Teaching English through Technology: Use of TV Studio Production for the Improvement of English Speaking
Keywords:
Thai English Speaking, New Technology, TV Studio Production, PragmaticsAbstract
Recently, the Faculty of International Studies, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, has set up a type of Production TV Studio with the objective to use it as a new language laboratory. We have conducted a first set of experiments with 80 students from grades 7 to 9 during a two day English speaking training by means of new technologies. This training was initiated by the use of English Speech Recognition software with the aim of helping students gain more confidence speaking English. The training took place on Saturday and Sunday. The training activities included practicing everyday English conversations and writing a short script for speaking about a tourist place selected by each student. In terms of speaking competence, the first main finding of this study is that students still face common problems in English pronunciation. This can be explained by the fact that in most Thai schools students do not have many opportunities to speak English. The second major finding is that using this TV Studio Production would be a new laboratory of pedagogical testing in foreign language learning. After reviewing common problems committed by students, we wonder if we should talk about “mistakes” or “Thai English”.
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