ADOPTING TECHNOLOGIES IN DEVELOPING COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN JOBLAB ENGLISH TRAINING COURSE FOR GRADUATES

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Abstract
In the digital society variety of technological tools became available that bring the new tutoring student-centred ecosystem enhancing professional English L2 teaching/learning skills and abilities. The work aims at adopting technology in education (EdTech) by comparing the advantages and limitations and addressing experimental evidence on the effectiveness of technology-based approaches by developing English communication skills for graduates. The pre-experimental phase recognised and mapped the most effective and supportive approaches in topic-based presentation skills development. In an experimental 8-week lasting professional English language course, 50 students of economics from University Zilina formed an experimental group (N=25) with EdTech (educational technology) approach and a control group (N=25) with traditional teaching approach. The primary research method, the pedagogical experiment, is set to determine the correlation between students' attitudes to EdTech tools. The study is designed to explore the impact of EdTech on students' motivation, engagement, and development of speaking skills. In the post-experimental phase, pre/post-test results were compared based on the student's self-assessment questionnaire (5-Linkert scale, open-ended questions). Data was used to measure the differences in connection with the experiment. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were implemented (mean, median, standard deviation) via SPSS software, and open-ended questions were coded and thematically analysed. The experimental group showed increased verbal and non-verbal skills and more strong retention, motivation, and engagement. Discussion leads expectation that with safe EdTech adoption, the future of education will look smart in terms of virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence support enhancing real-world needs and core professional English skills development.

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