Students' Perceptions of Digital Oral Skills Development in ESP University Students: Strengths and Weaknesses in Digital Communication in the COVID World

ABSTRACT

The present study draws from the need to face twenty-first-century Engineering students' lack of oral communication skills in digital environments. The existing deficiencies became evident during the months of COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, when most communication processes, both in academic and professional settings, involved the use of digital means. On this basis, the study aims at identifying ESP university students' self-reported strengths and weaknesses to build persuasive digital oral speeches using a self-assessment rubric that was specifically designed to evaluate their communication skills in digital environments. The rubric comprised 22 items distributed between five significant areas of knowledge building communication skills (content/cognition and linguistic area), performing communication skills (physical and socio-emotional areas) and creating digital content skills (technical area). The results reveal that about 40% of the students considered their level of digital communication skills deficient, being the linguistic, socio-emotional and physical areas of communication the most affected ones. The ultimate intention of the study is to help students become aware of their command of oral skills in digital environments –their specific strengths and weaknesses– to help them thrive in both traditional and digital communication. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.