LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 26:1 January 2026
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Selvi M. Bunce, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
         Nathan Mulder Bunce, M.A., Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

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The (un)spoken facts: On-line space as a medium for developing undergraduate students' speaking skills

Jasti Appa Swami and
M Raja Vishwanathan

Abstract

The onset of Covid-19 has transformed the educational landscape in a manner few catastrophes have; unfolding in the process has been a compulsive reliance on technology to teach and learn. While face-to-face mode has always been seen as an appropriate platform to effectively teach speaking, the efficacy of on-line sessions for teaching the nuances of speaking have not been investigated extensively in an ESL/EFL context, particularly where the groups being taught are large, heterogenous, and spread across the globe. This paper investigated the efficacy of teaching speaking skills online to learners scattered across space and time. Drawing on a framework by Alexander (2018) on the principles of dialogic teaching, the study looked at the challenges faced by teachers in providing practice to learners in speaking skills. The findings indicate that online mode is hardly a conducive space to teach or learn speaking skills. The implications for teaching speaking online are discussed.

Keywords:Online Teaching, ESL, Speech Pedagogy

Introduction

Covid-19 put paid to the rosy optimism of continuing with the chalk-and-talk method as an all-time favourite method of teachers and students. Adapting to the unexpected created chaos and disappointment, partly because teachers and students were ill prepared for the sudden move to replace face-to-face mode with online sessions, more so in courses involving practice in the spoken language.

While “online language education has been around since the advent of the internet and digital communication technologies” (Derakshan et al, 2022, p.60) with courses from Coursera, MIT Open Courseware very popular among advocates of online learning, institutionalizing online teaching never seemed a possibility until the onset of the pandemic, since the necessity to go online was not keenly perceived. Once the pandemic set in and stayed on, on-line learning and teaching became viral too!

In the context of the study, online learning refers to learning that is strictly virtual, unmediated by any in-person interaction or personal contact between the teacher and learners. All teaching/learning is done via the internet through online platforms such as Google Meet, there being remote learning for the duration of the teaching-learning process.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Jasti Appa Swami
Centre for English Language Studies
University of Hyderabad
jastiappaswamihcu@gmail.com
&
M Raja Vishwanathan
Department of Humanities and Social Science
National Institute of Technology, Warangal
vishwanathan@nitw.ac.in
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