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Increasing Awareness and Talk Time through Free Messaging Apps

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Shampa Iftakhar:
For many people, mobile phones are a part of modern life. Although the purpose of this technology revolves around language and communication, its application to language learning still appears to be underutilized. This is changing, as the widespread use of this handheld technology offers numerous opportunities to use functions that are ideal for exposing learners to communicative interaction on their language-learning journey. One beneficial function of the smartphone is its ability to exchange text and multimedia between users, which is a benefit that is enhanced through the availability of free messaging apps that facilitate the exchanges. In order to explore the messaging function of smartphones and how teachers can employ it to promote spoken communication, this article will describe ways to use text, audio, and imagery inside and outside the English language classroom. - See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
To begin, teachers must become familiar with the messaging apps available in their instructional setting. For example, KakaoTalk (www.kakao.com/talk/en) is a free messaging app that is part of popular culture in Korea. Along with Line (line.naver.jp/en), KakaoTalk has witnessed increased popularity in both Taiwan and Japan (Racoma 2012; Yap 2012). While these two messaging apps focus on Northeast Asia, many of the features that I will outline in this article are transferable across messaging apps that are popular in numerous other locations, such as WhatsApp (www.whatsapp.com), perhaps the most successful messaging app on a global scale (Yeung 2013). Other popular messaging apps on a regional or global scale include ChatON (web.samsungchaton.com); Tango (www.tango.me); Viber (www.viber.com); and WeChat (www.wechat.com/en).

Although these apps are, at their most fundamental level, free text-messaging services, their capabilities extend to group text chats and the sharing of photos, audio, and video. In other words, these free messaging apps allow users to communicate with others in their contact list through text, voice, imagery, or video. It is worth noting, though, that the video-sharing capability still appears to have several bugs, so I will not discuss it in this article.
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
Learning context and background
As smartphones and messaging apps become more prevalent, their potential for ready-made communicative activities in the classroom should not be overlooked. For if the language learner is “attached” to his or her smartphone, it stands to reason that instructors can harness that potential to assist learning.

I first experimented with KakaoTalk in a university-level English as a foreign language (EFL) context in 2011 by assigning spoken homework. This attempt to encourage students to use English outside the classroom was easy to implement but difficult to sustain. I initially had students make recordings on the computer and email them to me for feedback. This arrangement did not work efficiently, as students complained of dedicating time to speaking to a computer. Personally, I also found it demotivating to dedicate time to sitting in front of a computer to record my own oral feedback.

Overcoming the demotivating and time-sapping nature of the computer-based audio recording inspired me to use KakaoTalk for the same project. The response from students was more positive, largely due to the convenience of being able to use their smartphones for their homework. Likewise, I found it much simpler to listen and respond to student assignments in a timely manner.

Ultimately, the intrinsic beauty of using KakaoTalk and Line is that in many cases messaging is a tool that students discovered first and it gained popularity and acceptance via their peers. These are not tools that are forced upon students by their teacher for the purpose of study, but tools that form a part of their everyday lives. This factor, together with the ease of implementation, was the birth of the KakaoTalk project that has since snowballed into a growing compendium of activities to facilitate communication, both inside and outside the classroom.
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
Goals of the KakaoTalk project
The KakaoTalk project has several overarching goals at its heart. In essence, the goal is to increase the spoken ability of the students. When faced with the challenges of producing longer segments of spontaneous speech, many students prefer to script their responses. However, West (1960) suggests that when a person reads lines aloud—as in a script—the language is passing from the eye to the mouth with little learning or cognitive interaction taking place; an improvement on merely reciting lines is to read the line silently, pause, look up, and then speak the line. This small adaption incorporates recollection, a suggested step that is integral to uptake and acquisition, particularly with respect to vocabulary (Nation 2001). The KakaoTalk project avoids the pre-scripting and recitation of lines by having the students attempt to produce speech that is spontaneous, or as spontaneous as possible.

One of the greatest hurdles in setting EFL students on the path toward spoken proficiency is overcoming the inherent passion for accuracy. Language students frequently require coaching on how to focus on production rather than errors, but such efforts are often in vain as the concept of errors as “natural accidents on the way to interpersonal communication” (Kramsch 1987, 23) is a new one for many. Therefore, an unrelenting focus on errors leads to a number of students having low functional fluency, even while they maintain impressive grammatical accuracy. However, given that communication is the primary purpose for language, low functional fluency levels can hinder communication.
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

Shampa Iftakhar:
Many learners therefore need an introduction to “meaning” as the basis for their spoken communication. Bygate (2005) suggests that group and collaborative learning builds bridges to greater fluency and accuracy. The suggestion is that group work provides a scaffolded environment in which the learners experiment and co-construct their message. Because the learners will have co-constructed—and effectively rehearsed—their message, the final production will often have a more refined presentation in terms of fluency levels and the overall transmission of the message (Nation 1989).

While transmission of the intended message in a more fluent manner is the primary goal of the project, a complete neglect of form is unacceptable. Ellis (2008) notes that if form is not attended to, a communicative plateau may be reached. This is very much the inverse communicative plateau that may be reached if attention to form is over-emphasized. It is, therefore, in the interest of learners to find the balance between form and fluency. Finding the balance does not need to be tricky, and the project I am describing entails ease of access to recording devices, which makes the matter all the more simple. Learners are able to focus on fluency and meaning while recording their production before changing hats to focus on form. This method of focusing on form after the fact employs what has been coined “noticing,” or “consciousness-raising” (Schmidt 2001; Thornbury 2005; Ellis 2008).
- See more at: http://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/english-teaching-forum-volume-53-number-1#child-1880

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