Leveraging technology for oratory skills assessment of plurilingual learners

Abstract

The present study focuses on how the leveraging technology for oratory skills assessment of plurilingual learners who studied first-year engineering at Marwadi University, India, between 2020-2021. The targeted group of learners used a mobile application, I-Speak. The learners were required to record their responses in audio recordings for the application randomly suggests to them. They were asked to record their responses initially, in the English Language, a Foreign Language and then in the Gujarati Language, a First Language. The assessment of the recordings while played together exhibited the findings related to the learners' articulation, comprehension, and oratory skills. The research was carried out keeping the IELTS band descriptors for Speaking skills as a base. The mobile application proved very useful as the learners could listen to their recordings more than once and find out their mistakes. They were also mentored on how they can leverage technology for enhancing their oratory skills as plurilingual learners. This research paper aims to present that the learners who are fluent in the First Language are also fluent in the Foreign Language and vice-versa. Pronunciation and the Lexical Resources were moderately associated with both languages.  There is a highly significant correlation between respondents' First Language and Foreign language-oratory skill bands.