HYBRID LEARNING: THE IMPACT OF INTERACTING THROUGH SKYPE ON IRANIAN LEARNERS’ SPEAKING ABILITY

The present article aims to investigate the impact of interactions through Skype on Iranian EFL learners’ speaking ability. To meet this end, forty elementary students who were studying English at the Kish Language Institute, Shiraz Branch, Iran participated in the study. Of this number, twenty eight were female and twelve were male students. Their age range was between twenty to thirty five and they were divided into two groups randomly. During the instruction which lasted for two and a half months, the participants of the experimental group interacted with the teacher on their course-related topics for one hour per week according to a schedule besides their weekly four hour face-to-face classes. The speaking paper of the Key English Test (KET) was administered as to assess the participants’ speaking ability. The findings of the study indicated that the participants of the experimental group outperformed those of the control one. This outperformance can be accounted for by the Long’s Interaction hypothesis (1996), Krashen's Input hypothesis (1977), and lower affective filters.