Peer Assessment for Developing Speaking Skills in EFL Students Facilitated by a Video Discussion Website

Abstract

The development of productive skills, writing and speaking, have been the core when learning and teaching a foreign language since they demonstrate that a speaker can use a language in different contexts and situations. However, this is a hard task into the Ecuadorian classrooms and into the institute levels as well. The students´ English proficiency continue being poor. Education First (2019) stated that Ecuador ranked the 81st position out of a total of 100 countries. This ranking was stablished after the application of the EF Standard English test (EF SET). The test was addressed to 2.3 million people from different countries where English is taught as a foreign language. Ecuador keeps the second lowest level in Latin America which is equivalent to the A1 level. In the same sense, Astudillo (2021) pointed out, “EFL students may have some trouble speaking accurately and fluently in English, preventing effective communication” (p.18). So, the problem of this research lies in the limited skills that students have when speaking in a foreign language, in this case English; consequently, students have a lack of knowledge to communicate correctly and fluently with other English speakers, for which this study takes as reference peer assessment to improve oral communication. Before the intervention, students also identified that their pronunciation was not appropriate and of course they mentioned that the tasks they were exposed to years before were not beneficial at all. Once the difficulties were observed, it was proceeded with the intervention through experimentation. Peer assessment was implemented to improve the development of speaking skills. Peer assessment is a process that has generally been overlooked while learning and teaching. There are some studies related to this type of assessment. According to Burns (2019), there are three components of second language speaking competence: language knowledge (includes knowing grammar); core skills in speaking (understanding, correcting and giving feedback), and strategies (i.e., planning, thinking and compensating). But, why not immersing students into others´ learning? Why not inviting students to provide feedback to their peers? Therefore, peer assessment could be a good source.