Teaching speaking in a Polish as a foreign language through online ICT tools

Streszcz. po ang., bibliogr. Na k. tyt. data: 2014/2015

The paper discusses the potential offered by ICT in learning and teaching speaking in foreign language. The first part is devoted to presenting views on the nature of speaking skill, highlighting the complexity of this process and difficulties in learning speaking skills in Polish as a foreign language. The background is an analysis of the data obtained within the survey research in which took part 142 students of Polish. In the second part the paper explores the use of those interactive tools for practicing oral production and interaction that were created within the framework of the SpeakApps project. The project was funded by the European Commission with its main purpose being to provide holistic ICT-based services and pedagogies to practice oral competencies online. The implementation of SpeakApps tools makes significant openings for the teaching and learning language. The tools offer a way for all foreign language learners and teachers to practice and evaluate speaking skills at a distance or beyond the physical classroom, because the activities and tools can be used both within face-to-face courses and as the main speaking activities for online courses. One of such massive open online course (MOOC) was designed to help foreigners (especially students whose native language is significantly different from Polish) to prepare for speaking part of the state certificate exam in Polish on B1,B2 or C2 level. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to make an in-depth investigation of these tools in teaching oral production and interaction in Polish as a foreign language.