Quality of Oral Production in English through Online Communication: the Case of Business English in Spain

The quality of oral production in English varies depending on the context in which the communicator is found, either in a face-to-face setting or in a virtual environment. Particularly in the business world, the quality of communication in English is an essential factor in assessing the communicator. It is precisely in this environment where online communication has prevailed over face-to-face communication in recent years due to savings in travel costs and time. However, such production and oral interaction is not always done with the desired level of quality. In this article, we discuss precisely what is meant by quality of oral production in English and carry out a statistical analysis on how that capacity increases or decreases when communication occurs through a webcam and over the Internet. Keywords: oral production and oral comprehension, communicative competence, Information and Communication Technology (ICT).