Examining the educational potential of PechaKucha as a linguo-information technology in teaching oral communication to university students

Abstract

The article discusses the concept of oral communication in a foreign language, which we define as the mastery of speaking (lexical, pronunciation, grammatical) skills and speech competence. The implementation of linguo-information technologies is examined with the aim of identifying the potential of the PechaKucha technology and its value while developing students’ speaking skills at university. The research methods include the analysis of theoretical sources, description and exercise development. The literature review has established that the digital generation is capable of easily creating their own internet products, such as video clips, texts and presentations, which justifies the use of the PechaKucha multimedia presentation as a linguo-information technology. This presentation format is characterized by the following feature: a thesis-idea accompanied by visual elements is aimed at revealing the topic within 20 slides, each displayed for 20 seconds, with the total duration strictly limited to 6 minutes and 40 seconds, eliminating the possibility of returning to previous slides or skipping ahead.

The practical part of the research is devoted to analyzing the functionality of the platform, used to make this kind of presentation format. The article proposes a speech exercise as part of a system of exercises for developing speaking skills and describes the algorithm for implementing the speech exercise by using this presentation format. The outcome of the study is the identified potential of this type of linguo-information technology in developing speech competence on the topic ‘’Do It Yourself’’, exemplified by its usage with 4^th-year students majoring in Pedagogy at Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University.