Improving the oral language skills of elementary school students through video-recorded performances

Colognesi, Stéphane [UCL] Coppe, Thibault Lucchini, Silvia [UCL]

This study is situated in the context of teaching first language (L1) oral communication in elementary school in Fr-Belgium. According to the literature, the quality of oral performances can be improved through revision. Using video recording could offer this possibility. However, research on this topic addresses neither elementary students, nor L1 instruction. We compared two conditions in which students either did live performances or created video performances with twelve school classes following a 3-week instructional program. Oral communication skills improved under both conditions. However, students in the video condition showed greater improvement in verbal and non-verbal communication for televisual genres.