Design and Implementation of an Educational App as a Methodology to Improve Speaking Skills in EFL Students at B1 Level: A Case Study

Abstract

The present study aimed to improve the speaking skills of university students at the B1 level who presented limitations in their oral competence. An educational methodology based on designing and implementing an application adapted to the Common European Framework of Reference was developed and applied to boost language performance. A case study was used to conduct the two stages of this research; the former had to do with a control group where intervention was carried out using non-probabilistic sampling with students of the Computing Faculty; a pretest was applied to test the knowledge acquired in their classroom sessions during the first quarter in 2020. The second process was tracking an experimental group, which was assessed after implementing the developed methodology using the app "4skillsweb". A posttest was used to evidence learners' progress during the COVID-19 lockdown, and the results showed improved oral competence in aspects such as grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation, and interactive communication, with about 95% confidence in its validation. A qualitative-quantitative methodology was used to determine the influence of the English app. A t-students test was implemented to corroborate the data analysis taken by both groups through SOFTWARE JMP v 11.0.0G.