'Skype in the ELE classroom: effectiveness of online teaching in coaching students for the DELE exam'. Lecture given by SpanishviaSkype's teacher Lorena Aguado at the II International Conference 'MOOCs Language Learning and Mobility' (Naples, 13-14 October, 2017)

1. MOOCs, Language learning
and mobility
Second International
Conference
Naples,13 – 14 October 2017
Skype in the ELE classroom: effectiveness of online teaching in
coaching students for the DELE exam
Lorena Aguado Sánchez / Ángel Roncero Lozano

2. Welcome
First of all, on behalf of Spanishviaskype and myself, we want to thank the organization for inviting
us to present our work, and in second place I would like to thank you your attendance. My name is
Lorena, I ́m 3 years working for Spanishviaskype. I hold a bachelor in Sciences of Education and a
Master degree in ELE.
As you can see, we are going to introduce you how we use Skype in ELE classroom: Effectiveness
of online teaching in couching students for DELE exams.
The DELE Spanish Diplomas are official qualifications certifying the degree of competence
and mastery of Spanish, granted by Instituto Cervantes on behalf of the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sport of Spain.
The DELE examinations have been designed following the guidelines of the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) of the Council of Europe.

3. Welcome
Before starting, I would like to make a small survey, something really easy:
1. How many of you use Internet in your daily life? Please rise your hands.
2. How many of you use video-calling app’s in your daily life, in general?
3. How many of you use video-calling app ́s to learn a language?
As you can see, the number has been decreasing, but the future of technologies is our present
and perhaps in a few years the number of hands raised is greater.
Nowadays, the lack of time and life changes and also challenges make difficult to attend
regular classes of second languages. Therefore, the need of a new way to learn and teaching
has become a reality a few decades ago. The Internet has change the way we live our lives in
many senses. A few years ago we were talking about web 2.0, today we already manage how to
use web 3.0 to improve our professional teaching skills by sharing in this new space.

4. Spanishviaskype started in 2012 as a personal goal for teleworking and self-employment. Since
the beginning, the company is focus in teaching Spanish to students from all over the world based
in “one to one” system through the app Skype. Currently we are four teachers plus the
administrator.
We offer 6 types of courses: one of them Preparation course for DELE.
1. Who are we?

5. Class program
Spanish classes for different levels (A1 - C2)
Spanish classes to prepare the DELE /SIELE exams
Spanish for specific purposes (business, medical, tourism)
Spanish survival classes
Spanish classes for children and adolescents
Spanish conversation classes
50
minutes
40
minutes
30
minutes

6. What do our students need?
1. A computer with webcam.
2. Broadband Internet connection.
3. A Skype account.
4. Headphones (optional).

7. Our teachers
• All teachers are university graduated in
different areas:
Ø Spanish Studies.
Ø Sciences of education.
Ø Asian Studies.
• We are all specialised in Teaching Spanish as
Second Language by a Master degree and
specialisation courses.
• All of us are official examiners of DELE
credited by Instituto Cervantes, also we
attended as examiners in several calls in
different countries.

8. Our students
Over these five years, we’ve helped students with diverse profiles to prepare themselves to face the DELE
test. We difference three big groups:
• Students at the initial level (A1-A2): the motivation of these students is very variable; The reasons go
from passing vacation periods in Spanish speaking countries, to trying to enter the language for leisure
or cultural interests. Get the double nationality.
• Intermediate students (B1-B2): they have a clearly more professional profile. They are mostly
university students or workers who are planning to start a career in Spain or South America.
• Advanced level students (C1-C2): it is the least numerous group, due to the requirement of these
levels. Most are students who have spent years living in our country and want to obtain a higher
certification or professionals with important positions in their companies that need a certain level to
promote.

9. Our students
A1 - A2
B1 - B2
C1 - C2

10. • Our program is based on Instituto Cervantes curriculum plan, communicative method and
task language learning.
• Students take these classes from their home, office or any place they choose, at their own
pace, with a tailor-made program. They get their tutor’s customized feedback and explanations
(via Skype© and email). Video calling services have been improving over the past decade and the
rise of mobile devices and 3G/4G Internet connectivity has made them more accessible. Skype©
makes learning more interesting, interactive, meaningful and stimulating for the students....
• Our classes are action-oriented approach. We work different parts: grammar and idiomatic
expressions, useful and functional vocabulary, listening skills, oral communication, reading
comprehension and writing skills.
• We also provide the students the material they will need in each lesson:
ü Material of class before the class
ü Class report, grammar consolidation material and homework after the lesson
• Free correspondence by email.
What are we based on?

11. Our Spanish classes
Grammar and idiomatic expressions
Useful and functional vocabulary
Listening skills
1
2
3
Oral communication4
Reading comprehension
Writing skills6
5
ACTION-ORIENTED
APPROACH

12. o Before each lesson, our students will be sent the material to be practiced in class.
o Our students select the class program it suits them best, the class date and time and even teacher
online. What’s more, they can change their selection up to 24 hours before the lesson begins.
o After each class, we provide them with
o We use all kind of resources in our classes: news stories from newspapers, pictures, audios, videos…
o Our students have free correspondence by email with their teacher.
o Our students have regular ongoing evaluations to monitor their progress.
Class report
Grammar consolidation material
Homework
1
2
3
Our Spanish classes

13. Class report. Our students receive it right after each lesson

14. Free correspondence by email with their teacher
Our Spanish classes

15. Video - Conference calls
Videoconference calls offer the possibility to create a private and confortable environment where
student and teacher have the possibility to know each other better and build a trustful and
confident relation. As native speakers, the input the student receives is always a model, helping
to reduce the fossilisation of mistakes and increase their confidence to talk Spanish in others real
circumstances.
2. Skype’s tools for DELE

16. Skype’s tools for DELE
Chat
Skype chat is a fundamental tool
in our classes, among its
characteristics we highlight the
use of chat as virtual whiteboard,
in which we have the possibility
to delete, edit or quote a
message; in addition it is
possible to emphasize in bold or
italic parts of the sentence that
we want to highlight.
Through the chat we can also
send documents, such as pdf,
photos or links. Getting real-time
communication.

17. Skype’s tools for DELE
Chat features

18. Skype’s tools for DELE
Screen Sharing
The possibility of screen sharing
helps to share documents with
which we are working, such as
video playback.
Rapid response to any questions
submitted by the student without
having to send links is optimized
because the teacher has
opened websites, such as
dictionaries, newspapers,
photos or translators, in order to
respect the copyright of many
documents and audios.

19. Skype’s tools for DELE
Screen sharing

20. The DELE exams are official qualifications which have permanent validity. They certify the
degree of competence and command of the Spanish language and are awarded by the
Instituto Cervantes on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Education. They are based on the
CEFR guidelines of the Council of Europe.
They are internationally recognized and are very prestigious, not only among public and
private educational institutions and authorities, but also in the business world and chambers of
commerce. They are ideal for furthering your career and access to education, both in
Spain and in other countries where the examinations are held.
The DELE exams are held in Instituto Cervantes centres and the many exam centres
accredited for the DELE exam, these include universities, language centres, academies,
consulates and embassies.
We prepare our students for the six levels of the Diplomas in Spanish as a Foreign
Language (DELE): A1: Beginner / A2: Elementary – Lower Intermediate / B1: Intermediate
– Upper Intermediate / B2: Advanced – Upper Advanced / C1: Superior / C2: Proficiency.
3. Our classes for DELE

21. Our classes for DELE
Cervantes Institute

22. SpanishviaSkype has a study program that includes reading, writing, grammar,
vocabulary and speaking; all of which are sections in the exam to obtain the DELE
certificate. Moreover the student can work with practice exams, just like the official
ones.
As you know, DELE exam is divided in four parts, which are related to the four basic
language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, they become more and
more integrated, as the level is higher.
The first part is comprensión de lectura (reading comprehension). It evaluates
candidates’ ability to understand written texts as well as grammatical competence.
We provide our students with real texts taken from different resources, adjusted to the
different levels. We asked them to read the documents and try to respect the same
conditions (time restriction, allowed materials, official papers...) they will find in the actual
exam.
The teacher’s task during the class will be to help them with new vocabulary and difficult
constructions and offer them some strategies to identify the required information in the texts.
Our classes for DELE

23. Our classes for DELE
Reading Comprehension
Listening Comprehension
Written expression
1
2
3
Oral expression and
interaction
4
Preparation
for DELE

24. Our classes for DELE
Reading comprenhension

25. Our classes for DELE
Reading comprenhension

26. Our classes for DELE

27. The second part is comprensión auditiva (listening comprehension). It tested their skill to
understand oral texts.
We work with a large number of texts: radio interviews, podcasts, colloquial dialogues or
professional speeches, which include inputs of the different dialectal varieties of Spanish.
As we do in the reading comprehension, students prepare these tasks at home, with the guidance
that the teacher provides during the lesson.
The third part is expresión escrita (written expression). This task assesses the candidate's
ability to write a text descriptive or narrative in which opinion is expressed and information is
provided of personal interest, related to personal experiences, feelings, anecdotes or from
reading of a brief text, produce a simple and cohesive information text.
The student reads and writes the text at home, respecting time and structure of each type of
essay that we have prepare at class.
We focus on the paragraphs’ structure, discursive connectors, synonyms and grammatical
competence. With the student, we correct and analyse the mistakes that their drafts might have.
Our classes for DELE

28. Our classes for DELE

29. Our classes for DELE
Listening comprenhension
Hola, Marta,
¿Cómo
estás?
¡Fenomenal!
¿y tú?

30. Our classes for DELEListening
comprenhension

31. Our classes for DELE
Listening comprenhension

32. Our classes for DELE
Written expression

33. Our classes for DELEWritten expression

34. Our classes for DELE
Written expression
corrections

35. Our classes for DELEOral expression
and interaction

36. The fourth part is expresión e interacción oral (oral expression and
interaction).
In this task the student has to participate in 3 or 4 minitask, as produce a
sustained monologue after reading a text, talk about this topic with the
examiner, and participate in a formal or informal conversation based on
small text, a survey or pictures.
We use our own materials to prepare this part and put our effort to help the
student to loose the anxiety of been talking along for some minutes. Our
goal is to prepare the candidate to feel comfortable with different
situations, providing idiomatic expression, a professional input and real
conversations about the topics included in each level.
Our classes for DELE

37. Our classes for DELE
Oral expression
and interaction

38. Hundreds of candidates have trusted SpanishviaSkype to prepare their DELE exams since we
started providing this service. As you can guess, their nationalities, levels and pass rate is very
variable. However, from our databases, we can draw some conclusions:
1. DELE Exam Pass Rates
According to this table, we can see how the pass rate is very high in the basic and intermediate
levels, but it decreases as the level rises. Our candidates’ pass rate is about 95%, as a result of
their motivation, preparation and determination.
2. Candidates by countries
The majority of our candidates comes from English-speaking countries (United Kingdom, United
States of America and Australia, mainly).Nevertheless, we’ve noticed a rise in the number of
Russian and Chinese students recently. Additionally, we should emphasise the pass rate of
Swedish and Netherlanders whose involvement in the lessons is impeccable.
4. Current statistics

39. Current statistics
A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2
UK 100% 100% 100% 92% 83% 100%
USA 100% 100% 94% 90% 88% 75%
Russia --- 100% 96% 92% 88% ---
Italia --- 100% 100% 100% 90% 75%
Sweden 100% 100% 100% 100% 92% 100%
Arabian Countries 100% 100% 90% 88% 88% ---
China --- 98% 88% 90% 84% ---
Germany --- 100% 100% 92% 100% ---
Netherlands 100% 100% 100% 95% 90% ---
France --- --- 100% 100% 92% ---
Other countries 100% 96% 100% 93% 86% 80%
DELE Exam Pass Rates by countries and levels
Date: September 2017

40. Current statistics
22,56%
18,29%
13,41%
10,98%
7,93%
6,10%
4,27%
3,05%
2,44%
1,22%
9,76%
Candidates by countries
UK USA
Russia Italia
Sweden Arabian Countries
China Germany
Netherlands France
Other countries

41. 3. Candidates rates by levels
A2 level exam is the most requested CEFR level by far and the number of registered candidates
has risen in Spain since two nationality laws came into effect in 2015, which granted residents
and Sephardim the Spanish nationality. One of the main requirements for getting the nationality is,
at least, Spanish A2 level.
More than 35,000 A2 DELE exams were taken in 2016, which means a growth of 370 per cent
with respect to the previous year.
Intermediate levels (B1 and B2) are also in the top 3. We must take into account that companies
demand these levels in their job offers and universities require a B1-B2 level to allow the access
to their degrees and masters.
Current statistics

42. Current statistics
9,91%
36,04%
18,02%
24,32%
10,81%
4,95%
Candidates rates by levels
A1
A2
B1
B2
C1 C2

43. 5. Vision of the future
That is our present. However, world is changing along with technological evolution. Because of that,
Skype is developing their software and services in order to bring us that future. They are working
hard in two fields that can have influences in education: educational networking and making
science fiction real.
• Educational networking
In 2016 Skype released a
new project: Skype in the
Classroom, a cooperative
global classroom, which tries
to gather students from all
around the world. The goal is
to create study groups, make
presentations and provide
the choice to debate and
evaluate the teacher’s
performance.

44. • Making science fiction real
“A long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away...”. Are these words familiar to you? If your answer is
“no”, you are probably much younger than me or less interested in pop culture. If you
recognized them, you know I’m talking about Star Wars, the movie that led a generation to
another reality. I will never forget those videoconferences between the evil emperor and Darth
Vader. Suddenly, the whole body of the master materializes in front of his pupil, even though this
one was in a different planet. That was the moment when I knew that I would be a teacher using
Skype.
That technology is called holoportation and it’s not a science fiction matter anymore. Skype is
developing this revolutionary project, which will bring us the possibility of reproducing the users
in another place, in real time and full size. Teachers and students will be able to interact and
communicate as if they were at the same place, despite the distance. We’ll need Microsoft
HoloLens, glasses that combine virtual and augmented reality, along with a set of 3D scanning
cameras and motion detection sensors.
I’m looking forward to finishing my lessons saying: if you want to pass your DELE exam... “may
the force be with you”.
5. Vision of the future

45. Vision of the future