Oral Communication Skills: Hidden Risks of Flexible and Distance Learning

Educational practices have been under considerable upheaval: first, the Corona pandemic forced all education to be rearranged to fit an online mode, which then led to some of the flexibility and distance learning ideas becoming norms in higher education. Next, the fast spread of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools has undermined the concept of flexibility and distance learning and brought new challenges to the arrangement of study processes. This article presents some observations on challenges that language teachers encounter while designing activities and courses for developing students’ oral communication skills. Practice shows that some of the recent generally accepted forms of implementing studies cannot always co-exist with the current reality.

Author: Olesia Kullberg

Some time ago, when GenAI proliferation forced teachers to start re-examining and rethinking existing teaching and testing practices, one method seemed to be bulletproof. Oral tasks, tests, discussions, and presentations were named as GenAI-safe methods in situations where the learner’s own knowledge and skills needed to be evaluated. The idea seemed solid: no one could do the speaking instead of the person themselves. Thus, it looked like oral communication skills were safe, and the teachers even started integrating more oral activities instead of written activities in their courses. In fact, in the age of GenAI, where the writing of any text can be done faster and easier, the role of oral communication skills started gaining more weight. The future working life might need less focus on specialist’s written skills; however presentations, negotiations, discussions, and speeches will still need to be delivered by people without any support technology.

From GenAI‑Safe Assessment to New Pedagogical Challenges

In practice, the post Corona period with flexible teaching arrangements involving distance learning, independent studies, a heavy reliance on video tasks, and fewer contact hours of teaching, showed that there is a hidden threat for the development of students’ oral communication skills. A flexible attendance policy very often means students do whatever is needed but do not attend, video tasks are often scripted by GenAI, and independent studies do not allow students to communicate. Additionally, thorough preparation for lessons is often overlooked by students, as they seem to retain the idea that most of the learning happens during lessons with the teacher, even though the amount of actual lessons has become much lower.

Speaking is an active and productive language skill, which can be enhanced by participation in different activities, both prepared and guided as well as spontaneous and happening on the spot. Therefore, becoming an effective communicator might be an unattainable goal for many students if some of the current teaching arrangements do not change.

Reconsidering Conditions for Developing Oral Communication Skills

Communication courses where one of the learning objectives is the development of oral communication skills should require steady and regular attendance of oral practice lessons. While 100% attendance can hardly be achieved, and there might be several valid reasons for students being unable to attend all lessons, students should be obliged to attend more than half of the lessons. Video assignments to compensate for absence can be used for some of the lessons, but certainly not all of them. Some oral assignments can be arranged as oral examinations and thus demand students’ active participation and attendance.

However, attendance only does not guarantee the development of oral communication skills. Preparation for oral activities is a key factor for ensuring active learning and vivid discussions. To create new knowledge, students should work with different sources, extract information and be ready to apply the information they have received in their own arguments. It seems that the most effective way of ensuring accessibility of knowledge is to provide students with a ready list of sources and a clear task for each source: what information should be found and how it should be used in an oral assignment. For communicative assignments, it does not really matter if a student retrieves the information from the source by reading it independently or with the help of GenAI. The core idea here is preparation prior to the practice lesson: a student should gain the necessary information and have some time to process it and arrange it into ideas suitable for an oral discussion. Making sure preparation has taken place can include several strategies: for example, arranging a lesson where students are guided through the preparation process and are given time for independent work with sources and materials; or creating a submission box for uploading students’ notes prior to a discussion lesson; or completing a checklist prior to a discussion lesson thus confirming that required steps have been completed.

Finally, participation in the discussion lesson should be arranged in a way that allows students to practice delivering a prepared speech but also participate in a spontaneous conversation where only their own ideas and knowledge gained through preparation can be used. This can be achieved by assigning random partners for group work or arranging at least some parts of discussions to be led by the teacher. Teacher-led discussions can be very challenging to arrange considering group sizes, but this is probably one of many aspects of teaching implementation in higher education in the age of GenAI that demands thorough reconsideration. Oral communication skills can only be developed through live oral communication. However, the ideas of flexible learning and distance learning combined with the ubiquitous use of GenAI tools might impose a hidden threat to the development of students’ oral communication skills.

Practice shows that even thoroughly prepared and pedagogically solid assignments do not always guarantee deep learning or the development of oral communication skills. Flexibility in study arrangements, insufficient preparation for practice lessons, and the uncritical use of GenAI tools can significantly undermine the intended learning outcomes of oral communication assignments. To ensure that these assignments truly support the development of professional communication skills, higher education practices need to be reconsidered in light of the current learning environment. Regular attendance in oral practice sessions, structured preparation processes, and carefully designed discussion formats are essential conditions for effective communicative learning. In the age of GenAI, maintaining these conditions is not merely a pedagogical preference, but a prerequisite for safeguarding students’ opportunities to develop authentic oral communication skills required in working life.