizil, 2017). One of the Web 2.0 applications effectively used in speaking and listening learning is VoceThread. It gives foreign language learners a chance to practice speaking in a nonintimidating environment and collaborate with other emerging language speakers (Palmer, 2019). The essential advantage of this platform is the full functionality in the form of a mobile application for all operating systems. This article aims to determine the effect of implementing VoiceThread (VT) for enhancing learner speaking skills at University environment in Russia, as in many other countries.