Audioblogging: Supporting the Learning of Oral Communication Skills in Chinese Language

Language is about communicating meaning and one mode of expression is through the use of sound. An emerging technology that is used for teaching and learning of oral skills is Blogging. The addition of sound and audio files to Blogs has led to the proliferation of Audioblogs. The use of Audioblogging, or Podcasting, in institutions is fast on the rise and educators have begun to explore the potentials of Podcasting. The pedagogic use of blogging is grounded in Vygotskian theories of social meaning making (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004) as children learn to express themselves using language through a process of social construction (Halliday, 1979). However, studies on Audioblogging are scarce. This study investigates the use of Audioblogs to teach the oral skill of conversing about pictures in a Chinese language classroom. Activity Theory (Engeström, 1996) was used as a framework to design an approach incorporating the use of Audioblogs to develop picture conversation skills. The approach was implemented in a group of elementary school students as an enrichment lesson. For comparison purpose, another group of students went through the enrichment programme without the use of Audioblogs. This study showed that by providing students with an Audioblogging environment as well as a platform to solicit comments and feedback of performances, there was an improvement in the students’ ability in picture conversation. A study using a larger sample needs to be undertaken to determine the effectiveness of Audioblogging on students ’ picture conversation test performance