English Language MOOC to Improve Speaking Skills: A Strategic Partnership Project in the Field of Adult Education-A Proposal

Abstract

The advent of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) has opened up a whole new world of language learning opportunities. It helps to boost access to language instruction for individuals outside of regular classrooms. Language MOOCs (LMOOCs) are online courses that are generated with the purpose of providing free and accessible content for those who are interested in language learning and who come from various backgrounds. Albeit its potential to improve interaction, most of the LMOOCs have not been designed focusing on individuals’ communicative skills in English. Therefore, the current project presented a language MOOC on speaking English for A2/B1 learners in English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) contexts. The content of the speaking lessons was based on a framework for teaching speaking, which reflected the ideas of current SLA research (e.g. the information processing, noticing hypothesis, skill learning theory, transfer appropriate processing) from an interactionist perspective. Within this framework, the lessons were shaped in four stages: identifying the learning outcomes, creating awareness on the target speaking function(s), appropriating the identified function(s) via various activities and tasks, and giving an opportunity for autonomous use of the target function(s). The activities and materials designed were built upon tasks that reflected everyday situations and interactive contexts to guide learners communicate in the target language. Situations similar to real life contexts also helped learners transfer information and expressions they used in these situations into the actual speaking contexts in the outside world. The design and content of the suggested MOOC described here can be helpful for language educators, practitioners, and course designers to integrate technology into classrooms via MOOCs to foster speaking skills in EFL/ESL contexts. Several implications were drawn to shed light on the role of MOOCs for language instruction.