Teaching EFL to teens in a public school in Caxias do Sul: using technology to acquire listening and speaking skills

Abstract

This article proposes a methodology for teaching EFL in a public school so that students acquire listening and speaking skills, not just reading and writing using a technological tool. When Brown (2007) says that integrating the four skills is important for authenticity and reinforcement, we realize that even if they are produced and ensured in the classroom, while practicing English, listening and speaking to produce dialogue and understand our peers still are the skills that are least practiced in public schools. In her introduction to the components of communicative language ability, Hedge (2000) points out that linguistic competence involves knowledge of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, grammatical structure, sentence structure and linguistic semantics. The main objective of this paper is to reflect on the use of this technology and review the existing literature on the use of technology for teaching English and on listening and speaking teaching skills. An analysis is provided regarding how English File technology can bring challenges and benefits for teaching listening and speaking in teaching English as a foreign language to adolescents in a public school in Caxias do Sul and reflect on the learning conditions based on the type of technology that schools offer their students and teachers. This paper was conceived in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and, a year later, the world is, unfortunately, still experiencing this unpleasant situation. For that reason, as classes continue online in the public schools, using this model with most students, it was possible to obtain some improvements as well as solutions for the conditions found in a public school in Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil, so that this technology can be inserted in the teaching of English. resumo fornecido pelo autor]