Tips from the Teacher’s Desk – Using the Internet to Practice Speaking

Technatives – this is the term being used to describe the current middle and high-school generation.  These students were practically born with electronic devices in their hands and often don’t seem to be able to put them down for any extended period of time.  This often presents problems for teachers and school administrators as we seem to spend a great deal of class time doing battle against text messaging, Snapchat and the most recent diversion – Finstagram (creating a fake Instagram account and posting nonsensical events).  While many schools and teachers have taken a hard-line approach against the use of devices in the classroom, I personally have found that some of my most successful lessons have occurred when I have actually told my students to bring out their phones, rather that put them away.

Just think about the benefits :  You are allowing students to participate in an activity (using the device) that they enjoy. Students already have a great level of skill with their devices, so there is virtually no learning curve, and, best of all, Students who download the apps and become highly engaged during the in-class activity are very likely to continue using this outside of the classroom.  Here are three of my favorites:

#1 – VOCAROO

Vocaroo is a free, online audio voice recorder. Students can use any computer or device that has a microphone to record messages or parts of presentations.  My own students enjoy using this to practice their pronunciation and then play it back to hear how they actually sound.  Files may also be downloaded as MP3 files or used to create QR codes to be used in classroom activities.  Here is a link to a very helpful Youtube tutorial.

 

#2- WESPEKE

Wespeke is a safe, secure and free online cross-cultural language learning platform that connects language learners with native speakers of the language. Teachers can set up classes and link them with other classrooms abroad to collaborate on discussion or even projects. Wespeke connects speakers of 130 languages in 170 countries and the website is available in multiple languages as well.  They offer teacher forums, online published lessons and a large selection of Youtube tutorials.  If you are interested in making a little extra income, they also welcome lessons from teachers all over the world.

#3 – Kahoot

This is definitely a student favorite in my classroom on review day – Kahoot is a free learning activity that takes almost no time to connect to. There are no accounts for students to create and teachers can create their own activities or choose from thousands of “public Kahoots” .  Students use any type of device with an internet connection to enter a pin number and join in the game.  I have even stepped this up a bit by assigning students in upper level classes to create kahoot questions for my lower level classes.  The program is really easy to use, so if you are just this would be a wonderful one to try if you are just starting to incorporate technology into your classroom.

So there you have it, three of the activities that I use both in my own classroom and in the MLA summer program as well in order to keep students highly engaged, connected and speaking.

 

 

Dianna Altmiller

USA Academic Manager