Effects of social constructivist virtual learning environmenst on speaking skills from the perspective of university students

Speaking is among the most important skills aimed at in English as a foreign language classes, and yet it seems to be ignored since many students complain about failing to express themselves although they have some adequate knowledge in English to do this. Reasons vary; focus of lessons, lack of speaking evaluation, lack of time devoted to speaking can be counted among others. Moreover, traditional approaches that explain how students learn have had enormous influence on the way teachers handle their lessons for many years. As a result of this perspective, there are many teacher?centred classrooms today where teachers strive to transfer English-related knowledge and skills to minds of students with almost no interaction in the target language. The result, however, is not always favourable in terms of speaking skill.Social constructivist principles in foreign language teaching, on the other hand, may serve to constitute more convenient environments where students as well as the teacher can interact with each other in a real life-like and meaningful manner. Various studies show that virtual learning environments and such applications as web 2.0 tools facilitate the use of social constructivist principles (McLoughlin & Lee, 2007; Woo & Reeves, 2007). The use of technology, in turn, has significant effects on student motivation.In the light of these discussions, our aim in this study is to find out the effects of virtual learning environments, with an emphasis on social constructivism, on speaking skills of university level non-English major students. The participants of the study, 51 non-English major university students, who had three hours of compulsory English education per week, used a virtual learning environment named `Moodle? for 1 hour each week, spending the other 2 hours in classroom-based courses.In order to investigate the effects, the participants were administered a computer readiness scale at the beginning of the study. At the end, two questionnaires were distributed, and to support the data fifteen participants were interviewed. The results show that the social constructivist virtual learning environment has, in the participants? opinions, significant positive effects not only on speaking skills but also on various language skills and areas. In addition to these findings, the results also reveal the benefits of integrating virtual learning environments into classroom-based foreign language education.Keywords: Speaking skill, social constructivism, virtual learning environments, blended learning.