SPEAKING TOOLS

English Central

This site  has video clips with subtitles. The speech  is  divided  into chunks and students can listen and copy  the chunk. They can record themselves and compare their pronunciation with  that of  the  native  speaker. The programme grades how well you do with a score and  helps you with the sound  of each word,  as well as the definitions. The English is  generally American.

If you  want to use it you can go to  http://www.englishcentral.com and try out one  of the demos on the homepage.This guides you through how to use it. It  is very simple and  takes just a  minute or so to get the hang of it. In short, you can listen to  the text in full or check the Pause after each line  if  you want to listen  to each  chunk at a time. You can slow the line and you can record  your voice and play  it back. If  you  like  it, you  can register and try out more videos in depth.

Fotobabble

This site allows you to upload photos  and record yourself talking about  them. It is a great way to  personalise speaking practice and share information about each other.

To use  it you  have  to go to http://www.fotobabble.com.  You can look at one or two examples  and then you can register with the site. Once you have registered  you can create a  fotobabble by browsing for the picture you want to add. Once you have  found your photo, click on  Create and you can then record your voice by clicking the Record button. Press Pause when finished and play it to check  you are happy  with it. Add some tags if you like and then Save your fotobabble. You can  now  share  your fotobabble with  friends on Facebook, Twitter  or MySpace,  or embed it into a blog.

Voxopop

Voxopop  allows you to create a voice discussion group where students can leave messages about anything they like. It is  a great way to set speaking homework for students who can then listen to each other.

To use it you have to  go to http://www.voxopop.com. You can  have a look at an example and then you can register. Once registered, click on Create a talk group. Give your group a name and choose  a type and a category that it falls  under. Choose the Access level carefully if you want  it to be invitation only. Add a description. Then  click on Create my  talkgroup. You can now add a  voice recording - add a discussion title and some keywords to describe it. Then record your message, stop it and play  it back before you commit to saving it. Once it is saved, the others in your group can  listen to it and record their own messages.

To invite others to  your group, go to the talkgroup page(click on your photo or icon on the top right of the page and it takes you to your homepage where you can choose your talkgroup) and click on Invite others to this talkgroup. You can then add in the email addresses of the people you want to invite so they can join the group.

USING AUDACITY IN CLASS

Audacity is a free audio recorder and editor that can be downloaded very easily from the web. You can use it to record texts in preparation for lessons and students can use it to record themselves in class. To download Audacity go to: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Once the programme has downloaded, plug in your microphone and open Audacity. Press the RECORD button when you're ready. Make sure Audacity is set to MICROPHONE. Press PAUSE or STOP when you've  finished.  Press PLAY to listen back (The recording must not be on PAUSE). When you play the recording it will start from the beginning. If you want to  start from the  middle of the recording, place your cursor there and a line will appear.

If you make a mistake, highlight the section you  want to delete and press the DELETE button on your keyboard. Place your cursor where you want to start the recording from again and press the RECORD button. Another track will appear but when you play it back and once it's saved, it'll be  one complete recording.

There are many different features with Audacity. You can for example, increase the sound level by highlighting the entire recording, clicking EFFECT on the top tool bar and choosing AMPLIFY.  You can also slow down and speed up audio by choosing the CHANGE TEMPO option. You cannot edit or use these features if you have paused the audio. You must have stopped the audio for these to be available.

SAVING AUDIO FILES

You can save the file as a .aup.file. This means the file will open in Audacity and allow you to edit it or add to it. If you want to use the programme as a language laboratory then this is the best way to save files. You do this by clicking FILE,  SAVE PROJECT AS.

If you want to play the audio on programmes other than AUDACITY (e.g. Windows Media Player, Real Player) then save the file as a .wav file. Click FILE  and EXPORT AS WAV.

You can also download the audio as an MP3 file. To do this, you need to download a plug-in. The Audacity website can help with this.

RECORDING EXTERNAL AUDIO

To record audio from the Internet, make sure that  Audacity is set to STEREO MIX  or WAVE MIX and not MICROPHONE. Start playing the audio from the Internet and immediately press the RECORD button on Audacity.

EXPLOITING AUDACITY FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING

There are many ideas of ways in which we can use Audacity in the classroom to benefit language learning. Here are some of them:

Pronunciation:
Intonation
Stress
Linking

Grammar and Vocabulary:
Drills
Complete the sentence about you
Guess the definition

The four skills:
Record audio from the web (great if you don't have the Internet in your classroom but be aware of copyright laws)
Record dialogues/conversations with your colleagues for listening practice
Questions and Answers
Describing an object/a person/ a place
Creating a news report
Speaking exam practice
Recording and assessing speaking skills
Half a dialogue
Dictation/dictogloss
Parallel reading
Half a story
Make a podcast
Make a digital story
Record a play
Voice messages
Note taking
Read and record a summary of an article

The key benefit of these activities is that each learner is working at their own pace. Speaking tasks can be  repeated so that accuracy or fluency are improved; listening texts can be repeated more than once if necessary and parts can be listened to again if missed. Activitites can be  graded according to level so that stronger learners are challenged and weaker students are supported.

Hot Potatoes

What is Hot Potatoes actually? It is a suite that includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web:

The JQuiz program creates question-based quizzes. Questions can be of four different types, including multiple-choice and short-answer. Specific feedback can be provided both for right answers and predicted wrong answers or distractors. In short-answer questions, the student's guess is intelligently parsed and helpful feedback is given to show what part of a guess is right and what part is wrong. The student can ask for a hint in the form of a "free letter" from the answer.

The JCloze program creates gap-fill exercises. Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap, and the student can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is also included. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every nth word in a text.

The JCross program creates crossword puzzles which can be completed online. You can use a grid of virtually any size. As in JQuiz and JCloze, a hint button allows the student to request a free letter if help is needed.

The JMix program creates jumbled-sentence exercises. You can specify as many different correct answers as you want, based on the words and punctuation in the base sentence, and a hint button prompts the student with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.

The JMatch program creates matching or ordering exercises. A list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), with jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation.

In addition, there is a sixth program called the Masher. This is designed to create complete units of material in one simple operation. If you are creating sequences of exercises and other pages that should form a unit, you may find the Masher useful.

Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. You can download it from: http://hotpot.uvic.ca/. It is quite easy to use and it doesn't take much time either (once you know hot to work with it). If, for example, you want to create a JCross this is what you have to do:

1. Go to the desktop and click Hot Potatoes (if you don't have it, download it first). Then click JCross. If a window opens inviting you to chose a language, please chose the default language English.

2. When the JCross screen appears go immediately to Manage Grid - Automatic Grid Maker.

3. This window opens. Before proceeding think about what lexical or topic area you want your learners to practise.Then list the words in the white box. A separate line for each word. You can for example write (just for practice) - love, hate, adore, loathe.When you have finished click on Make Grid.

4. When the Grid is made clues have to be written. Click on Add Clues and this box appears. Select a word, add the clue in the text box and then click the appropriate OK on the right. When all the clues have been added, click OK at the bottom and you will be returned to the main screen.

5. After clicking on the bottom OK you will be returned to the main Grid.  Add a title  (this will appear in the finished crossword and is important for printing reasons). Then go to the File menu and Save As.  Remember to create a Folder and save the file in the appropriate Folder. Give your file the same name as the title. Then return to the File Menu and scroll down to  Create Web Page. Click here and you will be invited to save again.  Do so, but be sure the File extension is htm. When you have done this a window will open asking if you want to view your crossword now. Click in the appropriate place - View the exercise in my browser.

6. You can also change the appearance, instructions, fonts and buttons by going to Options -->Configure Output or Fonts. Just experiment with it. The appearance has a preview. 

7. Now, if you want to try a crossword puzzle exercise, please follow this link:

C:\Documents and Settings\Ådne Kvadsheim\Skrivebord\Animals.htm

I would say that this type of exercise is easy to create and the students would enjoy solving them. The level of difficulty for the clues depends of course on the level of your students and you can use the same crossword for different levels just by changing the clues. I hope you'll have fun trying a JCross and if you need help, just let me know.

Welcome!

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog! In August this year, I attended a two-week course in Cambridge about how to use the new technology in the language classroom. The course was aimed at exploring the potential uses of new technologies in language learning and it included among others:

• New technologies
• Using Moodle or other VLEs (Virtual learning environments)
• Exploiting wikis and blogs
• Blended learning
• Computer mediated communication
• Using the WWW
• Using interactive whiteboards
• Designing web pages using HTML/JavaScript, etc.
• Designing your own webquests, games and activities
• Getting your students to make their own podcasts
• Messenger and other computer-mediated communication

I found the course very useful and interesting and I thought that by creating a blog on this subject, those of you who are interested in using the new technology during the English classes could get some ideas/tips that you could use with your students. We all know that the new generation is facinated by technology and by using it during the English classes the students could become more interested and engaged in the lessons.
Therefore, I plan to post information about how you can use various programmes and internet tools during speaking/listening/reading/writing activities, as well as useful links. If you need help or additional information, just let me know and I'll do my best to reply to your request as soon as possible.

Good luck!