Article in profile issues in Teachers Professional Development · June 017 doi: 10. 15446/profile v19n1. 55957 citations 35 reads 846 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

Figure 1. Pedagogy and Technology for Online Language Learning
Pedagogy
Transactional 
Distance Theory
Constructivism
Language Teaching 
Pedagogy
Online 
Distance 
Education
Community 
of Inquiry
(Col)
Oral skill
Information and 
Communication 
Technologies
Virtual Learning 
Environments
Computer Assisted 
Language Learning

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PROFILE Vol. 19, No. 1, January-June 2017. ISSN 1657-0790 (printed) 2256-5760 (online). Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 73-88
Developing the Oral Skill in Online English Courses Framed by the Community of Inquiry
2. What is the connection between the social, 
cognitive, and teaching presence of the coi 
and the indicators of the oral skill?
3. How do learners’ oral skills develop at the end 
of the course?
Method
As previously mentioned, this study focuses on 
the learners’ perspectives about the development of 
their oral skill in online English courses through the 
lenses of the coi model. For that reason, this study has 
adopted a constructivist view in order to understand 
how reality is built and maintained (Silverman, 2013). 
As well, it has embraced an interpretive perspective 
that sustains that any attempt to understand “reality” 
must be based on the experiences of the people in 
that social reality (Gray, 2013). Thus, the researcher 
intends that the meanings of such experiences 
emerge from themselves and not from prejudices 
and preconceptions that may limit the participants’ 
views (Creswell, 2014).
To analyze this phenomenon, an embedded mixed 
method design was used. According to Creswell 
(2014), this method rests on one or more forms of data 
within a larger design, in which the researcher can 
collect data during, before or after an intervention. 
The fieldwork was carried out in an online English 
(Level 2) course during a school period (February-
July 2015), at a public university in the southeast 
of Mexico. Communicative tasks and other types 
of class activities such as grammar explanations, 
exercises for practice, and assignments were fully 
developed online at the university’s educational 
platform (Eminus), and supported by email and 
videoconference sessions, while exams were taken in 
situ. One of the researchers worked as a facilitator of 
the course, which allowed her to participate directly 
and to incorporate the coi elements, as considered 
appropriate; while the other one participated in the 
interviews and data analysis.
enhancing the process of second-language teaching and learning, 
be it in curriculum design, delivery, testing, feedback, monitoring or 
evaluation, by means of the generation of improved computer-based 
platforms, courseware, learning environments and pedagogies. (p. 22)
In the context of online education, language learning, 
by means of computer-mediated communication, is 
known as distance computer assisted language learning 
(dcall) (Lamy, 2013). Within this theoretical framework, 
our research aims to explore language learning in vle, 
specifically the development of the speaking skill in 
online courses, since as Tudini (2005) points out, it is 
essential that distance online language courses provide 
opportunities for oral interaction.