Design, Development, and Evaluation of Mobile Application WikiTalki to Promote English Speaking Skills in Formal High School Context

Abstract

In this paper, an Android-based mobile application WikiTalki was proposed to solve the problem of lack of quality English speaking classes in the Korean middle and high schools. WikiTalki aims to serve the role of classroom assistance tool in order to expand students’ practice opportunities, and to enable students to receive personalized feedbacks from their peers. The application development process followed the ADDIE model, and was conducted for a 23 month period between April 2013 and March 2015. As of March 2015, version 1.0, 2.0, and a teacher’s Web page are developed. The developed application, WikiTalki, consists of 4 steps: (1) recording and uploading, (2) peer feedback by 3 random students within the class (3) confirmation of the feedback (4) reflection on the feedback and rerecording. An experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the developed application. A total of 107 high school grade 1 students participated and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, 56 students assigned to the experimental group used WikiTalki in their speaking classes, while 51 students in the control group and did not use WikiTalki. The speaking task the students were assigned with was creating a radio talk show in pairs: the students learned key expressions, recorded their radio talk show into WikiTalki, listened to other students’ talk shows, provided feedback on the talk shows, reflected on the feedbacks, and re-recorded their improved talk show into WikiTalki again. From this empirical study, it was found that the developed application could effectively promote students’ participation in classes, and perceived English speaking achievement. In language learning, participation is the key to improvements in communicative ability as language learning is a process of habit formation that can only be achieved by repeated practice and active participation (Brown, 2007a); so, it is important to find effective ways of improving participation. Also, according to Murray (1938), need for achievement is based on the human desire to achieve, and when it is applied to learning, it triggers behaviors that are related to success, accomplishment, and overcoming barriers (Steinmayr & Spinath, 2009). It is also often applied to language learning, and also has been applied in this research. The application is evaluated to have provided individualized opportunities for every student to participate actively in speaking practices, included effective ways for the students to listen carefully to other students’ works and provide their opinions on it, enabled every student to receive instant peer feedbacks on their practices to make their practice more meaningful and be motivated to participate, and provided revision opportunities to reflect on the feedbacks. The application has been implemented in various educational contexts as it has been incorporated into classes of 13 schools in Korea. Also, as of May 2015, over 700 users have downloaded the application from the Google Play Store. As the application attempted to transform classroom environment and overcome the limitation of English education in Korea, the minister of Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning awarded WikiTalki for its innovative use and positive impacts on the society. Furthermore, to reach more students and to be more practically applied in various educational contexts, an iOS version of WikiTalki is in the development process.;영어 말하기 실력이 현대인의 능력을 판단하는 요소로서 중요한 기준이 되고 있음에도 불구하고, 현재 학교 교육 현장에서의 영어 말하기 교육은 상당히 제한되어 있다. 이는 영어 말하기 교육을 할 수 있는 교사의 수급 부족, 말하기 수업을 하기에는 과도한 학급별 인원, 읽기 중심의 평가 방식 등 여러 문제점에서 비롯되었다. 본 연구에서는 말하기 수업을 하기에는 과도한 학급별 인원에 대한 문제의식을 바탕으로 실제 영어 교육 현장에서 스마트 기기를 활용하여 의사소통 중심의 교육을 할 수 있는 방안을 제시하고자 하였다. 의사소통 중심의 영어 교육(Communicative Language Learning)을 실현하기 위해 ADDIE 모형의 개발절차를 따라 2013년 3월부터 2015년 3월까지 23개월에 걸쳐, Android 기반 영어 말하기 연습 어플리케이션인 WikiTalki의 version 1.0과 2.0 및 교사용 웹페이지를 개발하였다. 또한 WikiTalki의 교육적 효과를 측정하기 위해 서울 A 고등학교 1학년 학생 107명을 어플리케이션의 활용여부에 따라 실험 집단과 통제 집단으로 분류하여 4주간의 실험을 진행하였다. 연구 결과 WikiTalki를 활용한 학습자들의 수업 참여도와 자각된 영어 말하기 성취도가 통제 집단에 비해 높아짐이 검증되었다. 현재 이러한 연구 결과를 바탕으로 다양한 교육적 맥락에서 더 많은 학생들이 WikiTalki를 활용할 수 있로독 하기 위해 iOS 버전을 개발 중에 있다.