Abstract: This paper aims at researching the role of emotions in the experience of oral skills interactions in an in-service teacher education course with a focus on mobile learning mediated by WhatsApp. The research questions were: How do teachers feel when speaking in English through the audio recorder device of WhatsApp? Did they feel more at ease with the audio message system of WhatsApp in comparison to face-to-face interaction? This is a qualitative study and data were collected by means of a questionnaire, a semi-structured interview, and visual representations of emotions. Results suggest that part of the participants felt more self-confident and more willing to communicate at WhatsApp when compared to face-to-face contexts. On the other hand, another group of participants felt more insecure to speak in English with the audio recorder of WhatsApp. Research results will be interpreted in light of the reviewed literature and potentials and limitations of this mobile technology for oral skills development in language teacher education will also be discussed.
Keywords:
oral skills; English; mobile language learning; asynchronous technologies