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Language Benefits with Skype in the Classroom
Conference Paper · June 2019
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International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019
June, 2019. Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Language Benefits with Skype in the Classroom
T. Dabic*, S. Grkavac ** Ž. Stojanov*** and R.Suzić****
* Sinergija Univeristy/Faculty of Philology, Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
** Srednja škola/Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*** Technical Faculty “Mihajlo Pupin”, Zrenjanin, Serbia
****Singidunum Univeristy, Belgrade, Serbia
tdabic@sinergija.edu.ba, sgrkavac@yahoo.com , zeljko.stojanov@tfzr.rs , rsuzic@singidunum.ac.rs
Abstract - The paper presents Skype in the Classroom features
focusing on the language benefits that can be gained by the use
of this tool in the classroom. First, the development of Skype as
a tool for communication is given. Afterwards, the emergence
as a Skype as a tool in education is elaborated with all its
specific features (Virtual Field Trips, Guest Speaker, Mystery
Skype, Skype Collaboration). The mix-method research was
set to explore the use of the listed features among the teachers
and to explore the language and non-language benefits. It
included 55 participants all around the globe via open-ended
questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire proved that
many teachers used Skype in the Classroom and all its features
and it gave insights into the importance of learning English
and other foreign languages via Skype, including its features
and benefits. In the end, the Skype in the Classroom proved to
be an excellent tool for improving all language learning skills.
Nevertheless, the research proved to have many non-language
benefits that are not presented in the paper, as they do not fit
in the scope of the paper.
generation of digital natives these tools seem natural to
them and they with them they manage learning
processes effortlessly and joyfully [3].
The aim of this paper is to show and prove
that Skype, used as an educational tool, can be highly
beneficial for foreign language learning, in this case
English.
II.
EDUCATIONAL TOOL
A. Skype as a Communucation Tool
Skype is a voice communication tool that is
available almost everywhere in the world. It was
invented by Scandinavian enterpreneurs Niklas
Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In the beginning, with the
help of the Estonian programmers Ahti Heinla, Priit
Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn, a peer to peer file-sharing
program Kazaa was launched, but finally on 29 August
2003 the software application Skype was introduced to
the world. The project was initially named “Sky peerto-peer“ and morphed into Skyper. Later the final
letter r was dropped and the title of the original
concept has become Skype. Throughout the years
there have been several changes to Skype logo and it is
now an icon that features the letter S that is white with
a blue background. The white colour of the logo
represents harmony and peace while the blue colour of
the logo represents hope, prosperity and
communication.
Key words: Skype in the classroom, online educational tool,
features, foreign language learning, benefits
I.
SKYPE AS A COMMUNICATION AND
INTRODUCTION
One of the most important things in human
life should be communication, the process of sharing
our knowledge and information. We use
communication every day in different ways,
sometimes we do it by using words, expressions or
actions. In some way or another, we constantly have a
need for the exchange of our thoughts and ideas. New
Digital Era has brought us new means/tools of
communications that enable us to talk and see people
all over the world free, only if we have the Internet.
Many of these tools have grown into educational tools
serving many other purposes than their primary one.
One of them is Skype [1].
On the Top Tools for Learning 2018
(www.toptools4learning.com) Skype holds eighteenth
place what proves that many educators use it. This
corresponds to the growing demand for both teachers
and students to be digitally literate and fluent [2]. The
state of being both (digitally literate and fluent)
frequently implies the use of various educational tools
in teaching [1]. As nowadays students belong to the
Figure 1.
The original Skype application 0.9 allowed
voice calls from PC to PC and it was followed by
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International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019 June, 2019.
Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
several subsequent versions. The best version was
all fields, it is an excellent opportunity to have a
released in 2005 and it was called version 2.0. The
professional in the classroom. These professionals,
internet call industry has been revolutionized and the
who talk about a special field of expertise, are called
new communication tool has enabled video calls.
Guest Speakers. Nowadays, there are many Guest
During all these years there have been lots of changes
Speakers who do multiple sessions during a week
and improvements: Skype 3.1. was a better version but
giving students an insight into the new world
it was replaced by Skype 5.2. Skype was sold to
enhancing students’ educational experience. Using
Microsoft for $8.5 billion in cash in May 2011. And it
Skype in the classroom allows guest lecturers/speakers
has become the main Microsoft Messaging service.
to talk with students from anywhere in the world at
Nowadays, Skype is the leader for video
any time, eliminating the need for the speaker to
communication and for online voice calls. It offers a
physically be in the classroom [9]. Learners of all ages
wide range of features that are designed to help you
and experience levels are hungry for variety, and
connect when, where, and how it suits you best [4]: a)
seeing a new face in front of the room can liven up the
calling features, b) messaging features, c) video
class, but there are also deeper pedagogical reasons for
sharing d) file and screen sharing and e) calendar link.
using guest lecturers [10].
All these features have provided the opportunities for
The third feature are Skype Live Collaboration
Skype to enter other domains besides, its primary one,
Projects. Connecting the classrooms the students can
the communication for personal and business
see the world from another perspective and meet some
purposes. It entered the domain of education and has
unknown cultural and social norms. They can work on
changed it immensely.
projects, share their half via Skype and the other
classroom presents the missing half. It allows students
to learn and meet people and explore cultures from all
B. Skype in the Classroom
over the world. By this feature, students build
compassion, share knowledge, have fun and empathy
Education should be inspiring and it should follow
for one another. Classroom to Classroom interactions
new technologies and new styles of learning. Many
bring new joy to students and encourage them to
educators do not realize that Skype could be a valuable
actively participate in discussions [9]. Because of this
classroom asset that gives students lots of new
new classroom technology, students have collaborative
opportunities to learn [5]. Skype in the Classroom
learning as a new method of learning methodologies.
offers five educational ways of learning: Virtual Field
Students mostly work in groups and they are all
Trips, Guest Speakers, Classroom to classroom
involved in the project. They have to work together
connection - Skype live collaboration projects and
and solve a problem. So they learn to respect each
Mystery Skype [6].
other, hear different opinions and by this method they
Virtual field trip is a guided exploration
develop their social skills and learn from their peers at
through the world wide web that organizes a collection
the same time. The collaborative learning
of pre-screened, thematically based web pages into a
methodology is ideal for children that have difficulties
structured online learning experience [7]. Virtual field
in a social setting [11].
trips (VFT) are free and they are excellent for the
The last feature is Mystery Skype - the global
students who attend Primary or Secondary school to
guessing game. Students can learn about geography,
explore new places, meet different cultures and people
culture, and the similarities and differences of how
without leaving the classroom. In order to comprehend
children live all over the world [12]. It is an
better, students should prepare for the lecture, by
educational game with the aim to guess the location of
providing more material about the topic that can be
the other classroom. It is played by two classrooms on
reviewed after the virtual trip. This type of class is
Skype and it is suitable for all ages. By asking
always amusing for students and they feel more
questions, students can learn more about the global
motivated to learn. If a spark of entertainment and fun
community and they can effectively communicate.
is added to the education, kids are more eager to learn
Usually, they provide clues to each other. The game
and more ambitious [8].
incorporates communication and critical skills and, at
The second feature is the guest speaker. Every
the same time, it develops creativity and collaboration
classroom is sometimes predictable and this new
[13].
feature is valuable for students in many ways. As it
cannot be expected from the teachers to be experts in
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International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019 June, 2019.
Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
analyzed by Google forms, showing frequency, while
III. SKYPE IN FOREIGN LANGAUGE TEACHING
four open-ended questions were analyzed by creating a
coherent narrative, eliciting categories and including
Learning a new language can improve
quotes provided by the respondents. The online
students employment prospects in future and set up for
questionnaire was posted into global Facebook group
success in nearly every aspect of life. The world
Skype in the Classroom Enthusiasts.
becomes increasingly globalized and monolingualism
The sample included 55 teachers from all over
stays in the past. Foreign language study is all about
the world. The majority of them is from Germany and
learning how to truly communicate and connect with
Russia, then the United States of America, but there
others an incredibly important life skill that can only
are also teachers from China, Japan, Puerto Rico,
be cultivated by interacting with people [14].
Tunisia, Bangladesh, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia,
Nowadays, students are able to learn a foreign
Montenegro and India. See Figure 2.
language in an exciting way, using new forms of
technology and can learn online from any location,
where they want and when they want. In the 21st
century, online tuition is accessible to everyone who
has Skype. Skype offers fully qualified native British
teachers that have experience in teaching at all levels;
from young children to mature people. Skype offers a
variety of programs to all students who want to
prepare for a specific English exam.
Skype in the Classroom cherishes intercultural
understanding
and
builds
links
between
classrooms/students all around the world. These links
nurture diversity, respect, understanding and they
allow discussions on global issues. By connecting
classrooms and students from all the continents, at the
same time, Skype in the Classroom connects different
Figure 2. The Sample Country Distribution
races, religions, socio-economic classes and cultures
as well. Skype in the Classroom helps to bridge the
The structure of the sample concerning their years is
physical divide of oceans and continents by allowing
the following: 41.8% are more than 40 years old, 40%
students to connect on a personal level, developing
of them are between 30 and 40 years old and just
empathy and learning to recognize a person for the
18,2% are between 20 and 30 years old. Among them
character of their heart. At the same time it develops
there are 23 male respondents and 32 female
all four language skills in an unconscious but effective
respondents.
way [15].
Most of them are teachers who teach English,
in
fact
26
of them or 47,3%, then some of them teach
IV. METHODOLOGY
French, Spanish or German, but there are teachers who
teach IT, History or work in the Elementary school,
The main study of this research is to detect the
too. See Figure 3.
benefits of teaching and learning English via Skype.
By combining a quantitive and qualitative element
mixed-method research was conducted. Sequential
Explanatory Design was employed since the purpose
was to use the qualitative results to further explain and
interpret the findings from the quantitative phase [16].
The
employed
instrument
was
the
questionnaire that incorporated both closed and an
open-ended questions (See Appendix). The
questionnaire included 12 questions and it was
designed by the researchers. The data were collected
Figure 3. Subject they teach
with Google Forms. The quanatitative data were
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International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019 June, 2019.
Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The great majority of them, or 41,8%, answered that
they use Skype in the classroom between two and five
years, 27,3% answered that they use it more than a
year. Some teachers, or 9,1%, use it for more than five
years ,but there is 27,3% who use it less than a year.
See Figure 4.
Figure 5. The Usefulness of Skype for English learning
As it can be seen, the majority of respondents (85,5%)
perceive Skype in the Classroom very useful for
learning English.
When the research participants were asked to mark the
most useful feature for language learning, they
provided the following answers (See Figure 6.)
Figure 4. How long they use Skype in the Classroom
The next section deals with the results related to Skype
features that can be beneficial for language learning.
V. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS
Although the broad concept of the research
includes both language and non-language benefits of
learning language via Skype, the paper presents
merely results on language benefits: the following
questions from the online questionnaire: fifth, sixth,
seventh, eighth, ninth and twelfth.. More precisely,
how useful Skype in the classroom is, the features the
teachers use, the ones they like most and see as the
most useful for language learning. Furthermore, to
mark the most valuable foreign language benefits with
Skype in the Classroom and benefits Skype impose on
foreign language learning and to briefly summarize in
one or two sentences the Skype in the Classroom
experience for students.
Almost 61.8% percent of teachers use all
features in their work with students, but we can see
that the feature called “Guest Speakers“ is used by
16,4 % teachers, “Mystery Skype“ by 12.7% of
teachers and “Virtual Field trips“ by 7.3% of teachers.
The feature of Skype in the classroom that the
respondents like most: all of them (67.3%), Guest
Speakers (16,4%) and Virtual Field trips (9,1%). This
confirms that all the features of Skype are used in the
classroom and the Skype is a useful fool for learning.
The previous statement is also confirmed by the
answers to the seventh question. See Figure 5.
Figure 6. The most useful feature for language learning
The data from the pie chart show us that teachers think
that all features are equally important because 67.3
percent of respondents chose the answer – All features.
Among the other features, the most prominent is Guest
Speaker (16,4%), while the other are less than 10%.
In order to detect the areas within foreign
language teaching and learning that can benefit most
from Skype in the classroom the researchers asked the
respondents to choose 5 the most valuable foreign
language benefits with Skype in the Classroom:
Figure 7. The most valuable Skype features
15
International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019 June, 2019.
Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
the whole new world both for students and for the
teachers.
The bar chart (Figure 7.) shows the most valuable
language learning benefits with Skype in the
VI. CONCLUSION
Classroom. The respondents chose “Improve
Speaking“ (92.7%) as the most valuable language
The research has proven many benefits from the
benefit, then “Improve Listening“(90.9%), after that
Skype in the classroom use: students build their
“Develop Fluency“ (70.9%), “Build Vocabulary“
vocabulary, improve speaking and listening practice or
(69.1%) and finally “Reduce anxiety when speaking a
practice slang. They have the unique chance to reduce
foreign language“ (60%).
their anxiety by speaking with the native speakers,
Teachers know that the most difficult skill to
learning new words and practicing pronunciation. It
master is speaking practice! Even after learning
motivates them to learn more and it is an excellent
English for years and years it is hard to speak with a
way to practice English and communicational skills in
clear accent and talk at natural speed, using naturally
real world scenarios. Students may become engaged in
slang and idioms. But when the student learns English
different projects, learn how to work in groups and
online and wants to fluently communicate in English,
how to learn beyond classroom.
first he has to improve his/her listening skills. Step by
We may conclude with this research that the
step, the fluency is going to develop and the
Skype in the Classroom really increase knowledge, it
vocabulary too but it is important to reduce anxiety
connects people all over the world, breaking down the
when speaking a foreign language. It is very practical
barriers, raise the cultural awareness and it learns a lot
to reduce it using Skype features and all its benefits
about respect and diversity. The Skype in the
and values. The results from the theoretical part
classroom should be used in all schools because it
matches with the obtained results from this
opens new opportunities for every student and teacher.
questionnaire.
It is very important to use this new technology in our
The last question to be analyzed is also the last
classroom because it makes learning more interesting
question in the questionnaire. The participants were
and more enjoyable.
expected to describe in one or two sentences the Skype
REFERENCES
in the Classroom experience. The answers that were
chosen from the transcript, as being relevant for the
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Sage Company.
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Skype in the classroom opens up the whole new
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classroom/overview
They have been very much motivated to learn
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in education. Retrieved September 9, 2018 from The Tech
edvocate: https://www.thetechedvocate.org/the-essential-guideA power tool to engage students.
to-the-use-of-skype-in-education/
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Skype in the Classroom. (2018). Retrieved September 9, 2018, from
Exciting and knowledgeable.
Microsoft:
https://education.microsoft.com/skype-in-thePowerful, engaging and knowledge gaining.
classroom/overview
It is great chance to meet students and teachers
7. Foley, K. (2001). The big pocket guide to using and creating
Virtual Field Trips. Persistent Vision.
all over the world and an excellent way to practice
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English.
reality in the classroom. Retrieved September 9, 2018 from
It builds global bridge.
eLearning Industry: https://elearningindustry.com/pros-consAs it can been seen from the participants’ answers,
using-virtual-reality-in-the-classroom
with these several sentences it may be concluded that
9. Sivakumar, D. (2015). Integrating Skype in the Education.
teachers and students really enjoy Skype in the
Journal of Psychological and Educational Research.
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motivated to learn and use the language. They think
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that Skype builds global bridges and that it opens up
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International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019 June, 2019.
Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Faculty Focus: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teachingand-learning/blessings-benefits-using-guest
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important? Retrieved September 9, 2018 from Nuiteq:
https://www.nuiteq.com/company/blog/why-is-collaborativelearning-important
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Choosing
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dy/mixed_methods/choosing_design
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International Conference on Information Technology and Development of Education – ITRO 2019 June, 2019.
Zrenjanin, Republic of Serbia
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix 1
9. Choose 5 the most valuable foreign language learning
benefits with Skype in the Classroom: *
a) Improve Speaking
b) Improve Reading
c) Improve Listening
d) Improve Writing
e) Improve Grammar
f) Build Vocabulary
g) Develop Communicative Competence
h) Develop Fluency
i) Practice slang
j) Reduce anxiety when speaking a foreign language
k) Practice business correspondence
Language and Non-language Competences Gained via
Skype in the Classroom
With this questionnaire, I want to find out what do you think
about Skype in the Classroom! Don't worry, you will remain
completely anonymous. I realize how precious your time is,
so that's why this survey will only take a quick 45 seconds.
*Обавезно
1. I come from... *(name of the state)
10. Choose 5 the most valuable non-langaguage benefits
2. I am... * a) 20 - 30 years old b) 30 - 40 years old c) 40+
students can gain with Skype in the Classroom: *
a) Cultural awareness
b) Tolerance
c) Sharing photos/videos
d) Get a glimpse into the everyday life
e) Global collaboration
f) New ways of thinking
g) Less prejudice
h) Respect
i) Diversity
j) Sharing knowledge
k) Cross-culturally connections
l) Global issues
m) Collaborations between students and teachers
years old
3. Write the subject/course you teach * _____________
4. I use Skype in the classroom... *
a) Less than a year b) 1-2 years c) 2-5 years d) 5+ years
5. In Skype in the Classroom I have used: *
a) Virtual Field trips b) Guest Speakers c) Mystery
Skype d) All
11. Choose 3 the most valuable skills that children can
develop when using Skype: *
a) Prepare the questions in advance
b) Learn how to take notes
c) How to ask good questions
d) How to apply critical thinking
e) Work in groups
f) Engage in projects
g) Improve employment prospects
h) Actively participate in discussions
i) Share opinions
j) Set clear goals and objectives
k) Improve decision-making skills
6. The feature of Skype in the Classroom that I like most
is: *
a) Virtual Field trips
b) Guest Speakers c) Mystery
Skype d) All
7. What do you think about learning English via Skype in
the Classroom ?* *
Not useful 1 2 3 4 Very useful
8. Which feature of Skype in the Classroom is the most
12. How would you describe in one or two sentences the
useful for langauge learning: *
Skype in the Classroom experience for your students?
a) Virtual Field trips
b) Guest Speakers c) Mystery
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Skype d) All
18
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