Teaching Fluency and Speaking with FlipGrid

 Introduction 

Welcome to my blog and this week, I will focus on one area that has been a major challenge to most language teachers in my country, fluency. Before the revision of the curriculum in 2013, dictation and pronunciation were the main activities aimed at improving fluency in our learners. Speaking and Listening are the two most neglected skills in our classrooms today. There are many possible reasons for this, which I will not delve into more detail in this discussion. The main purpose of this post, however, is to discuss how technological tools such as FlipGrid can be used to encourage speaking fluently and listening in and outside the classroom. 

Productive and Receptive skills 

For our learners to achieve total communication, they need to acquire both receptive (reading and listening) and productive (speaking and writing) skills in a balanced manner.  Of the two major productive skills, speaking, though is the most frequently practised, is different from its like partner, writing in many ways. Firstly, speaking places a high cognitive demand on the speaker to select and retrieve words to use; organise and connect the single words into meaningful chunks, and pronounce them well enough for the listener to decode the meaning. The second challenge involves assessing the listener's needs such as the polite manner in which messages are delivered and the contextual appropriateness of what is said. These challenges arise because, unlike writing which accords the author time to think, write and edit their message, speaking is spontaneous and what is said cannot be taken back regardless of how uncomfortable it may be to both the speaker and the listener. This makes it a high-risk activity that most learners generally shy away from for fear of being misunderstood or embarrassed by the mistakes they make. It is for the aforementioned that teachers should take deliberate steps to not only teach fluency and speaking but also provide tools and a conducive environment for learners to freely practise the skill. 

Defining Fluency 

Fluency can loosely be defined as the ability to maintain a fast and smooth speech while effectively managing natural pauses. It entails the speaker can naturally retrieve words and automatically effectively manage turns. Fluency incorporates pronunciation with a focus on intelligibility or production of phonemes and morphemes clear enough to communicate the intended meaning. 

Importance of Teaching Fluency 

Generally, fluency is critical to communication as it helps you to say what you intend to say and your listeners to understand you and provide appropriate feedback. 

Role of Technology in Teaching Fluency 

Technology officers several affordances that the traditional classroom may not accommodate that enable learners to develop their own fluency. Key among them are:

1. Freedom from fear of making mistakes: Learners can practice recording themselves speaking in different ways without the classroom pressure of 'they will laugh at me if I don't speak well,' 'will they understand what I am about to say,' and so on. Such pressure leads to mo mistakes and may inhibit confidence in speaking. In other words, the technology eliminates the risk of 'exposure' that often leads to communication apprehension. 

2. Chance For Self-correction- Through technology, learners can record, edit or delete their own speech until it reaches a level they are comfortable with. They can repeat the words, chunks of words and sentences over and over until they get it right. 

3. Authenticity: Technological devices provide the learner with a chance to practice speaking in a real-world context and to listen to their own output

4. Personalisation: There is a general sense of ownership of both the message and the speaking activity in general as learners may not feel as though they are doing it just for harmony in the classroom. 

Teaching Theories Associated with Fluency 

Fluency and accuracy are some of the target skills of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology which emphasises the development of 'Communicative Competence in second language learners. Under this theory, learning of a language takes place through interaction between the learner and his/her interlocutors through negotiation of meaning until there is a common understanding. Fluency is critical in the navigation of this interaction process for the novice to achieve communicative competence. 

Benefits of FlipGrid 

Laura Giacomini provides four distinct benefits pedagogical benefits of FlipGrid to language teaching and learning: 

1. Confidence Scaffolding 
2. Asynchronous Access 
3. Peer Reflection 
4. Self Reflection 
5. Growth Monitoring 

About FlipGrid 

FlipGrid is a video discussion platform that allows teachers to create a grid for learners to post their audio and video responses and reactions using their mobile phones, tablets or computers. It amplifies learners' voices, especially those who have trouble expressing themselves in face-to-face classroom activities.  In addition, it can be used for other creative classroom activities such as storytelling, digital content analysis, language practice and of course fluency.  

FlipGrid is simple to set up for both teachers and learners. All one needs is a Microsoft or Google account to sign up and begin interacting. For more set-up details, please watch this tutorial after which you can check my FlipGrid here. 

Constraints 

Despite its marvellous features, FlipGrid may prove challenging to teachers with low tech exposure and learners with restricted access to mobile devices. Further, more sophisticated features of the application require a subscription which many may not find affordable. 

Conclusion  

Clearly, technology for language teaching keeps growing as innovators continue to develop applications that support language teaching in more ways than one. FlipGrid is one application easy to set up and use for teaching fluency. However, as teachers, we need to examine our own context and determine which application is suitable for our respective classrooms. If access to technology is still a work in progress, do not worry, but take time to explore FlipGrid. Who knows, you might just find it as marvellous as I did. Whatever you find out, let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.