ADVANCED LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES AS A MEANS OF BOOSTING SPOKEN CONFIDENCE AND FLUENCY OF PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS AT THE QUARANTINE TIME

Abstract

The article deals with the advanced learning technologies for developing spoken confidence and fluency of pre-service English teachers at the quarantine time. The world faces the challenge to study and work staying at home. How do teachers and students manage to cope with issues of distance language learning? The author gives the definition of advanced learning technologies, presents a short overview of the history of the development of CALL. Synchronous and asynchronous communication between learners and teachers in different contexts has been analyzed. Synchronous learning is online studies that are conducted with the aid of chat rooms, videoconferencing tools. Asynchronous learning can be carried out online and offline. It is coursework delivered by web, email, and message boards that are posted in online forums. For synchronous learning the author suggests using videoconferencing with the help of Zoom, MS Teams, and Skype. It is quite effective to use screen share and voting system and group chats. During the video session by means of screen share teachers can show various materials from their device: files, audio, video. Voting systems and group chats stimulate discussions and debates, help students to express their points of view on the problem. Talking about asynchronous learning, there are a lot of learning platforms that can be beneficial for improving students’ spoken confidence and fluency, getting classes more interactive. One of them is Kahoot, an educational technology, based on creating learning games in the form of tests. Their aim is to assess the students’ level of knowledge, to conduct different kinds of discussion on a particular issue, to get a feedback. For organizing and engaging students it is advantageous to exploit learning management systems. Google Classroom is in great request today. It empowers to create different assignments, share them with students and grade students’ work electronically.